please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all adequate notice of the meeting of the Long Hill Township Board of Education was given as required by the open public meeting acts as follows notice was sent to the echo Sentinel and daily record on February 8th 24 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 individual notice pursuant to the open public meetings act roll call please Mrs Butler here Mrs Daly here m d foster here Mr gusov here Dr Mah here Mrs mclenon Miss Nyquist here Miss rubo and Mrs case here thank you get to start off with the good stuff yeah why all of you guys are here so thank you guys for coming we're very excited and proud of you so I'm going to turn it over to Mr Alexis to start the presentation sure thank you Mrs case we're thrilled to have you here uh we enjoyed watching you play we are proud of you um I won't go on and on but I will also just say I was most impressed by how well you played as a team and that goes from the way you move the ball in the court the way you play def defense the way you listen to your coaches the way you trusted each other as teammates and all that you put together a lot of Talent with some really good coaches and you end up with success so we're we're super proud of you and I'm going to turn it over to Mr verella yes can I take this off okay okay good evening everyone so in honor of both teams we're going to call the girls first and then we're going to go through the boys so so the Board of Education and the staff we have plaques to dedicate to both teams which will hang in Central Middle School so they will be up with your picture the record everything we have T-shirts for everyone and also certificates so we'll go through an honor each student so when you hear your name please come up so you can get your certificate and your T-shirt and then we'd like to take a picture at the end if that's possible if the board would like to do that as well too so we'll start with the girls Paige Anthony maybe if you do you want to maybe stay up I guess at the end yeah on that side maybe it won't come across and Selena PUO she not here okay let's see Elizabeth Clark you go congratulations Caroline [Applause] canel Maddie falvy I don't think it's here tonight and Riley Hall congratulations Fiona Murphy congratulations Micah pitof is's not here tonight Kate Robertson congratulations Serena [Applause] sabatella angel stroer Amanda shatz congratulations and dearer Vander [Applause] Street Angelina you can come up you're not late don't worry about and Coach Jennifer [Applause] blazia and she has the plaque as well too so if anyone would like to take a picture first of the girls team I'll take it yeah congratulations to the girls team yeah you how old to it for now I'll grab and boys you took it down to the wire for sure what an exciting season and for the boys team we'll start with Cole Airi not here Simon [Applause] Anderson John canel William Fernandez Gavin [Applause] Lawrence Gavin Maharaj towns o Conor Christian [Applause] Peralta Timothy Pinto Dion Rivera Brady Simo Jacob [Applause] suvin oh and uh Noah my I apologize wait I missed you I went out of order and Dion we got and Coach Peter hawm congratulations we got everyone right if anyone would like to come up and take a picture of the boys team up uh just want to say real quick uh couple words about the boys team uh real fast uh thank you again for recognizing the boys team it's been an outstanding season um and the program's been amazing for the past 10 years uh our teams have been I've captured the regular season Championship three times in that in those 10 years have been in the tournament finals six times out of the 10 years and I've captured the championship three times uh of those uh six times in the past three years eighth graders Christian Peralta and Brady Sima have been a part of a very successful run of 38 wins to only seven losses uh one of those losses was a couple years in the finals but we got it back this year and I appreciate that uh the hard work and dedication of the players makes this success uh each and every year uh this season our team recorded an undefeated season winning 15 games and captured the Central Jersey Junior Athletic Association regular season championship and the Central Jersey Junior Athletic Association tournament championships uh this the wins the Championships the accolades are all wonderful and we do appreciate that but what I'm most proud of is the growth and sometimes maturity okay of each of these players on and off the court our success this year and over the past many years is directly related to the players and their families and I personally want to thank each and every one of them okay for uh all that you do okay and I hope you know that it's been an honor to be called your coach so thank you very much and thank [Applause] you thank you guys thank you very much and I think uh coach said it well it's a testament to all of your work but also the families and all of the support it's a lot of time and energy and um Burger King dinners and all the stuff that goes with that so hopefully um you guys remember this and really take it with you forward and you know use all the skills that you've developed as an athlete and use those to be leaders in the future so congratulations we are going to move into uh Dr Jones's presentation so uh for students and parents if you guys want to to make your way out that's fine you're welcome to stay um but we are going to move on to the presentation ni that's good thanks that's okay not as exciting as basketball all right that yeah no no that's fine that thank you Dr Jones for being here we have our presentation this originally started off as uh we were just going to report the um second diagnostic results for the IR um uh diagnostic test that was um administered in late January but the more we thought about it we thought it would be a good time to have uh a check-in and a sort of a midyear progress toward District goals uh Dr Jones is presenting but we all the entire administrative team chipped in on uh coming up with these slides and and some of the um things we'd like to share with you tonight um what we did just as an overview is that we structured it around the four District goals um taking it one goal at a time uh but really all four goals work towards the same you know uh objective of working towards raising academic uh performance here in our district uh I guess it's important to note that all the goals you work together because we want to set the right conditions so we can make sure our students Thrive so you'll see that as the the presentation comes together uh we believe in a culture of inquiry collaboration and problem solving and we're committed to establishing the educational environment to support those values so first you're going to hear about raising academic performance because that's our first goal uh you're going to hear about professional learning Technology support we've put in place supplemental programs uh and data informed decision making as well as personalized learning uh the next goal is centered around engaging stakeholders um in the entire School Community uh and you'll hear about what we're doing to engage student staff uh families and community Through communication events and activities and collaboration uh third is aligning instructional spaces uh to support Innovative teaching and you're going to hear also about some cost saving meas measures so we're currently working on spaces some of them we've talked about before ones that began this summer and are finishing up now uh others uh you'll hear about plans for the future and then last you'll hear about strengthening our inclusive culture and honoring the voices and potential of all individuals through programs activities and events that help us accomplish this as well as student uh and teacher relationships which are really at the heart of this critical work so um I'll stop there I might chip in a little bit here and there but uh it's all yours Dr Jones thank you good evening so raising academic performance we have professional learning we've had several District inservice days and curriculum Mondays throughout the school year we still have some curriculum Mondays left um one of them focused well several of them focused this year on I ready um first I think it's important to say that we took a lot of feedback from the community on I ready and some suggest sus so before spring break Jack and I well more Jack really figured out a way to pull the reports the diagnostic one from the fall diagnostic 2 and they will be uploaded into the parent portal so that just like the New Jersey student learning assessments but for K through2 parents it will be up there just like you check report cards so it will be in the parent portal um the norm assessment which will show you how students performed against the um National norm and also a family report so you have a little bit of understanding what you're reading what you're looking at and then before this is broadcasted on Genesis I'm going to send out a letter to the community just how to log in and um a little bit more about what you're looking at and um our diagnostic three will take place the last week in May very first week in June so that will be out before the end of the school year so you'll have all three to compare to so that's first I thought was important to share and I thank um some of the parents who had emailed and made some suggestions because we listened and um we will be implementing those within the next few weeks um so we did have as I was saying some I ready trainings that took place this year most of them were during professional development days others were during curriculum Mondays and sometimes we did have grade level meetings at the K5 level and team meetings at the middle school level just continuing conversation with I ready and what we're doing um the formal I training sessions from I itself came to the district focused on how to set everything up the importance of I ready how to read the data then once we have the data what do we do with it how do you plan for instruction and then the last one we had February 15th was how do you tailor that to better the instruction in the classroom and a lot of that is through the my path option on I itself and that's based off of the um how the students performed on their own diagnostic so it may be different than what a peer is working on and also what I recently learned that I shared with the student achievement committee is it is very similar to um the type of assessment we used in Prior years link it in which you are tested in the very beginning of the year on standards that you have not been taught yet so it's um okay not to see all green at the top right away because we like to see some progress so for students to um perform um you know as a little bit in the middle and just grow along the way is um what we're really looking for we also have had small group instruction training some of this took place on professional development days but the majority was during PLC time and curriculum Monday time and this was taught by our interventionist Danielle manura Emily denunzio Lauren Franklin um and um who am I missing oh Michelle spinello how can I miss Michelle spinello so they worked um very closely with Miss Dawson and I and have been training the teachers throughout the year and we'll continue to do that next year so some of the small group instruction um what it looks like is covering phonemic awareness covering targeted small group lessons for example some of them I actually saw today um stretch and say touch and say word chaining phonics heart words which are words that you cannot sound out so it's more like site words um how to use decodable textes in small groups how to use guided reading techniques and then how to group students based on similarities with skills that they're learning so um you take a few students at a time and you build their skills together as a group okay um I'm just going to keep going and then if you have any questions just let me know so conquer math we brought conquer math in probably about six or seven years ago and it was extremely well-received the owner and math education Specialist of conquer math is Nancy Schultz she's amazing she came to The District in the evening to teach parents um not the new standards not what program to use but how to understand the standards and how to understand what your child is doing at home because math looks very different than when we were growing up with math so um we were very happy we were able to bring that back this year we took a pause in 20202 21 and uh we slowly started to add teachers back um and it's been great and we did budget for it thank you for um conquer maath for next year and we are continuing to send teachers out for that training um just so you know she doesn't Teach as I briefly said she doesn't teach different programs she doesn't represent different programs she teaches you how to understand the standards it's called unpacking the standards and then how to teach math using whatever program your district has she's very fond on manipulatives all the way up to fifth grade that different way of learning kinesthetic um visual she's excellent so uh we're very happy we were able to send teachers and it's a series of workshops it's not just one it's a three to five where one teacher will go to per year and then of course they turn key all of that I'll jump to the PLC piece but they TurnKey that at grade level meetings and share what they've learned um collaboration and inquiry on Ela this has a lot to do with the interventionist as well um we really continue to focus on the science of reading and we've spent a lot of time over the last two years and we're spending even more time on it going forward for the science of reading this really just teaches kids every way possible how to read so there's five key components a lot of it is what I had said uh before that I already covers but um it's morphemic awareness which um for parents who have older children these terms may be unfamiliar so phonemic awareness is the ability to just identify individual sounds in spoken words we have phonics which is reading instruction how to understand how groups of letters make sounds and how they make words fluency which is the ability to read uh words phrases stories sentences in a timely fashion with enough speed and expression vocabulary is not only knowing what the words mean but how to say them correctly in a sentence and understand them correctly in a passage comprehension is just the ability to understand what you're reading so this is really what the science are reading focuses on and we've done a lot of training with the teachers on um the science of reading it's been excellent um our PD for a staff survey what I've been working on is um in of many surveys sent out throughout the year I'm doing one large one to Encompass all of the PD sessions for the year that the district has offered anything on curriculum Monday um conquer math even though we didn't house this um professional development we send teachers out also a multi-tiered system of support which I'll be talking about in another few slides that was um outgoing that we send teachers out for that there's Hib training inrs training so there's a lot so I'm going to be taking account of everything that we have done this year gaining feedback from the teachers what did you like what do we still need work on and what would you like to see next year so I can share those uh results if if you want towards the end of the school year um we've continue to partner with Watchung Hills for learning walks Mr Vell and I attend as many as we can well we invite grade 6 through eight depending on the subject so let's say social studies so 6 through eight social studies teachers and special education teachers that teach social studies will'll go to the high school for let's say a morning we all meet in the common room as many other teachers from sending districts also attend the director of curriculum from the high school attends and whatever supervisor for that subject attends too principal Pops in to say hello superintendent Pops in as well and we just talk about what our goals are for the morning what we would like to gain out of the informal walkthroughs there's a schedule probably of about 45 50 minutes where you can walk freely around the building and there's a choice of different classrooms that you can go visit so there's higher level classrooms lower level classrooms in-class support rooms um some electives some requirements and it's nice to see some students I was just saying to the one parent here their faces are the same when they were at Jette they're just a lot taller so it's nice to see them in high school they never remember me but that's okay um some may some of the girls do I don't know but um yeah they're always like oh Dr Jones I'm like hi from 15 years ago kind of like a fish out of your tank when you're not in Gillette really not looking for you I know so when they see me at the high school it's even you know more like wow but um after the walkthroughs we'll come back we'll take notes we'll share what we learned we'll take back some practices with us if it's applicable and then we talk about you know what is working what is not and uh that's where some good conversations come up on um the next topic I'll talk about alignment so luckily Long Hill is aligned with our novels so the high school is changing a lot of their novels and other districts are still holding on to some novels that when Mr V and I were there um months ago I'm like wait a minute I thought we got rid of this novel and we were supposed to but others you know are still holding on to it for several reasons and different skills they want to teach but um that should be done by the end of this month and our teachers are have been going back to um have further conversations about what novels to focus on at Central starting in grade six and then based on that we bring it down to K5 um which we don't really have novels in fifth grade we do but K4 is you know more anthologies some novel-based studies but it's more heavily um taught in grades 5 through eight and um and I have to add that the the ELA teachers have been so open and receptive to this it's just been great really yes just want to compliment the staff on that yes so mtss is the multi-tiered system of support we are we are spending time on it this year but we have an excellent plan for next year um I sat in on a zoom meeting this morning with Jerry Melissa and um Jennifer and uh two staff two staff members and um it's very exciting what um what we have in store for us so what this is it's um it's a framework to give targeted support for struggling students and this training it's a three year plan and this training um its goal is to intervene very early because if if you really intervene very early you can um put modifications and interventions in to bring success to students that they just take with them as they get older to the older grades and school gets more difficult um it also screens students which is initially why we brought in I as a universal screener so it screens students and it aims at addressing academic and behavioral challenges that teachers and students May face so next year we are planning um pending on budget approval obviously um to provide training to all teachers in how to teach interventions to all students so it's no longer um this student is having difficulty I've tried a b and c now let's have an irrs meeting or let's have a 504 meeting we'll send the child to basic skills see how he or she does it's a more um cohesive plan with all teachers not just select individuals on the intervention team so um at the training today I asked what what are the difference between year one year two year three and um year one is really just to set the framework and the foundation for what this means what the what the tiers look like and I'll go into that in a moment um what it would look like for Long Hill um year two is to form data teams which we have we don't really have formal data teams we have our BSI teachers that constantly look at data the principles we look at data with our grade levels or with our at Team meetings at Central but they're not really considered formal data teams so year two is forming data teams that includes um The Learning uh learning disabilities teacher consultant from the child study team special ed teachers gened teachers and our interventionists and our principles will be a part of these and um she's going to teach us what to do what to look for and what do you do with all of this data that we receive from our Universal screener which is I ready which we're slowly learning what to do this year which is good and then level three oh also y level two she reviews your District inrs process and provides suggestions on how to improve it and tighten it up a little bit and then year three is really just providing maintenance for um multi tier system of support by also involving some social emotional learning components to our existing programs um bringing in additional assessments as as she feels needed um and just so you know the difference the the tiers so we it's tier one through three tier one is very it students are still in the classroom receiving whole class instruction um in this tier teachers are using their own classwork they're modifying in in their own way um they might take a student to the back table with another group of students to work on different skills that a student may be struggling with but it's more whole class it's more in the classroom as far as um modifying student strengths and needs and then uh each tier takes about six to eight weeks before we um look at progress to see if a child has succeeded or not if a child has not succeeded in tier one he or she moves on to tier two which is more smaller group intervention so it's more um students in the back table or front table um you know in small group or Ono one modifying instruction reteaching different concepts or skills and um it can also mean you know possibly a basic skills teacher pushing into a classroom to provide some type of academic support and again if a student is not making progress in tier two he or she then moves to tier three which is more intense indiv idual IED support um this could mean modifying small group work or individual lessons for students this could mean um still spending a lot of day in the General Ed classroom but also possibly leaving to go into a basic skills room for further um more targeted intervention okay then there's a process after that which is what everyone will be trained on on next steps okay any questions on this slide okay oh yeah and let me just say here uh for the Technology support uh we we when I discovered that and in talking with Jack and some uh members of the administrative team as well as from the board members um we were looking at some of the gaps in the onetoone initiative and we were able to um adjust a few things and work with the business office to Implement uh a onetoone initiative that's basically on a three-year plan uh but this year alone we've already got um the second graders on a one: one basis and so from grades 2 through eight we are fully one: one right now and we've set our sites on Gillette uh Gillette is using iPads for the kindergarteners and first graders uh and we have um a budgeted amount in the um next year's budget for about half the iPads and then the following year some more iPads and then by the the third year we should have the full amount of one toone devices throughout while maintaining obviously each year when we have to rotate some devices out um but uh we're we're in a good place right now with that and we're we're moving forward um and then you want to talk a little bit about the supplemental programs that we currently have for our students okay our after school program we began this program one month earlier than years in the past we started it in the middle middle of January and we are going until we're concluding the week of March 18th and this year we did things a little differently and um actually have a zoom meeting with the teachers on Thursday to get their thoughts and feedback about how we did things um but informally speaking with them popping into some rooms um they liked it much better this year they felt it was more structured and um what we did is we looked at the students that were assigned to their programs after school we looked at their I ready data and um we formulated additional reporting groups which is just really another class list it's called a report group in the system and um we focused on certain skills for math it was geometry and for um reading it was um informational text and comprehension those are what we focused on this year based on the New Jersey student learning assessments that we received in the fall and the first diagnostic so we taught whole class at first um some small group and then broke away to work on our individual my path for these after school classes so based on the information that the teachers received there were different lessons taught um in those domains for the entirety of um the after school programs um what we're also doing is we are utilizing a pre-assessment and a post assessment and uh I've been working with I ready on how to assign the post assessments to the students so they'll be taking those was the last week of the program and then the teachers and I and the principals will look at it and see um how did we do how did this how did this program work and um monitor how the students did so I'll have some of that information again um after March 18th obviously we can figure out how we want to um inform people on that yes how many uh days the after school program how many days in the week two two days per week um and or the skip a day um it was really based on teacher availability so some Monday Wednesday but it was or Tuesday Thursday yes we have um two um our two elll or multilingual teachers taught one day per week um and then or one day per week at Central and then at Millington she pushed into a few days a week and how long are the session one hour you're welcome and summer Institute we did not think we would have the funding for it for this coming summer but we recently found out that we do so we will be working on that over the next few weeks and we will be sending out information um soon on that we were really pleased with the additional state aid because uh the summer Institute had previously been paid for with the Esser funds uh so when we got the additional State a we were able to uh make make a few adjustments and this is one of the things we're including this year yes um the the after school tutoring program in the summer Institute how is it determined which students are eligible to participate in those types of activities so for the after school program we took New Jersey student learning assessments for the students who tested and we took diagnostic one from the beginning of the year and then we obviously showed the list of students to the teachers gained their input as well but those are the basic measures um we also looked at font sen panel levels for their reading levels at the instructional level and then summer Institute um we haven't discussed that criteria yet but in the past we have used um link it data which was replaced with I ready we also used font and panel scores we used um benchmarks from our math program and we use New Jersey student learning assessment years prior we also use the start strong data which we don't have anymore either but um I I'm not sure if that's what we're going to use for this coming summer Institute but that's what we've done in the past one of the things that had come up was the effectiveness of the Su are we measuring that have we figured out how to measure yes we have okay yes and we've been reporting that to um student achievement committee um looking at students who um you know didn't go over students that did go so we're yes we are doing that wait I'm sorry can I ask another question going off to that so is that going to be like individually like you're going off of the individual student that that went and attended the the extended school year or are you just looking at like the you mean es esy extended school year yeah are you looking like at a like student you know XYZ and their performance or where they're at from the summer like how did how did that get met like how did you find out the results for a summer Institute yeah so we looked at the students who were invited the students who um attended verse not attended and we were looking to see if there was any changes with the diagnostic one and then we're going to look at that for Diagnostic 2 and then we're looking at you know reasons why some students didn't attend in years past for summer Institute we had a large amount of students unable to attend due to prior commitments so we invited the whole District um and any student who wanted to attend so that's how we're that's how we've been measuring that thank you you're welcome okay okay so here is um a comparison of how we did in each school for reading and Mathematics in the fall diagnostic one and in the winter diagnostic 2 in the fall Millington and Gillette that um Millington and Central took the Assessments in very um last two weeks September first week in October Gillette we um we had to share the devices and they have little fingers so we didn't finish until the first week in November and um we took the second assessment the end of January beginning of February okay for all of the schools we were pros at it by uh by February so this is just a background it's an online program that we use for reading and Mathematics we use it for the diagnostic assessment originally for the universal screener and then we received so much information from it that we were lucky to purchase um the actual program that go with it where you can assign lessons through the my path teachers can assign teacher directed lessons and students can just pick up and practice which that will also be on my letter for parents so that there's um a consistent message from the district that we um highly suggest nicely for you to practice at home or for your children to practice at home but that'll be coming out in my letter as well um it consists of as I just said diagnostic assessment personalized instruction and the purpose is to support individual student growth not really comparing um how they do with their peers it's how you compare to yourself and how you progress and improve throughout the year and then um the instructional component provides students with lessons and that's called my path that is individually based on their skill level and their needs and then they just move up along so we've had some parents ask um why there are games involved that's actually timed by I ready so they feel that when a student has been on for let's say 20 minutes it's time for a brain break and they get to move around and they get to their eyes move around a little bit so that's nothing we can really change um that's actually happens during the Diagnostic in school too if a student is is um not even taking a long time but reading a lot then um you get your brain break and also for kindergarten the tests are read to you from the computer um all of the assess all of the Diagnostics first grade they are not even though they have a voice button the students were touching it and nothing I'm like what it's not working so they're like we can't hear it I'm like well because you're not going to at at you're old enough now right we don't we don't read it to you right now um so from 1 through eight they read it on their own and these are the areas that are tested in so I just made that correlation before with the science of reading it it's similar to what we test for for reading and math um the only differen is are high frequency words uh for reading and um for math it's it's the same and it it's really geared towards the standards as well and this is what it looks like when you'll see it in Genesis and uh when we look at it through the system so the top green mid or above level is that dark color color but it has black lines through the circle um next is a lighter green color the one in the middle is supposed to be yellow but um you couldn't really read it when I I put it on here so it's it's that yellow score that means you're one grade below the red is two grades below and then three or more grades below is dark red with black lines in it so that's how it's differentiated in the system when we look at it and when parents will see it at home or through the parent portal okay so here is um I started with Gillette this is reading the top line is the recent diagnostic how we performed the first week in February as compared to how we performed the first week in November and there was some growth I do have a summary page after each of these so I'll just leave it up here for a moment so you can take a look at it and the it's not um in this slide right here it's not broken up on top K And1 it's the whole school so it should be 186 right I think go 171 students um that's how they calculated those those top lines but when you look in the portal you'll be able to see your individual child and then at the bottom you can see it's broken up by domain in the colors that I had just discussed by grade level so of course what you want to see is more green um less yellow and less red as we take the different Diagnostics and then this is math same format as reading I have a question so ideally the all of the students that are in yellow the idea is hopefully at the end of the year to be green to be green yes okay okay so to summarize for Gillette for the fall we had 30% of students in green and this is for both green categories um 67% in yellow and 3% in red and then for the winter we had 70% students in green both greens um combined 27% in yellow and 2% in red and then for math 20% in Green in the fall 77% in yellow 4% in red and then in the winter 38% green 58% yellow and 3% in red and then I have on the last slide towards the end um some improvements that are still needed and some areas that we did well well in yes can I ask another question sure um so the children that are in red yes um I understand this is diagnostic tool but are they since they have been now you know either newly identified or probably already I guess my question is are they already receiving Services right or some type of um help yes yes they may have um they may be in a basic skills group they might be um identified as like a tier one or two student um they may yes okay they are on on the other side of that for the students that were in green or are two mid or above grade level any additional services for those students yes so it's that's interesting because the second diagnostic we had students in I recall at Central that had tested out so the teachers were emailing me what do I do and I'm like I don't know let me find out so I reached out to ir and I said what do you do with students who have tested out do you have additional um lessons for them and they did luckily so um but we had to ask for them so any student that have tested out now a button was clicked in the admin dashboard where all students that have tested out can now be further challenged as well great yes okay so here is Millington reading again same format as Gillette the top row is um from the winter the bottom is from the fall and again it's the whole grade level up top broken down into individual grades this is a snapshot of what you're really able to see in the system though but I thought this was the best way to present um how the students did excuse me is it just me or does it appear that almost all these grades have gotten from more of an average to very good and very bad like we're seeing a Tom I think is saying we're seeing a lot more truly green and a lot more yellow red at the same time is that what you're saying yes exct yes do you find do you think that's the case Dr Jones um it's I guess it's Ti from our seat to see the percentages so I don't know if that would be it's aw I I think when we're looking at grades two through five versus grades K through one it's difficult for a child to be three years behind in grades one so there's some of that as well you know um that's a good point that you and I I don't know if it's as difficult for kids to be three years ahead in grade one but uh so some of these scores you'll notice it's it's as the year progresses and the age progresses that there's some factors specific to the age I think that show up in the data but or we talked about this in student achievement this whole present that as they're getting older they're falling more and more behind yeah so maybe let's see the summary pie sure we should make the assumption that it's the same students that's fair also another you know all of a sudden they get to a certain level and they to Reg a little bit where somebody was like low they were able to move up you know what I mean so it's not the same rule all the time that is correct well no you're measuring the same pool of students in in in in each category right you're just measuring them at different times of the year right okay well the diagnostic well it's it's different so that's that's correct but diagnostic one is on what you have not learned yet diagnostic two is what has been covered but also new topics that you have not learned yet and then the last diagnostic I think will be the one that really sums it up because it's what you have learned all year okay okay this is math whych you move to the percentages because it is hard to see that red shade in the fall and so it looks like yellow but it's really red so here you can tell the numbers yes here are the percentages for fall 52% green and this is reading uh 35% yellow 12% red and then in the winter 73% green 21% yellow and 5% red and then for math in the fall was 33% green 54% yellow 133% red and in the excuse me in the winter 55% green 38% yellow and 6% red yeah so so in both cases the in both uh reading and math the the red decreased by by a half right from 12% to five and 133% to 6% but I do think to to my point I can just speak to my experence parent um sometimes learning struggles weren't resolved for my kids in one year and so um you know I I also know from friends as well uh if a student is working in with an interventionist or with the special education department yes you you can fall behind but that's as they're remediating you and the skills that that student needs to learn not saying that's true for every child but you do see gaps in learning that then are I think as Dr Jones was saying the students are being you know targeted with the assessments I'm sorry the instruction that they need for their learning style so sometimes it's these assessments that call attention to the learning needs for students good point yes yes that's correct we did we talked about that okay and here is central school for reading had seem I you know we had gotten the presentation ahead of this concerned me does it does that say that there's something missing before Central I mean it can it's there's a lot to look at so we're not really ruling anything out is this concern is is this something that is concerning that there are when it comes to reading in the middle school that we're seeing I guess you know again it's kind of Blends together but we're seeing such higher percentages falling behind in Reading I mean yes um I also think it correlates with how some students perform with the New Jersey student learning learning assessments so um I was saying in the beginning the beginning of the year with the first diagnostic to the student achievement committee um and this may not make sense the way I'm saying it but I was H not happy but I was um relieved to see that not a lot of red obviously but um that it was all in the area of comprehension or all in the area of geometry for math because if it was all over the place and there was inconsistency that would have been more alarming to me not saying that I'm pleased um but it's consistent with what we have seen which I'm um hopeful that what we've been doing with I and some of the training with the teachers um will work that's why we also tried something different with the after school toring classes this year to maybe see if this is also something that can work and then when they take the diagnostic in May um you know I'm hoping we'll see you know significant results in that area specifically the red and the yellow areas so um I think that would be more telling data for us but of course when you when you see you know 12 I think it's 12 um 133% actually 20% yes did there how many that that last category was that are how many grade levels blind um red the first red is uh two or more the red with the black lines through it could be three or more so in in other words in so 7% is um two grade levels and 133% for the last one I'm looking at actually they're the same are three or more levels behind so we're saying in other words 133% of my eyes are terrible sorry so 13% of six seven and eight are actually in a on a grade three level um not grade three just three levels behind in the I ready levels so it's not saying grade three but it's three levels so so the levels don't correspond with the grade not necessarily so then what does so it might be like mid third grade end of third grade like so it is three levels is third grade but a beginning mid or end so if that makes sense yeah so there's about say I can't see that but maybe 133% of sixth graders are somewhere in the third grade level according to the diagnostic 2 yes so doc Dr Jones I I I really appreciate this in like this like high level lens of like what's happening like especially at the middle school like I think obviously we all have some some questions around the middle school and that movement from fth to six is such a huge jump so I I assume right that we're we're taking this data and we're looking at those fourth and fifth grade standards and where students are missing in sixth grade and applying that at that tier one universal level at the fourth and fifth grade to see where these students may be missing these Concepts and then where within our curriculum we can enter those in and Infuse that that support in across the board in fourth and fifth to kind of bolster that am I would I be right in that assumption yes so we are we are having those conversations we're utilizing curriculum Mondays for that I have that on um on a future slide that I'll talk about but yes and it could be um teaching different concepts more towards the end of the year as opposed to the beginning of the year um we're also doing that for reading as well and um so what we're you know what we're targeting or what we're measuring on the report cards um there's a lot of cross-curricular articulation that we are having this year based on what we're noticing with uh year two of the standards based report cards at the K5 level and also based on these assessments uh just a question and a followup maybe um when you talked about some communication to parents will they see the color associated with their student uh and then my follow-up question is the or maybe it's just a statement the nuanced communication behind that that need that parents will need to get what is that conceptually what does that look like so I'm going to just type up a letter explaining what it is that you're going to see verbatim um what it means and in the parent letter from the system it gives you some suggestions at home that you can do and um you know really what it means and uh so it's it's very detailed we looked at a sample at our admin meeting last week it's very detailed so I think it it'll be a lot better than my letter that went out I think you should be prepared I mean if a parent gets something and it shows up that their kid is in that dark red black L gonna get a lot of Cs really I mean don't think gonna happen Dr Jones if I could jump in on that um because it kind of pair with my question uh one of the reasons I think that we put this program in place I wasn't sure if it was clear to everyone on the board because we've discussed it at student achievement but was what you were talking about on the first slide that we had identified some of these issues through the previous testing and so that moving towards this program is a tool for it is a tool for the district to Comm fur with parents as we go along rather than being surprised at the end of the year with the testing coming into place right and then that first slide you were talking about with all the interventions or interventions we put in place to help address the issues that we're seeing come up through the scores that's correct yes um I understand that a letter is going out to parents that explain everything but especially for those children in the the really dark red categories is is anyone going to be reaching out to the parents to to address the type of concern there is for their child or are the parents expected to my concern is some parents might not understand the significance of it or or might not be able to take the time to really understand what they're looking at because we're you're explaining it to us which is extremely helpful but I I I it just that's a good point for some parents I would I would like to think if you if a child is still um that behind that conversations have already been had but I can definitely check with the principles on that what that's what I was going to say yeah yes they were all right they were invited to the after school classes but I'm going to ask that though they that's what I was going to say they likely were already identified for tutoring for this year and I I doubt the movement they probably were already invited to Summer Institute and even tutoring last year based on if they're in the Deep Red category however we had a lot of parents I think in central turned down tutoring yes they did so hopefully this is like we're the the continuity of this will now say that listen if you are turning down tutoring and we're showing you the data is repeating here hopefully they'll be open to to um either doing the tutoring or the summer Institute and obviously participating in in the other things that Dr Jones already mentioned but I will say I've seen the I ready report um and it's very it's it's it's very easy to understand and it lays everything out very personalized for your child so I think there won't be um there may be questions but I think it gives a lot of information okay and this is math for Central as well fall and uh and winter okay and the summary for Central in the fall for reading 57% of students were in both green categories 22% of students were in yellow and 20% of students in red and in the winter 65% of students were in green 15% of students were in yellow and 20% still in red and then for math for the fall 40% of students were in green 40% in yellow and 21% in red and then in the winter 51% green 33% yellow and 177% red so if I read that correctly winter math Diagnostics you have almost half the group that is below average below pass it yes and we say what to that what was that and we say what to that well I'll I'll talk to you about that so this is what we're doing so a lot of the students were already invited to the after school program we do have the math instructional class at Central that takes place all year anyway or in addition to this uh we have teachers reviewing the data for a diagnostic one and two for instructional purposes this is happening during grade level meetings team meetings at the middle school we're sharing different teaching strategies we're looking for Trends to see if it's a grade level concern if it's just um you know certain uh certain students you know of concerning maybe new students that move in um you know several different factors um we are making approve we are making improvements that we've noticed based on teachers looking at the data in across the board for reading phonological awareness phonics and high frequency words and there was growth in vocabulary since the beginning of the year overall we still need Improvement in comprehension and informational text for mathematics we saw Improvement in numbers and operations which is actually one of the areas we were focusing on with the after school classes measurement and data um algebra algebraic thinking and we are still showing that we need need Improvement in the area of geometry that we identified with the first diagnostic that matched with the New Jersey student learning Assessments in K through2 the teachers are comparing this data to see if there is a correlation between the Dibbles assessments which is a fimic awareness assessment um to see if some of the students in yellow and red also scored in yellow and red in these assessments and um what are we doing with these students in the classroom it's small group instruction it's BSI push in or BSI pull out and its teachers working one-on-one with the students on specific skills that they need we are constantly having BSI conversations monthly meetings reviewing students to see can students exit are students here all year um should they be here all year how can we move students in and out and what our really what our process and procedures are for basic skills we do have a a nice Intervention Program that we've put into place this year based on significant training that the teachers received last year that has been very beneficial so um we are constantly it's it's a very fluid program with the teachers and the students I just talked a little bit about the after school classes how they began sooner based on the results of the Fall diagnostic for both reading and math we continue professional development with I ready for staff which has been been very beneficial on there's a lot of data now what do we do with it so we just break it down step by step and then we will have the summer Institute which will also narrow down the students that are in that yellow and red categories for further um targeted instruction after the school year so it's not really just a oneandone and we're still looking for ways to um provide interventions and based on from recent meetings um that I've heard about and the one I attended today with the multi-tiered system of support I think this may also be a tool that will help the students um all students but specifically students that are struggling that are in that red category that have not shown the growth from diagnostic 1 to two Dr Jones when do the notices plann to go out for summer Institute and I ask as a parent who's like kneed deep in summer camps and everybody needs your money now and just for parents to have that information well we just found out within the last few days right that we had the funds to do this so um I'm not sure on that timeline right now but um maybe yeah no we're going to have to coordinate it as soon as we can okay and then we we can let you know okay okay yeah and so we we move to the the second goal which is engaging the school community and all stakeholders in uh excellence and education and one of the things that we've talked about before is our um which is in progress is the new website that we're moving to which is going to be a a much more uh userfriendly platform uh it's going to allow us to share news um much more easily and we're also going to be able to uh have an easier experience um internally for using the website and posting things uh and it also will be uniform throughout the district at all the different schools uh and by the same token we're looking to unify our Communications both how the messages are communicated and shared uh among the schools uh with with parents and the community uh and even the look and feel of the communications is going to be similar and more uniform uh going forward we're going to get that started soon and move and do that in coordination with the roll out of the website um another way we are also providing Services uh for family IES that need translation uh during meetings or in uh interacting with the website or Google Classroom we've been collaborating with the PTO and the LF both groups have been phenomenal in terms of support of our schools uh and we try to help them as much as we can getting messages out uh and helping to support their programs so that they can support our kids uh and we also uh have I've had we've all had an excellent experience with the police Department in terms of their responsiveness to us and their help and assistance whenever we need it they're here on campus uh for arrival they're on campus for dismissals they take walkthroughs through the buildings uh just very responsive too whenever we have a concern um so that part has been great and uh then I want to turn it over to Lori for the parent volunteer involvement okay also something that I forgot to mention for ir and I'm not banking all of our needs of improvement through I but it will be available all summer long to students based on the um contract that we have with them so they can um utilize it over the summer as well not to lose any skills but of course I'm not expecting major growth over what they're doing over the summer at home okay um parent volunteer involvement we just last week had a lot of parent Volunteers in as guest readers for rate Across America we had um Family reading night at Gillette at uh the last it we had over 100 families attend which was great we have food days where parents are in at Central every day at Millington four days a week and at Gillette two days a week we have Library volunteers coming in at Millington and Gillette on a weekly basis we have mystery readers on a weekly basis um coming into to Gillette we have the holiday shop at Gillette as well um that takes place in December we have a lot of or the end of November we have a lot of volunteers that help run this book fair in the schools um first grade has our dance residency again we have parent volunteers through the cultural arts Committee of the PTO and then we have a parent performance uh they help with our address rehearsal so that's a nice opportunity to have parents come in um we also invite I I I didn't put it up here but for um residencies any concerts that we have we do invite the senior center as well and and we um a lot of the times they'll come into our school or in recent years we'll perform for them in the parking lot which has been really nice and um we always trick- or treat in there too um except this year they came outside for us so we do involve the seniors as well which isn't parent involvement but I think it's a nice involvement um PTO grade level events that take place throughout um all of the schools um we have Field Day in um in our elementary schools and like I said family reading night as well okay this was me right okay um we also okay so we have some Senior Center um support that we have from Central students from the community service Club they cooked meals for the Long Hill First Responders they collected 12 baskets for our food pantry and they collect for Market Street Mission we have a partnership with Wong Hills High School so n9th grade students came down to 8th grade it's really a way of ensuring for a smooth transition um kind of going over some strategies from from ninth grade students on um transition and it just continues to build on the relationship that we have with the high school and just make it stronger amongst the students and the staff and the director of guidance and I are currently working with students at wung Hills High School um particularly at the end of the day to come to Gillette classes all 10 classrooms for KN And1 and with the guidance of the teachers they are providing um assistance to the students so they may read a book to a group of students while the teacher is working with another group of students and this is to essentially help at that small group instruction time so the younger students are managed with um not just go to centers and then the teachers pausing the group speaking to this one speaking to that one it's more facilitated um more structured and there is additional help in the classroom so we are currently working on a schedule with the high school that will start after spring break so that should be something exciting and something new that we'll have for Gillette is so that's just for Gillette not Millington right okay right okay okay yeah and so the third goal is about aligning the instru instructional spaces so they um support Innovative teaching and learning and again the goal being to create spaces uh for inquiry collaboration problem solving and Innovation uh this summer we had the central steam room renovated uh that's still a few final punch list items there but uh what we've set our sights on is for next year uh the one we're um in the budget we have uh a steam teacher but we also have equipment um that we will need to purchase to outfit that um the steam lab that's something we're very excited about we had the Gillette kindergarten room that was done over the summer um we've identified some issues with the carpet in the Gillette media center and through a careful allocation of resources we're able to put new flooring there and that's going to take place over spring break uh and we're also have been planning I guess it was uh a year and a half or two years ago that the there were upgrades made to the flooring uh over at the Millington media center but the next step with the furniture um never took place so we have been planning for that and that will be taking place this summer uh in the 2024-25 budget and we've also identified this large instructional space which is an outdated technology ology room at Central Middle School uh which will be uh renovated this summer uh as we move forward and the onet to1 technology plan uh also uh is is in the budget and is going to be helpful to setting the right conditions for this kind of learning environment okay and at the same time we're looking for additional cost-saving opportunities we were about three months ago uh we received this tuition paying student from Somerset Hills uh which is added to the um the tuition that we received from Greenbrook for a current student uh we have both of those in the budget for next year but we have two new shared services uh opportunities currently under consideration one is to have the extended school year uh here in lill but to have the Watchung burough students participate in it and the cost will be shared with Watchung burrow uh we're working on the details of that right now uh and then also the Chinese language after school opportunity with hudsonway immersion school which we've talked about but also allowing those students to come uh and be in the sixth grade science class uh We've also entered into conversations about ways that we could receive some financial resources from Hudson immersion uh school in order to pay for those those students in the science class so we're looking into that right now okay promoting an inclusive School community where all students feel a sense that they belong and they can th thrive in every way so the special education philosophy is that all students should be educated in the least restrictive environment they should have access to their general education peers to the maximum extent possible while also meeting their educational individual needs okay we have monthly celebration celebrations honoring cultural groups so just for example we had um Hispanic Heritage Month that took place in the fall in all the schools we have black history month that took place this winter women's History Month that took that's taking place now we have holidays around the world that focuses on other cultural groups that we may not um you know dedicate um a certain time frame in the school year but that are taught throughout so it's not um you know just one time a month and uh where that's another opportunity for parent volunteers to come in and discuss their cultural backgrounds and their holidays they celebrate we have um in the classroom we have examples of timeline timelines of lives of um famous people of all different cultural backgrounds and how they contributed positively to um oura country we have books that we read in the classroom and in the library focusing on different cultural cultur and different Heritage throughout the school year we also have classroom projects um I know even the younger students made a quilt based on different quotes and sayings throughout the year and we also tie a lot of this into music art and library with um different lessons that take place throughout the year with our Specialists okay our program social emotional learning we have the Choose Love curriculum with activities and lessons that is really um focused on um various monthly activities taught by the guidance counselor of of the schools and Then followed up with classroom lessons from classroom teachers these programs relate to the social emotional learning and uh development of all students and how to be inclusive of all of us we also have part of October lessons there it's a lot in October it's week of respect School violence awareness week which for the younger ones we call it peace in our schools week and Red Ribbon Week which is promoting healthy choices so each each School hosts different activities depending on the ages of the students that are relevant to their ages um they themed weeks that focus on being respectful being kind citizens who support their learning environment their relationship with their peers respecting our community making healthy choices and we also have monthly character red lessons from the guidance counselor um who also shares lessons to the classroom teachers to follow up in the classroom and we have tiger team assemblies at the K5 level run by the gance counselors just nominating and um awarding students for acts random acts of kindness um based on the pillars that we have in the schools and um students can be nominated by um any adult in the building which has been nice okay for digital citizenship this year we had a fall assembly for Central titled my life online which focused on how we treat others in person online making good decisions and being the best version of ourselves um we also spoke about um well I'll I'll skip over the next one only to continue with our digital citizenship for grade five it was an inperson assembly led by Miss backer and Mrs Dawson um it's really it teaches you to be mindful of what you post because you have a digital footprint that follows you everywhere so you can think you're erasing um what you want but you never really erase anything so they were taught be respectful um before you post think about how it will impact um who will be reading it who will be receiving it um have a positive relationship with your peers and um respect yourself and respect your peers so um jumping back to the Holocaust Survivor speaker this year it was I I actually really enjoyed it because the day before the speaker came in I had a lesson that I observed from U Mr Gillespie and it was all about the speaker and her life and it was amazing and um just to see the students reactions like how quiet they were at some parts of the film um how some eyes were very watery when um they were seeing and hearing things that that took place and um it was you know it was excellent for me not based on the topic but to see how it was taught and how the reaction of the students were so of follow up with the speaker from the lesson that I observed was um was excellent it was just a great experience for the students in my opinion um we have Mrs Anderson our uh multilingual learning teacher who has been providing this year the next one is March 25th at our curriculum Monday strategies for all classroom teachers on how to teach students who um English is not their first language and how to help them in the classroom to make them feel comfortable to understand what everyone is learning so she has done an excellent job uh in training many teachers so far we have our last set of teachers that are going to be trained at the end of this month and for the first time ever which was the idea of Mrs Anderson and Mrs pisotti as pette for our family reading night we had one session where um Mrs Anderson read an English version and Mrs pisas pisotti read the Spanish version we also sent um Flyers home to the um non-english-speaking families personally inviting them to come to this um event because we were doing things a little differently and um it was great they it was really nice to see everybody there and all the students there and I sat in on one of the sessions because sometimes I miss learning so um it was nice to hear the um the book being read in a different language for me personally as well so um that was a great idea those two teachers had and I'm sure we'll continue that yes excuse me uh did you send any Flyers home to the english- speaking families say this might be a cultural awareness for you as well oh yes well we sent individual ones home um as a reminder and we sent it goes out on my Friday Focus so that went out to All Families a few times it's also posted in the Gillette monthly calendar and then teachers also sent that out yes thank you you're welome yeah I attended as well with my children and they loved it so it was it was nice went to all the rooms and I was able to to witness that and that was just lovely to see yeah okay okay and so we'll do an end of the year uh update on progress toward District goals I think the IR ready uh results will come into clearer Focus too in terms of the colorcoded keys uh because as uh Lori mentioned we're looking at standards um that are set for the end of the year and we can see what kind of progress we made we'll also be able to see how some of these interventions are working and what interventions we need to perhaps start the year with or work on over the summer uh but I I think it's just kind of helping us see where certain gaps are and how we can help our students learn and grow thank you thank you very much Dr you [Applause] Dr okay um moving on to uh Communications uh Mr Alexis okay as the board members know we received a couple of messages about preschool uh when the results of the lottery came out and there was some disappointment involved um we there was a follow-up meeting with one family that took place last week uh but right now we're looking into we continue to look into ways that perhaps we can expand access to preschool for our community and whether we can obtain state aid that's going to take a little bit of time to uh get a better sense of whether we can do this um and I don't see it as happening in I can't say it's going to happen next year it's probably a longer range kind of uh project but in the meantime we've talked a lot about making sure parents and family know the expectations how many spots are available uh and you know we don't want to you know all the families that think they're going to get a spot or that they're going to get a spot because they have a child in the program because we have a lot of families with children in the program that were also entering the lottery again uh so it it's unfortunate um but we're going to be more mindful of that in terms of communicating with um with our community uh as the board members also know we received an anonymous email and then a followup to that Anonymous email anonymously um as a matter of practice we do not respond to anonymous emails and ask that any parent who is concerned about the experience uh their child is having in a class that they go through the proper channels and that they um and the chain of command and beginning with the teacher and that's it for communications okay thank you um committee and Lees on reports let's start with Karen uh on February 14th I attended a virtual meeting for the head Services Commission uh basically there's nothing a great import to us except that it was poured up and maybe people know that there's legislation uh to move the Board of Elections or the elections back to April and the two sides I mean the two biggest things come out is they want to move it back to April because the November election has put too much politics into to the election process having it in April though the uh the contention is you always low votes you don't know if you get a respective uh representation of what the real town or the the population wants but it's out there so just so that you know that uh Finance met last week um anything associated with the budget Robin will cover in her presentation uh you you've all gotten your copy of the preliminary and the schedule so that's good and any questions that you have uh please get them to George we're going to be meeting again this Wednesday go over the questions finalize any little nits and butts about the budget and come next Monday we'll be voting on the preliminary budget tended to budget I should say on the agenda you're going to see there's some resolutions two dealing with a parent Transportation contract one is to rece a contract and then the next one is to uh approve a new contract because the uh the money was renegotiated and then there's a resolution on the agenda dealing with our Rod grants which we need to do to be able to get the contract so that we can get the final Awards and the bills were reviewed and approved and as far as governance goes we met and uh we did a review of the the board timeline as supplied by the New Jersey school boards as well as what we had and we did a line by line comparison you know we're going to change this move that and in a followup with Charlene what she did was provide an example or two of what other boards have done on their timeline and we're going to be discussing that at the next uh governance meeting which is coming up next Wednesday because there were one or two ideas on other timelines which would be beneficial for us um you all should have gotten the note on the schedule for the CSA evaluations and so evaluations and you know it's coming up all right so everybody knows that um we talked about the in our November goal review we're going to have a one half hour training session prior to the start of our goal review so we talked about the training U what that will be and it'll be sure giving you that and then um there was Well what we'll really be hearing about it this coming meeting but uh work was done and completed on the Mission Vision work out of Central School students so that uh hadn't come for that meeting but we're going to hear about it the next and um that's it great any questions for Karen okay Crystal nothing for this month but Dr Jones I want to say thank you so much and Mr Alexis for the comprehensive uh progress towards the board goals um I appreciate it was incredibly helpful thank you yeah next time we have to give you timer you should not have to stand that long but I guess you're you're used to it as a as a teacher yeah I mean you know but thank you yes okay great uh Danielle um yes so as far as communication with the PTO the only thing I have is that the food days is going to be it was extended till tonight till midnight I mean people that's never happened in all my there was some kind of glitch with an email that was for the reminder it didn't neverone out and a lot of people depend on that so if you missed it you have if you're watching it you're un luck you have till midnight tonight to um to go ahead and do that um and then as for uh Community Relations Committee we met via zoom on February 20th um all intendance was myself Mr Alexis Kim case Justin Foster Tom grov and we spoke about the Sterling Street Fair um it's coming up on April 21st uh just a note a a sign up will a sign up sheet will be going out to everybody and I'm hoping if everyone's around that we can we can all at least partake in us a time slot um I guess we can't have more than four of us at at the same time um but that will will be going out um and also um let me see here we're GNA have like a jar of candy and we'll we'll guess and there will be a winner and they get a prize we'll have brochure out you know for the Board of Ed and what we do and that kind of thing um we discussed also having um a QR code that Jack could assist with um hopefully uh so that it would take them to like the the budget presentation um we also spoke about showcasing students artwork and projects in town hall or the library or possibly other local businesses so stay tuned that will be coming soon hopefully um our next meeting is tomorrow at 12:00 pm zoom and we'll be tying up more you know last minute loose ends for the fair and that's about it okay any questions for Danielle and uh student achievement and curriculum committee uh met uh last week on March 5th uh we discussed uh in detail the information that Dr Jones and Mr Alex has presented tonight um as you know from committee updates throughout this year one key focus of the committee's work is focusing on the supports and intervention that the district is putting in place to support our students and encourage their academic growth uh it's an important an ongoing conversation and um just please uh know to reach out to me and the committee with any questions you have for us uh or for the committee uh and thank you to Dr Jones and Mr Alexis for your presentation uh and also we discussed at the meeting the preschool capacity and the potential for the program in the future as Mr Alexis had shared in his report oh our next meeting is April 9th intend to meet the week before the board meeting so any questions for Ann okay Tom yes uh the technology committee met on uh the 8th 2m Google meet it was myself Mr Alexis an Butler Justin Foster and the great Jack arnet um if it wasn't for Jack we'd be all be gone we talked about his H five what the fiveyear uh plan cycle for addressing uh life cycles of equipment and also increases in software licensing costs and how that's going uh the one:1 program for Chromebooks as you heard earlier for grade two is now completely is is deployed Millington is now completely one to one Gillette one to1 iPad uh plan the Gillette school is on track to have 100 devices split between five charging carts to start the 2425 school year on track to have the entire district one to one by the start of the 6 27 school year the technology department is reviewing options to reallocate current devices and provide staff with a more powerful mobile device with a larger screen I think we talked about that last last meeting as well there's a new website platform called final site formerly it was school messenger the new vendor vendor is a bit more expensive in the magnitude of a few thousand dollars the cost difference is expected to be reduced Over time however it's it's modern responsive website designed with a mobile first approach as opposed those of us who live and die by the iPhone doesn't always work you have to go to the to a website so this actually is much better for that modern design website features mobile integrated directory built-in accessibility tools social media Integrations uh easyto learn platform from office staff members drag and drop interface final site will be providing trading for staff and also Alo assisting with content migration the phone system has been improved Consolidated the backend phone system to a single ventor vendor Hunter Technologies I think we talked about that at last meeting but we never actually I don't know if we revealed who it was so it is that um interface between former systems equated to system sprawl uh consolidation offers improved service and addage repair if a line goes down on the Val Road it's backed up through the Wi-Fi is that not correct Jack and so we're never without contact to the outside world the old days of the phone going down and you're that's it over uh there's LTD LTE backup there we go for the phone system currently installed and functioning uh but we'll be improving the functionality by installing an antenna on the roof of Gillette School working together with BNG building a ground to accomp to accomplish this installation can't see a problem there ongoing infrastructure improvements recently installed new enclosed Network racks in each School building enclosed meaning nobody cans put their grimy little fingers in it and mess something up and I don't mean the children improved battery backups have been installed in Central Middle School Millington and Gillette to follow cyber security the lot of letters there I'm not going to read them all NJ something WR state and local cyber security grant program Grant Awards services not dollar amount U Jack informs us that we we have been informed that we are receiving cyber security risk assessment of our environment cyber security policies to implement cyber security training for IT personnel and security aw awareness training for staff Jack and Andrew um for the good of the order U Mr Foster here asked for the uh that the ask that the change from school Messenger to final site to be Quantified and qualified and Jack has agreed to give us that answer at the next next meeting and uh we also discussed about AI a is on AI is on the radar but is not imminent for us and that is all we have and I have nothing from the planning board that's all there is today any questions for Tom okay great Justin uh just two acknowledgements just Friday was International women's day Spire inclusion was the theme which maps to our district goals and um yesterday was a start of romad up thank you Melissa um we had our policy committee meeting on February 13th at 800 pm and um it's self-explanatory I'm not going to go through all the changes in the policy there weren't any major changes made however I do thank Tom for his communication that he sent to me prior to today's meeting regarding a um policy that we have on for first reading today and that is the smoking prohibition policy Tom um uh asked that we include uh tobacco I mean I'm sorry marijuana in addition to the tobacco I I hear what you're saying and I'm going to look into it we have another policy meeting tomorrow we do have a policy that allows the use of medical marijuana well the administration of medical marijuana so I just want to ensure that uh what we're doing aligns with the rest of our policies and as well as the state law that allows for the administration of marijuana so thank you for that communication and for actually reading the policies and um we have another policy meeting to tomorrow night I sent out to the agenda today and that is tomorrow night at 8 pm thank you any questions for Melissa okay I'm G to try and do justice to buildings and grounds um I'm not usually the note taker but I will try we met on uh March 5th it was myself Tom Adele Frank uh and Mr Alexis um I'm going to go through some of the items we we discussed the infield Renovations um we're waiting on Spring touchups and those will be done by the 20th of this month uh Gillette School room 20 is scheduled to be um done on for Spring Break um the Gillette Library floor replacement they're putting down new tile and this will be done when teachers uh By the time teachers return and I assume students from spring break uh Millington room um 18 and 19 um was on the list but now we've added rooms 20 and 10 um we're getting unit ventilators and condensers over spring break for 18 and 19 and rooms 20 and 10 will'll get theirs over the summer uh for Central they're finishing up the fire alarm and a punch list um is going to be closed out by next week which is this week um replacing defective devices um staff Laboratories are being completed um there's the need for a door and the project will be closed out the steam room cabinets are done countertops and sink is getting replaced in that room and this will then uh that room will be complete for maintenance um School dude is the platform that's used work orders are coming in and people are addressing jobs um and uh those as they close out they're returning that to Frank and then there's a full close out of that item uh districtwide um scheduled uh maintenance for spring there's tree work that's going to be addressed in the spring uh with richest tree services um the Medco locks um these are for special locks for doors throughout the district that have special keys made it's not just like a you can go to Home Depot and get this done um so there's locks for central for the restroom and the steam room um I just wrote notes for myself you can't purchase these on the normal consumer market and they have we have a unique registry code and have to authorize through Medco to get the locks uh just for safety security purposes uh in terms of District ride uh roof leaks we had a company come and repair um these leaks previously and we checked them um at some point last uh so on March 5th I think we had some rain going through those days and the repairs were holding up I know a company is still going to be looking at Millington uh the sale of the dump truck is in progress um we have the photos and those should be uh it should be listed online this week for integrated Pest Management um we have routine service calls and inspections going on um there anticipating or the district is anticipating um you know some complaints that start to happen with the spring like ants um and so um they're they're ready for those and have the service ready uh in terms of capital Improvement projects uh PSG um HVAC direct install um that's a program that uh we're working with HVAC mechanical contracts to see if we qualify for this program uh the project replaces all the rooftop equipment we're now focusing on Millington and we hope to also add let it is a direct replacement with more energy effective equipment than what we have uh PSG could cover between 40 and 60% depending on of the cost depending on the qualifications and then the balance would be financed for 0% over five years um they're really going to look at the age of the equipment and the energy use um in order to determine whether or not we qualify uh much of our equipment is older uh preliminary Capital Improvements projects planned for the Gillette school fire alarm renovation Gillette has been surveyed and a plan will be developed and we'll go out to bid uh Millington School library renovation they're uh working with um Miss Dawson and the librarian to get all the new book stacks and Furniture that'll be a summer project for Central School room 34 renovation they're working with Mr Vell and getting this room up to date Vision to make it one larger classroom that can be used for multiple classes at the same time maybe professional development um classes and that's also a summer project um in terms of Rod was mentioned and that's it the best I can do was pretty good types well done it was a lot so uh Alex made it look easy uh any questions for me okay great uh thank you superintendence report okay well last week we had read Across America week and we had our writing the reading wave theme um along with a lot of beach scenes and a lot of fun uh and it was very inspiring for the students um I don't think anyone had a better time than the superintendent but I'll leave that to the side uh I want to thank our staff because they really they really did a fantastic job with um with everything really and just the coordination of it um we had a number of teachers step up and be leaders in this area it was really great uh we had generous volunteer mystery readers come in um Lieutenant CH Bello and a couple of the officers came in to read over at Gillette um in the APR um but just I saw a lot of parents coming and going on a personal note I won't name all the teachers but I had 10 wonderful teachers invite the superintendent to come read in the classrooms and it just made my week it was busy wonderfully busy I'll say um the students were just tremendous off audiences uh on the agenda we have a revised Mentor plan I just want to point out one thing about this I want to thank Briana Fischer uh for reviewing and revising the plan uh as part of her administrative internship with principal Dawson couple of pieces of good news we had we learned last week that six of our students moved on to the county level of the fire prevention contest now this is on top of last year's good news of having the two end up in the calendar uh so we're hopeful the next level is the state level so we'll find out if we do have some invitations for our students for for next year's calendar uh and just this morning we received news um that both of our robotics teams made it to the finals in the state competition this weekend they ended up taking second and third places I think think the second place team was just nudged out at the very end um but you know phenomenal results they were there with the top 10 teams in the state and um and then Mrs Bower we'll give the highlights this evening of the budget we have another meeting scheduled next week as everyone knows for the board to vote on submitting the tenative budget to the county education office so thank you very much um any questions for Mr Alexis I will attest he was very excited to read Because I had I speak with him on Fridays and he made sure that we ended so he could get to Ming to do his reading so I also I did I went to my son's classroom I don't know if other board members and it was um it's it was a lot of fun so we thank the teachers for inviting us because it's very exciting for us too okay so t i to talk about the highlights of the 2425 budget that um you all got received a copy via email that I hope that you'd look through and I apologize but it's going to be a repetitive because going last isn't always best um the proposed budget for the coming year is 22 m938 N9 and I am pleased to announce that we are maintaining consistent local tax levy of 2% that furthermore um our state allocation increased 5 5,222 which allowed us to provide for some additional support for our educational initiatives we're moving a million dollars to be allocated from capital reserve for use with the capital projects as you delve into the details of the budget I am hopeful that you'll find that it's reflective to our dedication to providing the highest quality education for our students while also upholding our financial responsibility to the community moving on to the expenditures next year allocates an additional $13,000 to the curriculum budget this increase enables our district to enhance instructional programs but also sustain several programs that were initiated in previous years with grant funding from Co relief the tenative budget also retains all positions including the librarian its Central which is currently vacant and the two additional full-time powers that were approved by the board in January ensuring continuity and support throughout our schools furthermore we have expanded our faculty with the addition of a new steam teacher which enhances our focus on science technology education arts and mathematics education we've also allocated $155,000 to the summer Institute which we've heard so much about tonight to encourage our students to continue to FL flourish during summer break in line with our commitment to our onetoone technology initiative the4 2 budget includes an allocation of $56,000 for desktops $47,000 for iPads and $144,000 for Chromebooks as well as additional funding for steam supplies when we look at Capital Improvements we have several significant projects which you've heard a lot about tonight but I still want to mention them at the galette school we're prioritizing the replacement of the outdated fire alarm system to continue to protection of our students staff and visitors additionally we're embarking on the renovation of a project to transform the instructional space of the Millington library to create a dynamic and modern learning environment for our students lastly we're excited about the renovation of the technology room I believe it's room 34 at Central School into a versatile multi-use space catering to the diverse needs of our students and facilitating a variety of educational activities and events these Capital Improvements our ongoing commitment to providing safe inclusive and conducive learning environments that Inspire excellence and achievement for our long students I want to thank the board for their review of the proposed budget during the past week your insightful questions and feedback will be invaluable in ensuring the fiscal responsibility and alignment of our budget with the needs of our students and Community your questions will be addressed at Wednesday's Finance meeting so please get your questions into Mr Alexis so that we can and review them and have good answers for you finally I want to remind everybody that the vote to approve the tenative budget will take place at the March 18th to next Monday's meeting a video recording of the budget presentation is going to be available on the district website shortly thereafter the final budget vote and presentation will take place at the May 6th board meeting thank you thank you so from here any questions are going to go to m Mr Alexis regarding any the budget and the documents everybody has the information on the and what you got for the meeting today and then we're going to discuss those questions Wednesday and finance and then everyone will get a response back by Thursday Friday Thursday Friday I was G Say by Friday that's the plan just what we thought at Finance was that you guys may have some of the same questions and this has happened before so it's like let's aggregate those questions and then give a response to everybody so that everybody has information moving forward into Monday well thank you um again uh to your team Robin and to Mr Alexis for working on this it's student centered student driven and that's what we want so um I think there's a lot of um good things that are happening in it and also as you said keeping the 2% uh cap is I have to say I'm really proud of it it was a lot of work everybody pulled together administrators staff that a lot of collaboration in what was kind of a tighter year but we we figured it all out and I think we came up with an excellent budget for Long Hill thank you okay comments from the public on agenda items okay moving into resolutions um we get started so Karen will you move in minutes items number one so move second any questions call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs daily yes Mr Foster R yes Dr Mah yes Miss Nyquist yes M rub yes M case yes uh Chris you move in financials items number two through 17 so move second thank you questions roll call Mr Butler yes M sty yes Mr Foster yes Mr grov yes Dr Mah yes Miss nist yes M Ru yes case yes Dan yeah we move in uh special services items numbers 18 and 19 so moved second any questions call please Mrs Butler yes M Staley yes Mr Foster yes Mr grco yes Dr Mah yes n yes rub yes M case yes um and will you move in personel items numbers 20 through 28 so moved second roll call questions sorry roll call please yes Mrs daily yes Mr Foster yes Mr grov yes Dr Mah yes Mrs nist yes rubo yes Mrs K yes um Tom will you move in curriculum item number 29 so moved second any questions Mrs Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr gr yes Dr M yes m n yes yes yes um Justin will you numbers 30 through 33 so moved second any questions roll call please Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr gr yes Dr Mah yes M Nyquist yes M rubo yes Mrs K yes and then Melissa we move in other items number 34 through 42 so move second any questions did anybody go to the finding the you know meeting the cast I was just curious my son went and he loved it still has the tattoo perit so I don't know what that says and I can't address it tonight so maybe tomorrow okay uh roll call please M Butler yes M daily yes Mr Foster yes Mr BR yes Dr M yes M Nyquist yes M rubo yes Mrs case yes okay any items for discussion unfinished business any new business okay any comments from the public okay can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor opposed exensions thank you anybody want to stay later y