a [Music] [Applause] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome everybody um thank you guys for coming out tonight um we really appreciate it and we're excited to recognize and honor so many of you I'd like to call the June 3rd um 202024 Long Hill Township Board of Education meeting to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting of the Long Hill Township Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows notice was sent to the echo Sentinel and daily record on September 18th 2023 revised notice was sent to the echo Sentinel and daily record on March 22nd 2024 notices were posted on the bulletin board in the first floor entrance hall of the School District administration building Gillette New Jersey notices were filed with the Township Clerk and notices were mailed to all persons who have requested individ individual notice pursuing to the open public meetings act roll call please Mrs Butler here Mrs Dy here Mr Foster here Mr Groff here Dr Mah here Mrs mclennon here M Nyquist here miss ruelo Mrs case here we are going to start with presentations and I will turn it over to Mr Alexis thank you Mrs casee uh before turning it over to Mr Vell I just want to congratulate our student athletes and our coaches on outstanding SE Seasons we are so proud of you and we thank you for coming here on a Monday night in June to be recognized to our student athletes whether you realize it or not you derive such important benefits from competing on a team you develop deep bonds with your teammates that often carry into adulthood and you learn that successful teams Embrace everyone's contributions your teams did that this year so believe me when I tell you you remember this season for a long time congratulations on your Collective accomplishments this year I'm going to turn it over to Mr Vella to hand out some certificates and call you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] up okay good evening everyone thank you so much for those for those words and uh thank you to the board also for giving us the time tonight want to welcome the students their coaches and all of the parents both of you had a tremendous season so many different ups and downs you have between balancing academics and also any sports season there's always highs and lows but the girls were undefeated congratulations to them and they won the league championship and the boys were as oh as close as you can get to perfect they only had one loss so congratulations on a tremendous season as well and also winning the championship so we have certificates for every student we're also going to be updating the banners that are in the main gym we have a plaque on the way and also t-shirts ordered for all the students to congratulate them so when we call your name we're going to start with baseball I believe first so when we call your name please just come up and we'll we'll get a picture at the end Michael Anthony you can just go to the end there yeah Dylan Braverman conratulations Joseph [Applause] seramy Kyler [Applause] Diaz Timothy Hansen [Applause] not Jordan [Music] [Applause] hotra Mason hotra you Dylan Hurley Patrick Kerwin [Applause] Gavin [Applause] Maharaj Michael [Applause] Martinez towns o' Conor Lucas Sheen Brady [Music] Simo and Coach Tim [Music] Simo congratulations what why don't we if parents want to take pictures we could take a minute Mr Alexis do you want to why don't you go and getting pictures to yeah Mr Vell maybe you too and Mr yeah I want to take a picture play go ahead no you want all right I'm being yes yes [Music] do the shuffle how going to get it so yay congratul congratulations [Applause] again congrats again coach thanks man appreciate it okay and now for the girls softball team Paige [Applause] Anthony Ora [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Butler Ellie Clark mateline faly [Music] [Applause] Annabella [Music] gamron conratulations Riley H Riley [Applause] Hall congratulations AA Eva m conratulations Micah [Applause] pitof Angelina [Music] stroer Lea [Music] [Applause] saris dearra Vander Street [Applause] Ariel vvar Katherine wanam [Applause] [Music] [Applause] maker Bella Wiggins and Coach Peter [Applause] hawm take a minute so parents can do pictures see you hiding George great idea oh yeah I can't [Applause] believe yeah I was just going to say if any of the coaches want to say a few words yep okay just because it's pretty much unprecedent what these girls have done this year uh Central Middle School softball program has been successful for many years uh this season recorded another undefeated season winning 13 games over the past three years our team has been able to win the Central Jersey athletic Associates regular season championships and also reach the Central Jersey athletic association's tournament championship game we've won it all three years all three the the years we've been crowned Champions two eighth graders Micah pritz and dear dander Street have played for our team for all three of those years and they've been part of an unprecedented winning streak of 33 straight victories over those three years these girls have amassed a record of 35 wins with only one loss which is pretty [Applause] awesome our success this year and over the past many years is directly related to their hard work and of of course the family's dedication all right to the players and families I thank them very much it's been an honor to be their coach and I hope to be their coach for many many more years so guys thank you so much for all your great work this year thank you guys appreciate [Applause] it thank you guys appreciate okay does Mr Simon want to say a few [Applause] words I didn't know we were given speeches so thanks coach um this is only my second year as the head coach here at uh Central Middle School uh both years we made it to the final um maybe not as good as the girls cuz we didn't win it three years in a row so um but certainly uh a great group of guys uh came to work and and you know worked hard all year um you know Middle School sometimes is tough uh you know mixing sixth seventh and eighth graders but certainly uh an outstanding group to coach and feel fortunate to be you know in this District not only as a teacher but uh as their coach so uh you know huge congratulations to them they won the last uh the championship game 10 nothing they mercied Valley View which is kind of a neighboring rival so sure we had two eighth graders as well Brady and uh Lucas uh who were on the team as a sixth grader so they've played in three Championship Games as well so uh just an outstanding group and again thank you everybody for this time thank you [Applause] um as Mr Alexa said we're we're very proud of all of you and all the work that you guys have put in and the coaches time and energy and I have to put my parent hat on and say to the parents too who spending a lot of time and energy uh shuffling kids around and being fans so um you guys continue to make us proud and you know there's a very special thing about being a student athlete so really take that with you learn from your coaches um and these are memories you'll never forget so [Music] congratulations from the field to the classroom we have some more Champions here today and we are going to move to the Long Hill Township faculty and staff Milestone of service everybody's important but we do have um 30 years of service 25 years of service and 20 years so I'm going to turn it over to Mr Alexis sure and I'm going to turn it over to the principles and why don't we start um why don't we start with Mr Bell uh since you're on a roll here and we'll go in descending order okay is this I I think he I think he turned it off where the batteries died which because they always do that was [Applause] it okay so now we transition as they shared to the classroom so we want to thank the following staff members we're going to start with five years of service thank you so much for all that you do not only in the classroom every day but everything for the community the Small Things Middle School encompasses so much so thank you so much for your dedication to the students our building and the community and all all the ins and outs that you do every day so we're going to start with five years of service Karen betet I don't think she's Elise [Music] [Applause] brandino Valerie caras and gin Russo [Applause] thank you [Applause] so for 10 years of service at Central Middle School Carissa [Applause] Felix Elise orip [Music] palski and that's it for 10 years for 15 years of service at Central Middle School Linda sepy [Applause] congratulations thank you so much and one retiree this year who is midyear Patty Paul but she was unable to be with us [Applause] tonight okay NE next is Mrs Dawson from Millington school thank you good evening everyone um yeah like as Mr Vella said you know it is um really nice to recognize the teachers for all their hard work congratulations to all our student athletes tonight so for five years of service at Millington school second grade teacher Dana KY third grade teacher Britney Lee one of our Paras Ruth Hines [Music] hollit fourth grade teacher Kayla Ramirez and special education teacher Marsha Riley with 10 years of service one of our Paras Gretchen a 20 years of service Patrick Golab the steam teacher and second grade teacher Jennifer trarco [Applause] 25 years of service our art teacher Wendy [Applause] Cohen and this one's hard to believe but 30 years of service our reading specialist Danielle manura [Applause] [Music] okay next we'll invite Dr Jones up to the front oh you yeah I'm going this way thank you um I don't know good evening again to meor Mrs Dawson and Mr verell thank you very much for everything you do especially at Jette school where students are just learning to love to learn and read and write and everything so um we um we really help them grow so congratulations to five years of service Marcela Garcia prus Sharon Love It Denise [Music] [Applause] massel 10 years of service Jenny [Applause] Clark and 20 years Beth ner one second and yeah so thank you to all our teachers and staff uh and congratulations on these service Milestones uh it's not much different than being a student athlete really when you think about it because you are part of a team and it's everyone's contributions that make a difference to the success of our school and to our students so thank you and we also have um a retiree this evening and before I turn it back to Lori to present EXC Mary Jean that can I recognize Adele oh yeah how did that yes please please go ahead Robin I'm sorry okay I would like to take a moment to honor Adele um who's an invaluable member of the business office staff as the assistant to the business administrator Adele has consistently demonstrated an exceptional level of detail and professionalism in all her endeavors making her an indispensable asset within the business office into our district Adele is a true team player she's always kind helpful focused on the best interests of our students and our community her ability to bring Clarity to even the most nebulous of situations showcases her remarkable skill and dedication she has made every single day that I've worked with her a pleasure and I'm honored to call her my friend [Applause] I'm your service very nice I think that's everyone right okay we're good good congratulations Adele sorry about that um before I turn it back to Dr Jones to honor our retiree I just want to say a few words about Mary Jean snow last summer Mary Jean was one of the first staff members to take me up on my invitation to stop by the board office so I could get to know the staff in person in my first month I remember two things about that informal meeting one that Mary Jean is an Avid Reader we had a lively conversation and exchange book recommendations two that Mary Jean was incredibly passionate about teaching kindergarteners it was clear from the way she spoke about the kidss Curiosity and natural desire to learn since our conversation last summer I have had only the most positive interactions with Mary Jean and I want to be one of the first people to congratulate her on her retirement and offer best wishes for long summer days filled with an even longer reading [Applause] list and Dr Jones has a gift for you and a few words to say she's known you much longer than I have okay Miss Snow I'm actually saving my very long speech for her retirement party this week but I will share two very special things um from Miss Snow that she and I have a lot in common as also a former kindergarten teacher um Miss Snow uh this is one retirement that wow I've been through so many already that actually had me tears when she told me and I pretended not to receive her letter on my desk and pretended to throw it in the garbage and say no you're not leaving um Mrs snow is a is an extremely highly requested teacher every year and I'm very sad to see her go but I have a lot more fun stories and I will not make her uh laugh or feel embarrassed or cry right now so we'll save that for Thursday night thank you here you go Miss Snow thank you so much [Applause] [Music] thank you thank you Mrs snow I I can imagine that most students um never forget their kindergarten teacher and for many of us it's our first experience with you know formal education so um thank you very much um we have one other presentation Millington School greenhouse and I know everybody's probably ansy to see when they have a break after this and and if once we do this then we'll have there's cookies if you guys want and then you guys could probably easily exit if you would like to but you can stay but you can say yes as everyone knows at Millington school we have a lot of space and we have two large Courtyards Mr nestler came on to the staff and soon after he started to say I'm going to take care of that one of them so he started um just a garden out there and through donations and grants we now have a greenhouse uh there's some raised flower beds and it it's all kind of entwined into the the curriculum so Mr nestler is here he does have some slides so I don't know if the board wants to come down we see see it up there okay perfect I haven't been here in a while okay here's Mr nestler thank you very much uh so thank you over the past couple of years we've been doing a lot out in The Gardens of the greenhouse uh by the way congratulations to both teams that's awesome um but we've been doing a lot out in the gardens um and alongside with the board the board's been very generous in providing and supporting us all along the way so I have a couple of students here and some of these students here that I didn't know we going to be here that have benefited from that so I we just want to give you a quick presentation on what's out there and some of our projects to come so first things first just a couple of the educational opportunities of having a Garden on uh the grounds we have some Hands-On education um a lot of our studies do go around with plants and decomposers and all those things um so it really uh benefits the students to get out there and actually see these things uh the sustainability practices which has become a part of the New Jersey standards over the past couple of years also adds a lot to that um both with composting and being able to grow your own food and then also the student ownership um from the developing picking and cultivating seeds all the way through to an end product which some of our students do get to sample while we're out in the garden so without further Ado I'll be turning it over oh do you guys want to introduce yourselves nope we don't want to introduce ourselves here we go starting in the fall students prepare garden beds so that they will be ready for planting in the spring seeds are hand selected by students and Sprout indoors under grow lights once the plants are strong enough they can be transported out to the Garden the Sun in Rain causes these sunflowers to gr really fast growing flowers is fun but the food is most exciting we have lettuce tomatoes peppers carrots and corn and St and many strawberries growing right now we love eating them our garden our Greenhouse allows us to extend the growing season and grow exotic plants that we that wouldn't normally survive here one of the new programs we've been began this year is growing Hydroponics plants are grown using no soil in the classroom we grew lettuce tomatoes and basil that some teachers turned into pesto sauce our com our compo composting program expanded as well we collect uh we collect scrape scraps from the lunchroom and mix in shredded notebook paper to create n Nutri was the word nutritious soil Crush thank you ladies very much for that um all right so and um with your continued support we hope to continue expanding these programs within the school so again thank you very much and thank you to the three Brave ladies that decideed to come up here in front of what they knew is going to be both baseball and softball teams so thank you very much girls thank well clearly the vegetables were critical to these children becoming as big as they are and winning these games so thank you guys um so I think we'll take like a 10-minute break and there's cookies I think in the back I can't really see but I think they're back there and then oh on the side okay and then we'll reconvene usually Robin Robin if you thought it was in vain your purchase the children this probably the first time e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] okay we are going to go um back into business our next item on the agenda is Communications I do not have any no nothing to report okay uh board committee and Le on reports um we'll start with Karen sure um from the Morris County Ed Services Commission we had a virtual meeting on May 8th excuse me uh one couple of things we did the CSA evaluation uh similar to what we're going to be completing ourselves also too was identified that they have a a less you know lowering enrollment so they're going to actually be reducing their staff by one and reducing their classes from 5 to 4 um only reducing one staff member because there are certain uh Services they that they still must provide to the students that are there so it's getting closer to the time when they're you have to consider closing the school um the next big thing is is that and I mentioned this before uh their reorganization by law is in J in June uh believe it or not one or two or three maybe districts in Morris County still have elections in April so it's conceivable that come June there could be a change in the board uh what they do for the reorganization is they have to be 15 member districts on the board and uh districts can submit that they want to be on the board or you know they can pass it up I put us down as wanting to remain on the board and I put my name in there this is one time when you know like I said in January they can also have a change of complexion so they get changed up twice just to let you know our next meeting is going to be the 12th which I will not be able to attend because I will be attending Township committee meeting when we present our budget okay um governance excuse me uh regarding the mission and vision guess it was identified and really reminded uh I think Katie reminded us that the Strategic plan is coming up process is due in the 20 you know in 2025 so after some discussion we said maybe it would be best if we wait if we go through that process and gan from the stakeholders and the input that's provided there as to what we should be looking to for our mission and vision let it grow out of what the stakeholders have to say so our timeline has changed a bit on that um with respect to the board planning calendar that's on the website um I I believe it is up now um it would be really beneficial if you could look it over um we kept some things that we had in our previous timeline picked up some things from uh the model that we use from the Livingston District but you might see things that we should add or change or whatever so that would be really helpful trying to keep it you know keep it up today as possible uh with respect to our Retreat which is coming up in July um which would all also go with our self-evaluation um where we're going to be giving out or sending out ahead some prep preparation work which is really to uh F you know get yourself ref familiarize yourself with the goals the strategies theity responsibilities because one of the things that came up is that you're going to be uh setting the committee is going to be setting their goals and we have to have an understanding of the difference between the goals that you set for that for the year and different from the normal resp responsibilities that you have as a committee we just want to make sure that that that distinction is is identified something that's going to be different is George is going to be providing the district goals so we really are only going to be working on board goals and it goes into the Committees in themselves and they develop their own goals uh in terms of I think I mentioned to you that uh Kim George and I are going to uh submitted a we're going to submit and have now have submitted a proposal for a presentation at the school board Conference in October the title is effective committees through good governance um I I believe the minutes went out you know from the meeting so that has a summary of of what we're going to cover um CSA evaluation I'm very happy to announce that we had 100% participation and uh we will be handling that as we move into the Next Room later um the thing about the uh the self- evaluation we're going to we lengthen the timeline we're giving you 3 weeks so ESS essentially you can go online tomorrow and you have until June 21st to complete the self evaluation so okay we previously it was two weeks but give you three weeks I know it's going wrong from one evaluation to another but I just just to clarify so it's the board evaluation so you're not evaluating just for new members yourself on the board you're evaluating the board in general and you as a member yourself as a member s sounds a little oh okay all right I all right yes the board is the self is the board yes okay um all right now with respect to finance I think I mentioned before they had an RFP out for the be uh the Aftercare before and after care they got five respondents one came in late and didn't really meet all the qualifications of the bid uh and it's actually being a Ed to alphab best um uh with this contract they will give us 10% of the new revenue and the minimum was raised from 30,000 a year to 33,000 a year you're going to see well a lot of the stuff that I'm going to mention is in resolutions on the agenda there were Professional Services rfps that went out sometimes we only got one respondent and sometimes we got two but the auditor we got one respondent the one we have there's a $5,000 increase in their charge there seemed to be a copious amount of new requirements that the state put on us in terms of identifying assets and all the information that are goes with them the architect we're keeping um parrat Su genen um the municipal dis and continued disclosure engine I don't actually don't what that is but it's Phoenix advisors Bond council is staying the same Le is staying the same health benefits Consultants we got two respondents exact same response so we're staying with BR and Brown Excuse me and Insurance Consultant is saying the same I apologize for this all can I I'm gonna turn it over yep to Robin okay Robin okay so um damn um update on update on the national school lunch program that uh I had spoken with Greenbrook and planfield to see if they could do a consolidation agreement we did not hear uh that Greenbrook was able to help us um planfield is working with mashos to possibly provide something um an RFP was also advertised for a competitive contract a competitive contract is with a food service vendor so these are two different types of options I'm sorry two different types of options that we have uh for our food service uh Frank and I also reviewed our facilities with the principals to determine what will be necessary for the program we need to find space for a refrigerator a warmer a milk storage area and a handwashing sink um and so we do go around to all the different schools to see just how to do that so we were well on our way the Consolidated agreement if you remember is that somebody another school district takes us over as like a satellite school we give everything to them therefore we make no profit on the program if we do the competitive contract we do all the work but we also keep some of the profit so we are going to find out toward the end of June um whether we have respondents to either and then we can make the best choice for our district that um moving on to subscription busing uh the applications went out for subscription busing um we're asking families to return them to us I Believe by July 1st that that uh we are also uh putting out there a waiver that if you really know that you are not going to be using subscription busing please sign the waiver you can always get back in but at least that way we know we have the seat this is the first year where subscription busing will not be guaranteed if you give us the your money we cannot guarantee just because we have so many children riding the bus that so that's why we're asking about the waivers is if if somebody else can use it and you know that you're not going to be using it please let us know um on the agenda tonight also is the joint Transportation agreement with WatchON Hills Regional High School as you remember we're still using going to be using dorm again uh the CPI which is consumer price index that we could go up to was 5.81% um but we told doram or negotiated with dorm that we would only do a 4% increase based upon this year's service um you're also going to see on the agenda um a whole bunch of yearly uh motions one is the right to know which is in um informs with I'm sorry rulio and Juliet is the company handling the right to know informing the our public employees about hazardous chemicals in the workplace poosha which is public employees occupational safety and health act to establish safety and health standards for the state and local employees and ahara which is as best as hazardous emergency response act which requires inspection of our all of our schools for uh hazardous materials we also improve uh approving some co-ops um this again is just annual co-ops that we use for tuition for busing um purchasing that you'll also see on there the annual transfer of surplus to reserves this is where we move funds from our yearend Surplus to our reserves the amount set there is a maximum okay okay we won't know the actual amount moving to the reserves until we do the audit so you always send a maximum higher than what you think you're going to have so that we have room to move it to wherever we feel is best suited to our needs uh you also see on the agenda the chapter 47 report this is an annual requirement to let the board know if any contracts that will be renewed expired um or will be new and lastly we put on there um the ARB Esser purchases and this really is just a bookkeeping thing you've approved most of these during the year we just want to be sure that should we ever be audited we don't want to have to go back and look through all the agendas to try to find what we spent so we just give you one listing at the end of the year saying this is everything that way if we're audited we can just know know that if we go to the June agenda it's there um and I think that's all we have oh no two other things um Jack has gone through technology items um you're going to see on the agenda that we are disposing a bunch of Technology items they are all obsolete we've checked with companies for best pricing um to get rid of them they will all be shredded there will be nothing that we have to worry about uh getting out there and lastly we wanted to let the finance committee know and the public that um we were able to help out the watcham school district they ended up short a bus driver um for some special ed education children uh they didn't have a sub and they asked if they could use our bus driver and so I made some quick calls to the state and found some somebody in Atlantic City who said you know what yep you can do it and so we were able to let our bus driver drive for them so it was just felt like a really nice thing between districts so I would be will to let you know about that too thank you great thank you any questions for Robin on finance okay we might have to come back to Karen I I don't know if she's done uh Crystal nothing to report thank you Danielle okay so um a few things uh we had our last Community Relations Committee the meeting was on May 21st and in attendance was myself Justin Foster um Tom Groff George Alexis and we spoke about um we spoke about our goals and responsibilities kind of going over what we're looking at it going into our upcoming um board retreat and knowing that at our next meeting we'll be we we'll have some homework and hopefully we can brainstorm and come up with some goals for the uh upcoming I guess school year um we also spoke about something which was really cool and exciting um contact we contacted local businesses in the library and coordinating with um us the school district and highlighting different things that our students might be doing whether it be artwork and whatnot so that's kind of in the works and this looks promising um we also well this is actually news so this is um this is pretty cool for the PTO um we would like to highlight that Laura McAvoy Who is the president for the PTO um she was um recognized and nominated received the Virginia Doran volunteer award award it's been sponsored by the Virginia Doran family for the past 14 years um as everyone mostly knows Laura has had countless hours volunteering for our district and she will be graduating so this is definitely celebrated and well deserved and I just wanted to highlight that um and finally I can give the PTO uh the June update so um as the school year is wrapping up PTO has a few events left on the calendar the fourth grade science fair the fifth grade picnic and sponsoring the eighth grade breakfast uh departmental student awards commemorative keychains and graduation reception also registration is ongoing for the 42nd annual Wang Hills Regional High School sending District Band Camp sponsored by the PTO and held at the Central Middle School from June 26th to July 20th um and also let me see here uh if there's any questions just contact contact the PTO if you need any more information lht PTO gmail.com that's basically it okay any questions for Danielle I know that we also just had Colonial day yeah which was a great experience I know the students really liked it I participated in it I thought it was like a seamless production it really was you could just step in and everything was really done for you which was nice um and I enjoyed working with the other parents and and the kids really uh got into it and then also um Millington had field day which I think also was big hit so very nice um Ann question I'm GNA come back to um so just uh briefly an update on the shared services uh regionalization feasibility study um there should be a link on our website to the Watchung Hills Regional High School page and from that link uh those who were not able to attend the May 20th uh virtual session that virtual session is uh posted and available for anyone interested in that information um the student achievement committee met on May 14th uh myself Kim case Katie mclennen uh Crystal Mah uh Dr Jones and Mr Alexis were in attendance um we discussed the media center position at Central uh we discussed uh some revisions to the cycle courses at Central I guess we started out with Central uh so the grade seven uh digital literacy and communication uh cycle courses uh personal hisory uh talking about maybe uh integrating some um some new projects that would involve you know letting the students do some personal research on topics that interest them and Project based learning uh also revisions to the eighth grade uh career and financial literacy cycle courses are in discussion uh for summer curriculum writing I believe I've reported this before but uh Elementary social studies is planning um to work on writing as is Ela grades K through five with revisions and updates and slight adjustments with the ELA Middle School um curriculum to make sure they're in alignment with some changes that are happening at wung Hills High School um The wung Hills Regional High School students visited uh Gillette we had very positive reports of that day uh they um had some observed and worked I guess in small group instruction time uh with the PE students I'll turn my page um the steam position at Central Middle School you'll notice is agenda items 47 and 48 on today's agenda uh again we discussed it meetings before and and spoke about here but just to bring it to your attention and while we're looking at the agenda items 56 and 57 we also discussed the comprehensive Equity plan which is a team of teachers uh who are meaning to discuss policies how those policies are are being implemented in District and then ideas for any updates to um school programs or activities uh that they feel you know may be uh time to be discussed or updated uh for the June committee meeting on the agenda though the agenda May grow um we will have some feedback from the summer in Institute parent survey um I think that's about enrollment uh the parent teacher conferences uh it's still an ongoing discussion uh just to make sure as we know we've had some changes over several years with parent teacher conferences so to look back at the way that they were conducted this year uh the administration is discussing that and looking at some data for us uh and then um we'll be looking forward to an update from the the three schools uh with the year ending uh just Reflections on um the progress from this school year so that was my report okay any questions for Ann no okay Tom nothing to report this time okay Justin nothing to report all righty Katie okay so um on um May 29th at 2 p.m the uh buildings and grounds committee uh met um myself U Mr Alexis Kim case Karen Nyquist Tom croff Robin buer Frank margatroid and Adele Valentine were in attendance um the Gillette fire alarm kickoff meeting and with the architect and the contractor um is going to start after school ends you had the meet you had the meeting had the meeting to kind of go over everything and it's going the the construction is going to start right after school ends the sooner we can do that the better um the Millington Library purchase orders were sent out um they needs to be a 12 um 12we lead time they're already boxing books and maintenance actually um is doing the demo as opposed to um it was originally budgeted for and contracted out and that saved approximately $8,000 or almost nine is that I think eight eight um of the aid that we're using so that's going to be able to be reused somewhere else and we always um like to see that um the rod grants um are moving along um I think you'll probably discuss that more um detail um let's see what else we have you know things are moving along with the school du the teachers are putting more and more things in through that and um it's going going faster um they actually the picnic the school picnics instead of having the teachers go through the system manually they're actually now doing it in the um in the system so more and more that's kind of being pushed uh you know pushed through and they're doing things the official way um and things are getting done more quickly um the HVAC um there were three duck list unit put into Millington for both Heating and Cooling and that was in the I believe the main office area um so that is working now um there's a new rooftop unit put in in the over the copy room and in Millington and the health office correct no I don't know okay it's okay remember okay sorry um and then at Gillette uh roof units were also put in over the admin area for and K and first and the allpurpose hall let's see so there's that there we've got the tree work um we're getting a quote U we're getting a dogwood from the tree shade committee um and we're looking into how to acknowledge that and I think that's oh the truck dump truck listing is going up and the central sewer sewers we're looking to get um a cabling uh piece of uh equipment so we can also not have to call that out all to the uh plumbing company um and that is all I have for that and then um The Long Hill Education Foundation um we have a new um I've mentioned this at previous meetings but now Jessica Walsh is is um officially no longer our um Force coordinator we have um Caroline taking that over um so we're currently over the summer kind of reaching out to different um fendors and kind of going over that we're hoping to kind of pull in some more exciting new and exciting um opportunities at all three schools um as well as maintaining some of the ones that are as popular as they've always been um we had our um Color Run on May 17th we raised uh a little over $3,000 which was really unexpected we didn't expect it to be as successful as it was it was a really wonderful day the kids had an absolute B blast getting absolutely filthy uh I think the parents that were throwing the um the color at people had more fun my husband was entirely taking buckets and just throwing them at people he was he had a really good time and and see them my silly Scotsman doing that was a lot of fun um and the teachers were wonderful and um we're definitely you know there were a lot of happy faces and um it's definitely something we will be doing again next year um we also have an event um save the date for uh November 1st um it's a Friday it'll be at the uh Embassy Suites in Berkeley Heights and it's going to be a mascarade Gala and there'll be fundraising there and it'll be a lot of fun and there'll be a lot more information about that again it's Friday um November 1st and I think that's everything so thank you oh and we are still accepting Grant requests so there's been a a request sent to all three schools and we're hoping to hear from everyone because we have some money that we'd like to spend so uh that was generously donated to us from our community so we're looking forward to hearing about that so that's everything for me okay so Katie for those Grant requests would they have to apply to the next school year they I mean I don't know um we have actually reached out to each of the schools correctly and said to you know we made suggestions and asked them to to directly apply to us um there's actually a a process on our website we've also reached out to the schools where um they can be done it they virtually can be applied for year round um we have two primary deadlines for the larger ticket items um I off the top of my head I dates but I want to say it's like October 15th and March 15th or might be February 15th and that way um there's time to kind of go through everything but they can also just at any time for the lower ticket items um there's a cut off and that's the instructions have been sent out and they're on our website but um the idea is uh that it's an ongoing thing and we have budgeted approximately for for this school year there was approximately I want to say $24,000 budgeted for the school year to be donated and so we have a little bit left over we want to make sure that it goes you know it's doesn't do anything sitting in our bank so we want to make sure that um it's for the right things and it's for things that are of value but it also um you know we raise it for the kids we don't raise it for for us so it's important for us to have make sure that it's it's um available for the schools to use the way they seek it okay any questions for Katie okie dokie uh superintendent report okay great I'll be brief because we have our administrative leadership team here to give a presentation uh let me just Echo some of the comments about the PTO I know there are still upcoming events but some of the ones uh like Colonial day medieval day Victorian day uh last month were just terrific the writer workshop and the Shakespeare residency and all of those um those sponsoring uh are much appreciate it and and congratulations to Laura makoy on her graduation um and also I saw how hard she worked this year and I know she's been doing this for a long long time so really appreciate her her help on the agenda we have the annual official hi grades that were received last month and posted on our website uh the last step in the annual process is to um have the board approve those official grades and they are on the agenda today uh we also have the ARP safe return to school plan which is required by federal law we made only minor revisions uh and this should be the last time that we have to do this uh two required resolutions for the submission of the three-year comprehensive Equity plan also appear on the agenda and just a reminder Robin and I will present the budget highlights at the township committee on J June 12th uh and now to the presentation I know that Jack has it already loaded and ready to go and so we're going to invite the administrative leadership team forward all right great and so we begin the presentation with just a look at our goals which are on our agenda each month and on the um you know all of our committee meeting agendas um you know the first one dealing with uh raising academic performance second one engaging School Community stakeholders the third one focuses on aligning instructional spaces to support Innovative teaching and learning and also includes cost-saving uh opportunities uh and then last goal four promoting an inclusive School community that honors The Voice and potential of all individuals um tonight you're going to hear from the leadership team about the ways we are moving uh okay about the ways we are moving towards these goals now we as you know we implemented I for this year and because that is a part of this first goal I just want to make a few comments about that because it's really allowed us to uh identify specific areas for student growth this year uh and to personalize learning for our students and as we begin internalizing this dat driven process we're placing more emphasis on using assessment to drive instruction it allows us to meet the students where they are and to help them grow in areas that may be challenging to them but let's remember too that these are diagnostic tests not summative assessments like the njsla um we're using them to collect data to promote learning and growing and with that I'll turn it over to Dr Jones to start and I'm really pleased that we have everyone here to do this in a in a you know with a team effort so thank you okay thank you Mr Alexis so I will continue with how we raise academic performance through our professional learning district in services and curriculum Mondays um we focused a lot this year on I ready as Mr Alexis said and small group instruction specifically at the K5 level and we are working on a plan to bring that up to the Middle School level as well for next year we budgeted again for conquer math for teachers for next school year any new staff that is hired any grade changes where teachers may need a refresher for a different grade level and year two from teachers who went to and participated in year one this year we continue to have plc's at all three schools focusing on District goals but also individual school goals and where the teachers feel that we need extra work on and extra collaboration when we have monthly meetings um for the K5 we focused a lot on conquer math well K8 conquer maath K5 Ela and then we had um middle school meetings um with the high school and sending districts about novels and updating our writing rubrics we partner with Wong Hills Regional High School again this year for learning walks Mr vello and I went to each subject area with the other sending districts and walked around to classes for uh with the supervisors and with um our colleagues and it was great we got to sit in on different classrooms see former students and just sit down and learn instead of reading their um programs and um program of studies and just being um there and talking to teachers and talking to other administrators in uh the throughout the whole District um as Mrs Butler said students came to Gillette school from Wong Hills Regional High School for about 4 weeks and um we're continuing this next year throughout the whole year it was great we saw a lot of familiar faces they started off coming in for small group instruction time so as the teachers were working with small groups during skill-based instruction some of the students took them and monitor them over centers or read them a story or help them read in their journals or help them with counting manipulatives for math so it was very teacher directed but um it was great and I think the students learned some days if we had an assembly or a special we had to rearrange the schedule they did go into PE and preschool and they loved it it's great so um we're looking forward to bringing that back to Gillette school for next year okay one:1 technology we achieved the one: one device ratio at Millington school this past March and we do have I believe a two-year plan right jack or two or or threeyear plan for um Gillette School with iPads we learned this year through I ready that iPads are much more user friendly for the young children so we will have 100 devices in September and then the following year we are budgeted to bring in the remainder that we will need so we're excited for that and we are still well we continued with our supplemental programs we started the after school tutoring program earlier this year one month earlier than in the past and we did send out invites to the summer Institute and as Mrs Butler said I will have the information um more about attendance for summer Institute at our meeting I believe next week for student achievement committee okay just to highlight some areas for Gillette again the watch Young Regional Hills High School students came and it was great um the director of curriculum there also came with them every week they came twice a week um Mrs um marel and failin so I would like to thank her because uh it's great she came in watched and observed we continue with our district um wide Benchmark writing assessment and rubric and this will follow the students in their folders from grade to grade so that the teachers can pick up and just see where the students left off from the year before so this was something the teachers enjoyed through um word of mouth and through us just having meetings our um reading Specialists met with them monthly and they enjoyed seeing the progress of the students with each of these um writing rubrics or writing assessments through the rubrics as Mr Alexis said we did um I met with the equity committee from January up until just recently we did go over every policy in the district we updated areas that we needed to update as far as how we teach and um are we being inclusive are all students being provided an opportunity to learn before school after school and um at the next admin meeting at the end of this month I will share with the group some changes that we are suggesting and see how we can Implement that for going forward for next year um our students went on field trips we continued to participate with Mrs Hartman through the g&t Consortium activities with both Gillette and Millington school we had reading buddies for preschool through grade one that was really fun read Across America we participated in a one-day event in the gym it was beach theme we had the famous surfboard that I think is still in central office and um it was great the students read to each other and they asked each other questions and they interacted really well it was a it was a wonderful collaborative activity that Mrs manura put together so um we'll definitely continue with this with different themes going forward um our guidance councelor ran tiger team assemblies that were based on our social emotional learning program and um character education pillars and we had great cultural Arts assemblies this year we are looking in we well we had the first grade dance uh residency which was great we are in year four or five of that and um next year we are bringing in a kindergarten one but not not to take away from first grade so we're working on something that kindergarteners will also be able to participate in and have a memoral experience from Gillette school without taking away from the other grade level um to continue with Gillette on how we engage school and Community stakeholders did you have a question just one question yes students that come to jillette school are they how are they selected do they say they want to be teachers is that why yes yes so the students that came from Wong Hills High School were in I don't remember the name of it now it was the former teacher program and um they had to get permission slips they were trained when they came in um I sat with them trained them very little to um just to take the guide leadership from the teachers but they are future they're going to be future teachers and it was worked out on their schedule so um they were able to stay longer instead of just a 45 minute period they were able to stay through their lunch period I believe so some of them stay longer which was great sure Communications and engagement we um obviously participate in the new website um our communication is still in process with different venues of communicating through um Twitter weekly eblasts um Family calendars we still have the Translating Services between um all three schools for various meetings that we have um we partici we translate with Google Classroom as well on the website multiple languages we collaborate with the PTO and the lhf and um the police department who actually um helped us with our evacuation drill and uh all of our other drills that we seek assistance from parent volunteers are very involved in Gillette through read Across America food day Library uh they come in and they help students check out books we have mystery readers the holiday shop the book fair our dance residency PTO grade level events field day and also family reading night okay I'll turn it over to Mrs Dawson uh for raising academic performance at Millington School uh just like Dr Jones said we did district-wide Benchmark writing assessment in rubric um framing your thoughts writing that um Mrs manura and her team uh trained all the teachers K through five right in August when we returned for professional development um to implement the program with a focus on writing strategies and then we she and the team led monthly PLC to address the literacy needs and make sure the teachers were comfortable with um implementing those strategies in the classroom we were to S send three teachers from Millington to conquer math it's a series of math workshops about six different sessions throughout the year um and these teachers had not gone so they came back and led monthly plc's turn key key information our we had updated our our math uh book since we had last sent teachers by the pandemic so it was good to have them come back and look at where our curriculum mapping was um in preparation for njs SLA as well so they brought not just learning strategies back but they brought so many resources to share with their colleagues um and then the other PLC we had was addressing the opportunity Gap uh giving teachers information to better support students of all backgrounds in school as the community has become a little bit more diverse um even some economic challenges just giving teachers information to have as just as their planning lessons or working with students to support them in their classrooms um and then we I looked at other learning opportunities outside the traditional classroom so Mrs Hartman was great to work with the students who uh on the activities for the Consortium for gifted and talented we had a couple I think three second grade classrooms where they adopt a cow from a farm and it's kind of their cow throughout the year the kids absolutely love it but there's so much learning that goes on with that um um I brought in the second and fourth grade reading buddies that's still going strong um various classrooms we talk about reading goals so stamina for reading there's stamina charts in the classroom but also some teachers have implemented like a challenge to their students in the number of books that they read read Across America dive into reading was a great event we have so many class trips our tiger team assemblies um it's a great time for the whole school to come together and really talk about um those character traits and the pillars as well as giving students some strategies uh for coping skills or deep breathing exercises just to help them in the classroom um we have the PTO fabulous with all the cultural arts assemblies and grade level events um International Day uh Colonial day we have the science fair environmental day so it's just great that so many parents can get involved with that uh Mr nestler was here today talking about the garden in the greenhouse he hosted a night under the stars and also the PTO sponsored the Rucker science bus uh Earth Day events were done at different grade levels I know second grade had a zoom call with a local um uh Gardener and they donated um I think they're located in Basking Ridge but I'm not 100% sure but donated seeds for each kid but they also talked about pollination and the growth cycle so that was a a neat thing for second grade um Mrs Cohen gets the students involved in the various art contests and has submitted artwork to art shows um we have a parent um Steven Witman is a fourth grader his mom is an architect and she got in touch with us that April was architecture month and she found something about lessons we just couldn't fit it in with the time but she's coming next week to do a lesson for the whole fourth grade so we've been collecting a lot of cardboard uh and then Bugsy um Mr Simo is fostering a puppy for the seeing eye and Bugsy has been in the school um getting trained around people so that has been a nice the kids absolutely love seeing him but they've understood the the expectations we have so we can train Bugsy the right way and then Communications and engagement um very similar to what Dr Jones said the new website's in progress um the Translating Services have been fabulous for us to work with families um whether it's through a phone call or translating uh letters or permission slips things such as that obviously our collaboration with the PTO and lhf uh the police department with the fifth grade dare program they're in the school a lot so we have a lot of a lot of uh connections with the police department for Veterans Day all the students draw make Valentine's that we bring over to the VA Hospital 9911 one of our big focuses in grades 2 through 4 is letters uh to the Local Heroes um and then we had the second grade did a food drive to the St V Vincent's food pantry uh we did had one of our assemblies was the seeing eye so there was a donation for them PTO has the coat drive and kids absolutely love bringing coats in and things from home to add into the bin um and then we have our our concert spring Coral concert and fifth grade evening of the Arts uh today we had the first graders visit the school and go on a tour as they were leaving they would wave goodbye saying see you next year I said well September we'll see in September um and then right before school starts we do the open house for all second grade students and new students and I think that's oh and just our volunteers um very similar to the the list from Gillette school all right thank you okay thank you so some of the highlights for Central under raising academic uh performance uh I want to speak a little bit more to this Dr Jones brought it up earlier how much staff development and collaboration with the high school and the other sending districts is important um working at the middle school we have primarily in each grade level one math teacher one social studies one science one social studies so I feel on the team that it's so important to get them outside of their classroom and when we're talking about academic performance standards is number one so what standards are they responsible for teaching and having make sure our teachers are very strong on them and understanding how other teachers also teach those standards in different ways too to pick up so that's just so important so we visited the high school with all those different content areas that are listed we're looking we're talking about instructional practices trends that we see in the standards trends that this that the teachers are seeing in their classroom so they're looking at student centered experiences all of those things that come along on that so not only is the learning but getting outside of your classroom and seeing other teachers do it that's why we field so valuable and additionally she spoke about the ELA curriculum planning so we've been reviewing that with the high school and the other sending districts and we're going to be updating that primarily so my we were pretty much aligned but there's going to be some some tweaks across pretty much all the all the different districts that we're looking at evaluation of novels per grade level and just reviewing the different curriculum strengths and areas of improvement next slide okay um also uh Consortium events not a lot of people know this but we host a variety of Consortium events and these are competitions against other local schools uh we hosted a chess tournament at Central Middle School this year a pro we participated in a problem solving competition a mathematics competition and rjb team placed first in the math relay answering 27 out of 30 questions correctly so kudos to them they did a great job spelling be we had first and second place winners in JV which was wonderful a general knowledge competition varsity team plays thirdd and a World Language Consortium where they uh engage in different uh World language activities so really good things that our students are and opportunities that they're able to sign up for and these take place again during the school day we bust the students to the Local Schools wherever the competition is being held um it's also our third year of implementation of the World Language uh the resources that we adopted Wayside 3 years ago so we're just continuing to expand and improve on that which we're really excited about next slide uh we also continued our gifted and talented programming opportunities which students can sign up for so our debate team uh held practice throughout the year they worked so hard we had two different teams um both we had two students place first and second and one team had a perfect score which at the University uh someone who oversees it because you have scores said they've never seen a perfect score in 30 years so kudos to that uh to that individual um we also hosted working collaboratively with the PTO so this is kind of in both uh camps that we're looking at raising academic awareness and with stakeholders we work very closely with the PTO in having three different resid programs that all focus on language arts sixth grade is an author's residency and writing Workshop it was three days 7th grade it's a public speaking workshop for two days and in eighth grade a Shakespeare interactive Workshop for 3 days which we selected because we want to prepare students because the high school in listening to their teachers they get they get kind of clobbered by Shakespeare and they're a little scared and hesitant so it makes it really fun and interactive and introduces it to them in a really engaging student like Hands-On way where they get to act in the class so I get to witness that uh Mr Alexis I think you stopped by to see that those as well too so really great opportunities um some other things this year which was uh new we introduced portrait of a promoe eighth grader which focused on raising the bar and having students reflect on the most important academic skills and attributes needed in in being prepared for high school in their future so it's a little reflection activity for our 8th grade students we also hosted the amc8 with which is a national math challenge it's open to everybody 25 students chose to compete in that national competition which we held right at Central School we hosted our own geography B our social studies teachers did uh sixth through 8th grade um all sixth through 8ighth grade students participated which was really wonderful and really fun event for the students um our robotics team also plays second and third in two different categories in the state finals which was really wonderful and we also we touched on this before we're looking at updating and revising our cycle courses in seventh and eth grade for next year looking at maybe infusing a little bit more language arts and some really engaging projects for them that they'd be interested in okay and engaging school and Community stakeholders our community service Club um which I think we said this is the third year that um that we've adopted that and one of our teachers brought it up because they thought we wanted to infuse more community service inter interactions with our students um supporting the senior center they worked very hard on that this year cooking and preparing meals for Long Hills First Responders they collected for both the 12 baskets food pantry and Market treat Mission they worked with uh the local Recreation Department in a spring uh I'm sorry Sterling lake uh cleanup um they did that with the environmental Club as well too and they also worked with the environmental Club they got some donated flowers and soil made planners for mother's day that they sold and all the proceeds went to the local Raptor trust which was really nice so it were did two things some Mother Day presents if anybody needed some extra flowers and they had a blast putting them together um also the partnership with wung hills which we've talked about the nth graders and the ninth and a few 10th visited us this was the first time our school counselor worked on this collaborating with them they visited and they held a transition event there's many transition events at watchong Hills host where all the students are invited but they brought some high school students to us and they broke up into small groups and covered a variety of different topics so stud our students in small groups meeting with a few of their students answering questions covering a variety of different topics really really uh we look to continue that next year and also the high school students were working with your building um this year we also hosted a Halloween night dance and costume competition fundraiser for our Theater Arts which was really nice the students had a blast at that um we also visited wung Hills for the holiday music festival during the day all of our eighth graders went serves as a great transition program and they also get a chance to see what the high school can showcase and different opportunities that they're that are available to them athletic competition we talked about uh that a lot tonight so we had a lot of Champions the basketball team girls and boys were undefeated and we know baseball softball track and field had a couple record Breakers this year as well too which was really wonderful um music we hosted our winter and spring concert our students also participated in a competition at Dorney Park and a trip which was wonderful they performed at the Myersville tree lighting and Holiday Festival they also participated in the nick Stevens uh music room dedication ceremony which was which was wonderful um I also want to thank uh they're also going to participate in the PTO thank you event which is coming up at Central Middle School this week and they also some students participate in an honors sending District ban so they practice throughout the year and then they held a concert at wung Hills uh this year which was really nice our Theater Arts production this year was Finding Nemo Jr so they also held a meet the cast event and they also performed a show specifically for our fifth grade students students as a transition event which was really nice um and then we have multiple transition events for the fifth graders who will be coming over um the Theater Arts play they saw they visited today Central Middle School so they got a little brief tour and information session and then we will also hold a full orientation in uh August for all of the incoming sixth graders uh we also work very closely with our student council which was wonderful this year um they they wanted to hold a pep rally so I worked with them and the other staff members so we held a pep rally and acknowledge athletic and Academic Teams at Central Middle School we also hosted a staff and student trivia contest and a staff first student volleyball game which they beat us again um we invited a holocaust Survivor as a guest speaker in seventh grade aligned with a curriculum which was very meaningful for the students we work very closely with the police department with which everybody else touched on before they also host specific drug awareness um and good decision-making um assemblies for our seventh and eighth grade students and we also had students participate in the fire prevention or contest I think at all schools and those students were recognized for their artistic pieces and their messages our eighth graders also participate in um we have the opportunity to honor them at the county level in two different Awards programs so there's the Morris County unsung hero award and the Morris County leadership award so Administration attends at night the recognized student who all of our staff vote on and their families attend and they're honored at those ceremonies on two different evenings and other collaboration with our PTO they host a holiday party for all of everyone in our school the staff and students which is wonderful we host medieval day in sixth grade Victorian day in seventh grade and they also support our Awards program so they honor students in uh every academic area including arts and cycles and and different specials for excellence and outstanding effort um that will be at our uh graduation ceremony for the eighth graders and those are the highlights sorry I tried to keep it uh to a minimum but there's a lot that happens at our school and are you thanks sorry sure no problem okay moving on to our I ready diagnostics for the Year this is just again a highlight of the content areas and the domains that students are tested on and it's a thre level placement it could be five levels as well I just summarize it to three on or above grade level is green yellow is one grade level below and then red is two or more grade levels below so what I did is I'm going to I have a summary for each uh school after this but um up here is the very first one in the fall that we took and then the one that we took at the end of our spring which was actually just the last two weeks um I'll leave it up here just for a second but I'm I'm going to talk about it again like I said but you can see um the one that is faded is the one that was from the fall the one that is um more colorful the triangle is the one that was just recent so this is Gillette School reading and then we have Gillette school math and again you can see the differences okay some highlights I'm sorry could we go back to the Gillette school math sure I can't see the numbers from here but it looks like more than half the the this sample is failing no that's so one or two next slide G to summarize it Dr Jones just give for one second time yeah because this is a little hard hard for me to see okay so some highlights for the Gillette summary in both at reading and math we had 52% growth from the fall through the spring with students on or above grade level in reading and 38% growth from the fall through the spring with students on or above grade level in math which is that green color our plan for next year just focusing on Gillette um we are going to introduce after school classes which we have not done for grades K And1 for ELA and math we are going to increase professional development in small group instruction for teachers in grades K And1 we are planning on revising the foundations curriculum specifically with exposure to short vs and long vs simultaneously as opposed to teaching them separately now because we're finding that um on some of the assessments like I ready and Dibbles and font sen penel the reading assessment it's better to teach them in unison as opposed to short vows and then months later long vows so so we're doing a little bit of revisions on that uh we will for the whole District some of this will be repeated with the other schools because there are some District initiatives but we will begin our multi-tiered system of support training with uh the district specifically in K1 just for purposes of this slide for Gillette and we're going to be focusing um well I won't I'll let Mrs cologne talk more about that but small group instruction and how this uh training embedded with the teachers will help us in some areas that you will see are still um we still need some work on we will continue with conquer math professional development excuse me you still don't answer my question Dr Jones can you just Tom let her finish this when he when you're done with this slide Dr Jones no because she's staying on the slide though when you're done with the slide just he can ask a question okay sure thank sure for conquer math We are continuing with professional development for newly hired teachers and teachers that need a refresher that are moving grade levels like I said before and then we are utilizing some data a little differently for our basic skills groups for next year so instead of starting in October we will be starting much sooner within the first month of school so let me go back to your question Mr Groff what was your you're asking was it math well the pyramid you have on the left the green what percentage is that the green on the left is 58% from 20% from the the beginning of the year I I appreciate the growth of 50 Something per as you said and I understand numbers so you're still saying that we're more than 40 some odd percent are one or two grades behind correct I I'm I'm glad to see that the work we have planned for next year hopefully will change that number but that's not good I don't think any parent would think that was good okay okay Millington School reading again it's the same format as Gillette on the left is current and the one that is faded is from the fall and I'm going to again summarize for each school this is math okay some highlights from specifically Millington 78% of the students on or above grade level as opposed to 52% in the beginning of the year for reading we had an increase in on or above grade level which is the Green in vocabulary and comprehension which I was happy to see that because those were the two targeted areas that we focused on for the after school classes this year 73% of the students were on or above grade level as opposed to 33 in the beginning of the year with math and 31% of an increase in one grade level below from the fall which I I think is is a pretty large percentage for you know below grade level and for math we did see an increase in those domains of geometry and numbers and operations which is what we focused on in the after school classes for math so some specifics for our plan for Millington next year and again like I said some are going to be similar increasing the professional development and small group instruction beginning the multi system of support training that I mentioned for Gillette is more of a district goal conquer math continu continuing professional development beginning after school classes in the fall targeting the areas from New Jersey student learning assessments when we receive that data comparing it with the I assessments as well and then again beginning basic skills instruction within the first month of school okay Central School reading Central School math and then some highlights and plans we did make some slight progress in each color for reading since the fall up until now we did make Improvement in vocabulary and comprehension which is what we focused on for Central as well with the after school classes progress was made in each College for math since the beginning of the year and again in those specific domains of number and operations and geometry for math for the after school classes what our plan is for next year is beginning the multi-tiered system of support training conquer math we're going to begin after school classes in the fall targeting New Jersey student learning assessment data ir and we've been hearing a little bit from the student achievement committee that um there should be a little bit more collaboration between grade five and six so we thought this would be a time to strengthen that a little bit more than we have so we are going to have grade five and six ELA teachers um collaborate monthly with our reading specialist Mrs manura and myself just to go over some specific areas targeted from New Jersey student learning assessments and targeted from the IR ready assessments and um starting in the very beginning of the year as well are there any questions about the assessments Dr do they have does I already provide benchmarking because what I don't what I want to kind of um protect against is an overreaction because I think it's hard for us to look at that data and not understand where we stand against other districts but so does I ready give benchmarking and will that help contextualize the numbers a little bit more um I'm not sure but I can look into that and definitely let the student achievement committee know thank you sure um also what we learned a little bit from I ready this year is how we administered it so we saw more growth in K through2 with specific areas and those are the assessments that they take besides the Dibbles and besides um font sen panel when you get up to the higher grades um that's something that we're working on for next year with how we're spacing out I with the New Jersey student learning assessments um is it too close at the end of the year are students you know quote unquote tired of testing um are they taking it seriously so there's a lot that we learned this year and I think there's a lot more to learn going forward and um I think it's a work in progress so um that's definitely something that we talked about and that we continue to talk about for going forward uh I did put together that I'll be sending out to the teachers in August with feedback from the administrative team a u manual for I ready on not really so much how to prepare your students but reminding them slow down you know did I have a lot of emails that certain students rushed not many but um when you take the diagnostic if you rush through it or um just let's just say purposes of rushing through it it doesn't change change in the data here presented to everybody but when we reassign a diagnostic so that the teachers are able to see the true measure that re readjusts their my path so it's still beneficial for the student and the teacher but not really for presentation purposes um we are reminding parents in the manual not to complete the diagnostic at home which we found were happening more in the younger grade levels so it's really not about um an impressing it's about individual growth for the students and then how to take that growth and how the teachers can take that growth and then make instruction stronger in the classroom so there's definitely ways for us to learn going forward that I know we are committed to doing for the next school year can I make a suggestion sure um and again I want to be very respectful of everyone you know I'm on the board and I'm a parent and but just a suggestion I really don't think parents in the community are sold on this I don't think you know I hear parents are like oh they're just doing stuff on on ir and I'm always like no but I is great and I it's a really useful tool I don't think the district has done a good job of selling it to parents and I think we will get more information out of it we'll get more value from it if the parents are really sold on it because there's so much that they can we can get from it but I mean I know so many parents and I'm trying to sell them on things and they're like it's just putting them in front of a screen and so you know I I request and I implore you to really find ways to engage parents because it is a valuable tool and I I see the value in it I just don't think if the community isn't behind it you're you're it's just not going to be as useful as it really is so okay that's my suggestion okay thank you that's a good point I wanted to ask uh Mr Alexis am I right to say there's benchmarking because don't we get to see us as compared to the national average yeah but we have to wait for that data because they're collecting it now since the end of the year assessments were given so it is something we can look at over the summer when it becomes available it's never going to be as specific as we'd like where we can look at certain districts in our area that are using it but it would be more of a either a state level review or a National Review but we we can absolutely take when that data becomes available we can we can compare it okay and then my other question is Dr J are they gonna are you gonna use I ready for the summer Institute or is there any is there any capability to use it for that um we can we we're still discussing that it it's probably going to be a mix of I ready and um more individual instruction teaching whereas the after school classes were um I ready and then small group um this will be a bit more of a mix and then you guys just did the third assessment right yes so did parents get any notice about that I I may have so I'm asking might might have been an email or are people I guess are we seeing if people are checking it or I don't know who's checking it but communication went out and then before it's uploaded in Genesis we still have some students not many but some students across each grade level each subject that have not finished yet so I'm closing it out the end of tomorrow and then um Jack and I will work on I'm going to send a letter out summarizing and then it'll be posted in the portal again got it okay so just one thing Dr Jones um I I just want to say thank you um that I know that when we look at Diagnostic and growth data it's really hard to make um determinations about like where we are performance right it's not in jsla um but I'm really happy to see that um you and Mr alxis have been working so hard to increase the data literacy of our staff I think that that's something that um in a lot of places is a big lift for teachers and to do it meaningfully um I'm really happy to hear that um we're moving forward with the mtss and the tiers of support I think that's going to further their understanding of I and of the data and how to use it to drive instruction and um I'm excited to see the trajectory of what comes out of this I think that the year that we're in with I is a really difficult place to be um where we're learning the system and um and I've seen it happened before but um I I I just want to say that I think that the long-term plan moving forward is going to do really great things for our kids so yeah great thank you I agree yeah thank you so much of course okay raising academic performance for interventions for students so we had teachers reviewing the data for I ready Dibbles um font sen panel levels there's a lot of information heg fonics for the younger students so the teachers continue to review the data and then we're making some planning for next year as I said we are incre where we're um moving up the times or the the a whole month of basic skills instruction because we're taking a look at data now as opposed to taking some time to do it in the beginning of the year so that is happening um teachers in grades K through three are comparing the I ready and the Dibbles assessments to look for commonalities and we are going to be working on some curriculum mapping as I stated before with uh foundations with some of the vowels and I know we did do that in second grade as well um we started after school classes sooner this year based on the fall Diagnostic and then I will have the um information from the summer Institute interest survey to share with the student achievement committee for next week okay this is me too okay okay align instructional spaces to support Innovative teaching and learning so for this school year we renovated the central steam room it looks beautiful we've had some meetings in there it's a a great space um we renovated room 10 uh at Gillette which is Mrs Clark's room it's a brand new room with everything uh floor everything it's just a gorgeous room we um replaced the flooring which was unexpected but very appreciated of the media center for Gillette and um we have a plan for the layout and some furniture in Millington Media Center if there is money left over possibly going over to the Gillette Media Center um but we're not sure if that will happen yet right now we're just loving the floor so um and we do have plans for renovation for the technology room at Central for the next school year the Millington Media Center layout and Furniture is on schedule for this summer technology room is to be transformed into a new instructional space at Central we have a steam teacher on the agenda this evening I believe and Equipment being purchased this summer for that program prog that we're extremely excited about and um our one to1 technology plan has been updated for all three schools okay I will turn it over to Mrs cologne sure hello um so I'm we've been the sorry the District administration has been working with the board office um to identify some additional cost-saving um opportunities so starting last school year we had one tuition paying student from Greenbrook um he returned for this school year and in December we took on a second student into our preschool program from Somerset Hills who is planning to stay with us um for the summer and into next school year our student from Greenbrook is unfortunately returning to Greenbrook in September um he will be with us through esy and starting on June 26th which is the first day of esy we have a second student from Somerset Hill entering our preschool disabled program which we're really excited about we've worked extensively this year on some new shared services the big one is combining our esy programs with Wong burough School District um tomorrow night is our kickoff parent meeting um the two districts will both be holding a joint esy program at Millington school this summer um tomorrow night like I said is our parent interest um our parent orientation and on June 25th on the day before we start we actually having a staff orientation um where at 12:00 we are um inviting all of the students in to come meet their teachers the Paris and also visit the classrooms we do have some magic to make happen between now and the first day of Vy because we do have to transform second grade classrooms into preschool settings so we're working on that I just had um another meeting this evening with the watchong burough director special services so we're really excited we're hoping by late June early July we should have some ideas of financially the benefits of it um we're not quite there yet because we are waiting on some confirmations from students that um have not confirmed that they're attending and joining us this summer we've also worked with um the Central Middle School and the Chinese language um program at Hudson Way emersion school on some shared opportunities both during the school day and after school um for I believe for next year um we have been working on this year promote promoting an inclusive School Community we have definitely worked on um assuring that as many students as possible are academically socially and emotionally included um in the special ed Department we are really trying to move as many students into inclusion to the greatest extent possible we realize that um all day every day is not necessarily the right setting for everybody but we are um finding opportunities to to the best of our ability to really make that happen also we did um celebrate autism awareness and acceptance month in April there's still some conversation as to what we're calling it but um we did celebrate that after spring break in April this year our elll teachers had um done some professional de development for our staff on English language development and our ml population which we were really excited about also with our multi lingual Learners um there have been very many monthly celebrations highlighting the different cultures um that are in the district um both in the classroom and with some outside activities within the school I'm going to hand over for the social emotional learning portion of this to Melissa backer thank you um so we have a very robust social emotional learning program throughout the entire District we have our Choose Love program that we've been using for quite a few years which entails activities and different lessons and activities throughout the different buildings we have our C through education lessons our tiger team assemblies at Gillette and Millington we have our school climate team meetings at all three buildings um and that has a parent representative for each um team so it's good to have their input um we also have our October initiatives every October where there are lessons and activities focusing on respecting ourselves our peers and our community and that includes our week of respect School violence awareness week which we have renamed peace and our schools week and Red Ribbon Week where we promote the healthy choices our students are making and then to further promote um an inclusive School community at the different schools at Central we had an assembly called my life online um and that focused on how we treat each other in person and online making good decisions and being the best versions of ourselves in person and behind the screen and of course protecting our anonymity and as Mr V mentioned earlier we invited a holocaust Survivor to come speak to our seventh grade students and at Millington school we had our fifth grade digital citizenship assembly where we promote kindness respect and inclusivity again on and offline and we had our scene dog assemblies um where students were learning about the life of a visually impaired the visually impaired community and of course got to meet the dogs that they love and that we have in our school currently and at Gillette school we had our dance residency which honored traditional dances from various cultures and at our family reading night we had stories that were read in various languages to reflect the different languages spoken in our students homes um further promoting our sense of cultural responsiveness okay thank you are there any questions does anybody have other questions right what does the school climate committee discuss I that's something new to me is it you want to talk about that Miss backer runs those so here you so the school climate committee um School climate team they're part of the Hib law so every school in New Jersey has to have a team and they meet two times a year minimally to discuss different Trends and what's going on in the school climate so they review Hib like patterns of behavior if necessary we are fortunate to have um very minimal um inance of that but that is what the climate committees are for okay the composition of that committee um so there's a parent representative myself as the Hib coordinator we have the principles of the school a teacher representative and our school counselor so it's a blend of everyone from the school thank you any other questions thanks okay all right thank you okay thank you thank you thank you thank you everyone moving um to the business administrator's report I have nothing else to report thank you all right all right comments from the public on any agenda items [Music] okay let's move uh to the to resolutions um Karen will you move in resolutions number one through three do we want to do we want to read maybe one of them or two of them in well if you're going to read you got to read all of them then retire what do you think should we read it in you you can go ahead and read it in no no no go ahead Karen yep where has the Long Hill Township Board of Education is proud of the outstanding Educators who serve the children of our community and the manner in which they support our core beliefs that education is a growth process by which people learn to think and act more effectively that we must provide a safe Pleasant environment of for learning that respect for the policies of a democratic government is desirable that students should acquire an understanding of and a respect for the Traditions customs and Heritage of the country that students should be encouraged to use leure time wisely that students should be taught that education in a broaden sense can become a lifelong Pursuit for everyone whereas the board wishes to acknowledge the service and dedication of Educators who have demonstrated continued exceptional delivery of instruction to our students and whereas the following individuals have had a lasting impact on the students Comm and community of long hill for five years service Karen betet at least see I shouldn't have done this because I'm going to kill the names just try your best Branda F feno Valerie caras caras thank you Dana kiry marchella Garcia Prest Ruth Hines holot BR Brittany Lee Sharon Love It Denise Midel massel Dana Palos Kayla R Ramirez Marsha Riley Gina Russo Adele Valentine excuse me for 10e service Gretchen a Jennifer Clark Kisa Felix Elise orski okay 15E service Linda sepy 20e service patri P gallab Elizabeth nuser Jennifer trarco 25 years service Wendy Cohen and 30e service Danielle manura okay Crystal why don't you move read the next one please whereas Patricia Paul um paw was uh employed from September 1st 2015 through September 29th 2023 as a school library media specialist at Central Middle School and whereas Patricia Paul exemplified expertise commitment and professionalism in her duties and now therefore be it resolved that the superintendent and the LGH Hill Township Board of Education recognized Patricia Paul's retirement effective September 30th 2023 and extend to her congratulations and best wishes for a happy healthy and enjoyable retirement Danielle can you do the next one sure whereas Mary Jean snow has been employed from September 1st 1995 through June 30th 2024 as a kindergarten and second grade teacher and whereas Mary jeene snow exemplified expertise commitment and professionalism in her duties and now therefore be it resolved that the superintendent in the Longhill Township Board of Education recognized Mary jeene Snow's retirement effective July 1st 2024 and extend to her congratulations and best wishes for a happy and healthy enjoyable retirement thank you okay so now Karen do you want to move minutes so moved resol wait resolutions you're moving in the resolutions we just read them yeah so so moved okay thank you second any questions roll call please Mrs Butler um yes Mrs daily yes Mr Foster yes Mr grof yes Dr Mah yes Mrs mclennen yes yes Miss Nyquist yes Miss case yes thank you um Crystal will you move in minutes number four so moved second any questions who just said that three thank you roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs Daly yes Mr Mr Foster yes Mr Groff yes Dr Mah yes mlon yes M Nyquist yes Mrs case yes um Danielle will you move in financials numbers 5 through 22 so moved second any questions roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs Daly yes Mr Foster yes Mr GRC yes Dr M yes Mrs mlan yes M nist yes Mrs case yes um Special Services Ann will you move in numbers 23 through 30 some moves second okay questions call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs daily yes Mr Foster yes Mr Groff yes Dr Mah yes Mrs mandon yes Miss Nyquist yes Mrs case yes um Tom will you move in Personnel numbers 34 through 51 so mooved second any questions I have questions go ahead on 34 and 35 uh talking about the business administrator board secretary it says going from full-time to 75 full-time employee where currently it's a shared services Arrangement and so it's really going from a 0.5 to 75 and also it talks about um in 35 um about continuing uh for the next year um this comes out as it's already resolved I think that this is a discussion that should be held by the board so so I move to table this or to have a discussion uh first thing we need to do is we need to find out if this position as stated is a fit for the superintendent I'm assuming that it is because otherwise it wouldn't have gone forward uh whether the workload requires 3ars of a person if it needs a whole person or a half person currently this year um okay wait Tom you're go moving into debate when you made a motion I'm making my point that's not we're not moving into debate until somebody seconds the motion and then we move into that so you have to wait a second so can we do part one part one does was part one number 34 does it have to say from full-time to 7 does that need to be adjusted or can you explain this is for a specific pos position control roster um that we have to keep in place and you know it's recorded and the data is reported to the state so that's all that that resolution is designed to address it's not addressing the previous shared services because in the last year this current year we had a full-time position in our position control roster but we had a shared services so we hadn't hired anyone to fill that position now that we're hiring someone to fill this position we have to tailor it to what the expectation will be for next year what the FTE the the employee uh ratio will be for next year okay so all right can I clarify that just so this isn't actually hiring a person this is just CL clarifying the role well number 34 it's just clarifying the position control Roster number 34 yes okay okay yeah okay um so number 35 so Tom made a motion to table this and door to discuss you can only make one or the other then I Mo to table it okay so he's motioning to table I'm going to ask for Mr Alexis to maybe weigh in on what that means for time the timeline yeah so so we have to have someone in place as a business administrator on July 1st and so we worked with the county superintendent to approve a contract after Robert and I worked out some details uh to make it fit for for our district for next year um and so that's what we've done and we the county superintendent was terrific and Expediting the process because normally it takes a few weeks uh she did it for us after we submitted it late last week and she has it approved and so that's why I recommended that we pass this so that we have it all in place for July 1st does anybody so Tom made a motion to table it does anybody want to Second Tom's motion I will remove my motion the motion is withdrawn okay so now we any other questions on Personnel okay uh roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs daily yes Mr Foster yes Mr grov yes M Dr Mah yes Mrs mclenon yes M nist yes and Mrs case yes Justin will you move in curriculum number 52 so move second any questions okay roll call please Mrs Butler yes M Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr brov yes Dr Mah yes Mrs mcclennon yes Miss Nyquist yes is this case yes okay other Katie we move in items numbers 53 to 57 so move second second with me okay any questions on other okay roll call please Butler yes Mrs daily yes Mr Foster yes yes Dr Mah yes Mrs mlon yes Mrs Nyquist yes and Mrs case yes okay thank you um any items for discussion unfinished business or new business I just have a question regarding our um buildings and grounds position you got to add a question to it Karen okay um of are we missing a I mean are we missing a resolution on here we're not okay sorry I apologize okay uh any other questions okay any comments from the public the tired public okay um and will you move us into executive session please yes the board will enter into a private executive session to discuss a harassment intimidation and bullying report matters of attorney client privilege and confidential legal and Personnel matters including the evaluation of the superintendent can I have second second all in favor I anybody against any abstain okay thank you