##VIDEO ID:yQ7D3_uYWZ0## have a roll call please Mr phello here M Barton here Mr Barry here miss zesn here miss [Music] Berber M Lawrence here Dr Snider here you have can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the of the United States America stands [Music] nais okay can I have a recommend a motion to approve the agenda I have a motion I have a second are there any questions okay all in favor I any exensions okay if not motion carries okay may we on to approve minutes recommend a motion to accept the following minutes for July 16 2024 can I have a motion motion can I have a second second are there any questions okay um seeing as there are none all in favor any exensions or anyone's absent okay motion carries hey moving on to our first public comment on agenda items only the Board of Education now welcomes the public to comment on the items which are on our agenda tonight community members should first try to resolve their concerns by speaking directly to school administrators before bringing those concerns to the board may not always be possible or appropriate for the board to directly answer questions during the public comment each speaker is allotted a maximum of 3 minutes to make their comment um please keep your comments respectful and non defamatory and maintain the level of Decor appropriate for a public meeting where miners may be present in the audience would anyone like to speak my 3 second pause here okay see as there are no one um moving on to uh we have some informational items for correspondents and moving on to our board work session with committee reports believe we had a couple committees who had met during the past month and Finance or curriculum would like to go first I'll go Al work so um myself um Laura who is not here tonight how we met on April April August 6 uh with Melissa Robert and Lisa and we just had an update on curriculum so a few things that um Melissa went over with us was um njla data is not completely in from the state yet but we reviewed our internal um results and I think Melissa was very excited in the fact that we are moving in the right direction not where we necessarily want to be but we did see some improvement and we're moving in the right direction and if the scores come in on time you'll be doing a formal presentation in October at the October board meeting um she went over the ELA resources wonders and WonderWorks there's a PD in May there'll be a WonderWorks PD in September um new math and Ela standards um curriculum has been written throughout the summer um updating all the documents with the new standards um there is a new state mandate for inclusivity lgbtq and disability standards that'll be implemented into grade six only um throughout health and PE and Ela and one of the things that we you know wanted to stress and more and Howe and I talked about was just um Within legislation section 18a 35 4.35 is that it is an in an appropriate place within the curriculum and that's something that we had a pretty in-depth conversation with Melissa and the the fact that her and Lisa are reading all of the resources that we're using the teachers have vetted the appropriateness of the documents and resources that are going to be implemented and that it will be age appropriate for the kids and that it'll be implemented in the proper way so we're very confident in that after our discussion and feel very good about that um a point that how we stress with the importance of making sure that we're bringing factual American history into our um curriculum discussions and um Health opt out forms for grade two and five are completed in Genesis this year parents will get them when they log into those programs um and I think that was pretty much everything that we talked about I think our goal is to meet end of September early October to review the state Data before Melissa gives her presentation in October um so I think that's our next plan no thank you cover it good [Music] job um I think that was it for curriculum so that's kind of where we're at um getting ready to start the school year thank you very much the finance yes so the finance or budget we met on the same day August 6 4:15 was myself Laura and Howard we talked about a lot of things um first on the list we talked about uh we did a policy cost analysis so um Laura's kind of been talking about this a while just looking at our policies and which company provides those updates to us um so there's we have a choice right now we use Strauss SME um but we could use New Jersey school boards if we wanted to so Robert did a great um analysis and a handout for us we discussed it a little bit in executive I think we tabled it and we're going to kind of do a little further analysis to see because um stra SMA really specializes in the policy updates and the New Jersey school boards kind of has their hands in lots of different things so we just kind of have to weigh out the the benefit of of each not sure if that's something we'll tackle this year so more to come on that um cobs and schools so really great news for um our contract that was settled uh we're saving some money the chief of police chief Jimmy Hawkins came and met with um our administrators uh they had a great conversation um there'll be a reduction in the contract so that's good uh we budgeted a cost Savings of approximately $122,000 between the budget and the contract so really good news um and that's on the agenda for [Music] approval then some not so great news um but I'm glad we're you know aware and ahead of the game here so we um Robert kind of outlined a little bit of a budget deficit due to some salaries and staff that we EMP please jump in if I miss speak Robert um but staff that we we brought back um and we'll have to kind of move lines in the budget from non-salaried lines to kind of cover this this deficit um we're going to be fine just was something that he wanted to get ahead of an outline for the board uh as well as our 25 26 budget projection um we don't know what's going to happen with the state funding next year um if it's going to be flat or another deduction in what we get so fingers are crossed but um you know we have less money than the current budget currently um but we're going to be hopeful we're going to look outside the box this year and really work on potentially getting some other grants uh that might be one of our goals um but you know it's better to be ahead of the game and kind of know and kind of start the budget process early versus later so that's it Howard did I Mr Barry did I miss anything that's close okay yeah it's just the budget thing though it is it's that's tough it's really tough so not much you can does [Music] okay thank you and just a couple reminders um New Jersey school boards Association is coming up in October so try to keep in mind and see if it U once the schedule comes out we'll be discussing it more and maybe also to people we can Target um different talks and things like that so that we can get back a report um Laura had emailed I think she emailed all of us potential cell phone policy so maybe we can review that so that potentially who is the policy committee again okay so then maybe if potentially she would like that for first read for September okay and then she had also asked that since there's only seven of us and it seems like Howard I think you're like now on three committees um that to make sure well now that uh negotiations is over I freed up some time oh great so would you like another I can yes she suggested that we all participate on at least two committees um she did give a list so I will send out an email about that but I don't think that anyone should have to participate in more than two committees especially now that budget seems to be a year round Committee in the past it had only been just for Budget season and since now that you're meeting much more frequently it's much more of a time commitment I respect that um as you you know I know everyone's time is valuable so um just keep that in mind and um I know that we discuss in our Retreat also transportation and maybe that those on the transportation committee we should consider meeting after um the first few weeks of school to see how this that it's everything's going if there's anything that can be done to improve it or if there's anything that we can do um just that um on the Forefront okay and that's all I have anyone else El okay um moving on to the superintendent's report thank you so Mr Jenning shared with me that on August 6th was National Night Out and he was able to get some students to attend and some staff members to volunteer so they they dressed up the the students I believe dressed up with M as mascot and and went out and so that was that was really great that our staff some of our staff volunteers could go in the students way so we were we were recognized there represented there if you've had a chance to walk through the schools they are looking better and better uh Seth and his crew are doing a great job the floors look great the classrooms look great there's still some work left to do but it we'll be ready to go for for the beginning of school so we're excited about that and tomorrow is ECC orientation and so we're looking to welcome uh students and parents parents in and some staff members in for that so that's that's very exciting I'm planning on going and smoothing and watching and you may be aware I know everyone's aware that we are transitioning from to a new student information system from encourse to Genesis there have been some hiccups with that but to be expected nothing that can't be that can't be taken care of but we ask everybody to be patient as we make this transition the team has been working really hard to make it as seamless as possible however one major thing that's happening is that parents have to sign on and acknowledge all of the mandatory policies all of the code of conduct um sign off on all the forms prior to getting the information for their child so prior to getting Transportation or or teacher home room assignments you have to go in and you have to fill out all the information once you do that you'll be cleared to go in and get all the other information you need there's going to be a letter that goes out on Thursday and on the website there will be it will also be on the website but there will also be a button on the website that basically says click here if you have if you need some help if you have some questions or for an FAQ so that's also going to be there it's also going out on Facebook I believe so we're trying to get it out there as much as we can to everybody that we can like I said there will be some probably some transitional things but it's expected and I think it it will go as we as we make the transition it will be fine but we just want parents to understand that and realize that if somebody needs help let us know we're happy we're happy to help they can come in and we can help them go through it together and I think that's [Music] it all right moving on we have a presentation uh regarding Ells by Rachel parer this on can you hear me yes the um we actually had it to to show but we're having a problem with projector so we will make sure that it it goes on the website so that everybody's aware of it yeah so probably a little bit more difficult to follow along and or present since I can't see what I'm looking at but we'll we'll wing it and it will be presented on the website along with my information so if any has any follow questions at um so rer supervisor Federal programs um these are the access results on the 2223 school year 22 or the 23 24 school year um because we love our acads and education access for L stands for assessing comprehension and communication in English from state to state for English language Learners so I'll only be referring to it as access that's just too much um and it is in multiple States um so while the the assessment itself refers to the students as L's or English language Learners New Jersy has shifted to the terminology of MLS or multilingual Learners just to put the positive spin on the benefits of being multil versus the deficit that's associated with not being proficient with the English language so it is an annual standard based assessment that provides us with an English language proficiencies for in the core domains of listening speaking reading and writing um and it just helps to pinpoint our instructions so that we know at what level a student understand and comprehend and communicate in English when they're just learning language um so uh I think it's slide three you'll see that there's several uh languages listed there those are are representative of the languages that we supported our students with during this past school year um the Department of Education requires districts that have more than 20 students in one language to offer program which would be wonderful however our predominant language is Spanish in this district and those students are spread across all grade levels so in order to um offer a bilingual program at every single grade level we would need a lot more teachers and a lot more money which we have nether of so we did submit a waiter to the state and that will determine what kind of programming we offer for the upcoming school year we're still reading on that determination um in the meantime our district is becoming more and more diverse um think the next slide4 has the statistics for us right now in the 2223 school year we had 16 um students who qualified for services this past school year we ended the year with 31 students which represents a 96% increase um since creating these slides we actually have had additional students register for the upcoming school year so we have a 39% increase from last year and a 181% increase from the 222 those numbers also don't include our preschool multilingual owners which is another mandate from the state that we do have to identify them we don't screen them for services and so they're ready to enter kindergarten all three and four year olds are language Learners um but historically about 50% of them do qualify for services and kindergarten so that's also important to keep in mind um the proficiency levels on on the next slide when we look at the results it gives us an English language proficiency level between one and six um the New Jersey Department of Education has determined that a student who scores a 4.5 or higher is eligible to be exited from the program and they don't need that additional period of day of you know the language instruction um that score is considered along with other measures such as classroom performance and assessments um but we do monitor their progress for up to 3 years after that you'll see on the next slide that most of our students score between a one and a two and that just tells us how they you know how they know or what they understand and how they can use both social and academic language in in English with and without visual support so that teachers know exactly how to present material to them um but with most of our students being newcomers I think this past school year 40% of our students were newcomers meaning that they are new to our country either this school year or the previous school year um it's expected that they mostly scor in those entering and emerging categories along with any students who are just not exposed to the English language they might be coming to school for the first time and their families and their communities PR dominantly speak their language so they don't have enough exposure so them scoring in that category is is completely acceptable what expected alternatively you'll see that there are several students who scored in you between four and six which if you think about that eligibility or that profession level 4.5 um but they're not ready to be exited because those are only in specific you have to look at the overall sort um so the final Slide the growth expectations um unlike njsla where students are compared to other students in the gr level the growth expectations for Access for Els aren't completely individual so uh the growth expectations are determined by calculating five equal intervals between the Baseline score and that proficiency level of 4.5 five because the new Department of Education or whatever formula population to use has determined that multilingual Learners should exit the program within 5 years in our district and most District surrounding that I've collaborated with the average is about 3 to five years um so you'll see that we did assess 31 students this past school year for 16 of them it that was their Baseline sport it was their first time they took the assessment they might have been in kindergarten new to the country new to the district sometimes in all three of those categories we had I believe it was nine students who met their growth expectations and are on track to reach that proficiency of 4.5 within the five years uh two students who did not proficiency however this is not an area concerned for a couple of reasons one because like you saw in the previous report we able to home in on exactly which domain they need as in order to continue to be successful and reach proficiency and two because the the growth expectation is calculated as an equal interval and if you know any child ever the expectation is not always the reality so if they SL School slightly below or slightly above it doesn't mean not they W reach the target for example we had four students I think it was yes four students who reach proficiency this year and are eligible to be exited from the program one of those students was reported last year as not meeting their growth expectation yet they reached that level of proficiency this year and again if they're exited they will be monitored to 3 years to ensure that they continue to make um grow but at this point they're TR to have enough proficiency with the English language to um be successful on our own the and that's that which is not very helpful when you can't look at it but we will put it any questions um I know we did a multicultural night EC which I think was very successful are we planning on doing more Multicultural events and and were like you know I remember I think in college we'd watch uh International movies where you see subtitles but like it's Spanish or whatever other language we doing anything like that to really you know highlight the diversity in our district yeah I know that in the the presol they do a wonderful job of immersing multiple languages into you know their programming in their classrooms and I've already spoken with ourl teachers who did attend Multicultural that want to expand it to our grade level so IED up with you this year um because they they want to expand that a little bit so we're looking forward to it I have a couple questions sure um how many El students are usually in one class um we've never had this many before but we did distribute them among several H rooms just so that they are able to receive the level of support that they need I think that our Max is maybe six in the most but I have those numbers in front I can certainly get back to you and then do we offer PD like I can't imagine if if I was in like teaching a classroom and I had a student that did not understand what I was saying potentially yes so any teacher in the past who was um a a Home Room teacher that had multilingual students in their class and we did provide them with the shelter English instruction which is actually through stt they do a wonderful job we're bringing them in again this year also offers a 350 hour program that a lot of the teachers have elected to do um and we have we try our best to find time for the ESL teachers to collaborate and support the classroom teachers and meeting the needs of those students as well because they are individual basis especially with the diversity in languages that we I don't think I even knew that castillan was uh formal Spanish before looking at your slide so I learned something here too and then what are the chances the state might give us some money to make our program fing so I'm not going to pretend that I understand their formulas for funding at all orever however because of numbers have increased so much this school year I am fingers crossed hoping that we do see increas in that title for funding for next year I don't want to make any promises but I'm hoping okay I'll anyone else have any questions thank you very much looking at just one thing looking at your frequency report the number that jumped out to me was entering 15 for reading and I guess close to that is literacy and Inc comprehension is there anything we can do to help or is that just basically the age anyway yeah so the entering like I said 40% of our students are new new to the country they're newcomers this year so it's expected that they're not ready to read the language and when you help at the Continuum of language acquisition speech just comes before the ability to read if you think about our our children who are speaking English any language they learn to talk before they learn to read so it's just a process that um they're just not going to so we'll get them there thank you I think it's hard too because like I've had a student that from another country and just translating the word in their mind like they can read it in English but their first instinct is their native language and then trying it just takes additional time to process things because of it yeah absolutely and there's so many different apps and tools and and you know technology is wonderful it actually hinders the because you got to get theming you're all right moving on to action items number 13A um recommend a motion to approve Finance items a through G can I have a motion motion can I have a second are there any questions um can I have a roll call vote Please Mr phell yes M Martin yes Mr Barry yes M zesn yes M Lawrence yes Dr Snider yes motion carries okay recommend a motion to approve facility items a can I have a motion motion can I have a second are there any questions I just like to point out that uh P was going to be busy this year and they always put on really great events the Cupcake Wars looks especially interesting um seeing as there's no questions have a roll call vote Mr phello yes Miss La yes Mr Barry yes M zesn yes M Lawrence yes Dr SN yes motion carries okay recommend a motion to approve School business administrators nonpersonal items a through G can I have a motion can I have a second sorry thank you any questions so I know I asked about this school store fundraiser so all that money just goes to teachers so they can just stock their rooms right with whatever they want is that how that works and that's comes in from anyone right they can send out the link I think and people can just donate um I know a fundraiser some things that can be done also to First teachers um they do like school wish lists in July like on Amazon Prime day um like Christmas in July and then there's some things you do that too we um especially moving forward during these bunch of times um any other [Music] questions I do really feel very strongly about F about working with the town maybe Chris and I could have a meeting with someone with the township Council to try and help us fund our cops and schools going forward I think sure go for it I mean I'm very happy with um the PD and everything that they've done but I think that that's our next to try to to help I think they did come in with a reduced uh offer to us right they they are but I'm just saying I think that maybe we can see if they will contribute right to our efforts so the police department contributed we're contributing it's a community effort so i' like to any other questions all right if not can we have a roll call vote Mr phell yes M Martin um yes but I need to abstain from F Mr Barry yes Les yes M Lawrence yes Dr SNY yes but I have to abstain from D motion carries all motions Carri um okay recommend a motion to approve personal items a through J can I have a motion I have a second second are there any questions I don't have a question but I just um and I'll say this again at the October meeting when she does retire um one of our retirements is a as a staple in this district and I wish her all the best but she is probably one of the best teachers to ever walk through little like haror so I want to thank her for her 25 years of service um Miss Pam M and I'll have more to say in October so to make that comment yeah I I concur with you Abby I my grandkids have had her and uh she is awesome and it is sad to see her going sure these other people are I don't know them personally Miss Mason is that's really sad that she's leaving Miss Jan was my son's par two years ago and she was uh excellent very uh Stern but empathetic when she need to be and we definitely progress the L that year [Music] not have a roll call vote Mr Philo yes M Martin yes Mr Barry yes M zno yes M Lawrence yes Dr Snider yes motion passes recommend a motion to approve the superintendent of school's non-personnel items I um I through 11 my numerals have a motion I have a second second are there any questions question good okay um rollot Mr phell yes Miss Martin yes Mr Barry yes M alar yes M Lawrence yes sorry Dr SN yes motion carries um I do not believe there is any new business at this time um moving on to public comment the floor is now open to members of the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues the board requests that each statement made by parp is limited to 3 minutes is cited in policy number 0167 there is a signning sheet located on the podium please sign in before you speak would anyone like to speak sure okay seeing as there's no one moving on to board [Music] Forum you guys always look at me first right so um couple things I'm excited that officer Brian and he is still be with us um part of the Topson school you know my kids we're going to be going into Frog Pond this year my oldest so I me officer no more but with officer Brian you know every time we see him he's uh has a smile on his face and we always say goodbye to him when he's waving the uh cars and being doing the traffic stop so you know the police officers are number one here for safety but I think the kids are really going to remember them for their outgoing personalities and how much a caring adult someone in Authority uh it goes a long way when they're older you know they look back and they remember the police officer that was in their school and then you know later on they appreciate it so I'm glad that we continue to have cops in the school um one resignation I did Overlook when I turned on the next page was Jessica Riki just wanted to congratulate her and thank her for her service uh it used to be Jessica Miller back in high school I think we've known each other since kindergarten and uh she was one of our best teachers that we've had she was here almost two decades and I just want to wish her well in the future and uh speaking of great teachers two great teachers visited our house today Mrs Bert and Mrs Lanie part of the eccc's program where they go to uh students houses and meet the parents and kind of make it an easy transition into prek I think it's a great program if there's anything that we can do to you know expand it some day it's really cool to see the teachers beforehand I remember two years ago when my other son uh just started ECC and we were really nervous you know about the the whole process and when the teachers came and introduced themselves and just said you know what can we do to help make this a better experience you know right off the bat we were at ease our son was at ease and I just think it's a great way to transition into school because you're always nervous about what's your teacher like you know are they going to am I going to have what it takes and just just them coming to the house for 30 minutes that's it we still talk about it 3 years later that they came and visited us for 3 years so um I think that's a great program and I congratulate you for getting that Grant and continuing that I'm also part of the little Lake Harbor cpad group uh special education parent advisory group and we're having our next meeting on uh August 28th at 1 pm the district did send out an email with the zoom link but if you want to know about the upcoming special education program Kelly I think you're going to be speaking so thank you for that if you have any questions about what the little what the upcoming special education program is going to look like for your child she's going to uh lay out and take some questions so that's uh August 28th at 1 p.m. and that's all I have so thank you actually I now I have a question sure um and you don't know the this answer but in regard to the new special program have we gone through like mock scheduling it do the teachers know what it's going to look like do we have okay that's good good news cuz I know it's new and you know they need that communication and prep time and I know you know our IC kids are going to be spread out and that's a whole shift so okay um happy uh back to school soon two more weeks enjoy the last two weeks oh good okay um yes I just want to say um you know Abby as she's saying enjy the last two weeks I know I'm getting my syi ready all that good stuff so I don't know it's the last two weeks of relaxing or getting everything ready um so but I know that the students do look forward to coming back as well and I know this year is going to be you know last year I said change uh with the buses and the different uh special uh social education curriculum um but we believe in all of you we appreciate you and so we know that this is going to be good changes um our next meeting is going to be September the 17th at 6: PM for executive 7 P.M for public and again I look forward to seeing everybody um back and hear all about all of the great things um can I have a motion to adjourn I have a second second all in favor I any objections all right see you everyone again on September