##VIDEO ID:znl_9tO31Yk## e e e e e meeting call to order okay roll call Mr Alro okay M Calderon Mr dasta M CER here Mr leard Mr L yes thank you m Ryan here M dun here M Gomez here please stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible andice for all board statement in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the new board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time in place thereof posted in the burrow Hall and the New Milford Public Library notices have been sent to the record and the twin burough news the board announces that under its longstanding policy will not discuss in public any comments made by members of the public concerning individual staff members at this time please be advised that all cell phones and electronic devices are to be turned off meetings of the board are open to the public and all members of the community should feel free to participate before coming to the board the chain of command should be followed there are two portions of the meeting reserved for comments from the public the first at the beginning of the meeting for agenda items only and the second at the end of the meeting for other items issues raised by the public may or may not be responded to by the board but all comments will be considered the board requests that all members of the public be mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking due to confidentiality and legal rights afforded by the state of New Jersey members of the public are afforded are asked to not speak negatively or in a derogatory manner about any employee of the board or any student committee the whole I seek motion to approve the minutes for September 17th and September 18th Stephanie second by Page all in favor oppos I was 18 was not here okay like to start off with a special recognition some of our middle school students yes so first of all thank you for coming I know you were honored already at the middle school for your achievement uh Mr Dalal M Bardo the teachers who come came here today uh thank you for coming it means a lot they're on personal time right now so they're taking their own part they don't get paid for this they're coming back just to support you so that's wonderful it speaks of community in New Milford so I'm going embarrass you a little bit because in my last speech I said you got to really absorb the moment right this is big time so both of you just please come up right over here I guess I'm going to read a resolution so I have to thank Mr Dan PR he created these folders for you guys and then what we did was we looked at the state resolutions and copied it and Geraldine and Andrea they figured out how to do this gold stamp with like a real stamp and a boss stamp like that was the thing that really made it pop for us we're really excited um so I'm going to read a combined resolution present it to you we'll celebrate you and then you can go with dinner all right so it's a lot of fancy word okay but just hang in there so whereas the New Milford Board of Education who serves the New Milford Public School District is pleased to acknowledge Eden Clark and Sebastian kage as exceptional students at David E own's Middle School who have been selected by the secur the Securities industry and financial markets Association Syma as the 2024 in restri National winners whereas the Syma Foundation invest right program is an Innovative National writing competition in which thousands of students participate in the stock market game submitting essays from across the United States of America whereas Eden placed first in the nation and first in the state and Sebastian placed third in the nation and the Middle School Division for their expressive essays submitted in the spring of 2024 and whereas Mrs daily picardo teacher and Mr James delala principal as well as the families and our community are proud of Eden and Sebastian's achievements and whereas it is altogether fitting and right to the members of this board of education to pause in their deliberations to recognize these students on this extraordinary accomplishment now therefore be resolved by the New Milford Board of Education trustees hereby salutes Eden Clark and Sebastian kage as the Syma and best right winners and extend sincere best wishes for continued success in all future endeavors and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution signed by the Board of Education president M Gomez and myself be given to Eden and Sebastian so congratulations now we are forever in the minutes of of education and one day we'll be placed in a box be there infinitely right because we cannot destroy it so in 100 years you'll still be able to find it if you want so here you go here you go just give me a shake of your hand shake your hand please stay in new mford sure Mrs Ricardo [Music] the parents can also move up if you want yeah you can you can come closer you want one more one [Music] more going we've never had two winners we've been doing this over two decades number and we've never had two winners in the same year in the same year get involed nationally is a phenomenal accomplishment I think it speaks not only the students but the program uh to miss oasa allowing that to happen I wasn't even around this all happened previous to me but we have to celebrate successes Mr Del for your leadership family support it starts there as well and just the Board of Education approving this program allow it to happen so effort thank you to every [Applause] thank you for coming get [Music] we're just going to take a two minute break e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e third place to the fresh with 46 points second place of sophomores with 50 points and the seniors in first place with 58 points so that's exciting and then additionally at the end of spirit week we had our homecoming dance on October 5th this Saturday and it was sold out with 250 students and attendance we had a vintage carnival theme with a popcorn machine and hot Zees if I pronounce that right they were very good I had one so now after all that student council is beginning to math out the rest of the year and we plan on having fundraisers and events on MLK and that concludes my report forant anyone have any questions for which teacher did you dress up as iess up as I think one for Miss she was like a headman and she has like her shirt so I tried to go for that she was more distin yeah some people did really good IM everything I was like oh very yeah de left and khakis in a polo that's said on it so I was like he could be anybody this very well very good thank you and we know you're busy you do not have to stay for the rest of the meeting you don't want your mom you can watch iter print out thank you em Emma good night okay so now we have our presentation on the spring 2024 performance report all right thank you I know it seems long but we will get through it uh I want to thank waren for helping with this and doing this with me I'd like to thank Geraldine and Ron Watson because they sat through our Pig presentation and gave their opinions and you can always count on Geraldine and Ron to give their opinions and we thank them for that because it's constructive feedback so this is the assessment presentation for our spring results uh of the 20 24 testing Administration new mil Public Schools so basic assessment information um we're going to focus on pretty much four tests we're going to talk about three in particular the language arts literacy it's grades 3 through n basically Reading Writing vocabulary Etc mathematics is grades 3 through 8 but also involves specific courses algebra and geometry and then science is administ administered only in grades 5 8 and 11 these are the performance levels for the njsla for math and language arts oh math and language arts only there are five levels we always focus on level four and five that's meeting and exceeding expectations so we are good when students meet or exceed expectations obviously the next one we would want is approaching expectations this only applies to ELA and math science uses a different formula and they only four levels we'll talk about that when we get to it what do we ask ourselves when it comes to data basically there's three questions how will we use student achievement data as a tool how we use student achievement data to ID identify strengths gaps and Trends and how can we provide additional resource support for our Educators to meet the learning needs of all students so njsla these are the participation rates for the njsla you can see all grade levels are very strong 100% 98% a dip in grade8 and I am told and doing some research and with the help of some people eighth graders who felt like they were going out of District just they like to use the word opted out it's not opting out you can't opt out it's refusal of the test and it's a refusal of the test I'm going to talk about that in a little bit when we get the algebra one score specifically because it tells you what type of kid refused and what that could have done to our scores this is the performance trend for the district for three years so for the past three years in njsla the green represents all the students that met or exceeded expectations now 3 years it's not really 3 years CU postco this right here see my I have a laser where you can't see because the TV absorbs it in 2022 that was kind of The Benchmark postco so that set the stage then the P next two years are where we should see growth so these are the number of students that met were exceeded expectations in green are the gray levels were cohorts that saw growth this is a visual representation of that and I want to I want to break this down so the green is New Milford by grade level gray is the state by grade level so this shows how we compare to the state why this is important is because I have or we have no understanding of how hard the test is so we don't know how well they did for example and Warren and I were talking about this when we were coming up with this the NJ ASK science in 20123 we were getting 100% on NJ ASK science 100% two years later when they went to the njsla science 25% so and they did that in fifth grade so it's not even like it was almost the same cohort of children so we have to look at things relative to the test they're taking and I'll show you key insights to you so you can see if we look at 80% that's great right 80% pops off the screen it's 19% above but if we look here the 64% relative to the state actually did better 21% above was that test a little bit harder it BS to reason correct so we have here 22% above the state so and then here you'll see and I'll talk about this later I have three little Asters there we'll come back to this one and I'm circling it because you can see that's only 10% above the state so right there that gives me a little bit of pause and I want to look at we want to look into that a little bit more we should be based on demographic now I'm new here so I'm trying to figure this out and as we get more test data year after year we should be like 18% above the state you know that's like good right do we want to be more than that yes but we should have some standard for ourselves to try to get to and Mark where we need Improvement so I say I'm going to say 18 50 to 18 I'm going to say 18 right now so this is a lot of numbers this is distribution by achievement levels so this is not yet meeting partially meeting approaching meeting and and exceeding so so when we're looking at the slide typically we want to see lower numbers in columns 1 to three because those are the population of students who have not yet met expectations we want to see greater percentages in levels four and five the two columns furthest to the right um in just some notable achievements to share here in grade four the percentage of students meeting expectations um if you can follow that across right now you're looking at 42 actually increased from 38% in 2023 to 42% um this past school year and then for students exceeding expectations level five we saw uh 6% increase in grade five a 14% increase from last year in grade six that's for 202 3 to 2024 a 9% increase in grade 8 and a 4% increase in grade n um then all from 23 to 24 so it's a really nice achievement there to celebrate we are increasing here's the visual represent all this is is the visual representation of this so the green is the meat and exceeding the yellow is the approaching and yellow is very important to us because yellow look at as lwh hanging fruit right those kids might have missed meeting Expectations by one question or two questions or three questions right so that's lwh hanging fruit that we can make big gains so we look at that that 8 18% student wise is 25 students I also want you to look at these numbers up here you see where I just did the circle that's at 33% and if you look to the right of that that's actually 41% that's exceeding expectations so what we're saying there they those kids didn't just meet expectations they are exceeding so a third of that grade in grade six 6 is exceeding we're 9% away from half of the grade exceeding expectations in grade seven that's phenomenal all right so now this is cohort data cohort data you have to look at it like same kids over a period of time so we follow them and track them to see their growth again as compared to the state um one important thing to note here we began with the 202 administration of the njla if you recall the 2020 school year and 2021 was suspended and two Co um so we just went back three years following that same group of students so as an example we're going to focus just on these three cohorts just so you can see how we break down the scores so this is the first cohort so you can see grade three in 2022 as compared to the state how they did in grade four and then how they did in grade five okay and you can see the trend it's a slight upward Trend um maintained above the state this is grade 6 7 and 8 grade 6 in 2022 to grade 8 in 20124 you can see upward Trend again and then remember those three aspects I talked about the said we'll revisit and I said there's only a 10% difference and I wanted to look at that more closely this trend is annoying because we flatlined and the state gained so we have to take a look at that and like why are we losing ground on the state when we should be gaining ground on the state or at least even with the state all right this is same grade different student students so this is not cohort this is when we look at teacher instruction so this is picture grade three picture a Grade Three teacher you know Mrs Smith and this is her Trend over three years as the students leave her new students come in how does she do with them this is important data because it shows validity of the test in our eyes so you want them it was like 72 72 74 that means it's pretty pretty reliable data over time the test isn't getting extremely hard or extremely you know easy so it's consistent obviously there are bubbles sometimes but we look at this to identify gaps and instruction like where can we improve gaps and instruction in teachers if we see it di like this like what happened in grade three because we're going to Brown is the current last year right that's our most recent data so what happened in that dip 71 73 64 right this grade four one in black 69% that's the year coming off of covid we expect lower schooles so this is just another way we look at data this is subgroup comparison so the state makes us look at different subgroups we can't just look at the whole right how are individual groups doing this looks at race n size n is very important because we are not allowed to report any group that has nine students or less it can only be 10 or above so our Asian population and now to give this relevance what we have to do is we have to do a district average performance and now this sets the stage for where we're falling so remember those kind of big chubby bars in the beginning that was District performance that sets that line so now when we draw that we can see all right what subgroups are achieving beyond what our average expectation is and what subgroups are below so we can focus on that again Brown Beautiful Brown I don't know why we did that color brown is the most recent relevant year correct so we are doing very good in our race subgroups we do have one group that we want to focus on and we are taking a look at and making sure we're not doing anything to disparage them at all this is subro comparison again n size 9 based on program so some exciting things here we'll at current ml versus former ml this brown 2024 multilanguage learner is ml multilanguage learner these MLS used to be a current ml they graduated out of there with the weda and now they are doing phenomenally it speaks to our ml program that's a wonderful job usually ML and former MLS struggle IEP I would like to talk a little bit about IEP so IEPs this state does accom this state test does accommodations but not so much modification so the difference is they get extended time right they can large a print um but they're not getting anything modified where they're actually changing the curriculum or anything like that they're still taking the same test but little little things to make it more accessible to them this is a difficult test the Mr glossa will speak later about the dlm which is another assessment that is administrated to the um special education population so that uh subgroup there is not representative of the entire special education population who would have tested in the district I always like to look at Ela Math and Science and The Stereotype between male and female and you can see in the LA The Stereotype lives the females outperform the males I'm always curious about that economically disadvantaged is our free and reduced lunch students non is you know our nonf free reduced lunch students real quick notable achievements students grades 33 average 20% are better than the state of New Jersey in grades 345 specifically 20% or more of the students met or exceeded expectations grades 47 over a third of the students are not just meeting but exceeding expectations the Asian Hawaii and Pacific Islander and Hispanic subgroups scored 77% are higher across the district indicating they are higher performing subgroups the former M group multi language learning group and 504 subgroup scored 74% or higher this excellent I also want to point out that 14 students grade 3 through 9 scored perfectly on the njsla a perfect 850 score all right you like that one Bruce participation rates for math this I want to speak to a little bit so you see the participation rate for Algebra 1 Middle School 80% the students who take algebra one in 8th grade are typically High performing students so this means 20% of our highest performing students did not take a test again Food For Thought this is our three-year District performance Trend meeting an exceeding expectation again take out that 49% because that's the Benchmark so we are showing steady growth in me and I want to point out the ma sport every across the state the math scores aren't where we want them right but I'm going to show you there's certain ways to look at this where we are we are growing and doing okay in our growth and this you know shows that where we gain 6% if we gain 3% a year in anything we do in our lives right if my stocks went up you know 3% until retirement I'm doing okay met or exceeded expectations here we saw gains in four out of um nine of the tested areas which is always nice to see an increase from the previous year so our students who were meeting our exceeding expectations um grow across many areas I would like to say in response to some of the supports that we put in place we'll talk about that later this is the visual again okay so here are the graphs let's talk about this one this one interesting so you can see right here your eyes go to the 100% right love it I applaud it we expect it those are the algebra 1 middle schoolers those are our top kids we want that to happen we expect that to happen we are greedy when it comes to test scores so we like it right we also notice this 84% that's our geometry how this works is our Algebra 1 middle school students they take algebra earlier than everyone else to set them on track to get into geometry earlier so our typical higher achieving students are also taking geometry so I apped that score I expected it we expected it and we are proud of it if you look at some other things that's significant when you are 30% above the state at any grade level that is great because relatively the test is hard I also want to point out this because you look at 48% right you're like ah 48% that's terrible we're 27% above the state in that area I also want to point out our top kids are pulled out of that grade8 test and what do they take they take the algebra 1 Middle School correct and they're still outperforming the state I also want to point out yes I'm hard on these guys because I expect a lot of them with the 100% but the rest of the state is doing that too for Algebra 1 Middle School we're not the only one that Services Algebra 1 in eth grade the other uh districts are doing it as well and so it's a relative comparison and we're outperforming them which is EXC excellent um what pops into my mind maybe you know do we look at an extra honors course which would drive this score down but it would set kids on a different track so those are just ideas that we have to talk about the principal and there a b and everything else yes sir just a good question with that 100% and the um 40% so is it that maybe other schools and other districts um not the highest achievers taking algebra one whereas we don't offer that is that why they're at 40% we expect to be 100 or close to it so I think we have 22 to 25 students taking our Algebra 1 last year in 8th grade depending on how the schedules are set up like I can speak to Midland Park um they only had one Al one course just like we do here but other schools might have multiple Algebra 1 courses running at the same time that's why I said do we have to expand our course offering there now there's good and there's bad with that some kids are not ready to take algebra one and you force them into it and they're not ready and it actually creates math phobia they get disenfranchised from math and everything else so it's something that you have to do very cautiously and see the type of kid and take program I also want to point out we have to have good teachers here there's teaching going on in both our algebra one and I'm going to show you a graph in a little bit of this 48% and how how well they're really doing yeah we have been in in the past few years increasing the number of students that's one of our focuses following interestingly enough our last qack um when we were looking at performance data with our County Ed Specialists one of the things that they noticed was you know the number of students who were accessing Al one and grade8 and a goal for us at that time was really to hone in on that population and increase it which we have been doing and we've been pretty successful so can I have a question so I know this year though there's an algebra one in the middle school and then there's an there an honors are that in this last year's report is that both together um the algebra 1 students sit for the algebra 1 Test everybody else's grade eight math okay sorry there was a point and I don't remember exactly what it is there was a pre- so you you took a step can you explain that again what the step was that was taken because adding another it maybe what we doing is so pre-algebra um in grade seven has supported the increase of students who are ready like the Readiness of students to take algebra one and be successful in eighth grade right so we're prepping them sooner instead of taking just the students that naturally go to math not waiting until 8th grade to make the change did we brought that back earlier in their middle school um Continuum and preparing them and do we think that that's also possibly what's helping the grade eight test as well because those students have had that so maybe they're not in algebra but they they're exposed to exposed to exposure them that opportunity correct and that's why everything is very connected especially in M where language arts is very spiral right it starts small but then it gets more complicated bigger spiral bigger spiral there are dependent practices in math that you need is prerequisites to get to where you need to so that's why we really have to we can't just move kids to honors and say oh we going do another honors we have to look at it talk toas talk to the teachers look at curriculum look at success because you don't want to do it and then it back fires yes you want it to be successful right now we're hitting success here so but we still have to look at it and always question yes and a lot of that work is done by our teachers working in teams not just following a program or a textbook and really being intentional with the scope and sequence of when certain topics and skills are addressed or covered um and personalizing it really I think that's really important work distribution by achievement levels so there are the five levels of expectation the green are are where we outperformed from last year um the green is meeting and exceeding when we look at this again there's the arrow I expect Algebra 1 and geometry to be closely connected right so that's why the arrow goes there those kids go there 47 students 30% in that approaching is 47 students those are a low hanging fruit we're getting into Co I'm going to move a little bit quicker just for for time but this is our cohort data so remember cohort data is students over time and their gains we're going to look at these two cohorts I think they're pretty interesting so you can see the gr 345 yes we're going down it's kind of parallel to the state that's not a typical for grade five grade five when they first started doing the Common Core years ago and then the njsls standards fifth grade got hammered hammered because basically they took the sixth grade content and moved it down to fifth grade and here's the problem I have a a young I have a son who's young for his grade and typically Boys in fifth grade who are young for their grade level have the hardest time in fifth grade because they haven't that abstract part of their brain has not been developed yet and so we're asking them to do things that really they're not ready for uh in terms of Readiness level and so when the state moved that down it kind of did service it doesn't mean they're going to never develop that it's just it'll take more time and it takes more nurturing and patience so look at this that grade eight right back to that 48 look at that so whereas the state is going down and when you look at that 48% you're like a that 48 that stinks we got to do better than that remember those are the same kids those kids are out of there but look at the state 31 34 20 and we're going 3850 to 48 the test is getting hard hard does that make sense so that's a great slide right there that's great growth this is same grade different we student level same grade different students so you can see this is the teacher again you can do cohort by this I'm just showing you fancy things now you can do cohort things so grade three to grade four to grade five that's what they look like right this is you know grade 6 7 8 that's that subgroup we just looked that cohort we just looked at in the previous slide but then look at this too that's nice grade 8 to Algebra 1 that's a nice increase uh not shown here but if you look at the table which will be available on the presentation that we post on the website you'll also see some really nice um decreases in the population of students who are approaching expectations so where there are increases in students moving there are decreases in students approaching which means that the population that we're continuing to Target for our small gr construction our targeted interventions and supplemental supports um are being are successful and responding and therefore moving over into that proficient category subgroup comparison race and size men and size net n again there's a district average performance we draw that line and you know the routine now who's under performed okay so we see black Hispanic which is interesting to me that Hispanic did okay n Ela right um and Matt is the universal language and um they fell short here so that's interesting Asian again doing very well wies are down there very well here is program again former ml very nice that's amazing IEP that's very hard but you can see a lot of our Brown subgroups are right there right mathematics we've shown an upward Trend in mathematics talk about 100% of students you know you know meeting at exceeding expectations 84% in Geometry 27% or more of grade 8 ments medic expectations compared to the state um and grades 4 74% of students better are exceeded which is 29% above the state Norm in the Asian Pacific island or subgroups outperform the average across the district i' would also like to point out there were how many math students got perfect School scores four like can graduate njsla science in a weird twist the state doesn't do five uh performance categories they shrink it down to four I have a lot of problems with njsla science I'll try to keep it to a minimum um three and four proficient Advanced proficient is what we're looking at this is the newford proficient Advanced proficient state comparison this is grade five the threeyear trend we are grow going up nice we're making good gains 26% remember is The Benchmark here I don't want to trick you either you see this this is not out of 100% it looks like the graph is higher than it is see it's 60 so we we just pair back the graph to make it more visual because otherwise it' be at the bottom um you can see they're going up grade eight not so much we are looking into this we have ideas we're going to talk about it in the science at the intervention slides at the end and now look at this trend grade 11 doubled in just two years where the state is going down that's a positive trend we should be very proud of our teachers of our students and the interventions we are already doing in science distribution by achievement levels same old remember there's only four we combine meet and exceeding if you look at numbers and this is the math person in us you know every kid in grade eight is 65 point so if you have 88 students in there right and you want to move a third you'll gain 20% so that's the math aspect how we look at it because again that's well hanging fruit and a couple of these kids I would guarantee a third of these kids probably missed by two or three questions one to three questions so that's a little hanging subgroup comparison you know the routine we draw our line and we see look at our 504 is dominating right now 56% that is phenomenal and you know I always look at The Stereotype males outperform with females in science which is The Stereotype unfortunately and we look at that we're always trying to provide more opportunities in the future for females and the Sciences science grade five notable achievements grade five has increased 8% of the test two testing Cycles grade 11 is doubled it score and students with 504 outperformed all other subgroups dlm dlm is dynamic learning Maps these are conducted one to one it takes a lot of time to do it these are students with our most severe disabilities um so they do not qualify to take the njsla it would not be fair so it's more Hands-On testing visual testing they do take it for science math and language arts because Essa which is the United States you know overall being says every student has to be tested so the DM was created for them there are four categories emerging approaching at Target and advanced and this is where they panned out emerging 71% approaching 12% um this is in language art literacy now this is grades three through n okay this is all combined this this is math and this is science they take the science is interventions um none of this really should beew I feel like we've spoken about it probably at different times and um quite often throughout each of our school years uh but you will see some um refined practices so we begin with the implementation of the newly aligned k 12 curriculum in ela as you know these New Jersey student learning standards were um revised in 2023 this alignment or curriculum alignment ensures consistency and instruction across all grade levels while promoting educational Equity our goal is to provide every student regardless of background or ability with the same high quality Ela instruction um to build strong literacy skills essential for success um we're continuing and expanding upon our professional development a key component of our response so through the use of IND District consultants and staff developers um we're focusing on refining instructional strategies and classroom practices this will help us equip our teachers to better meet the diverse needs of our students and ensure that they are prepared to succeed in reading and writing uh often times I talk about professional development in-house versus out of house we have um really benefited from bringing our consultants in because they're able to work with our teachers and our students in our classrooms um with our resources and I think it goes a really long way and it's not just a sit and go um Workshop or training we have planned vertical articulation meetings for grades teachers in grade 6 through 12 these meetings establish a basis for for common assessments and assessment practices across courses and grade levels by continuing to unpack um the newly aligned standards we aim to create a cohesive framework assessment framework that reflects the realigned curriculum and effectively measures student progress so it's the implementation of the newly aligned curriculum and then aligning our assessments to um to that and and then we talk about some of our reading programs we this summer were able to train our elementary spe some of our elementary special education teachers um in the Wilson Reading Program which is a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading it is a structured reading um program that is especially beneficial for students with learning disabilities um maybe dyslexia or other reading difficulties and it provides them with the tools to successfully navigate and Tackle texts um in general education as you know we are continuing our use of Project Read it is a foundational reading program a structured reading program that complements our balanced literacy framework it is also multi-sensory uh phonics based approach that helps all students especially those who struggle um with reading and helps students develop a strong decoding um strong decoding skills and phic awareness math some of these are you'll see that we do the same kinds of thank you okay as part of our ongoing commitment obviously to educational Equity we are similar to ELA also implementing the newly aligned curriculum um in mathematics aligned to the new standards ensuring that instruction is consistent uh with the most current njsls and um ensuring that all of our students are receiving high quality instruction to support this transition we are engaging teachers in focused professional development again with IND District consultants and staff developers um we made some changes for this current school year and um we're honing in on effective instructional strategies and practices that enhance student learning and Mathematics for grade kindergarten through five or elementary schools our focus is on math fact fluency and formalizing assessment practices additionally we um will continue to implement math talks a strategy that we had talked about last year which are short activities designed to elicit multiple problem solving strategies and provide opportunities for students to reason about relationships between numbers and make connection C in mathematics in 6 through 8 as I had mentioned last evening we are currently researching new core programming to um better align with the new standards um the in high school we're we also this year introduced a new resource called math medic which follows an experience first formalized leader method so um this approach encourages students to work collaboratively to think think discuss and construct their understanding of new content before the teacher helps formalize definitions and formulas so let them do a little bit of that leg work prior to the teacher giving that direct instruction uh promotes critical thinking and deeper conceptual understanding in math and we are continuing and expanding our use of uh linkit or local benchmark assessments to regularly uh monitor or progress monitor um student progress and then analyze that amongst our teachers it helps us uh measure progress toward the Mastery of New Jersey student learning standards identify learning gaps and really determine where um appropriate academic interventions uh should live in science we are expanding our professional velopment that we often talk about in English and math um into other content areas we have consultant who have already been in District working alongside of our teachers focusing again on instructional strategies and practices um a key focus of this professional development is on implementing interdisciplinary approaches that align with the New Jersey student learning standards um this will help Foster critical thinking and provide students with a deeper understanding of real world Concepts in response to Performance data and a need for more consistent science instruction we've adjusted our Middle School schedule um this year students are receiving daily science instruction this creates continuity uh providing students with more frequent frequent and sustained learning opportunities in the content area which will allow us to reinforce ke Concepts and improve overall student outcomes and to this last one is something that we're exploring but we're kind of dancing that you know that um delicate dance we don't want to over assess students um we are mindful of just how much um our students sit for assessment so we're looking at the um uh benchmark assessments in linol for science we're looking at how um we might be able to utilize these resources resources to um identify learning gaps and provide interventions but not necessarily in a as formalized of a way that we do with Ela just because you know with the benchmarks and you know we do that at least three times a year the ongoing progress monitoring can happen you know in any given area on a bi-weekly basis and then which are very short they're not like those longer assessments and then you have the spring which we have standardized assessments we're looking at you know end of course assessments and um we don't want to Max the kids out which was a nice lead into the next slide but I'll I'll go back to this one um these are yeah right you know could puzzle okay um these are some of the knife supports that we we have in in place kind of supporting a sound structure or strong Foundation as we continue to assess and address student performance across all content areas we are committed to um these following key strategies the continuation of our multi-tiered system of supports or mtss we will maintain and enhance our implementation of tiered supports ensuring that students receive targeted inter interventions based on their individual learning profiles um it allows us to closely as I had said before monitor suum progress identify if there is a lack of progress intervene in a timely manner and um also focus on specific subgroups to uh support the performance of all Learners the continuation of K12 co- teing assignments and ongoing professional development we will sustain and expand um our co- teing assignments across all grade levels as this collabor a ative approach continues to have a positive impact on student outcomes I'd like to thank Dr Pro uh for continuing this meaningful professional development which is provided to these teaching paers to ensure that they are fully equipped to maximize the benefits of co- teing allowing for differentiated instruction um you know that meets the diverse learning needs to you know it's no longer one size fits all and it could look different for all students uh we will continue conducting targeted walkthroughs this is an important part of our process these targeted observations across all content areas allow us to monitor our instructional practices provide timely and constructive feedback uh to teachers and ensure that our curriculum is being implemented with Fidelity um it is a key step in refining our instructional strategies and supporting teachers and their ongoing efforts to meet our performance goals and our year-long uh professional learning Continuum is supported by that District calendar we talk about those morning meetings which provides times for uh ongoing professional development collaborative planning and uh vertical articulation opportunities for staff across all grade levels and content areas this to see a focus on professional development enhances our ability to respond effectively to Performance data and ensures continuous Improvement in instruction so by focusing on these targeted interventions and supports we're taking deliberate steps to improve student outcomes and ensure that every child in our district has the opportunity to achieve academic success uh as I've often said this Statewide performance data or assessment data is one piece of that larger puzzle there are many different measures that we look at um and we regularly analyze and unpack in our teams so I I also use the analogy of a single snapshot versus a scrapbook right uh many different kinds of artifacts will give us a more comprehensive picture on each student's learning profile um yeah and I also just wanted to I had a little disclaimer that you know while important to acknowledge that we have good intentions when it comes to wanting our children to increase their academic performance it's also important and essential to balance academic success with the overall well-being and personal development of each student um you know really acknowledging stress and pressure um when students are losing interest in normal activities and and just being mind of not overemphasizing the um test SC any question yeah um the 504 um especially in terms of science and I'm not sure if my question is Mr Orum in um correct me if I'm wrong I may have a follow ask the first question the 504 students typically um or often U have an accommodation of additional time is that correct I mean there there could be others but typically if I yes so so my my thinking is because I was looking at even math is a little higher right than than Lang charts is it do you think that that number in science is because they have additional time to work through a problem and and whereas other kids don't have enough time based upon what the state is trying to find out [Music] so on the surface i' would say yes time always helps if a student uses time a lot of pro a lot of times and you know we were looking at there's ways in the mjsa math and Ela that where we can figure out when students just ignore a question because there's just zeros on it like an essay the research Sim essay is supposed to take you 40 minutes right if you write down anything they'll give you a point and they're getting zero so they're just blowing it off right that that's probably not time that that's they're just blowing it off I think if students utilize the time yes I think time is a factor when students don't utilize the time then no time is not a factor so I think those 504 students are taking their time and using their time wisely I will say that but I don't want to just equate time just excess but like if you use that time yes it just seems to me like I'm not familiar with the test I've ever seen personally but like you know if if it's line with jar uh section right and and you're asking Define which of the following is a Geral right like know right but with math and with science right you're now you might have to actually be working stuff out and and that might take additional time for I'm just curious yeah I I think you're on to something or has to be something because the 504 scores in science are atypical yeah atypical but that's why we like to do that and put that Visual and do the subgroups and all that because it's like what what are we doing there and time is the first thing that came to my head so and then I'm done but like if you go back in the other direction away from the 504 students right I wonder if the state's evaluated are we giving the general population of of students enough time to answer these questions because it seems like if the 504 students who might have additional time are able to do a good job of answering the questions I wonder if there's just not enough time on test for the general or for a lot of population you know that's just my fault that's hard test hard test science test is a hard test P so in in the years in the in the many years of this with the testing and the participation and the uh refusal to test not opt out um it is very unusual also to see the population that takes Algebra 1 in eth grade refusal to test so my question is because when I look at it it's 80% there but then it was 89% for in that eighth grade population for language arts that it was 89% in that so it looks like it's probably the same students are refusing to take all of them so I know you mentioned you know maybe they won't continue on in New Milford and that might have been a a factor but there that's happened before and this is so this is unusual so is there an effort to figure out what that was so like specifically educating and saying this you know I I don't know I'm I'm just curious because this is in all the years that the tests has come the tests have come out when Park came out well yeah that was even that we didn't have as high of a a refusal to test rate I mean that's that's amazing Park some districts were getting like 80% refusals we did not um so that so that's why I'm curious what happened here in that one population so I can only say this I talked to Mr manip because those students would have been potential ninth graders now we've identified all those students yeah um who left where they went and at some point we are going to send a survey to the parents and inquire like hey you know if you don't mind you know what no judgment you know why did you choose to leave the district you know and stuff like that and possibly maybe incorporate now that we're seeing that you know right and and just anyone like I said even in park we didn't have this High I know we we we do have students each year who may not be continuing in Ware but this was one of our larger um populations who departed yeah and I don't want to keep mentioning that because I don't want toow a certain group of people because I can't say what I'm saying is it's happened before we park was like preparing for the worst and our our rate to refuse or refusal rate or whatever refusal to test rate was extremely low that's awesome and remains extremely low we really have never had this much before so something dominoed there correct you know like where maybe one or two kids did it and then it became the popular thing and I'm doing it so you're going to do it so sometimes depends who does it and then who follows correct so it's just I'm just curious so if we if we do ever find out what that is because I wouldn't want to see it become a thing a trend yeah listen take take those 20% of kids and put them put them back in the test course do pretty good and they opted out of sign did they opt out of sence participator probably most say it's the same so I'm just assuming I could be wrong okay any other questions I do I have one more so the the I'm sorry the dlm um so he said it's conducted on a one you know one-on-one basis it's a lot of Hands-On it's visual right for that the major the large majority of that population was emerging yes so for students that are not in that population I'm pretty I can pretty much see like I've seen it you know repeat it over and over um for this population what does that say do in terms of what we are doing because again you absolutely right I believe this is one piece in a much larger puzzle about every student and so it doesn't necessarily reflect on their overall you know success I just don't know what we what do we do with that now so we have to take test results for what they are sometimes and say what is best for the student so some children with who are have the most severe needs right right maybe the goal is to get them basic understanding language arts basic understanding math but teach them to do other task oriented things that will be more beneficial to them so I know um in our IBC programs you know in the high school specifically like they they kind of sacri sacrific is the wrong work because they're just doing something differently at a different time they have that program with the bins you know and and they they teach kids how to do tasks that will benefit them in future life you know rather than having them write a five paragraph essay compare and contrast theme and all that stuff so it's a matter of how much really going to all out your time and sometimes you know test scores sometimes you have to take it on the chin a little bit you know based on what's beneficial for these kids and I think you know Dr per will advocate for her kids very much so in her programs and uh we do have a great special ed program here so I don't want to disparage that in any way I don't think I don't think you are as well I think it's just we have to focus on what's best for the students and you know really what's good for the future that's how I and listen I'm new here two months so but in talking and working with uh the special populations Dr PR is oasa the teachers and walking around the school tools that's my feeling is that they have goals for them and sometimes they don't always rign to the state and I'm saying that's okay for certain for certain not a standardized test thank you sorry Haven Andrew actually was about DM as well how many how many kids did take that all do all of them in their population take it or do they I I have the numbers um but we we typically go with because it is not obviously as big of a as the general numbers we stick with the percentages that's not identifiable but I can that for you you have to be a specific uh I guess specific disability like you're not allowed to just put everyone into DL I think you're only allowed I think you're only allowed a certain percent of your overall population and then you have to go for a waiver actually and you know um because they don't want people just going oh well we're going to take a DLS and then now you're refus not confusing you not taking njsla and we're saying well where does the dlm stop well are resource room kids going to start taking the dlm2 so they're very the state is very very strict on what disabilities can take it and what percent can take it and if you can't have 5% 10% of your kids taking it 17 students Ela 17 students math and signs we had under 10 the district very small any other questions okay thank you for that report okay super intend schools work all right all right go power love the power um all right Miss Jane Schwarz is retiring uh so I like like to ask you to accept the resignation but with regret she's been teaching music for 29 years and has served served in the music department at all levels Elementary up through high school she's instrumental in the chorus instrumental in the musical she leaves behind a lot of proteges because as soon as she retired we started getting people reaching out to us that were former students of her who want to take after her and fulfill her shooter which was very sweet so there's going to be some competition for this job I believe um which is great you know that is great but it shows the impact that she had on her students that inspired her to want to not only follow their footsteps but come back to the same school where they were so it's pretty nice uh we're in the process of transitioning to a new website and this work started you know prior to me but we are trying to finalize it there's a lot of moving parts to the website uh we are excited about it we think we'll be cleaned up a lot uh parent Square feedback so far has been very positive I've been hitting the PTO meetings and in the Gibs PTO meeting it was specifically asked how is parents Square going and feedback was great um the director of special education position the resumés are wrapping up um we're going to start first round of interviews on the 28th and the goal is to have a director recommended for the November Board of Ed meeting actually even though she's not leaving until February if we hire from out of District it'll serve 60 days for them to come here and start on time so that is our time frame we have three levels of interviews Athletics and cold curricular senior day it was raining but it was great I saw Miss CER there you know serving uh I brought my son it was great I had an egg sandwich he had french fries and we both had ice cream so now he continues to ask like can we go back I don't know I don't know if he wants to come and watch the football game or if he wants to eat the ice cream but he wants to come back uh here night so Brian her is a head soccer coach very emotional and you can even tell in how Mr Radell was speaking it's still emotional for him he passed away suddenly on Father's Day um he was a coach for us he coached soccer and he coached basketball for us so I'm glad we're still honoring him um and they also had the alumni game which was very funny watching it because you have kids running around and the commentator page you were there was making funny comments you know like get the oxygen and they're all in their early 20s um the sportsmanship Summit so we were in the paper um New Milford Athletics continues to be at the Forefront of sportsmanship in the county on October 10th New Milford High School hosted the sportsmanship Summit organized by conference administrators including Mr Riad Deli and njsa to go over the new uh spectator code of conduct and get the kids feedback so from all over the county uh kids and coaches came to to learn about it so it's great the article was attached in the board notes um Mr rodelli also brought in uh through the Jets a mental health awareness to get a sports certificate so the US Center of mental health and nor Sports organization to increase awareness and prevent mental health challenges in athletes and we don't consider that a lot of times the amount of pressure some of these athletes are under they're going to school dealing with assessments like we talked about we don't want to over assess and then they are on high stake sports team sometimes a lot of personal pressure and then they go home they eat and they pretty much go to bed and do it all over again so that's something and we always consider athletes oh they're very resilient oh they're tough you know mental health does not uh you know it's not it does it affects everyone girls soccer and volleyball qualified for the county tournament they did lose in the first round but it's a big thing for the the small District to qualify for the counties boy soccer and the bit won their first round boys football is looking to get back on their right track against Park rdge everyone's very excited and girls tennis is still competing they actually showed how flexible they were an extra team just randomly showed up at the last tennis match because not on our fault their fault they just didn't confirm didn't realize it was changed and sent their team so the coaches instead of sending them back we had a try me and it was great so I I thank them for being flexible just about the kids cross country won the league title for the first time in New Milford history congratulations Mr Kelly very exciting um it's a it's a great thing the north Jersey band Festival is at Clifton Stadium um to have a ticket to get in um and speaking of music program they're having a mattress fundraiser on October 26th from 10 to 5 uh Miss Heidi uh emailed me a number of times and wants me to talk about it so bring it out there there will be 25 different styles of beds on display for customers to try and cost less than retail stores in addition to beds there will also be luxury pillows premium sheets mattress protectors adjustable power bases and corduroy convertible chairs wow commcial that's a good advertisement and then the fall drama process is beginning right Dan y y auditions for the 12 incompetent jurors which will be the fall drama are taking place this week we wish everyone the best and that is it for my report thank you okay acting business administrative report brce Watson okay so I gave a pretty uh complete report last night uh I'll just highlight again uh last night we spoke about the to rofy jobs Gibbs being 100% completed and after tonight's approval for the last paycheck I can send my packet into the state to try to get some state aid back we're still working with them trying to light a fire over their uh review process as Mr GL knows I'm doing yeah all the time all the time working with them uh so uh we we have on October 30th we have the uh uh punch list which is the final look see kind of with our Architects on the high school roof so uh we're hoping that both of these roofs will be done by you know November first week of November which Meats this season and you know it worked out uh very well I also talked about the updating of the um sop manual uh it's it's quite a large chore hopefully we'll get it done uh by November if not it will be done by December for the board to review and look at hopefully approve a lot of work involved and that's uh New Jersey qack they going to be checking up on us um so we want to make sure we bring it up to date which is it's a little old so we want to make it little uh and and the following paycheck on the kitchen the kitchen uh was an expensive ordeal as or NOS um it was an unbudgeted item and uh we hand you know again I want to thank uh obviously Brian uh and who is head of our facilities did a great job working with us on this and our in-house maintenance people uh build they can rest a great job supporting it so our our gentleman jumped right in and obviously the company we hired that came in and they were so good to come in immediately because we had to get it done as you recall in just a few weeks before we started school so uh that was pretty positive so that is it great thank you okay any Lees on board committee report since yesterday no good okay any correspondents no okay open to the public for items on the agenda as outlined in Milford Board of Education bylaw 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be red in 3 minutes let seek a motion Page seconded by Andrew all in favor I opposed okay I seek a motion to close to the public Stephanie second my Nicole all in favor I okay pose so board action I seek a motion for BA 23- 2478 ba 24- 25.22 23 24 25 26 27 28 give me a second I have a quick question it's not a problem for me to vote on 23 2478 right because um in that do I need tostain or you are second it sure Joe second it all in favor I oppose okay educational programs and curriculum committee Stephanie coffinger I make motion to keep approval for C2 24-25 156 177 and 18 a second ni done all in favor oppose okay Personnel recommendation having the recommendation of the superintendent I seek a motion for p 24-25 2021 I'd like to make the point order okay um or and to table make a motion to table 24271 okay so Mr Watson's going to explain what we do for this process okay so so far so good it's the exact thing they start with where board member has said point point of order which is meaning that it's something not scheduled to discuss so his point of order he addressed the president of the board she recognized him he stated he would like to make a motion to table dos at one I'll summary that so he needs a that motion needs a second if there is no second the motion fails if there there is a second then we will take a vote roll call vote separately after you vote on all the Personnel items which you do then you will move that one out of that group and you will vote on it separately with a roll call that's how uh table motions have to be addressed so is there a second no I just have a question sure um before we decide whether or not to second that can we get more information about the reason maybe behind the point of order you're en you're entitled to ask that those questions whe whether the uh motion mover wants to answer them here uh or not that would be up to the motion mover um given that it applies to personel would be appropriate to go into close if the person wants to answer uh true but if we go to close I don't again there's certain things we can talk about in personnel and there's certain things you can't talk about so we'd have to make the decision in close session is it a Clos session topic right and if you're discussing personel I had yes depend depending on what the Top If You person I well let me if you don't mind so I'll second and and I'll give you my reason for seconding to table it um we have both fall and spring on the same agenda and so if we're going to fall right now I feel like maybe Springs a little bit that's my own thought I have no idea what angrew is but I why wasn't this discussed last night at the work session why are we not why are we doing this now when we're going to vote well since it came up after the work session this is the way we're going to move forward you know we asked Mr Watson for his advice on this so if Andrew wants to speak on why maybe he wants to think okay I say a louder for the record okay Andre do you want to say something first before forward back to what Joseph this is very early for this and obviously we've in the past put in procedures of the process of hiring coaches and it just seems like this is very early in the process for spring coaches yeah I just wanted to make sure and I and I appreciate those answers from both Andrew and J I just wanted to make sure that we weren't casting any kind of negative light on any of the coaches that were already on the agenda right so um in light of that yeah I'm in favor okay so since we have a second we'll go through the other ones first vote on it and then we'll go back to this one if we want to approve but after we we don't vote on the tabling we just so when you when you call for the motion right to vote on the pack you have to say excluding 71 okay then you vote on them and then now you bring up that 71 as a separate you vote on okay mess up this time okay SE a motion for p 24-25 21 22 27 34 57 59 34 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 6970 72 73 and 74 and need a second Jo and then roll call for this without that one excluding yes excluding P2 24- 2571 correct okay so I will not call on those that are absent we know that so uh we have um uh starting with uh Miss caringer yes Mr Lombardi yes Mr lunam yes M Ryan Yes M Dunn yes M gz yes okay so now we're going to do roll call for p24 oh no we're doing roll call if we want to table it correct okay correct roll call very clearly to table if you vote yes that means you going to table if you vote no you're against table very clear right so okay one more time so for vote on p2425 71 M coffinger yes yes to Mr lard yes Mr lunam yes M Ryan yes because we have time I don't know any other information want to say that okay Miss done um no because there wasn't enough information to for the board to validate why we're doing it and Miss Gomez yes motion passes okay finance and Facilities committee would someone else like to speak up for charl today Joe um I'd like to bring a motion for f 24- 2574 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 95 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 and 96 and a second Stephanie Cofer all in favor I oppos Athletics co-curricular committee Nicole dun I seek a motion for ac24 D 25.7 8.9 And1 and again I would like to thank all the people that we are approving because they are volunteering I would also like to thank all the volunteers yes and Page are you second or you have a question okay second all in favor I oppose okay policy committee would someone else like to on the policy committee to through Page um okay so we have a second reading so I moot I make a motion to approve on the second reading P 24- 25.1 um which is p0141 P220 P 3160 R 3160 P 4160 rag 4160 rag 5200 P 5337 P 5350 P 8420 P 8467 Ray 846 67 P 9181 abolishing the following policies p 01646 uh which is the I just want to make a comment here the remote public board meetings during the state of emergency is fin is abolished um P 72331 any a second Andrew all in favor all oppos okay any old business any new business okay open well I thought you were G to ask about the the marker today just kidding no okay open of the topic is outline of New Milford Board of Education bylaw 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes page seconded by anyone Stephanie all in favor oppose I seek a motion to close to the Public Public Joe seconded by Andrew all in favor I oppos any board member requests for additional information okay so we'll be going into close session it is hereby move that the Board of Education adjourn into executive session in accordance with the provisions of Section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL for the purpose of discussion and consideration of matters pertaining to the following subject Personnel of student the meeting of executive session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exist I seek a motion to go to close Stephanie second by Paige all in favor I oppose and we will not be taking any action when we come back so thank Youk thank you