##VIDEO ID:qfmhadlc-uQ## website and through parents Square um please rise for the budget Alle thank you Mr Thomas Ser can we have call please Miss Troy Miss uh Dr Mis Miss Molina Mr Park Mr zepa Mr SEO Miss Thompson Miss wild vice president Melman and president President we have a CL seven than you just for the record those that aren't in attendance I did notify Mr Thomas serich and myself that they would not be able to attend personal and also I would just like to also uh we have our superintendent of schools Dr gadens present as well as our assistant superintendent of schools Dr kyanos as well as our board attorney Mr laera and I would like to welcome back Renee Kim one of our student reps back to the board as well as I would like to introduce our two new student reps uh Chan hung and danan Kim Welcome [Applause] you okay that brings us to item 1.4 on our new agenda format uh public comments regarding agenda items only anyone from the public wishing to speak please step up to the podium provide your name and address and you'll have two minutes to speak okay see Arthur oh name and address Arthur can you give your name and address I know we know who you are just that's nice cont you [Music] [Music] sorry what are what are those devices that you got that you're spending the money on so I have two other questions one the million dollars approximately collabora collectively for the classroom Renovations I think for the media center you're losing two c classrooms which to me would be important to keep in light of the you know congestion process um was this planed coming out of capital reserve why are they digging it all up we may have covered this in a previous meeting that I didn't go to so I'm sorry but I just like an explanation why are we doing that uh and how much it cost thank you thank you Arthur and see no one else from the public we will close the Public Presentation portion and move on to um excuse me public comment portion do question so the uh so thank you for the for commenting on board do form very popular very well very used transparency wise it has that one thing I do want to double check is is that there's the public facing version of the board do is the internal facing version of it the items that you mentioned out loud that You' heard the information on that sits at our level here so I want to confirm that the information can be shown in the public like you mentioned 88 for example and I know on the version I have here it has a recommended action which says that it's being awarded to M Paving in concrete and so that does exist here so I just want to as it's our first time we through board docs we want to confirm that that's facing out because I'm looking at it right here so I appreciate you bringing that up and for us make certain the version that we have facing the public does have that information got sure sure and we recognize you's a bit of a learning curve with board docs and how it looks and so we and we try to be as transparent as possible those are public that's publicly available information we have no problem sharing it out there for that um you mentioned the classroom is in the media center um that's a renovation project that we're doing to to work on some um electrical issues we want to take care of from a spacewise perspective from a congestion perspective we're not giving back any space in regards to adding to any congestion that already exists so that was part of a a plan that we were putting together for quite a while that we want to work and renovate those that part of the building yeah yeah and that's so we we want to do is they want to build the right now the media center that currently exists at LHS is a single classroom space it's window list it's very small SE of the cafeteria the the conversion that we want to do will remove a wall that um and have a very very large space it will basically almost double 2.5 times size the current of the current Media Center faces West a lot of sunlight it's going to look really nice when it's done it's where the weight room currently is or our Bo reps and that weight room is going to go back down to the basement we have that space there um the third item I could speak to is the the mitigation project at LMS um so basically with that what you're seeing there is you're seeing the work being done by a company to create proper drainage so that when flooding does occur because it does occur um that we make it a point that that will drain that water away so that's what you're seeing there so that's a a project that with with some FEMA funding that is helping to remove excess water from front of LMS and that should be projected we're having that should be finished by the uh start of school so that's where that comes from now from a cost perspective I'll have to ask Mr Thomas evage to speak to that but that's there are projects going on at all the schools to help that LMS and LHS have those two significant mitigation projects going on relating to the LMS mitigation project that was awarded previously um that we're utilizing FEMA mitigation money part of that and we're also contributing uh the share that FEMA is in um hasn't awarded the district uh the total cost of that project is about 205,000 in construction of which uh roughly about 177,000 I believe is through FEMA so the district's got to come up with a refence and then obviously those architect fees roughly about 23,000 we just looked at the public facing uh part there there are Parts where the consistent where the recommended action is put consistently some parts where it's not so we need to make certain the recommended action makes it into the future agenda so thank you for bringing that to our attention thank you Arthur okay so we are going to go to item 1.5 public presentations we have a presentation with Dr [Music] kofs e e e e e e e the same in 2025 so uh first I'll start start off with participation so all of our students we had uh we had 236 students in grade 11 um sit for the njpa in 2024 in the spring and then 237 for Math and that discrepancy in one student usually has to do with their um multilingual status so that's why you'll see a difference in that one student um if you'll notice the participation scor so we have 100% participation rate that means all of our students that are eligible to take the NJ GPA sit and take the NJ GPA and we also have valid scores for all of those students which means that they've completed the assessment and there was that it was um completed to Fidelity the if you notice there's a big there's about 30 more students in the class of 2025 in the 11th graders last year than they were in the class of 2024 so when you're looking at these results and I know if you all remember the conversation we had last year for those of you that were on the board last year when I was presenting these results last August we had a really good conversation about how these scores are really you're looking at scores from 23 and 24 on two very different groups of kids because those 206 kids in 2023 that took this assessment none of them are the same as the 236 that took it in 2024 so as we're going through the data and the state requires us to report Trends over time so as we're going through the data keep that in mind that you are really looking at completely different groups of kids as you're as we're talking about Trends over time so some of our findings that you'll see as we go through the presentation um you know LHS students as do all of our Leonia students continue to score above the state average um you'll see that well in our data analysis we found that um our Ela Stu in ela our students need additional support um in informational texts and also readings the reading standards associated with social studies and and history uh which is similar to what we found when we we've started looking at our njsla reports um and it's a similar finding that informational texts and reading standards with history and science are two areas that we really need to focus on and then in math uh we found additional supports are needed in geometry and modeling and reasoning um and all students that are tested at not graduation ready in 2024 are on track to meet their requirements through the different Pathways which I will share in a minute and Leo is really getting ready to sign all 237 class of 2025 diplomas so we have no doubts that Leo will be signing all of those diplom diplomas in June okay Arthur like that one um so for our results uh you'll see here that we have our 2024 graduation ready we had 87.7% of our uh class of 2025 uh were scored at the proficiency rate so they are considered graduation ready and we had 67.1% of our students um in math score at graduation ready now of those um 29 students that did not meet graduation ready the graduation score yet um 14 of those students have already met the graduation path the graduation requirements through pathway 2 so we've used their PSAT or their SAT scores to show that they've moved they've they've met the requirement and um we have eight students that participated and then the 14 left we have eight students that participated in the summer Administration and the rest of those students will be participating in the fall or will'll try the SAT or PSAT pathway as well and again if they don't meet the pathway we will do a portfolio appeal in January and then in math of the 78 students that are not graduate considered not graduation ready 51 of those students have already met graduation requirements using pathway 2 through the PSAT or SAT scores um and then the remaining 27 uh 20 of those students participated in the summer administration of ngj GPA and then the other seven students we are monitoring through um the other Pathways um we cannot so the summer Administration reports are not on this um presentation because they are not uh State Certified yet so as soon as those become available then we'll come back and include those in into our reporting so this slide Compares uh the results over the three years so 2022 was the first year of the assessment 2023 you'll see and then 2024 um again these are three very different groups of kids every student in 2022 is different from every student in 2023 and every student in 2024 so you'll see over time you know we 2022 was the first year of the assessment as well as what our first year postco taking assessments um and then you'll see us kind of leveling out in 23 24 um let's sure and then if it's something that I'm going to answer in a future slide I'll let you know that it's coming generally yes yeah right and but the all of our Stu every grade level has a different um demographic of students so each grade level you know one 2023 may have had um 5% of the population may have been students with disabilities and multilingual Learners and then in 2024 20% of that population may have been Dingle Learners um so the the definitely the demographics play a role but the consistency that when if you remember on my first slide here about the the analysis of where our students are struggling that's what's important to us when we look at this data because that's where we're seeing trends of okay so we know based on our NJ GPA and our njsla scores that informational texts and reading standards are struggling kids are struggling from grades three to to 11 they're struggling with those two areas so that's where we kind of focus our attention more versus trying to pick friends in absolutely absolutely and um you'll see one of the areas that we have been improving in over time is algebra so if you remember last last year we talked a lot about we talked um about geometry and algebra the content themselves being areas of places where we need to support and we spent some time this past year sending our teachers to professional development with uh conquer mathematics that algebra is not even on this list because our students actually did really well in that in that content so that that's what's important when I'm looking at this data and when we're looking at it as an administrative team that's what's more important the percentages okay so this is a comparison of our graduation ready per year compared to the state so you'll see above the state um in both Ela and math and then here's a comparison of our subgroup results uh you'll see again completely different subgroups that you'll see here um the students that were that are graduation ready in the gray are completely are completely different group of students from the graduate from the students that are in the the maroon from 2024 um and there are some subgroups that we Cann not report as a reminder if the subgroup is less than 10 students we cannot report them on these um in public reporting and then with we are with math so you'll see you know we're kind of around the same areas we we have been focusing a lot and the subgroup conversation is something that we usually talk more about when we get into our njsla data which will happen sometime in the fall that's where we really focus our attention on the subgroups um because we get a little bit more longitudinal data when we have when we look at those assessment results and now our schools have been moving towards more Benchmark and more summi of Assessments that we have that data not just when the kids take one assessment in the spring we have you know we have three cycles of Assessments that we that we use to prepare our students and to kind of make those instructional decisions and placements for the following year so some interventions and strategies that we are implementing for 2425 some are continuations um if you go to the appendix of this presentation the appendix will show the the interventions and strategies that we implemented in 2324 um and as well as some other data charts um but this slide will just show the prev the interventions and strategies that we're implementing for 2425 so we're going to continue our professional development on our multi-tiered systems of support uh we've been doing a lot of uh good work around identifying how we support students at different tiers um both academically and social emotionally um we are enhancing and improving our inrs process and our team practices the high school specifically has done a lot of good work around inrs and being able to uh kind of identify students with without waiting until the end waiting until they need the identification kind of catching them a little bit before uh they are also continuing the implementation of Star as a universal Benchmark for ELA and math and we're continuing the roll out of edge of climber um new this upcoming school year for the high school will be that flex period uh back in the spring we talked about how the high school is changing their schedule uh to include a 25 minute block of time that is called their Flex where students will be able to um kind of go to classes and meet with teachers based on their actual needs So based on the interventions and supports that we find through our data analysis and through the work that our teachers and supervisors do uh students will be able to get really differentiated and really individualized attention in this in this flex period we've also the high school worked last year on creating an alternative pathway learning Pathways um so it gives uh different routes for students that are not meeting uh the expect expectations either through credits or through academic expectations um it gives them different learning Pathways so that way they don't you know kind of fall behind and get stuck uh We've Al we're also implementing DNA platform uh to help standardize common assessments so that way we'll be able to see a little bit more Trends across departments and across you know algebra everybody taking algebra one will have a little bit more of a common assessment that they take um to help with our data analysis which what you were saying with like you know trying to find Trends and um looking at different classes and they're also the big thing that um I know they're very excited for is the department common planning time which will give teachers more time to kind of talk together Andross talk across departments so that way Ela and social studies can sit together and say okay this is how we're meeting the expectations in writing in ela class this is how we can support that in our social studies classes and that is all for njpa before I go on to access are there any other GPA questions so that's a good question that Mr calendar and Mr service um did send out the schedule a few weeks ago but as you as schedules have been released uh I think they were released on Monday that information is in there or it will be coming directly to students in the next few weeks so in Leonia it is initiated by the counselors because what we do is we monitor our students throughout the entire process so once they once they take the GPA that kind of activates it right so then we had if you remember we had 29 students who did not meet Ela our counselors monitor that throughout the whole process and then when it gets to January 2025 any student that has not met The Graduate ation requirements the counselors will initiate that appeal process with our director of student services yeah MH MH yes I yes so there's well so we don't know about the portfolio appeal yet because we still have to go through our summer Administration results and our fall administration of GPA yeah so we had 14 students meet out of the 29 Ela we had 14 students meet pathway 2 through pathway 2 so that means 14 were left and of the 14 eight of them participated in the summer Administration and then the remaining we will either have them test in the fall or if they're planning to take the SAT or the PSAT in the fall we will use those results and then math we have the same I can go into the analysis for math but we have that all yeah yeah our counselors do a very good job of making sure all of our students meet a pathway and they they do that initiate they initiate that for them and they they you know kind of help them along in this process no there's it's a state number that the state kind of sets The Benchmark at I don't know that off I don't know that off the top of my head Dr caros may I yes so each year the state sets that cut score at a different number yeah it's the same the same thing for I don't know the SAT cut score off the top of my head but the state basically says this is proficiency so if you're going to meet pathway 2 you have to score this on the SAT this on the PSAT this on this assessment this on this off the top of my head I do not know but it's on the doe page I can find out and give you that information easier or harder right me sure sure there's actually what interesting to and I want to say this and I reserve the right to be wrong about it there was a move about 18 months ago maybe it longer to actually remove this because we're the only state with a graduation proficiency assessment so that's one thing that's a little data point that's interesting they wanted to move and they want to get rid of it because they have these other proficiencies exist so the the the pathways get progressively easier as you travel through them right with the the idea that like so there's a a huge coort of children pathway one GPA they're good pathway 2 is filled with students who might have multilingual situation special education students that depends on their their IEP is written that gets easier and then the portfolio PE process is if done properly everybody will pass that process and we receive their diploma it's a holdover from a time and a place in education where educational leaders put UND do importance on these kinds of tests not realizing that the SATs the PSATs act as proxies as well yeah yeah so this is and on once again I'll just repeat we are the only state out of out of 50 states plus all the outlining territories like Guam and Puerto Rico we're the only ones that do this New Jersey that's correct and they're still working to get rid of this assessment it hasn't stopped um you know I mean there's definitely gaps and holes and reasons why why we're testing our 11th graders about this when clearly there's other other forms of assessment but it's another day any other questions on GPA okay so I'll move on to access so access for L's is um it stands for assessing comprehension and communication in English state to state it is an assessment established by weda that New Jersey uses uh the weda uh framework uses the weda assessments to uh measure growth in our multilingual students um this is the result from the spring Administration so access testing is done in kindergarten through grade 12 for students that are identified as multilingual Learners through there is an NJ dooe required multi-step identification process once you register in a school district um you basically initiate that process and then after you go through after you're go through the process you're either identified as a mul lingual learner or you're not and anyone who is identified as a multilingual learner has to sit for this assessment um parents do have the option to opt out of um ESL instruction however students who opt out of ESL instruction still need to take the assessment and it monitors students progress through learning academic English there's four major language domains speaking listening reading and writing and then there's six levels of proficiency 4.5 is the magic number if you over if your overall score is above a 4.5 then you exit our um multilingual program so some findings and achievements from uh this past administration uh we found that and our uh supervisor of ESL is very excited about this uh so she she made me promise that I would make it a big deal but uh we have our students in our ESL program only stay in the program for 1.9 years which is uh lower than the state average as well as lower than our neighboring districts our neighboring districts students stay in the multilingual program for over two years and we are 1.9 um which also has grown from our last every three years we have to do a bilingual plan from our last our last bilingual plan we were 2.9 years or sorry 2.1 years um on average and now for this bilingual plan that we just submitted in July we are at 1.9 um so it's very exciting news um what we're seeing is constant growth in our English language Proficiency in our students and in the program itself um you'll see when we get into the data analysis the highest scores are in listening um and listening is what is most important when exiting um anytime so just because because you get a 4.5 score doesn't mean you automatically exit that usually you do but if for whatever reason the teachers feel like it's necessary for you to stay in the program they will keep you in to keep that support um after students exit our program um that we still monitor them for two years after they exit the program but listening is the the area that is most important for when transitioning back into the classroom um speaking you'll see show the least amount of growth but when I get to the interventions I'll talk about some some ways that we've kind of um identified to to improve that um some things that we've done is we definitely have put a greater awareness of the needs of our ESL population we've been talking a lot more we've been identifying them in our different assessments and we've um we've been doing a lot of um work around how we can better support them a lot of research about how we can better support them you'll see on today's agenda we have our family Outreach liaison for our title three for our ESL population um thank you uh so we've definitely been really targeting that population um as well as improving the program and design structures currently uh the district is a high-intensity program which means students in our ESL program are required to have two periods of ESL instruction a day um we've been moving towards a sheltered English instruction where that means that all of our teachers are trained on how to support uh students a multi lingual Learners in their classroom so then it gets away from just two periods of ESL instruction and now all of our teachers can differentiate and support those mul Learners okay so participation um so our total tested you'll see this is the total number of students in our ESL program you'll see that we're increasing for the last few years we've been increasing in this number um however our valid scores um we have about 14 students that did not have valid scores and that is because this is the first year that we are um we are through the IP process exempting some students that have learning disabilities so in the past students that had um students are identified with special needs would just kind of take this assessment and continuously just fail this assessment so what we've done this past school year between our director of special services and our supervisor of ESL they've identified the students that are struggling in certain areas so you can exempt them from specific areas of the assessment um so if a student's IEP has something to do with reading they would be exempt from the reading portion of the assessment so then they can still exit based on the other components and the reading which is aligned to their disability doesn't hold them back from exiting the ESL program um so that's where that 14 that's where that difference is in the participation rate but because they don't take all four components of the assessment they don't don't get a valid score which is why they're you'll see but the score part the parts that they do get they do get to use as part of their exit process okay so you'll see in this chart um the district proficiency scores over the four over the past few years um so you'll see that there is last year we had 22% um score at proficiency and this year you'll see that we have 16% score proficiency and there's a few reasons for that one of those being the special needs the students with special needs are now not being scored in the overall score and then we're also doing mid-year exits this past year was a first year we move to midyear exits where students now the state allows you to test students outside of access with a teacher oneon-one you get to give the weed a model so it's the same assessment it's just outside of the assessment window when you feel that the child is ready so if we feel that the child is ready based on our multi- uh data and multi measures that we review if we feel that the child is ready they will give the child the assessment and then the assessment If the child is successful in the weeda assessment then they exit the program so we have anywhere from October 15th to February 1st we've had a lot of students exit our program because they don't need to stay in and in the past we would just keep them in the program which would limit them it would pull them out of their class class like I said we have two periods of high intensity so it would pull them out of their class for two periods when you got to the middle school and high school the high school specifically it would take up two periods of their school day which would mean that they weren't eligible to take other electives or other programs that they're interested in um so we really pushed for this this year because we want to expose our students to more opportunities with the different programs and different cies that we have and we didn't want them to be just be stuck in this high-intensity course um so then this uh compares the the school levels to the dist from 23 to 24 it'll compares the valid scores of the schools and the percentage that reached or exceeded 4.5 um you'll see the number the number is what definitely want to highlight here um the differences in the the scoring themselves uh you'll see that our our population should normally over time be consistent but because of the changes we made with um exiting students midyear and being able to um to better identify students with disabilities uh we've been able to make adjustments and to really Target the students that need those supports um so you'll see some drastic changes in our numbers which has affected you know again the number of students and the scores that they're receiving and this is this is the average score by domain so similar to what I had uh in our findings our listening definitely scored the highest overall especially in both years and then our reading was next and our speaking and writing are the two areas that um our students are struggling in um which is consistent to what we've found in the past as well as some of the other assessments that we've been reviewing um but we have some ways to hopefully to mitigate that um this is a comparison of our subgroups and you'll see that there's certain subgroups that we cannot report on again that they're under that 10 minimum reporting size so those are listed at the bottom then our interventions and strategies for the 2425 so similar to GPA in this um presentation under in the appendix you'll see more data charts that break down each of the domains and um what each School scored in each domain um you'll also see the interventions that we put into place for 23 24 so then you'll be able kind of see what what we did last year and what we're what we're doing this upcoming year so part of the interventions we're definitely continuing our professional development and multitiered systems of support and SEI is our sheltered English instruction so we've been um like I said we've been training all of our teachers in sheltered English instruction we've been going Department by department so right now we have our entire social studies and Department we are Focus stand our that are not Middle School any questions [Music] so when um the students are ready to exit the program at the 4.5 is that the average of all four different areas or are we waiting until the students achieve 4.5 or over for all four areas it's good question it's the average of the overall however like I said our teachers really look at the individual domains as well if we see that a student scored at a six in listening and then only scored a one in speaking we might need to look at some other data to help us decide if that student is actually ready to exit or if that student just did really well in that section and so when we were briefly looking at uh the average score for four different areas um I wonder if that's kind of like anticipated or natural process how we it it is nothing surprising there right no listening and reading is always like righten speaking and writing always takes longer yep I was actually just talking today about how you know my husband feels more comfortable listening to Greek than speaking it even though he's been practicing his speaking to me he won't go in front of my family and speak Greek which our students are the same right they're right they'll listen to you and they know what you're saying and they can respond but they might be able to respond in a small group setting or one-on-one with a teacher but then when you go into a class with you know 15 to 20 other children it becomes a little bit more intimidating to speak right right that's great and also wanted to um just a comment uh also noticed also anticipated and expected how ACS students exit lot quicker than LMS and LHS so um hope to see if there's any uh differentiated uh programs that we we provide or Focus for the older students because they need more support prob yeah that's and that's definitely natural right we know that the younger a child is the easier it is for them to pick up that language by the time they come to high school and middle school a lot of times there's some type of Gap in their learning also so it's not just the language there's there's more variables in that um but yes the programs that we have at the and that's part of that sheltered English instruction that's why we're pushing that teaching in the middle school and high school so that way those teachers do know how to be able to when they're sitting in their class even though they're not the ESL teacher they can still they know how to build academic vocabulary they have academic vocabulary lists that they know that students can access you know they have routines that students can pick up on that will help which teachers do with the elementary school naturally because through phonics instruction and through just natural multi- sensory reading teachers do that already so you know it's building that at the middle school and high school which we have been which has been great the teachers have really appreciated the the training and the support any other questions all right last piece so additional data reporting this is the shortest section so I will go fast um so uh we just wanted to highlight some of the other assessments that our students and other programs that we have available for our students since we do have the platform now to be able to share that um we do so here we have an analysis of our AP exams our advanced placement exams um you'll see that we've increased the number of subjects available at the high school so we've added five more AP subjects at the high school that students can take um you'll see that the total number of Assessments have the total number of exams taken has increased by 78 uh exams but the number of students who took more than one exam or who took at least one exam I'm sorry who took at least one exam decreased so that means that our students who took who are taking the exams are taking more um but the amount of students that are taking the exams is decreasing but those students that are taking the exams are definitely doing well because we are increasing in the number of scores that are three or higher so three is the the magic AP number 4.5 is the magic access number three is the magic AP number um so that's what we report to the state is the number of students that get three or higher um and then that's the percent of our of students and here you'll see um the assessments that were available the total taken and the total of students that scored um three or higher and the percent so the percentage of that Stu of that student group um starting with 100% and going down so you'll see um our first hundreds you know if you look over here we have our Spanish language seminar Japanese language drawing you know we have all 100% here but I did want to highlight Calculus BC 96% of students in Calculus BC scored a 3 point three points on the AP exam or higher wow that is amazing that's insane that that's possibly one of the highest scores in the state yeah that's that's absolutely amazing and when you look at chemistry chemistry also only had one person one student not or um you know European history when you then you get you get a few more but the fact that our Calculus BC um 96% tells you the amazing job our students and our staff are doing for that and then you'll see continue going down um and through this this is where we look at um the different programs that we have how many students are taking the programs and then if there's any areas um and gaps especially when we get down here looking at um these programs out here that maybe we didn't score so high uh what are we doing and what can we be doing to better support those programs uh any questions on AP before I go to dual movement what kind of data so the three the reason why we went with three is because this is what we report to the state so we so when you look at our performance report trying to help you kind of digest our performance report a little bit when you when you look at our performance report it's reporting students at score three and above so I don't have fours and fives picked out but we do have through our edgy climber and this is where I so our edge of climber system has been amazing but this is where it really shined because I was able to pull all of this data so easily and so beautifully I could see exactly who scored threes how many they took it was just it was absolutely amazing um but through that system I could pull fours and fives if I if that's the the data I was looking at but again we went with the yes yep yep yep we do yep we do for so that's why those free and reduced lunch forms are very important that are now open in Genesis um because those forms allow us to support financially when it comes to these assessments when it comes to ATS and PSATs and all that yep okay any other AP questions can you just clarify I don't if you take the AP class you have to take the a exam correct or not necessarily so you don't theoretically have to but we pretty much require okay the high school required yeah okay that's what I want from yeah thank you dual enrollment any any other AP questions okay dual enrollment um so dual enrollment is basically when our students take a course at the high school part of their regular day so they have calculus period 3 this calculus course if they enroll in the calculus dual enrollment program whatever course they're taking period three they also use that as credits for the um towards College they once they complete the course they now have they now have three college credits towards calculates on their transcript um so we offer a lot of different programs for our students that we've expanded over the years um and this is based on the teachers qualification so a teacher needs to have a master's in a specific in in an area or have a bachelor's in an area but has a master's in teaching for one or the other um and then we have a dual enrollment agreement with various colleges and universities in the area we currently work with um Bergen County community uh St Thomas aquinus and uh we do have some courses at rapel um so you'll see uh students enrolled in at least one dual enrollment course this is the entire population uh we had 52.2% in 2023 and then 53.7% in 2024 we the high school is really pushing trying to get the word out about dual enrollment because it's a missed opportunity for families you know you're paying I think it's it's so cheap it's like $100 for a credit for three credits at Bergen through a course that you're already sitting in versus when you get that first college tuition bill of thousands um so we keep trying to push it to our students and to get because they're in these courses anyway it's just a matter of them signing up for the program um so you'll see um we did have an increase and we're going to continue to push that increase um our hospitality and event planning uh is part of our dual enrollment which is part of our CTE requirement which I will get into next any questions about dual enrollment um any kind of limitation like it's only open to Juniors and seniors or just kind of any student that's ready for it if they're in they're usually upper level classes so if they're in the course that means that you know they're probably Juniors or seniors um I don't know if we have any sophomores in the course off the top of my head um but definitely it's not they're not freshman level courses any other gooll okay and finally our Career and Technical education programs so we have in case you know I don't I don't know how much we advertise this which is why we wanted to share this out we do have two state approved CTE programs um one is our marketing program our MBL academy and our other is our culinary hospitality and tourism program uh which is also an academy um you know having these programs as CTE the state recognizes them as Career and Technical programs that they give we we have different opportunities for kids at other schools that don't have CT programs um may not have uh the C we are pushing the enrollment in our CTE programs as well uh there's definitely some things that when we get when I get to the intervention and strategies that I'll share um but just getting more students aware of the opportunities that we have at the high school through the marketing and through the hospitality program um we did increase our CT participants uh over the last year um and you know one of the great highlights that we have in our program is our hospitality and tourism we do have an industry valued credential that students in grade 12 get to take as part of the program so our students in grade 12 sit through their regular course but then in December of that course they sit for the Serve Safe managers assessment so they get to leave they and our students always pass because we support them in every possible way that we can um and including after school programs including tutoring sessions through our Serve Safe and the manager's assessment is very difficult when we told um our stakeholders that they passed the manager serice safe assessment they were so surprised because they were just like that's a one one of them was like wow he's like I've seen a lot of kids fail that multiple times but our kids our kids are our programs and our supports are there um so they get to they get to leave high school with a manager certificate for sery um and that number the reason there's a difference in that number is based on enrollment of grade 12 students in the program so last year we had 15 students this year we had six and all six passed this year them up there amazing yeah yeah it's honestly it's such a great opportunity for them like when I told my my parents own restaurants and when I told them that we did this they were floored they were like I would I would kill to have a high school student working for me with a Serve Safe manager assessment like it's amazing so just some finding and interventions that we're putting into place um you know we definitely found strengths we're definitely increasing in our enrollment and the the Outreach that we're doing and the supports that we're putting in um are getting more exposure to these programs for students um and then uh something for next steps expanding our AP dual enrollment and CT programs um and one of the ways um and I'm jumping around a little bit on this slide but um we recently purchased through our Perkins Grant which which we get because we we are CT uh State approved CT program um this platform called you science which is a platform that um it's an aptitude it measures students aptitude and then allows us to create career and educational Pathways based on their aptitudes so that platform will give us the data that we need to set up programs for the future so if we have students taking this aptitude assessment in 9th grade we can set up programs over the next few years that will support the areas that most intrigued in and most um that they're most like that they're going to identify with the most that way they we can keep them here we can keep them in the district we can keep them in their home in their Community um and then we can keep them going to school and excited about different learning opportunities um and then you know some of the other programs that I've kind of already touched on but just the um the alternative Pathways and then uh this year we are and actually this was Rene's suggestion from our stakeholder meeting um who Rene is a part of our stakeholder group for our CTE programs um you know an opportunity for LMS students to Shadow LHS students so we're setting up an opportunity for students at LMS if they're questioning programs or if they want more information about what a program is like they we will arrange for them to come to the high school to Shadow a student for the day to see what that program is like and what the the classes are like and um what that kind of schedule looks like and that is all thank you good thank you any final questions great thank you and the there's an appendix with more data if you are interested thank you zy right thank you very much dros um that brings us to item 2.1 board member comments or excuse me um any board members have any comments on agenda related items okay seeing none we will move on to our student representative comments any comments from our student reps okay all right okay so seeing none we'll move on to three approval of consent agenda items can I have a motion and a second motion Maria in a second Joe and that's roll call please Miss Troy Miss Molina yes the meeting of June 28 and I'm going sorry Mr sea Mr SEO Miss Thompson Miss wilds and president Le yes um I also was in in attendance at the June 28th meeting I believe so I will abstain from any that I did not attend I just have a question for Mr leera uh for the June 28th meeting that's five five votes is that car okay perfect okay perfect okay so um on consent agenda idem's motion carries that brings us to item five administrative reports Dron thank you good even everybody have a few uh few comments to make tonight first I want to thank everybody for their uh first I want to thank uh Dr Kos and Mr thomasevich for their uh their filling in in the end of June as uh you know I had a I had a a medical condition that occurred on June 15th that knocked me out of the last week of school uh in over 30 years was the first time I missed the last week of school um I I enjoyed it from the live stream from the comfort of my of my house and I am grateful for uh for all the good wishes and especially to the ministrative team that stepped up at that time so thank you for that for those good wishes it's wonderful to be here this evening um it's good to be back a few things to comment on um I'm sure Mr Thomas evich will mention but also what we had a significant rainstorm roll in um significant damage found across the district um again the high school has things they have to worry about we've talked about the idea of the gym floor has to be replaced other things that we have to do definitely a buildings and grounds conversation around both the short-term and the long-term impact of these storms these storms used to arrive once a century now it's once every like six weeks right and so I'm sure that when they built the high school in low-lying ground they didn't think that this would be happening again and again but there has to be some conversations around that we're prepared to have that um a variety of summer projects are are being uh taken care of around the district including Roofing and we're working on some mitigation projects those are uh going very well we want to thank especially Mr Woods our director buildings and grounds Mr Thomas evage for their hard work and getting all of those ducks in a row um I do want to point out for all those building projects the building based Administration has been uh huge in helping to organize that get that going and making certain those projects are good that being said uh we will be we will be prepared to open school in three weeks three weeks from today the teachers return I believe yes three weeks from today teachers come back and 3 weeks from Thursday the children return to us we cannot wait to have that happen um all of our community members yesterday at about 9:00 in the morning received an email from their building principal with their schedule and their handbook and the forms to fill out that was a concerted effort by the district to streamline that process uh they used to arrive at different times they'd arrive later in August we want to get those out early we want to give parents a chance to see those schedules and get rolling with that and so thank you uh to our building principles for having that taken care of um I do want to welcome welcome our new board of education Representatives on September 3rd we will do your official swearing in this is uh the August meeting is a little interstitial we're in still kind of in August but September we will have the official uh swearing interview and thank you for doing that um I want to thank Dr caramanos for her presentation tonight um really the presentation as we saw is really the dot at the end of the sentence like all those programs all those grants all that work educ climber the teachers work it all comes together we have a chance to talk to you about it time so I want to thank her for that presentation for giving it such a succinct and clear manner um the hundreds of hours at work that go into those results credit to her credit to our staff and to our Administration I also want to point out I like the idea and this is by Design like reporting on the access for Ells right uh traditionally uh and under reported on underrepresented group in many school districts a lot of districts Ved just point to the report and say Here's the data and they move on but we want to make certain that every student who passes through our hallways gets the same attention whether it be an a P student whether it be an e student an NJ GPA student very important to us that everybody's represented in this room at that level um and the last thing I want want to say is let's have a a great school year A B more of that in September when we come back but I just want to say we're excited to get going here we want to thank everyone for their support so thank you thank you Mr Thomas sub thank you president Le I have a few items to discuss the first is application for free meals summer EVT benefits and other District benefits which um Miss Thompson touched on relating to uh and as well as Dr caramanos relating to the benefit so children need healthy meals to learn the Leon Board of Education offers healthy meals every for every school day the price for meals for the upcoming school year as well as other important Food Service information can be obtained through our District's website located uh through the food service department section on the website your children may qualify for free meals and sum are EBT benefits the district utilizes this form uh to determine other potential benefits that your child can receive such as uh discounted fees or or potentially uh no fees for certain District enrichment programs uh field trip costs can be reduced or or eliminated as well as some both Fair opportunities uh as well as some you know uh testing uh fees it is highly encouraged to complete the application through the Genesis Parent Portal in order to determine if your family qualifies if you need a hard copy uh one can be obtained through the district's website by printing it or you could contact your child's school's principal's office or the district's business office all cont all contact information can be accessed accessed uh on the district's website the district will also be hosting two parent assistant nights to help families with filling out the forms as well as well as answering any questions uh for those who need translation assistance those dates are August 20th I believe and August 28th between 6: and 800 p.m. uh located at NC Scott Elementary School in the computer lab and a key note if you completed an application for the prior year and had qualified for free or reduced meals a new application is needed to be completed for the upcoming school year and I would just like to also point out that this Administration and the board has approved free meals even if you qualify for under the reduced income thresholds that was something that we approved previously in in April um I believe the April meeting the the other item is direct certification process district has completed the first round of the direct direct certified uh families for free meals the letters have been mailed out this week if you if your family receives a letter indicating that you have been directly certified for free meals you do not need to complete an application for free meals and summer EVT benefits you automatically qualify uh the next item is Insurance Recovery which Dr gainan mentioned so the district was hit with um incurred water damage from heavy rainfall uh that occurred last Tuesday and the district is working through our with our insurance adjuster as well as uh internally through our current staff and I would also like to recognize Mr Kevin Woods and his team for the great job that they did responding to the rainstorm uh to mitigate the extent of the damages as well as as uh getting the affected areas remediated um in addition I would like to recognize Mr Pao Samuel and his team for the job that they are currently doing relating to getting the technology equipment and the infrastructure remediated that were affected by the water damage uh one of the key notes uh to indicate is some of these projects that we're currently doing which uh one of them is the new roof at ACS as well as some site and drainage projects at LMS and LHS U all three of those projects were intended to you know to mitigate you know water damage um with the hope to prevent it 100% but the district will be accessing all locations to to determine additional site and drainage needs and bring them back to the buildings and ground committee and finance committee as well as included in our upcoming strategic plan as well uh the next item is capital projects update LMS mitigation project uh which which Arthur you had you had mentioned uh So currently uh the vendor is is installing all underground drainage piping um that has been completed the installation of both seafish tanks is completed installation of the basketball hoop pole was completed uh so the vendor is in the process of completing the removal of all the asphal and concrete expected to be completed by the end of next week repaving will begin the last two weeks of August the vendor still has some uh additional items relating to gutter scope um for the under the overhang uh the vendor is confident that the paving portion of the project will be completed prior to the start of school the focus is on that repaving area LHS mitigation project uh installation of retaining wool uh is complete vendor is working on the top caps this week stair stairwell walkways and stairs installation will begin next week uh the week of August 26 six the vendor will will be completing the paving of all the asphalt um and the vendor is confident that this work will be completed by the start of school with the exception of plantings and the new doors and windows which we're waiting to to receive but have been ordered ACA ACS pitch roof replacement uh this has been delayed because of the rain the vendor is currently working above the main office section and the project is expected to be completed by the end of next week with the acception of installation of gutters and leaders uh which will follow the following week LHS core area uh the project has been slightly delayed we are currently waiting on the approval from the Leonia building department uh relating to cerning permits and the ETA for the vend to begin the work has has not been determined yet LHS ADA Bathroom that's pretty much 90% complete uh estimated completion time will be the end of next week LHS electrical secondary replacement that project has been postponed due to the delay with psng the project will be rescheduled for next summer ACS exterior door replacement the doors have been ordered by the vendor estimated arrival time um is estimated to be end of September with the completion expected to take about one to two weeks LHS interior and exterior door replacement that has been ordered by the vendor estimated arrival similar to ACS end of September with the completion expected to take one to two weeks uh LHS cafeteria Renovations uh Furniture has been ordered expected to be delivered by the end of August additional serving Line Equipment has been ordered with the updated plans in the process of uh being distributed to C electricians to be outsourced as well as a plumber vendors will will begin working on the proposals and submitting for uh building permits shortly uh and two pending project one is the LHS New Media Center as well as both product projects are are being finalized by the architect and being submitted to the doe the next phase is putting bid spe together for the construction aspect uh Furniture is in the process of being finalized and ordered for the New Media Center and the last item is is relating to an update for the health benefit rate increases for 25 and calendar year school districts such as Leona B of Ed that participate in the state employee health benefit plan have integrate have integrated um that have integrated prescription coverage through the New Jersey direct 10 and New Jersey direct 15 medical plans um we have received a proposed have been proposed um by the state's third party vendor Aon and they they are uh proposing a renewal increase of approximately 21.9% for the direct 10 and direct 15 plans uh for the New Jersey ehp Plan the new the renewal rate increase as being proposed as 8% for the Garden State Health Benefit Plan the renewal rate increase is being proposed is 8.3% so as a result uh based on the above potential renewal rating year as well asate increases from the previous years the district is in the process of pulling data which is the claims loss ratio from the state and potentially marketing uh its uh plans uh to all viable Private health insurance carriers in the in the New Jersey school board Marketplace uh there this is no additional cost to do this for the district this will be brought back to the finance committee as the data is finalized by our third party benefit broker Brown and Brown that is it so uh Mr Thomas evich reported on a wide variety of projects being done around the building around the district so I just want to thank him for the really aggressive work we're doing all over the place right every every building is being touched in some way um we looked at the live stream there's six people watching at home so so they us and our three Brad reps are sworn to secrecy about the the high school cafeteria Renovations okay so that's a first school day sort of surprise thing so those at home behave yourselves and for our students to wait for that first day of school okay thanks guys thank you sorry so that wraps up our administrative reports um that brings us to our committee reports I don't believe any committees met over the summer did any any committees meet okay um welld deserved summer break um I know we'll get back to work once the fall comes around so enjoy the rest of your time off and we'll get back to work in September um so with no committee reports to update on on um that brings us to I believe that takes us all the way to item 10 yeah new business anyone have a need to discuss anything under new business so that'll have to be doing it actually we can't it's the the resignation of a one of our par professionals she's returning to a full-time Insurance to further her career so great worker great to have her here moving on in the world moving up we're happy for her we hate to see ago uh we've already begun the search for her replacement okay can I have a motion and a second please on marine and a second Maria and that's local Miss Choy Miss Molina Mr zepa Mr SEO Miss Thompson Miss wilds and president Lee Yes motion carries on new business thank you okay that brings us to item 11 public comment on non-agenda items anyone from the public wishing to speak who St to the podium Arthur but the record show we said you would get well card I appreciate that too I totally told you I appreciate that uh I have a couple of things um I'm gonna start with zanti your report which was good and I enjoyed it um I have a question regarding the ESL 1.9 average you said but you continue to follow the kids for two years thereafter do you have any information on uh how many snap back after they get out do they go back and then uh those that don't go back stay in there how do they rank or how do they do in the general population do they Excel they are they average or they below just so I have idea of how they seem to manage blending in with the general population um also good good report Eric I you know I enjoy that you kept looking up and yeah I was listening to every word you're saying that was that was good um I did listen to a couple of the meetings at home the past ones and one the thing I noticed was I'm not going to comment on the meetings but um when you don't speak right into the microphones it goes you can't hear so I don't know if you all any of you all listen to the videos you probably don't because you're here but I did listen to a couple of them and that's just a comment they had so it's really important to speak right into the microphones if you want them to hear you now if you don't want them to hear you don't don't speak at microphones um anyone follow J en is he did he graduate last year he did okay I don't know if you know he ran the fastest leg of the Trinidad and Tobago uh 4x4 they got blown out of course by the US and others but he happens to have had the fastest split I think it was 459 I follow that because I used to be a quarter mile so it was I was please had a search for it they didn't put it on he didn't make the he didn't make TV I saw it I watched that video I watched that video I I I watch a couple I no that's except I was I was a quot when I was pretty good but he he was exceptional so I ran at Villanova in my quarter but I got pushed into the quarter mile hurdles because I couldn't compete with Olympians but anyhow that's an aside uh two other questions um I don't get by the way I no longer get Board of Education notices remember I Tri a hard time signing up I signed up I never got them and all of a sudden I started getting all the ones like when you send them out or they send out uh I no longer get them I don't know if it was for the change in the year or they kicked me off or whatever but I don't get them so I don't know how to sign them and get back on again um the long range facility plan I don't know if you and and maybe you talked about it but I at one of the other meetings but I didn't see it um with the affordable housing issue in the state and also facing Leonia there's a real strong possibility in the somewhat probably near future not real near because they have to build them have to come but there's going to be there could potentially be a huge increase in the could be might not be uh but it's something to plan for and think about you know you don't want go through spending a lot of money accommodating X and then find out that there's y there's also talk about merging districts towns which would also follow District eventually also I don't know if you read any of that information all merging the small towns into larger to help offset things to think about and did you and final question did you hire the consultant the work with you on the long range facility plan I know you hired somebody to help you find a consultant but I don't know if you actually hired a consultant you yet to do that work um and last comment is personal thing I don't I object personal just made for the term gifted and talented I find it's exclusionary and ex exclusionary I don't I think that that that group I don't have any problem with the group there's obviously a group of kids that have exceptional talents or accelerate whatever it is but when you say that to a person who's not gifted and talented like I I was not okay it kind of puts you like well I guess I'm dumb and stupid I'm not gifted and talented so kind of just by the the verb the use of that term so you may want to think about possibly keep the program just change the name it's just something that I have personally so thank you thank you a few things AR just so uh so as one part of the uh I'm going to make a recommendation to the board that we do our long our long range strategic planning right that's part of our goal this year is to work with a company like a stat forecast it's called and what they do is they do long range analysis of Trends and districts when it comes to population growth and they take into account possible building possible no building so we're going to get that on the board of education radar for the future anticipating whe there's housing in town or not so we're we hear you on that we're and we're working on that um and that was the only comment I um to answer your question about the uh multilingual program um so we do monitor so 1.9 is the average years that students are in our programs we do monitor them for two years afterwards um we are very good about our monitoring and keeping and making sure like I said we don't exit students even if they meet the 4.5 overall score if we see discrepancies in their scores or we see that they're high in one domain but then not meeting at all on the other we won't exit them um so we make sure that our students are ready to exit we do not in the past 5 years that I've been here we have not had any students come back into our program um so we've been successful in making sure that our students are getting the support that they need um and then when we are monitoring them the teachers are working with the ESL teachers are working with the general education classroom teachers to talk about those students with the BSI and the um inrs teams to be able to provide additional support so our students um you know average you know they they just go back into they fall average you know some Excel some need additional support but you know there's no they're not there's not just a chunk of multilingual Learners at the end of the classes and you know yep I could just ently I could just add one more thing for the long range facility plan so uh we did a full long range facility plan about I want to say two years ago um with in conjunction with our architect from Environ addicts as well as we had a a demographic study from another third party um looking at uh data uh relating to Leonia as well as Edgewater residents um at that time I don't know if affordable housing they really accounted for how detail that they accounted for I mean they they kind of look at if there's any any um developments any what the current you know data holds but I don't know what affordable housing if that was 100% addressed at the time because of you know it it hadn't been finalized for the Board of Education update the parents Square updates the community updates um we just sync so everything just so you all know everything gets put on pause on June 30 on June 20 first whatever the last day of school is the next day everything gets put on pause in terms of our tech programs and then yesterday we or Monday we released yesterday is Monday we released the schedules so now that the schedules are released the programs now begin syncing again so now that the schedules are live all of those programs will start so then that community group will start becoming live again and what I'll do next time we send an update out I'll email you to confirm that you received it if not we'll figure it out yeah long range facilities plan is something different from the Strategic plan right for your question did you mean our district strategic plan or the long range of Sol one okay no no no no it's America we love weird I'll Circle back with you about that and also about our our strategic planning make sure you get that okay so seeing no other members of the public we will move on to item number 12 board comment any board member comments on any non-agenda items that to thanks so first I just wanted to say um thank you to the administration Eric Kevin's team obviously there's a lot going on across the district to get the buildings ready for school to open um very clear from your report so thank you for that um I just wanted to ask about the storm impact like LHS in particular because I know a few people have asked me in town and some of them were listening in tonight so it may be too soon to even answer this but I think people are thinking back to Ida and when like the gym floor had to do rep place for example I know there's other floors that are damaged as well there were like significant delays in that happening so I think people are just curious like we know a timeline at all um might be too soon but just what does it kind of look like sure so it's a good question right because I Ida is before I ared but I we hear about ID all the time so this is Idol like but not as intens as Ida the gym floor has to be replaced that we said that from the very beginning that's going to happen the old gym Flo has already been torn up so from molding from a riding perspective that's already gone there's other parts on the first have to be done um we don't see a delay to the opening of school that's important thing to point out School classrooms will be available there's a lot of work to be done there and the gym floor will need to be done from a Time perspective we're not there yet in terms of giving a time frame for when that will be completed that will definitely roll into the start of school there's no way we can get a new gym floor down in the few weeks before school started but we will have an update to the community especially LHS Community about that in the next few days probably in a week or so all right just to add to Dr gon's comment uh one of the things uh relating to Hurricane Ida why it's a little different is Hurricane Ida was more uh State across the state so a lot of districts were impacted so it bogged down you know insurance adjusters in that regard as well as it was close to covid so a lot of furniture needs a lot of vendors were kind of backlogged so we're not experiencing that that type so hopefully you know things uh shall go smoother in addition uh the county so we submitted part of part of the um what occurred we submitted notice to the county to identify that it's an emergency so based on that we have some um less restricted ways to go about awarding contract so we don't have to go through the standard bidding process uh which takes time and puts that all together we could do it through an emergency once you know based on the county approval so that should help EXP but Di what needs to get done um so I have two things one whenever we' find that timeline especially the gym floor if you could communicate that out I know you do a great job with that and then starting tomorrow Leon Sports boosters are going to have the carnival which um the funding goes to all the sports in town so please come out got good representation on the board so you're covered any other members any comments okay well thank you and welcome all back um after hopefully a restful summer Welcome to our our returning and our new student members I'm looking forward to another great year this year tough start with the the rainstorm but I mean it could have been worse I think during Ida there were fish actually in the hallway in LHS I think we avoided that this time but um but yeah definitely um many many thanks to Kevin and his staff and his crew I was getting texts from Brian late into that night um with kind of videos and updates it was pretty amazing to see and it is it's tough um especially after Ida um and taking so long to get our mitigation project started and we were so close to getting them done it wouldn't have stopped everything but I mean some of the issues with the roof in this building I know some of the flooding at least at LS would have been um would have would have been avoided and this is like my industry that's what I work in so like seeing but understanding the timing you know it wasn't like we sat and waited around to try to get these things fixed there was a process to everything and um just the timing worked out such that we are in the position that we're in now but nonetheless another new year is coming up and I welcome everyone back I welcome the board back I hope you had a restful summer um looking forward to another another great year of school and and welcome back Ryan haven't seen you in quite a while so glad to see you all back here thank you and uh that's it for me that does and no other comments see no other comments from me um any other comments from our student UPS okay that brings us to Executive session so and we do need to go into executive session um I'll need a motion and a second motion and second I and um all in favor any opposes or exensions okay motion carries executive session we're entering at sometime 9:06 thank you um we do anticipate about minutes uh for those of you that are watching at home on YouTube we anticipate to be in closed session for about approximately 20 20 minutes after which time we will return to complete uh motions and any of the necessary activities for the remainder of the agenda items so thank you thank you back in public session um we are on item 14 Personnel Open Session can I have a motion and a second please Maria in a second Marine um and that is roll call Miss Choy Miss Molina missa Miss SEO Miss Thompson Miss wilds and president Le yes motion carries on personel thank you and that brings us to adjournment can I have a motion please Maria and a second Sid um all in favor I any opposed or extensions okay we are adjourned at 9:39 thank you very much