##VIDEO ID:4faldlytct4## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everyone adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury par press the Middletown patch and the Middle toown Township Public School website and the P posting of such notes that the August te minor administrative offic in each elementary middle and secondary school of the district roll Mrs CTI here Mrs Farley here Mr Fitz here Mrs minues here Mrs gasy here Mr to here Mrs R here Mrs tobacco here Mr here I'm now need a motion to go to EXA session for matters of personnel and litigation they move second all in favor see you in the while everyone e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e one good evening everyone please stand for the pledge uned stes andice this evening from to speak hi hi hi I'm from Middletown High School North and on October 27th we welcomed our newest lence High School North as we held our freshman orientation assistant r m did a phenomenal job organizing this event and our Civic leaders band and T leaders all helped to welcome the class of 2029 on September 6 we used our new turfield for the very first time as North football team dominated in our victory over Lacy mid nor nation was in full for a blackout theme and the players fan color guarders and dance team all time on September 18th we honor we were honored to have Jordan fomo present his on with an i assembly it was extremely interactive with a great message that our students really enjoyed High School North praise program celebrates students positive actions and contributions across the campus staff members identify students who demonstrate kindness compassion respect and Leadership throughout the learning community so far this month the following individuals have been recognized for upholding and modeling these ideals casy pone aelyn swy Isabelle attorney juliaa Shan Mora pendra de rucko Jessica F Natalie treza Lisa ropi Katie beer and Addison Lopez head of the pride High School North students and staff members of the month and staff member of the month recogniz program celebrates exceptional SC Scholastic achievements and highlights the positive influence of professionals throughout our building nominees for this distinguished award will be submitted at the conclusion of this week we are excited to honor the first recipent of our 2024 2025 Academic Year our bapst school night was held on Monday September 9 we had a great turnout as our parents viewed an introductory video from our Administration team as well as support overviews from our amazing teachers college and Military rep visits have begun at Middletown High School nor there are close to 100 colleges universities and Military reps coming to speak to the student body students sign up for visits as they are interested in run by Angel n night for the class of 2025 will be held tomorrow September 8 Sophia CH chtis was voted be North week three girl soccer player of the week dindle Park redid eight of their tennis courts and our girls tennis team open the courts vers Trinity Hall on Monday September 16th our Lions Club pewe school starts on Monday September 30 Miss Telly and her students cannot wait to start the new year in their class in their new classroom and our school can't wait to see our friends join us at preschool is really brightening the day for all of us in our school sh experience 2024 set for Thursday October 10th this event enables students ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade to join the squad for a football game birth R event we will have a pink out even event that evening where proceeds will be donated to breast intentions a local charity that provides immediate support to local women Bing bre we of respect will be recognized throughout our school from October 7th to October 11th each day will feature a CommunityWide them personal announcements and a mini lessons from Miss Smith our anti-bullying specialist we are proud to have Robert Frank editor and chief of Princeton Review comp North on Thursday October 17th from 6:30 to 7:30 with his finding bestfit College seminar for college bounds 10th to 12th creers and their families Mr Frank will be sharing his expert advice with regards to all admissions process focused on deciding factors When selecting a college while colleges are really looking for an application in the true cost of attending college and much more the PSAT and National Merit qualifying s will be administered to all 10th and 11th graders on October 21st lastly Mr Maria Fetti the Middletown High School n North guidance secretary is retiring October 1st after 27 years of commitment in the district thank you for all of your dedic D years of service to the children of mown and enjoy your well-deserved retirement thank you hello everyone my name is Sophia CCO I'm a 12 gr at Middletown South and honor to be selected chosen student speaker for the 2024 2025 school year firstly the beginning of the school year is also a great start Senior Open campus started on Monday September 9th with minimal issues Mrs hickin our anti-bullying specialist and Mr lson our Student Assistance counselor presented to the student body about topics related to student services and treating each other with respect in the recent student class meetings we covered several important topics we discussed updates on the cell phone policy the dress code the rules of the rules regarding tar and attendance we also reviewed the dating policy social media guidelines and Par regulations additionally we talked about safety measures including safety drills and outlin expectations for conduct at athletic events congratulations to South film students s films with Middletown High School South have been selected to be screened up this year's New Jersey school boards in Atlantic City on October 22nd and 23rd this event will showcase the many talents of our student filmmakers to the rest of our school boards from all over the state for the second year in a row Mi sou will have the most films being screened from any one school in New Jersey an assembly was held for all freshman on September 18th the assembling presented by Jordan Toma titled unjus with na Jordan Toma is a top financial advisor and motivational speaker who has overcome his learning differences and has gone on to do amazing things South additionally had a very successful back to school night on Thursday September 19th many parents attended all with positive feedback and lastly middle Town South Nation looks forward to upholding the title of the best Nation the thank you thank you before we get I want everybody to welcome our new student board members Megan and Ryan welcome everyone to move on to committee reports curriculum instruction Mrs far uh we met last week um covered a number of topics I'll just get some highlights I wanted to remind everybody about the parent University series uh that we have going on they started last year and they're available on the web it's a whole variety of topics 8 through 12 really runs the gamut um so we encourage everyone to check those out they're always reported and can be playback anytime got our first meaning of our seeler engagement groups which is their replacement for pi it was on P literacy and it was a great really enging positive meeting with parents from the community so happy to see those getting going um we have new school profiles up for high school north and High School South that are available on the website these are profiles that will um accompany applications of our students to colleges to kind colleges um an understanding of the great things that our schools have to offer and they're really impressive they were put together by um parents in the community so definitely check those out our freshman Frontiers program which is our um ninth grade seminar type program uh picked off really successful we had Jordan Toma as the speakers mentioned I was able to see him speak for the parent session in the evening he was really inspiring it was a really great opportunity for our students and Community um we talked about report cards a lot at elementary but just to reiterate we do have a new um hybrid model for grades four and five where they'll be getting a numerical grade in addition to the standards um grading that they have always had to just try to prepare a little bit better for the transition to middle school and there will also be some language shifts uh for K2 3 in ela just based on New State Standards those will be sent around when that's available for parents um we also have there's a Google form to give students the option how they like their High School transcript to be presented because there are a couple of different ways that can be done and depending on I guess where you're applying for schools or or post High School opportunities um might want to have it presented a different way so that's available to students to check out also wanted to just highlight that the assessment schedule is up on the website for all of the assessments that students will be taking throughout the year including the njsla dates I know at not so on back to school night they had said those weren't live yet but they are live and they're up on the website if anyone was interested in checking those out and that's it very good thank you Miss part the student services Mr Po yes thank you we also met on September 16 special services committee um few highlights to update the community about um just an update on something we mentioned last month which was the um kind of provision of in-class consultative model support in um world language courses meaning um you know in inclusion with a special ed trained person helping those World language teachers specialed students where normally those those folks are um those special teachers are used to Resource room settings they are now providing eight class support to World language teachers who typically didn't have that support for special ed students in the class um so that's starting up this year the training is ongoing and um uh only improving from there um another uh good update was that the the two high schools are working on uh continuing to work on their co-curricular C ERS meaning kind of a central repository where all students can find updated real time information on club meetings and things like that um I understand South's calendar is up and nors is almost up in London right so um uh that's that's really good news if you're not seeing something you looking for or your students not please definitely contact your building administrative team to to find out that particular event and also any updates you might want to you might think might be missing from that calendar um another thing we mentioned last month that there's been some progress on is this Central reach which is technology for our um it's an ABA software program for the the district's um um therapist teachers and rvts so transitioning from a pencil paper method of keeping their notes and communicating uh with families this is a more real time up uh you know state-of-the-art way of doing it to have more consistent um information and messaging for families and uh the last thing which un excited about was that our Orton Gillingham training which as most people know I think is um the reading curriculum that's been introduced for K through to literacy it's a um you know we we think we've been told and we understand from the research it's the way to go in terms of uh teaching literacy to Young based on the science of reading it's a multisensory approach that's often running in all the elementary schools for K2 but we're also glad to know that um training is going to be available for um other special services teachers and District as well and for child study team members uh so for example those folks who typically didn't know much about Orton Billingham are now be equipped to help out in IEP meetings to know that language and have those conversations so um all good developments so we love here so thank you thank you Mr P now going move on to open the microne for public comment on agenda items only let make a by agenda items only please step forward state your name address the record see no one stepping forward I wish to move on we have a proclamation tonight it is the alpha alpha Delta cap mon now there for us the Middletown Township Board of Education proclaims October 24th as Alpha Delta CA month in Middletown New Jersey and congratulations to the organ organization in its 77 animation now turn to microp phone to do Al thank you um I first want to just take the opportunity to thank everyone for an extremely successful opening of school it's certainly wonderful to have our students and our staff back in our school buildings uh with September also comes our back to school nights so we've been having them throughout the month of September they finish up um this week um so uh we've had great turnouts at all of the events across the district um very informative sessions and certainly very very well attended across the board um we will be starting the process as you know um of creating our new 5year strategic plan which will be in the time span of 2025 to 2030 it just seems impossible that those are the actual years that we're um talking about but if you are interested in becoming a part of the strategic planning committee you certainly um have access to links that we previously sent for you to um fill out your interest request and you'll be um put on that committee and we're looking to start that process in October I will be sending that information out again at the end of the month in my superintendence update and we have also passed that information along to all our parent organization presidents so they can share it at their membership meeting so we encourage participation and certainly um in it's and it's exci it's an exciting um time where we get to um plan for the course of action for the district for the next five years at last month's meeting the board approved our transition to the Jersey school boards Association policies we are still working with school boards to get that up and running on our website we have put a temporary link up there so that the public can access the policies that won't be the final way that they're um we're going to use their portal but we're um working through getting that up and running similar to how we used to have it with our old policy set but temporarily we have put it up in a Google Drive that's accessible to all um of the public in the inter um the north Turf project has been completed as um our student speaker mentioned and our teams have been able to play home games and practice on the turf field it is absolutely beautiful um the track portion is scheduled to be completed by mid October it is an overlay that is still on Target and on schedule to be finished um they will do it in sections and they will work around our home game and home practice schedule as our student speakers both mentioned and Mrs Farley uh motivational speak speaker Jordan Toma visited the district recently to speak with our ninth grade freshman Frontier students it was the kickoff to that new model for freshman and I have to say um I've seen a lot of assemblies in my day uh and at the conclusion of this assembly not only were the students engaged the whole time but they didn't leave the auditorium they went to the speaker because they wanted to engage with him more and I think that really says a lot about the connection that had with our kids in both buildings um and then his parent presentation that evening was equally as inspiring but certainly tailored um as a message for our parents and the immeasurable impact that they have on their children each and every day and um it was really inspiring and it was a message that we felt was appropriate for our freshmen to really kick off their four years of high school um our reset of student expectations regarding cell phone use during instructional time has been well received by our students and staff um and certainly how that looks is very dependent upon the level whether it's Elementary Middle School or high school um we have definitely been effective thus far in limiting distractions during learning time and because of this we are also seeing kind of the the incidental benefit of students actually using their phones Less in open block and passing times and hallways I guess when they're not engaged with it throughout the 80-minute block there's less of a propensity to want to get on your phone and you know see see what's been going on because everybody's been disengaged from their phones during that time so um overall it has a has had a positive impact I just want to say too today I passed the High School South um I'm not sure which C they're walking to the park for gy and like they're just everyone was smiling everyone was engaged it was just like very nice to see them all instead of their heads in the phone they were just talking and walking enjoying each other and when you walk in the high school hallways in passing time they're just carrying their phones right they're not really on them they're just kind of holding them which is you know which is perfectly fine but they're definitely engaging with their peers um which is which is positive and what we even hope for y thank you um last evening um the Board of Education and the township committee approved a joint initiative entitled the truancy mediation program and this is for situations where students are considered Trent um the goal of the program though is to provide families with resources to support the child in regularly attending school and rather than these Tru Andy cases being held and heard in open court um and really having fines attached to them our goal is to handle these more sensitively in conjunction with the township through a mediative process that's collaborative um we are extremely excited about this program because our goal is Educators is always to support our students and our families and being in school is extremely important um but you usually these treny situations are multi-layered and and need a a bank of resources to help families to cope with these situations so um that's exciting for us and we're very grateful for the partnership that we have with the township and the municipal court on this um coupled with that when we um started to engage in this discussion with the township it gave us pause to reflect on our current attendance policies within the district and we were able to take a look at some of the practices and protocols that we have in place for documenting illness related situations for our students um some of you may be aware that um in the past we would have parents hold on to doctor's notes until the end of a year where they would then go through an appeal process even if there was documentation of illness from doctor's notes and this I it can be stressful for both parents and students and having to wait in order to be able to present that documentation not knowing if you're going to be promoted retained or potentially using credit and that has VAR on graduation so we have decided to reframe those practices to take doctor's notes as they happen fluidly throughout the year and to not have those documented illness related situations count towards um true and retention or credit bearing if a student is in good academic standing um I'm a parent myself as many of us are I think pretty much all of us are up here and we know how stressful it can be when your child is sick they're missing school um and that puts added pressure on the entire situation and most often times the students make up the work they do just fine so we see no reason why we should be really pursuing those things or making people wait the full year to have that happen so um we will start taking illness related notes immediately um and they again will have no bearing on our internal counts for student absenteeism however the state requires us to report it differently um the state only recognizes um very limited situations for excused absences and that's religious holiday observance take your child to workday believe it or not and college visits so those are are the only things that are deemed excused in the eyes of the state however the state's accountability is simply for accountability reasons certainly we don't want kids to be chronically absent but we also know that illness happens and so we're looking to make a a change that's humanistic and realistic for um our school community so that will go into effect immediately and a letter was sent home today about that to all families so um again thank you for a wonderful start to the school year and almost full September already and we look forward to many more productive months than moving on to our approval of meing minutes I need a motion to approve nine a to d second discussion all in favor I oppose exensions motion to approve business office consent the agender 10A through F second discuss all in favor oppose extensions motion to approve recommendation of the superintendent of school consent agender 11 a through discussion all in favor I oppose exensions I need a motion to approve uh 11g second discussion I a roll call on G this is CTI yes Mrs Farley yes Mr pisero yes this is minues yes this is Sky yes Mr yes this is right yes this is tobacco yes Mr yes we're up to Old business we have any old business anybody likes to discuss new business business I mean I can report onp I attended uh sorry I have a new name now it's Middletown Alliance I attended that meeting um this past Saturday morning and the new program that used to be known as project plus so the um substance abuse and alcohol abuse prevention program is now known as Middletown Alliance leaders program all the new name changes are under the fact that we now have a new grant that is supplying uh the funding for these programs and most of the funding now is coming through this settlement from all the opioid cases uh although it's a very sad thing in terms of this is the funding now that's coming in for these programs it also actually frees them up in being able to do different types of program and different offerings whereas the old Grant was a little bit more restrictive so they're looking at actually expanding uh what they're going to be able to basically uh offer to the town so that was actually some good news uh the eighth grade program is up and running at the moment which is the shorter four-week cycle um but they have a good number of uh eighth graders in that program which was really good to see and then of course the longer program will be starting after that with the fifth graders uh from the different middle schools and they already signing up a lot of uh children at this point um what's coming next Saturday the 28th is Middletown day the celebration for our town uh the Middletown Alliance will have a booth like they always do at Middletown day uh they will be there um with all types of information and small giveaways so make sure you come see them at Middletown day and they are gearing up for some different programming that they'll be offering uh to the township you know throughout October November and December thank you very much to the public comment Megan Ryan would you like to add anything as a new board member you usually have to speak for about five minutes like to say say only thing that I have to say is that um I know Middletown South hasn't had a great turnout in like a big event I know North does the big bonfire but South have had an amazing turnout in the past four years that I've been here so this year we're trying to do a home coming for Tuesday before Thanksgiving so that's in the works we're trying to get fundraising to profit that all right thank you both for being here now moving to public comment on non- agender item if anybody likes to make a comment pleas St the microphone the name and address the record my name is g g Mar Ramos I live on Thompson Avenue about you were speaking about um the phones not being in school is that something that came on the heels of Josie Walters that uh she took her own life being bullied at school because I saw your commercial that angle not angle entertainment Jack tobacco prod is for you to bring R to bring up and we actually you Sarah wiste and I'm just seeing whether or not this was on the heels of that except the reason why there's no phones because I know you know the whole situation with her and I know the last time when I first came in that's the first thing I was told that I can not discuss it which it's under investigation but I did not discuss it but my daughter as you know M Patrick okay was uh also for she's 25 she's still here with us she lives in South Carolina but she was almost bully to death as well as Josie Walters and um she just didn't finish it but I don't think bullying lightly I I do think this school does I think middle to takes this takes it lightly until you're a victim of it I've never been a victim but I've been a parent and I've watched parents cry September 14 uh Gabriel from cardi Wells he found a lature around his neck and it's Welles it's not the US that sad he's 12 his life is just starting out Josie was 14 he said have sports play she was she was a good kid and like everybody always always told me you know what Gan Marine I think your daughter needs to go see counseling and that's what it was put down to in show remember an cendo she was the principal of Thompson I believe it was an pendo and I called Governor Christie and he sent people over and only then was I hurt only then did they want to have a sit down meeting with me when the damage was done and we sat down and a penda walks out and she says hey G Mary you're from Queens I say yeah I don't know you at all I've never met you the right doesn't know what the left the hand is doing at all Jackie you don't have to look at me because we know I tried to be congratulate you last year and you came right up to me and you snug me I said congratulations and you walked away everybody should know what's behind this thank you three minutes are please conclude your comments oh in conclusion to my comment I think there should be stricter laws on bullying I think parents should be fine I think parents should be fine you hit them in the pocket and then that trial comes home I I'm not I'm concerned with my child they get they get hit with a fine then you you double the fine then three stripes are out thank you I know you're done with me right talking is there is there a line behind ma'am it's not that I'm done with you talking it's that the board has a policy for three minutes and you you're well past your three minutes well I thank you for the extra two and a half minutes thank you anyone else wish to make a public comment instead of microphone leave your name you're P at Char D Middletown I just wanted to take a minute um seeing that Dr Tan is retiring to thank her um when she came in at least for me and special edit was kind of a dark time and I can't express what it meant to me to have somebody come in that believed in the law and the research and um and um help push for inclusion and um although there's still work to be done I think some great changes have been made um with her help and continuing with do superintendent alha for your beliefs and inclusion um when um you know special ed used to report the operations was more where do we put them versus how do we educate them so I think there have been some great changes and and again I I appreciate all her efforts it's kind of a thankless job at some but I just want to said I appreciate here anyone else wish to make a public comment even no more public comments I wish to adjourn the meeting and a motion to approve discussion all in favor I have a great night everyone um