##VIDEO ID:v_vHFi6YmUY## I call a meeting to order this is regular meeting of Board of Education par park today is Wednesday October 16 2024 it's 6:35 p.m. we are in Center par will be L by thank you first time ever I pledge allegiance The FL FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands godible andice for all please miss CH pres Mr Charlie Shin here miss Rebecca Lee here miss Suk Young Park Mr Aaron Pack Mr William Kim Mr Anthony Kim M Miss Bo Yu Miss Yun men Dr cillo here Bush Law Group here thank you in compliance with open public meeting act I hereby State the notice of this regular meeting has been provided to the public by a written notice dated January 14 2024 the Ving notice has been emailed to or members at the district three School locations communicate to at least one of the borders designated newspapers fire with the bard of Cl of P now we um move on to the working session that will review and discuss about the genda resolution before we take the for Action reg meeting so first about the approval of the V minut in September it's a special meeting but it's because we just moved the dates it was a regular meeting so um do you have any questions and discussion regarding the meeting minutes before we approve in regulation if not let's move on to the can we approve the special the Cru session minutes here as well um wait when we approve the meeting it include both the public meeting minutes and the Clos session meeting minutes but the Clos would not be appeared in on website any other questions so if there's anything to be discussed uh for the close session minute we can discuss here as open so we can appr here right no I actually I don't have anything to discuss but still it should be fixed right yeah yeah I would recommend first trying to if there's something in close session uh meeting minutes that needs to be corrected I would suggest first you do it directly with the ba who takes the minutes the board secretary and see if it could be resolved and then you can suggest it to the rest of the board in a revised uh executive session meeting minutes uh if there needs to be discussion though you can do that at an executive session for that purpose um for anyone in the poty request the V to provide like open public things orra for the meeting minut that we discussed in um um closing session that are we to provide that uh the minutes for the closed sessions are made public when they can be so depending on the reason for the privacy in the first place uh some topics the Privacy need never goes away so for instance like if it's a student disciplinary matter that's always going to be kept private um um but if it's a uh like for instance a sale of a property um and then once that sale is completed then those uh minutes can be made accessible cont any other discussion in meeting minutes if now let's move on to finance our we have 11 con agenda on the finance Mr Char could you address those 11 we have 11 items to be discussed in finance Comm one is Food Service voucher second secretaries and treasurers financial report third is the reification of V secretary's monthly certification and four is approval of the payroll and five approval of the bill list and six transport and seven students activity account eight the Lindberg locker room conversion nine staff members visitation and workshop and 10 maintenance budget work worksheet and uh 11 the comprehensive maintenance plan all this items were discussed in our Comm meeting and we didn't find any problem okay so it's comp incorporation why is the amount P different every week in September different uh amount we plac yes so this is uh our food service provider and because the employees may not have worked full weeks I think the 27th week ending the 27th probably the most accurate reflection of what twoe pay periods would look like for them um but I would assume uh that that is the biggest uh change so you mean the amount is different that is correct based on the number of employees okay thank you you're welcome another questions Finance let's move on to the next that's and one and two one is the skit night um November 22nd and then two is movie night octob 30 those are both as by the drama the breakfast is a yearly position asked by the graduating senior class uh for is State Kendo asking for the high school gy on November 23rd five is indoor s by the re um six is the Lindberg school parking L for cha tree run by the recreation as well seven is PP event on January 18th do you have any questions and disc yes number five indoor Saka theind school gym for indoor Saka practice this is from like Monday to Friday for three months every night okay which is quite excessive use of the gy and uh is this annual event or just for this year yes so uh I would go on record and say soccer has been one of our most um participated Sports both in our schools and clearly in the recreation department uh this has been a regular occurrence in years's past um as I mentioned in our committee meeting yesterday it looks like Recreation has also included one of our neighboring towns uh to participate um I don't know if that's been done in years past but fortunately for us uh if the building is available and there is no school activity we do try to accommodate the children in the community do you know how many kids are attending you I don't know what the recreation numbers are now but the stage or excuse me the gym is not very large so I don't anticipate many children on the stage at one time I know they're younger the games are at the high school on Saturdays each team usually practices about 30 minutes to 45 minutes how many 30 to 45 minutes per practice per team do you know how many students uh per team in the past anywhere from 10 to 15 okay uh I'm okay but uh just I'd like to point out one thing there the pide pide kids are just four or five okay so it's not enough the kids to use the whole gyms so uh they are collecting some more the players from the laboring towns like R Field okay so even like the more than the students in paride park more the neighboring Town students are more than the paride park students so we I'd like to urge them to find out more the paride park students attend this kind of events we do have a lot of students and we'll go on record and tell you soccer is definitely very large I Che with the recreation department and they said the par are only four or five four or five total have registered yes so well maybe we should go to Rich their gy they thought to find other kids from the neighboring towns so in general or just this one this year this year and also this number five also you mention you mentioned that this is collaborate with that is correct but why what why those information not reflected on this agenda Pal Park W made the request to us not which so whenever they do the um the joint events like this using our facility then um whoever submits whoever submits the request of use is who we're listing so this was Palisades Park recreation in the past our B is combined with neighboring towns that's the PPL Pal Park Leonia and we also accommodate them as well so this PPR that we used there PPL is Baseball Park for baseball right we use their not we use our schools for tryy outs for practice until the weather's accommodated and then we're on our little Le Fields when they choose the which school land which facility what school to use as a team how they make this I know that's a recreation question if you'd like we can ask them to alternate with other towns I know that would be inconvenience to our students but it sounds like not many of our students are participating but we are using our Z right correct currently that's the request okay so we have many questions the recation department so last month we discussed that we need to speak Recreation as well you know to to know more um about those programs they are looking to begin in November if You' like we can approve this for one month revisit it in November I don't want to this one start them away right this is start this program will start this is early November so prob so we can approve it for the first month and then we can revisit it is my recommendation if you'd like okay and we can find out more information on how many students and if maybe neighboring towns can also facilitate the use of their schools thank you and also number four yes and um50 security departy yes that's security depart that is not refundable corre that's correct that will go very likely potentially to custodial overtime because Saturdays we do not have anyone on regular shift we it plus custodial overtime correct if there's if it exceeds the 250 which it will okay so we will take the security deposit as an initial towards that one day onv that is correct so that's does mean that we are charging for dis events from 9 to 5:00 p.m. 500 p.m. and C do is intense sport martial arts that easily damage the floor as I told you that um do we have any plans I believe they put Max on the ground on the floor I don't want to confirm that without speaking to them um this event also takes place after our next board meeting we can table it I'd be more than happy to find out more information okay thank thank you any other discussion or questions building and ground so the first question for Kenda would be are they using any protecting mats on the floor is the board also looking for a rental fee on top of that how how I mean what do you think that we used to just rent out for free no not always because I've seen that we didn't charge since the summer that I've Us in those rent facility of was school and our facility that's been justed up so so we have a formula uh we believe that uh based on the amount of hours each facility is used with Recreation Monday through Friday 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. respectfully the building is open custodians are working it cost us nothing and I'm not looking to charge the town or the want right the creation understands but the um private party outside we can uh we can definitely seek a compensation package from kendam Yes um Sunny that runs the indoor soer just texted back about there's 150 kids signed up and 85% are P par okay yeah I thought so thank do you have any other discussion the next division is by the way um Dr s do you want to discuss the application for the US of school facility for now or I I think personally I'd rather solicit more information from the board members before we potentially put this procedure in place but uh over the summer I was asked by the board president to come up with a form uh an actual application for school facilities use I shared it uh or Alex shared it on my behalf with the board members um yesterday so if you have any questions I don't want to move on this just yet I'd like for all of you to process the form looks like this if you did not get it I do have one more copy with me um but I think we definitely need to update our form for use of facilities so please email me uh we will take any recommendations under consideration and hopefully move on this next month yeah um yeah this agenda came up because in summer we had to receive well we didn't officially receive but we found out that one of the agenda we approve was the information was correct and the the information was being I we thought this deliberately not shared so that we need to maybe officially res someday or maybe next month so yeah we just want to make anything like the transparence who wants to rent our facility for free when they are seing for the profit out of it and any Bo members if you are involed with anything please refuse when you vote so next agenda is a Personnel aent have like eight items to discuss one uh request for leave second salary adjustment request s the ESL after scho program Pro NJ Academy after the school program and five preschool parent Workshop six mentorship program seven option to after school program number eight appointment of steps total eight items to be discussed yes could you explain it's not about person in particular but you explain the ESL after school program itself sure uh that specifically I believe is number three three and that is specifically for Lindberg elementary school as you're going to see in a few minutes with our test scores um we obviously need to do more with many of our children uh but specifically children that come to us from foreign countries or are there more of a disadvantage so there's more uh time needed to try to play catchup uh respectfully uh I'm grateful that we have some teachers that are willing to stay beyond the school day I'm even happier that uh they're getting certified instructors with them uh to try to address those gaps that may exist can I ask one number five it is a preschool parent work can you just explain more detail of the work part of our um preschool program with the state the agreement is that we have parent programs uh these are various workshops that we'll talk about social emotional well-being for our children um different creative you know programs that we have in our curriculum um so these are programs instructed by our teachers and or child study team members and supervisors um that will be here with our students uh both present and potentially future do we have kind of special procedures uh so we obviously we plate to our audience we want to make sure that with procedures I'm not sure if you mean translators or I'm not sure yeah of course we will have translators available if needed for the community um but we really are here to answer many questions but talk about what goes on on a dayto day thank you any other questions okay next next agenda is curriculum lber School lber SCH schol again heal Farm Farms heal farm farm Tranquility Farm science so the has not been corrected just the any CR it's so to have that what if it rains on this day do we have a rainy dat yes uh great question so there's always a rain date um we would obviously need to approve the rain date as well um so I don't have those currently but I'm sure we will have those readily available excuse me can you do me a favor okay when you say over there okay it's very hard to hear this we have even the more people than the council meeting but uh we don't have mic So when you say something over there can you say a little louder I can hear that if there is a rain it's not on the agenda tonight we will have it for you what is the work based learning so we have special need students who we are uh trying to prepare um or better prepare for Beyond high school and their careers so these are opportunities I'm very grateful that we have the teacher in the audience uh that goes above and beyond the normal scope of a school day and might be a trip to the borrow Hall like we've done it might be a trip to shoppr right as being requested here um many of these children are also being taught life skills which is going to be critically important for them when they graduate from our schools Charlie you heard I can hear you well but I inan the I got a sore throat you understand L are you talking about me no I'm going to get microphone and Y talk oh um she said if there were a limberg students no they're high school students so upon graduation this is a high school program we try to and we've uh we' we're going to continue it we do like to bring our high school students to limberg elementary school as well to work with Children of similar disabil types so at the very least everyone uh and really this is an opportunity that children learn from each other um and we could keep some of our most severe special needs children in District and help them be more productive in our community especially okay um anybody member have more questions discre negotiations we've had another meeting nothing else to report thank you newg School Board alterate is not here today let's move on to count schol board rep alternative Mr Aon bu you have a report today nothing report um School Safety and Security committee stand is not bus do we have business today Dr we do not okay so we're discussing this is HIV self assessment submission be resol that the parasite boorder of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves the submission of the district HIV self assistments to the New Jersey Department of Education questions discussion uh over here yeah Mr so who are taking this uh District HIV self assessment very good question uh so for the record every year by October 31st we as a district each of our schools has to do a self assessment um the school has a anti-bullying specialist um we have an anti-bullying coordinator in our district uh the good news is that we are just submitting it this is a submission that's all I'm seeking tonight the state then will review our findings and they will give us a grade um last year Palisades Park Junior Senior High School's final grade was a 68 out of a possible 78 there are different categories that you are graded on this year our self assessment we are at 70 so we are showing Improvement Lindberg elementary school last year was a 74 out of 78 this year we to are at a 74 The Early Childhood Center last year was 73 we again are at 73 so my ask of the board is to approve the submission of our self assessment so we have gotten better or stayed at where we were last year the categories are on different programs we offer to our students um the amount of school level bullying cases we have So based on the metrics we have to submit a report okay but it's not a final report it's just our self assessment okay and uh how exactly would we be able to to uh get get those assessment scores to Y so every year it's a good question again every year after the state certifies it it is on our website uh so here is what last year's looks like so every year if you look on um our you can just do a search on the website on the search box uh Hib hi grades you will see the last I believe probably about 10 years are listed after the state has their final grades they submit it to us and we have to submit it on our website again so the last one you'll see up there is 2122 what I'm asking for is a self assessment now of 2223 so we're always one year behind any other questions I have a motion to close the working session and go uh move on to the regular session I'd like to make a motion to close session and open the uh you know regular session or in paper okay my report so next two weeks starting in on October 21st there will be um New Jersey board convention in Atlant City so many board members and our administrator will be away for week and don't tell them you told them don't tell them oh yeah sorry I should have talked to you first no I'm just um so Bo members um there's some new boild members who never been attended but this is the great opportunity to educate yourself and this is the um most effective way of learning about the body business for in my experience so if you could make a time please do join this convention as much as possible and so Dr do you have a superintendance reports uh part of my report is that every year in the month of October and I apologize um it might be overwhelming but I thank Mr Fallon who was here with me tonight unfortunately Mr Garcia could not make it so Mr Fallon and I are going to do our district test uh presentation uh we are for the record um we are going to share what is required but there are many additional slides all of the slides will be on the website after this presentation additionally it will be shared with all board members um there are many requirements that we must share we'll talk about some of the data uh we will obviously um only be able to answer questions of the board at at this time because we're still in our regular meeting um but with respect to our grades um and our standardized test scores um we'll start with this presentation should be no more than five minutes I hope if you can just bear with us I hope Patrick that means start speaking now and fast okay good evening everybody um so uh as Dr Sol we're going to be going over all of our test SCS for the 23 24th school year um in the three uh district schools the uh assessments that we're going to talk about tonight are the uh New Jersey student learning assessment which is which is the njsla uh that takes place at Lindberg the high school in mathematics language arts and science we're going to be talking about the NJ GPA which is a high school assessment um the access test for elll to English language Learners um which takes place at all three of the schools and this is a test for all multilingual Learners in ESL and ml programs to take an assessment and then the D learning Maps which is for special education students we are are we don't have any students taking that exam in 2020 in 2023 so we won't be reporting on any of that test interpreting scores for each assessment uh for the New Jersey student learning assessment in language arts and Mathematics it ranges from levels one to five the area that we want to be in for students is levels fours and fives because that is proficient proficient or Advanced proficient that's where language arts or mathematics in science level three would be considered proficient and four would be Advanced proficient a quick comparison this is for limberg school first and then we'll get into the high school uh this is a Qui comparison of grades 3 through six uh students are tested in grades three through six at wiberg elementary school in ela and math and then in grade five for science um as you can see here briefly uh we showed growth in three out of the four areas and in grade six we showed the highest growth about 2 percentage points and we actually beat the state average in grade six language arts in mathematics um it's a similar showing we stayed the same in grade three uh grade four and grade six increase we beat the state average in grade six again uh for mathematics and grade five we had a dip but we're currently working on that to remediate that grade level um these These are obviously overwhel overwhelming to we're looking at the green the green chose proficiency this shows lomberg School in 2023 lomberg School in 2024 and the state average so you can see this is grade three grade four grade five and grade six in language arts so there are certain areas as you can see grade four had a large area of growth from 2023 to 2024 grade six had a large area of growth from 2023 to 2024 and again beat the state average for uh students in that particular grade level in mathematics it's very similar you want to see a reduction of red and an increase of green so grade four did very well and grade six again uh managed to pass the state in our assessment data uh some notable achievements for Lindberg school for last school year um in language arts we grew eight percentage points from year to year on average so from grade three to six from 2023 to 2024 our students increased eight percentage points in language arts which is a huge amount of gr um in breaking it down a little further in grade three and grade four grade three increase three percentage points from meeting to exceeding and three percentage points decreased and not meeting that's lowering the red increasing the green grade four Ela we increase seven points and then two points in not meeting and eight points in partial grade six as I mentioned earlier was 58% proficient so 58% of our sixth graders now seventh graders scored either proficient or Advanced and then in grade six we were 5 percentage points above the state average which was 53% we were 58% proficient in mathematics we had a increase of two percentage points from last year we've been continually growing mathematics over the last three years after a shift in our curricular programs so we we grew the two points in grade four we increased nine points from previous year and decreased two points in not meeting and then in grade six increased 11 points in meeting and we went and we decreased six points in not meeting where we spoken about beating the state average and then in grade science we beat the state in the number of level four students who were proficient in grade five uh just briefly talking about the access test so that finishes the N njsla for Lindberg school um the access test is given to all all students in our ml multilingual programs in all three buildings uh so this test um monitors the weita standards and it's taken uh by kindergarten students on paper and then in grades 1 to 12 electronically on the computer uh these test scores can be used for accountability uh for the district for benchmarking purposes to know where our students are and then ultimately to determine when the student is eligible to exit our ESL or MultiLing program so after the student scores a level six they're eligible to go into general education from the program and they would no longer be a multilingual student in District they will be monitored for years following but they would no longer be in those classes these are the six levels that the students will score within so it's level one to level six obviously entering emerging developing expanding bridging and reaching they want to be in reaching to exit the program and that's our ultimate goal these are the three buildings and how we fared um you can see in yellow is the percentages of students who are exiting going from programs to general education and you can see EC and Pal Park Junior Senior High School the largest percentages are falling into the level one category and then in Lindberg the largest percentage is falling right in the middle into level three and then speaking of the multilingual after school program that we spoke up earlier those level three students level three and level four will be targeted for the after school program to be invited and then we hope that in them coming to the program three to four days for an hour we can get them pushed into the five and six category in the next school year when we administer this in March of this school year I'm not going to go through all of this but just the bolded these are the uh interventions that were going to be putting in place to rectify the data that we presented so um our last year's New Jersey SLA Academy after school program from last year saw that 33% 33 of our 63 register students passed the test from the previous year um so that's about a 52% uh passing rate for our after school programs uh we reconstructed the limberg school schedule last this sing school year to include nine periods and to include an intervention period whereas in previous years we had the standard eight periods and we built in the intervention period so teacher so students and teachers have small group instruction daily um our five down to our basic skills I'm just going over the bolded areas our five basic skills teachers are assigned to the designated intervention period where they work with teachers in small groups so we have two to three teachers in each classroom during this period to ensure that small group instruction is occurring and the teachers are rotating through so that each student is seeing daily for at least 20 minutes um our New Jersey Student Learning Academy andj Academy which was approved tonight will be starting this week and we have currently 6 students enrolled grades 3 through six in addition to our multilingual Academy which will also be starting which has two classes running about 30 students uh to ensure that we pass a students increase in the Vita assessment next year and uh finally um our school was targeted last year for the high impact tutoring Grant so we were reci recipient of $115,000 to run a tutoring program for current fourth and fifth graders so that is currently taking place and that offers virtual tutoring for 48 of our fourth and fifth graders two hours per week through proximity learning and that is currently occurring um at least two nights a week well it's four nights a week but each student is getting two nights a week um so that is how we're again this is I'm just going through them quickly but these are the strategies that we're implementing at Lindberg to ensure that we increase the data from 2024 to 2025 and now we're High School quickly with the high school um um clearly of the you know employees in the room they might be teachers of the high school but if you're not a high school uh teacher you might not know this but uh prior to the 22 23 school year the state gave us a beautiful distinction they said you guys are a targeted school that's not necessarily a good thing uh that puts you on the spotlight but they I believe and I'm not a big fan of it they break down our data and they looked at three categories specific to one ethnic group or Hispanic group and they looked at your uh test scor standardized test scores your absenteeism and your graduation rate well I'm very happy to tell you that if you're not in school you're not going to graduate and or do well on a test the good news is our chronic absenteeism is moving in the right direction children are in the building which helps and you'll see in a few minutes graduation rate has improved greatly um test scores are still something that we have to work on uh there's no Rhyme or Reason to it obviously we have over 30% of our children coming to our school and they are not in a gened program that makes it a little more difficult but we're still fighting the good fight so the good news is uh this past year the State Department of Education came to us and gave us great news no longer are you in need of this targeted assistance you guys are sort of kind of moving it in the right direction the bad news is we lose a little bit of excess funding it's okay we'll figure it out but we're still keeping those interventions in place this is our Ela language art scores uh similar to what Mr fall spoke of Patrick spoke of earlier there are your five categories not meeting partially meeting approaching meeting or exceeding five categories clearly we want to be in the light green or the dark green um as you can see in grade six Ela as Mr Fallon talked of earlier we got some good numbers in grade seven we're okay in eight not so good and in nine uh clearly the meeting is a very good number compared to our others in mathematics a very similar graph I'm still questioning the GE three numbers I don't know just you know for you for you math people there's something I learned a long time ago was called an outlier uh that's an outline clearly Jackie retto or whoever is doing math might be testing and grading the test but for whatever it's work um there's only two categories ironically Patrick and I joked about this earlier we do a lot of District benchmarks not standardized tests to prepare for these assessments one of the teachers today at limberg only have two or five categories as well so it does it happen I'm not sure if that's accurate but that's what the state tells us and that's what we have to report uh with that being said these are mathematics scores with the one to five ranking of not meeting to exceeding AP scores is something that we are all extremely proud of when we talk about standardized assessments College Board is a private uh provider just like SATs and PSATs but AP numbers as you can see from 23 to 24 the number of exams uh has increased the number of actual exams we administer although the number of students has decreased which means so many of our best and brightest are taking multiple tests with that being said as you can see percentage wise of AP students with a six a three or better has increased as well by over eight percentage points so a three or better although many colleges and universities are not taken to threes anymore uh we still really proud uh I commend the board for what we've done years ago anyone getting a three or better gets reimbursed that is something we're very proud of that we can still continue to do um it really gives these kids a little more motivation to really try their very best regardless if the college or university accepts it graduation rates I said this earlier this is something we are most proud of and I think we are still moving this in the right direction we're trending it north um as you can see in 2021 two we were at 89.1% graduation rate this past year and when I say this past year although everyone pretty much walks across a stage in June it doesn't mean they graduate there might be summer course workor for them to complete and we give them the benefit of the doubt so long that they're within what our policy permits if they don't go to summer school they don't graduate if they drop out clearly they don't graduate the great news is we are at 94.6% graduation rate that second as on the bottom we're permitted to appeal I thank Chris Guerrero I thank Mr Garcia again I know he's not here but we submitted appeals we have been told that two more appeals will go through if we were still this type of school that we were 20 plus years ago when I started with 100 kids in a graduating class 94.6 would be 96.6 we're not graduating 100 anymore it's closer to the 120s and 130s quick math will be north of 95.5 which is even better than 96 4.6 so kudos to everyone in their efforts in that some great success um and I apologize I'm very all over the place tonight but geometry as you can see uh I'm going to glorify it because they're telling us to but 20% increase in meeting or exceeding that's above our state performance uh percentages so we're very happy about that increase in AP test on the bottom we just talked about it that's something we should be extremely proud of for a small school to be offering all of those courses but also to be showing the proficiency that we have faculty staff you continue to do what you're doing but really are hats off to the students I think last but not least some interventions um and and again we highlighted a few here there's so many but I'm I'm really proud and I said earlier uh the question was about our work-based learning and there's programs that we have that day-to-day don't necessar get highlighted on the state level we're we're really proud of what we do another great program is the honor society's peer tutoring programs that's something to give it back right our continued school-based mental health Team um if we're not in a good mental space we're not going to perform well on an exam okay um we know that that's true in adults how can we expect it of children less but not least uh we had a GPA boot camp GPA is GRA graduation proficiency assessment it's alterate Pathways guys and we're doing great work and that's why I think partly why especially our graduation rates continue to rise so all of these programs have benefits all of them take time um we're just going to continue to build upon what we're doing we're definitely moving in the right direction thank you sorry it was probably seven minutes he took too much time uh this will all be on our website I can open this up to any board members right now questions from the board okay so yes sir so what are your plans to I want to retired not your plan yes sir no but uh what are your plans to make the have the students be more proficient what kind of programs do you have in mind and uh what are you going to be implementing to so it's not me I think it's our team I think we all collectively the board included need to continue to support programs that we have these interventions work we see success uh we see that our graduation rate is proof in itself but I think the most critical piece here Aaron I'm not running for any political office is to get these kids in our building to stress the importance of an education I've said this a hundred times over kids in this community unfortunately are not necessarily only here for school especially the older kids some of them are paying or help paying for the lights to be put on in their house for the heat to be put on and it's getting chilly out so School wasn't necessarily or isn't necessarily the priority so we have to make sure we stress the importance of coming to school every day um without them being here we're not going to accomplish much um clearly they need to be physically invested um different Community programs internships they work but there has to be a Nexus to what is at the end of the tunnel for them so the graduation R so there are Department State Department of Education you appealed already right we appealed uh any students that did not that we did not get credit for Mr shim we can appeal so if a student transfers to us from a different school and doesn't graduate on time we can appeal that maybe that's not our problem and it's another schools concern if a student comes to us and doesn't graduate in four years because they come from another country there's no appeal unfortunately he he or she did not graduate and that counts against us more importantly if a student is of special education and he or she wants to continue their studies Beyond 18 years of age it counts against us so although that's a very important metric and everyone's looking at graduation rate we want 100% if a student chooses to go to 21 years old and they have IEP which they're legally allowed to do technically they didn't graduate it counts against us my question is okay that kind of situation would not be limited to just our town only okay that will be all the Statewide yeah but uh if you go like the statistics of the Department of Education the paride park gradation date shows like the 78% of 80% which is quite different from our internal statistics so that is the problem everybody would this internal statist we can see it but the other people's compar the schools based on the state the statistics that's the problem so this data is from the state this data is from the state there's something on Pearson it's a website I don't create it I don't manually manipulate numbers this data is coming from the system I wouldn't make a percentage of 94.6 and say publicly that's our graduation rate if that wasn't true so you say so right oh I I you want me to testify I'll do that too that's what we graduate okay so if there is any wrong data we have to correct it correct that's our mission absolutely so let's work together okay the yes sir thank you any other questions thank you um thank you Mr bar thank you Mr gar and we happy to see any increases any any number raise in in achievement of students and thank you for your great work right so that's um Mr Aram do you have any report say nothing report so next agenda is to approve our meeting minutes of September we have a motion to approve the meeting meeting September 25th 2024 I'd like to make a motion to approve meeting on September 2 2024 second any second I second all in favor no exstension no objection okay let's move to the finance we have a level consent agenda for approval level motion to approve roer please yes Rebecca Lee Yes y men yes Aaron pack yes Charlie Shin yes William Kim yes Co young U thank you next ising and ground we have seven agenda as we discuss it in working session that number four Garden State can that we still have a month to approve so we we table this number four and number five we will speak with we discuss with the recreation department but should not be big problem but the board need to be informed more about because it's ongoing question about um displ and uh teamwork using our facility so with those condition of number to T and number five to discuss with the recreation department may have a motion to approve the item number sorry are you going for number five are you going to approve it as originally requested I think so okay you started in November 4 and um yes so 85% of par parties are participating but we still need to Lear um and and speak with Recreation Department how they run this kind of program with the other neighboring town and how they determine which ground which facility to use for their program so may have a motion to approve this building and ground with the condition of number four to be Ted I make a motion to approve seven building and ground agenda except number four may I have a second I second all in favor no objection motion pass next Personnel there's a number um there's a eight consent agenda under person resolution have a motion to approve rer please Su yes Rebecca Lee J men yes Aaron pack yes Charlie Shin yeah William Kim yes o young you next curriculum we have many we have only one agenda for many of those Tri things I have a motion to approve the F tripa all in favor noens no objection so we didn't have a rest of committee report so we moove on to the or and we didn't discuss any or workation but I know some some people here need to leave already today so I don't want to direct the meeting but um can we discuss the student to rep next time next month absolutely okay because we supposed to discuss today yes so new business may I have a motion to approve the HIV um HIV self assessment sub mission to new jorgy departmentment of Education any second or in Pap may I have a motion to close our regular session and then to the public participation I all in favor so now we open to public our meeting is open to public any speaker have three minutes pleas state your name and address please Mr sty hi my name is Prince ery and I am the negoti chair for the PPA negotiations team along with the Board of Ed team were in session last week with the state mediator on September 8th from 6 to 9: p.m. after proposals were exchanged the board counter proposal was less than what they offered to us in May of last year and reaffirmed the board's position to rewrite our existing contract with that proposal the board made clear that they were not serious about settling our contract in spite of us in spite of this we were still hoping hopeful and made a counter proposal in good faith the board then responded with a counter proposal that again was less than their previous one this proposal was not only significantly less than the county average and surrounding School District settlements excuse me according to the New Jersey school boards Association it's the first article on today's site it's titled Trends in teaching contract negotiations for 2024 and I'm gon to quote here for new teacher contracts that began with the 2425 cycle that had reached a settlement and reported it to the njsba the average increase inclusive in increment cost increment sorry is 3.67 for the 2024 25 Square the board's proposal that was given to us was 3.1% and they also required our members to pay 50% of their vision coverage and 75% of your dental coverage no other districts are doing this it was clear to the PPA team that any offer the board made had unreasonable and detrimental strings attached to us that demonstrated lack of commitment to settling any future and failure to recognize the reality of the current settlements or show any respect for the teachers and staff they seen they express to appreciate since February of this year the board has already paid over $43,000 to the B Bush Law Group it is a shame that the board of education is spending money to attorneys instead of on his faculty and staff for the good of its students after 3 hours the PPA team ended an unproductive session any more time spent there would have been a waste for all involved time away from our families and responsibilities and more money spent to the attorney be we are now exercising our next step based on state law to move to fact finding and first I would just just take a little bit about the negotiation right obviously I'm not in agreement agree with your or the statements but I very Pro I have been very prated since this new year that right after I became a board presence get involved with negotiations but you Association came up with 5% which is like anticipating that 25% in five year that we ended up this school district Banky and we you are sck to your sary increase which I understand but as a board members we have to deal with other dection as well to the both parents community members School administrator um all the education people students and tax money as well so we try to be our best I'm practice practicing this negotiation matter in good face in the way to benefit both parties so we don't regret that that we what we have been doing and I've seen all my board member especially the negotiation team chair and our attes been very working hard and we don't get paid and still we have willingness to work make things work um but I just very frustrated for what has been done this 10 months and from very beginning in pely core my email never been responded from your Association and rest of other board member I don't know but for myself I don't we have those elect reports as well too and um if our negotiation chair or our attorney if you guys have any comments that you couldn't make it and also foror about this negotiation since this new year start I what we noce that there's a lot of Bal issue that occurred from last year that wasn't taken care of it was really really not good so we have those legal issues are carried on from last year that was not very taken care of and hopefully forly address so that really bed our legal Fe not just about negotiation do you have any comments Mr or um I would just say that you know I intend to continue to negotiate in good faith to try to reach an agreement um I think the PPA negotiating team has come in month after month to these meetings expressing their side only we had ground rules from day one that they proposed we sign and agree to but they repeatedly are breaking okay and those are there for a reason now last meeting the negotiating chair on the PPA side said that those ground rules no longer apply she just decided to make that decision on her on her own who knows why okay initially initially they claim that we broke the ground rules first but there's nothing in this ground rules that was broken I have't there's nothing in here that says we can't postpone meetings which we've done so the fact is I became negotiating chair in January I received a copy of the contract at the end of January and then was asked to Pro provide proposals in a week 50 page contract outdated never revised not possible okay hundreds of hours was put into this contract to try to get it to a good place and so if you want to ask who's negotiating in good faith you should ask your own members okay who came in first closer to the county average right where did the PPA start where did we start what was the county average and that County average is disputed so remember that when you look at the county ERS that they're describing you need to look at the totality of information it's not just the county average that matters it's the salary gun that matters the new contracts that they're talking about there's a a change in there an increase in there for a school district with a starting salary of $53,000 not exactly comparable is it so so far you've listened to one side month after month I don't really want to go back and forth on this issue and talk about details when we've agreed to keep things confidential so I would just ask that don't make assumptions the public and the teachers and get all the information before you make assumptions and decisions we're trying to come to an agreement we're trying to come to a good place but if we agree to a percentage that the school district cannot afford there's only one way past that and that's Cost Cuts is that good for the school district is that good for the kids is that good for the teachers the parents no so unless somebody here can find us more money which I'm happy to help look for I I'm not sure what else we're able to do we're doing our best hello my name is alata I'm a teacher at limberg school I've been a teacher at limberg school for over 20 years and I've also been a member of this Palisades Park District town for more than 40 years I like many of the students that we teach am a am a child of immigrant parents who had limited English knowledge and fortunately with their support and the support of the teachers of palate Park I was able to achieve a wonderful career in education I'm glad I'm here I love working for this District I love working for these children and doing the best that I can to progress them in all their future endeavors I do I I thought that um this session is the audience speaks and then the board addresses each person that spoke I did not know that this might be a back and forth so let me before I make my statement address some of the things that you brought to light we oate that those attorney fees were salaries from February through August not last year I'm not going to go back and forth I am going going to continue with what I came to say Karin mentioned that the board demonstr a failure to recognize the reality of current settlements I wanted to talk about that let's look at the state of things Educators including teachers secretaries nurses child study team members and other educational support professionals are ready are already hard to find and they're even harder to keep in districts with lower salaries we just had a teacher from limberg school resign in our own District we have had significant significant difficulty filling positions and we've lost excellent staff members to districts that have better pay and benefits like the teacher I just mentioned associations and boards are settling contracts quickly and reasonably with salaries being increased due to a mutual understanding of the need to attract and retain staff moreover these contract settlements are done without taking from the staff in order to fund their own raises in other words in other districts boards offers are non contingent on staff paying more than their current benefits in short we are living in a climate where teachers and educational support staff are hard to find settlement rates are rising in surr districts settlements are 3.67% for the 2024 2025 year according to the website that Karin mentions the New Jersey school boards Association and associations are settling contracts without having to give anything up or pay more for their existing benefits unfortunately our board is out of touch with this [Applause] [Music] reality Christina Ginger Al I'm a teacher here at the ECC I'm a member of the negotiations team and I been teaching in this District since 2016 I would like to give the board insight into the teachers of pal we are all dedicated professionals and regardless of the state of our negotiations we teachers show up daily and give the students a palates Park the absolute best versions of ourselves I can personally speak to the Loyalty of the teaching staff here at the ECC last week during the week of respect teachers hosted various activities that took place to teach your children kindness respect and friendship the week culminated in a door decorating contest in which all teachers eagerly participated this was just one of the many examples of things that our teachers do that go above and beyond on a daily basis My Hope Is that while the Pal Park Board of Education negotiations team sits down to work on a reasonable proposal that they take a moment to think of the teachers that work here tirelessly day in and day out those teachers who are working multiple jobs to support their families those teachers who drive long distances and fight through traffic because they love the children and families here in palate Park the teachers who no matter what personal hardships they may be going through welcome your children with a smile on their faces each morning thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you Avenue um I just want to take a moment to thank all of the teachers here I only have two little ones so I only have experience in ECC and in lber but as a parent I can see how much you guys are still giving and I can see how difficult it is to come to these meetings and Mr Kim you said that it's hard not to make assumptions but the Boe the parents aren't hearing the Boe s so it's difficult to not make assumptions especially when we as parents we're seeing What's happen I can see that these teachers back here still give up their free time and offer extra help they don't need to do that I definitely I mean I'm sorry but I'm not going to go above and beyond when I'm not being compensated or appreciated I just wanted again just thank all of you guys from the bottom like of my heart like we Tru the parents do appreciate you guys and I hope that you guys can get what you deserve [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for Avenue um like I always say I'm been coming to this meeting religious like every month I'm here because I care I care about the kid and I care about the teacher and I care about the town and um I really want an answer as a parent because I feel that I need an answer I need to know more about the contract I need to know more about what are we doing because a parent who have a student in school and pay T in here I need to know because I'm really getting stressed out as a parent what are we going through and I know it's a lot of thing that they said they cannot say because it's confidential but what is confidential what what I see here is the your side from the board e and the side from the teacher the side from the teacher I don't know all the detail unfortunately the side from the Boe like Miss Rivera say I don't know because nobody know we just hear one side but in the meantime we come in here and spending time and see all this discomfort all this answer that they have and I have as a parent and I don't see anything and I see a lot of from Mr William how he said you guys do this you got this is not true this is not it seem to me like it's that work here in Rich right now I know I know we should be more apparent here because if we'll be more apparent here have the same feeling I have because this is kind of where me what is going to be next I want to know I want to know an answer what is going to be next when this going to get resed because I think by doing this we taking our time from our teacher the worry from them and even to discon because I'm in that feeli and I know how it feel and they maybe could feel like you know what let me just give up not doing what I have to do and who who going to get in affected our children so this need to get res this is emergency right now I really feel that this need to get resorted and I I'm going to next time I'm going to make sure that a lot of parent come here and get in the symbol and support this because the teacher need the support I know you're doing this for free I know you're giving your time of of you but come on let's make this happening now because me as a parent I feel very ancient tonight I was not I cannot make it to the meeting and I say I need to go I need to know what's going on because unfortunately we don't get informed about this and I really feel that the the teacher need to get this resolve it's not fair for them it's not fair for our kid is not fair for the parent so let's see let's do what we need to do I don't know all the detail unfortunately because I get detail from Little here a little there but I don't know the detail if I know the detail I'll be talking opening yeah but I don't know the detail what is need to be done I know let's do this please it's enough especially about the data that you are reting we have no problem to open it up it was try to follow up the ground that was provided and requested by the Association to keep it confidential but as long as our turn is okay I'm quite fine I'm actually really well more happy to share with all the proced your or the documents you will have a big volume of documents you see that's not that we just Tred to keep a confiden um gentl there good evening hello uh my name is Jared Zuckerman uh teach at the high school previously I taught at lber Elementary School uh 10 years in the district but pales park has always held a very personal place in my heart uh my grandmother was a former Board of Education president my grandfather was a former mayor of the Town my grandmother would be appalled by the way the negotiations is handling our contract uh furthermore Dr cello many many years every year in the beginning of the year you tell us you would be proud to send your own kids to the school district to be taught by these teachers my colleagues and I would do the same with my two sons I would put their academic careers in the hands of these people in a heartbeat what I won't do is subject them to a board that doesn't support teachers and you know I hope your moral compass can guide you to get this done instead of setting the example for Bergen County you're making us the Laughing stop of what should be a really good school district of what we could be and it's hard to have personal conversations with family and friends voles and everything devolves into well our board is terrible why would you want to come work here what is attractive about this place please find your moral compass get this contract done and do right by us those stats don't happen without us as a member of the tiger team I see what my colleagues in the high school do day in and day out and we're improving but we are undervalued please find it within yourself to come to a fair and just contract whatever that may be thank you hello I'm teacher at the high school and the PPA president I wanted to talk about a few things that have been said this evening so miss Chong you thanked us after the presentation for all that we do but action speak by than words and we need actions the words aren't enough anymore Christina spoke about the dedication and loyalty of our staff here in palates Park we have professionals who want to be here who are invested in the growth and education of the children and who have worked here for by show of hands 20 plus years 15 plus years 10 plus years five plus years okay their commitment to this District should be valued and respected and you should be doing everything in your power to keep them [Applause] [Music] [Applause] here okay do you have a more public [Music] participation hello everybody my name is Mike I live in Ed Avenue I have four kids one of them graduated from the school system she's in college right now she graduated with a high honors I have three kids that go to this school system one is in high school he's in one of those AP classes you were talking about and two of them one is in Lindberg and one in ECC so they go to all the schools I came in tonight to speak about the roaches infestation that you had in the school but I'm not going to talk about it now everybody it's more important subject that just came up right now so everybody knows happy employee is a productive employee right that's like basic so you you Mr Kim you were saying that if somebody could help you find money you're up to it maybe an independent committee could find that money somebody will finance or an analytics right because they deserve they they they SC all the kids right they they leave lasting impression on the kids I know from my oldest to my youngest they have their favorite teachers and that actually leaves them for me from my experience to I have teachers I since I was little and they helped me succeed right they deserve everything by you by you putting a dollar amount on them you devaluing what they think they're worth right because you think that's how much they're worth and they think it's something else because they they do the work right they're sitting there with all the roaches in the in the building and I say it's a roach infestation Senor when we went to visit the high school was back to school we walking up the stair roaches breeding all the parents walking around you know roaches High that's they have to deal with every day kids screaming kids giving them attitudes that's all got to be considered the the hard work that they're doing right they deserve [Applause] [Music] it okay I don't see any more ra that we have a motion to close um public session public participation session and join audience parp may I have a motion to close audience participation and Jo the regularization our meeting so what's the second or paper thank you have a good night