##VIDEO ID:tWQtA2K7YbM## e e e e notification requirement the open public meetings act announcement of this meeting date in place on April 19th 2024 in the following manner posting of the public notice on the posting board for the Board of Education in the administration building email notification to the newspaper Serv Piscataway the home News Tribune and The Courier News email notification filed with the municipal clerk at the municipal building on Hos Lane the meeting is being videotaped this recording is not an official record or supplement to the minutes and is intended only as a source of information that the public might utilize at a later date to familiarize themselves with the board's activities item three is executive session to have a motion all those in favor for an executive session me e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e there's a motorcycle item four public session uh I have a motion to go back to public session motion all in favor I uhse who second it you did I did okay good um item five five is student presentation obviously we're not doing that uh item six is a student representative report on that and item seven is President's report and I will do that um in place of um Shantel Cherry so the president's report for August 8th 2024 is I hope that all of our families and staff have been taking the time to enjoy their summer as we prepare for an exciting 24 25 school year Piscataway summer camp will be wrapping up another successful program next week our children in grades prek through 8 have had a great fund that included art competitions and pool time plus wonderful trips to Sesame Place Tomahawk Lake Philadelphia Zoo Dave and Busters uh Chucky Cheese Liberty Science Center vanon Fun's Farm Jenkinson's Aquarium and more and we're thrilled that the Community Education Office is able to offer these great experiences to our students each year as we draw closer to to the start of another school year our athletes are about to start hitting the fields for their first practices in anticipation of a successful while sport season the Piscataway high school football team begins practices next Monday August 12th with their opening game scheduled for Friday August 30th at home against man alipin the rest of our Piscataway High School sports teams and the super Chiefs marching band along with the Middle School football begin practices in August 19th the rest of our Middle School sports will get underway on August 29th best of luck to all our coaches and students as they work hard to get ready for the fall that is President's report uh next on the agenda is the superintendent's report Dr Bas yes Gooding again everyone on behalf of our superintendent Dr anelli and our Administration I want to say that I hope all of our students families and teachers are enjoying their summer break taking time to rest have some fun and recharge their batteries for the upcoming school year our principes supervisors administrative team and custodians have been working hard throughout the summer to ensure that all of our schools are ready to hit the ground running in September as a reminder our teachers return on September the 3D followed by students first day on of school on Wednesday September 4th we look forward to a successful 2024 2025 school year at this time I'm going to do curriculum updates uh this came home board members in your CSO packet I also left a copy at your tables now for you uh essentially this was done on Monday at the curriculum committee meeting and we went over all of these we had eight curricular genres eight disciplines with 48 different curricular offerings that were updated and I want to First say we want to thank our supervisors for the great work that they have done along with our teachers so our teachers work closely with our supervisors to do the curriculum updates and we really give kudos to our teachers for the expertise that they have in these various sections um I'm not going to go over because also you will find the same thing on page 11 of your agenda so I'm not going to go over each and every uh curriculum item that went into detail at the curriculum committee meeting but I'm going to go to actually the last page the common themes of the presentation which I think is vitally important that we understand and there are several common themes that run throughout all all of curriculum and one of them is of course is standards alignment and I'm happy to say that at this time all PCAT away curriculum is currently updated to the standards so we are in alignment with all standards in all of our curriculum the integration of 21st century learning skills through the New Jersey student learning standards nine uh we have finally integrated the 21st century into all of our curriculum which essentially such things as systemic thinking being able to work collaboratively and using technology with inter curricular items and workplace readiness we integrated accommodations and modifications for special Edge students Ells g&t and students at risk and 504 plans those things have been integrated into the curriculum and discrete items where you can actually find them so you don't have to go outside of the curriculum for those things and we think that that is a wonderful highlight we have specific lessons for amasty the Holocaust lgbtq and aapi we have very discret separate lessons for them inside the curriculum instead of having references we have actual lessons and you can you can also find that on our crosswalk so we have a crosswalk document that's posted under curriculum instruction where you can go directly there and you can see at the appropriate grade levels what's taught and then where those lessons can be found and that's a wonderful document it's a very good quick reference uh to that assessments include informative summative Benchmark and alternative assessments have been embedded into the curriculum as opposed to have an assessments separate outside of the curriculum you can find assessments inside the curriculum itself and was another way where we can kind of standardize uh assessment across the district if assessments are actually in the curriculum that everybody's doing those actual same assessments interdisciplinary connections we know that uh curriculum does not live in a silo we know that Ela you can see social studies in ela you can see Ela and social studies you can see math and science and Science and Math so we have interdisciplinary connections within our Curriculum maps that is outlined so you can actually go there to see those things career educ a and by the way some of these things were mandated by the state and when we did qac we actually came up with a template that they're using across middlex County so I would like to just take the time also to say that the template that we use for lesson planning is also being used by other schools across the middle sex County because the county superintendent office thought that the way we were doing that was a u was a very good way to just delineate all those type of things Career Education computer science and design thinking climate change which is mandated technology integration which is is compatible with our student devices pacing guidelines that focus on key Concepts and skills we're looking at actual breath as well as depth and we're looking at uh key Concepts in pacing where you know exactly where those key concepts are taught and how long they need to be taught inquiry based and Project based learning emphasizing critical thinking and problem solving inclusion of and we really are proud of this multi-tier systems of support mtss is actually built into the curriculum with also academic and social emot supports so we actually have those things built into the curriculum as well real world connections and applications because we want to make connections from not just learning something in the classroom but able to apply it in the actual real world so we're not here for learning sake but to make students lives a lot better so they could just take the things that they learn in the classroom and take it into the real world differentiation of content process and product discrete opportunities for diversity and inclusion are actually built into the curriculum itself in separate headings so you can actually go find out where that is social awareness and connections with current events our students need to know what's going on in the world and what we are doing is we have our current events that are being taught in our classes don't lean to anyone's side not trying to indoctrinate our students in any way just making sure that our students are aware of the current events and issues that uh that are out here addition of relevant resource materials including eex and we have aligned with college board expectations uh for AP exams at the high school so we actually just giving students so that when they take the AP exams the formats and the things that we're doing in our classrooms mirror what has happened on the AP exams and that is the conclusion of my part on curriculum and instruction updates we look forward to another real good year of learning in PCAT away at this time we're going to ask Dr Gray if he will come Miss Williams with Ruckus feature Scholars updates good evening uh thank you for allowing me to stand before you this evening uh before I introduce Kim Williams I met Mrs Williams years ago as a school counselor at quibbl toown Middle School when all the counselors were brought together to learn about a program called Ruckers future Scholars uh I forget how many years ago that was I'm sure Kim will remind us um but I'm proud to say that many years later not only did we begin participating but we have numbers of students who have successfully matriculated through Ruckers future Scholars um the oldest children uh who were once children in seventh grade are now adults um out in the workforce college graduates and so we thought it was appropriate to have Miss Williams who was part of the program at that time who was now the director of Ruckers future Scholars to come give an update about those students from Piscataway who have matriculated through our program um the history of our program our relationship with Rucker future Scholars and even the the current students uh who are still in the program to this date so um without further Ado Miss Williams is not only the director of the program she is a proud Piscataway parent uh her daughter graduated last year so a special relationship I know that she works with a number of communities but I'm going to say that her favorite is Piscataway I know she can't say it but I'm sure she loves her Piscataway Scholars so without further Ado uh Mrs Williams thank you that was a wonderful introduction um just take her picture with thank you great great um he said just about all I was going to say when I opened up um um I wanted to say that I I stand before you today as a resident of Piscataway and a proud parent of a graduate of the P Piscataway High School um Kayla Williams she graduated last year um from from Piscataway high school and she was admitted to Cornell University as a first a transfer option and so she went to Ruckers which is my alma mat so me and my husband's alma mater we had her on campus last year for one year at Ruckers and we were happy but we're elated that she has the opportunity to go to the the school of her dreams she wants to be a veterinarian and and what school is is best for that than than Cornell um so not only do I stand here in those in that role but the role that I'm I'm I'm really proud about and I'm I'm humbled that I have uh the honor to be the director is of the director of Rucker's future Scholars we started Ruckers future scholars in 2008 and at that time we didn't even have the buyin from Piscataway just yet the president president mccor back then said hey I want to do this program and we're going to start started up um in a couple of months and and what happened was we came out and back then I think the superintendent was uh Robert copelan um and and we got him to buy into it uh we had to go to the city of New Brunswick and get Mary Egan who was the uh superintendent there on board uh we had to go to Camden and we had to go to Newark um so we're very thankful that we got the Buy in um because at that time we had no statistics there was no data to say whether this was going to work and as you all know many Ruckers programs comes out to to the district and want to offer some services and um I thank you for being um diligent on on who you allow to have access to the students in Piscataway and I thank you for allowing us to have that access um I want to thank uh president Cherry um Shantel cherry and the m members of the board for having me here today um I would also like to thank Dr relli because he believed in the program when he first started his tenure as superintendent we were one of the first meetings that he had and we came in and we were able to share about the program um and he gave us his full support um I would also like to thank all of the staff at the middle schools in high schools one thing about Piscataway there's very low turnover in your district and the reason why I know is because I've worked with all of the staff members over the years none of them have changed I can tell you all the Middle School uh counselors Miss Patel Miss husbands and Dr Rogers we've worked with them since 2008 no turnover and some of the other districts we have to go in and retrain and teach them about RFS and the impact of it um so I thank you for the support that you provide us Dr Gray was at quibbletown middle school he was very uh involved in the first couple of cohorts um and so it's so great to see that he went on to be principal and now he's assistant superintendent um so so I thank you for what you're doing um here in Piscataway um in 2008 the RFS program began and it was the first of its kind a program that enrolls promising first generation low-income students beginning in the seventh grade creating a pipeline of academic and social enrichment and support and mentoring support throughout their middle schools and high schools and then promising them free tuition if they get admitted to Ruckers no other institution was doing this but you guys said yes so thank you for allowing us to have your children once again in the beginning we put great focus on getting kids to college so the term preol we were a preol program but soon as kids got on campus we we then realized really quickly um that we had to be more than that we had to get them through college and so not only do we provide preol support but we provide support throughout the undergrad here especially at Ruckers but if they don't come to Ruckers we still Provide support to them uh today RFS has wi witnessed the Journey of over 3500 young lives throughout the state of New Jersey um um and our modotto is once a scholar always a scholar so they become a part of a family at the very beginning of our program and so they never leave us um they may graduate and go on but from time to time I get phone calls on my cell phone and it's a kid that's graduated this year they're probably the age of 29 so from the first cohort they're 29 years old and to this day they will call me and say Miss Kim I've got an offer letter for a job um I don't know if I should take it um could you look at it uh could you help me figure out how do I do the next step and so it's with pride that I I call them back sure I can help you let's set up a zoom let's get together um so they never leave us in our program um so we serve the nort community Camden Community New Brunswick Piscataway and raway we work in over 110 schools so yes we start in the districts but if a kid goes out from Piscataway and goes to another school district our modotto is once a scholar always a scholar so what we do is we stay connected with that student we actually we we would like for them to come to our summer programs and during the academic year uh you know if it one thing we learned from covid um use zoom use zoom to stay connected and that's what we do if they moved out out of the district we stay connected with them um our students that are here in Piscataway during our summer programs every year we have a summer program that they're required to come to um they're required to participate in mentoring during the year but in the Summers when they come our students here on the piscatway campus they're actually earning early college credits so many of our Scholars are coming into Ruckers those who get into Ruckers with with credits in their back pockets and they never have to pay for a thing so we start with them in seventh grade uh lead them up through 12th grade and if they get admitted into Ruckers then they're with us for another four or five years um um on average 90% of each graduating class go on to attend 2year and four-year institutions so each year we enroll 50 to scatter away students so our cohort is 50 students that will graduate so when they graduate in senior year about 90% of them are going on to higher education 54% of them are being admitted to Ruckers so each year we have a good group of scway students that are on campus and our six-year graduation rate for students who are first generation low income is 70% compared to the national average of approximately 60 which has actually reduced to 42% just recently and so and that's due most likely to covid which we're actually doing an assessment right now we're kind of doing an assessment on the impacts of covid and so that's a whole audit that we're doing and so I'm hoping to be able to share some updated information um once we do that um I just want to share a couple of things some of the top majors that that our Piscataway students are taking many of them are are majoring in the Health Professions uh criminal justice engineering and psychology so those are the most widely and then after that you have some of the nursing because we've got quite a bit of nurses here in Piscataway I had one with me um two mon months ago that was going to speak and I'm sorry tonight she is on rotation so she can't be with us but she Hells from piscata and that's Michelle wul uh wet Ruckers undergrad Scholars have the unique opportunity to take our mentoring course we have a three credit college credit course where our students are able to take if they get admitted to Ruckers and their undergrads at Ruckers uh they can take that course and get three college credits to go into uh Piscataway and provide mentorship and so if you're on if you're at the high school Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday you will see our Ruckers future Scholars there afterwards um and that's because you have allowed us to be in the schools so we meet the kids where they are so after schools we'll have our ninth grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th grade and they're at the this at high school and we're providing mentorship and who's providing that near peers so kids that are just slightly a couple of years older than them because as parents we like to think we know what's best for our kids but it's when they hear it from someone else and then when they're hearing it from somebody that's close in age um it matters most so we have postgraduation some of the employment um places of employment uh law enforcement nursing engineering and this is for Piscataway Social Work information technology we have a lot of entrepreneurs um and some companies that our Scholars are are working we have uh Google um and that's Jonathan zala is it okay if I mention names I'm so proud of them because I've worked with them for so long um Emmanuel B he is a software engineer for Google um and his brother who is also a future scholar uh Seth ba is a software engineer at Google he was on the west coast just recently and Emanuel worked on the East Coast but now he's come over and so they're all together as one family but working for gou um arpit Shaw he's working for Bloomberg um we have many members who are at erston Young which is actually a donor to our program uh we have students who are in grad school um actually we're so excited Chelsea Wong um many of you may know her um she just graduated from Boston law school and um she's just non-stop we're so proud of her um we have keam sha bines um you many of you may know that family we have many of them that are part of the future Scholars Program kamaa just came on campus and she's about to finish her PhD um she did not go to Rucker undergrad but once a scholar always a scholar and so she reached out as soon as she was going to be on campus and we thought maybe we'd have to try to find u a scholarship or something for her but she can't with a full scholarship um so that's that's Miss keam shabin Belle gell and I'm closing Belle gell um she just started her PhD she graduated from Ruckers and she's working on her PhD in Maryland and she's on a presidential scholarship and these are all Piscataway students one more Briana Rosa um I tried to get her here tonight but she wasn't able to be here um but uh we were able to send her to Greece that's another opportunity that we do we have donor funds and we're um able to support students with study abroad opportunities and uh Brianna Rosa just came back from Greece a couple of months ago and uh she's continuing her education at Ruckers in the master's program for human resource management and she's got a full scholarship um uh in the beginning we knew this movement was not just for youth here in the state of New Jersey we knew that there were other future Scholars and other youth out there um that needed something like this and so with that said happy to share that RFS has been a model program for other institutions uh the first one was James Madison University uh University of Michigan um uh we went International so University of Toronto has a future Scholars Program and just um recently the Louisiana State University um has just started their future Scholars Program um it's a program that works but it's a program that gives hope and opportunity um for kids who are brilliant um smart and intelligent and uh we just get uh we we're just allowed to be alongside the journey with them and so we so appreciate that um and so I I I was hoping to bring a student with me but um U Michelle while F May sends her best she is right now working um as a nurse and um she says sorry that she can't be here um but hopefully at another opportunity we can have her come and join us um but that's a brief update for me for future Scholars and just want to say thank you again for believing in our program um and for entrusting us with your children want want to thank you for being here tonight and giving us the update uh my first year on the Piscataway Board of Education was 2008 okay and um we got a update on the Rucker future Scholars a few years in and most recently I was in a conversation with Dr relli and I said you know with new board members let's get another update this is actually a brochure from 2013 in a folder that I keep but even before this we were talking um some of us board members and we were talking about college and how much it costs Etc one thing that always sticks out with me and this is a report from uh 2016 and uh but in 2016 the the tuition that had been given to to pcot students was over $1.1 million so think of all that money that uh that with your foresight and and Records foresight that we've the kids have benefited from and then uh I just think it's it's great you know especially if you're identified back down in seventh grade and and you know uh your parents eventually may not have the financial means and and look where it can take you and so thank you so much for uh giving us the update and uh it's an inspirational program and uh thanks lot great thank you thank you William we thank you and you have risen through the ranks I think that you are an excellent person to stand at the advance guard of ruckus's future Scholars also remember when we were together in Granville yes my daughter went to Grandville and your daughter I'm not surprised about the success that she is having now so can you please tell her that must have be is proud of her I will I will thank you and thank you so much thank you next is a transition to a New Jersey graduate proficiency assessment can you get the for we have to uh actually report out separately now because there once was a time where we could in October give one presentation for all assessments that took place but now this changed where we have to break out out in August the uh graduate proficiency assessment and so we're making our deadline tonight and I'm happy and proud to say that because I wanted to make sure that we actually met the deadline um GPA graduate proficiency assessment is the assessment that's required for graduation out of high schools in New Jersey and you can see here on May the 3rd 2003 they actually uh did New Cut scores and set up the components of the ELA and math assessment and the ELA components they are aligned to the grade 10 standards the math component is aligned to Algebra 1 and the geometry standards this is a little small but you can see they changed the cut scores because originally when it came out there was a cut score for ELA and a cut score for math so now it's been changed with one cut scores of 725 at or above 725 is the proficiency rate that you must meet on the test for ELA and for math right now if you complete the GPA and you hit those targets then you're fine but if not there are some alternative measures and I'll go over them in a minute with you uh no dates have been given for the uh fall assessment as of yet we all are waiting for the dates we know that it will be in October but we don't know the exact dates because the state has not released the dates for the fall Administration 2024 as of now the current requirements are for the class of 2025 and no further information has been provided other than that so we know what the requirements are but the actual dates in the fall we don't have those dates as of today so the first Pathway to graduation is you pass the test and you take the test in 11th grade and if you pass it then that's the first requirement along of course with your coursework and the high school um a second pathway is that you can see outline here and the second pathway it demonstrates that essentially you can do one of the these things in ela and one in math uh you could take the ACT reading accuplacer PSAT uh sat all those things that you can take in place of passing the actual exam and you can do the same criteria in math but in order for you to take a second pathway you must have taken the test first and then now here's the thing that we also look at what's going on is that there's no order so for example you could take a second pathway first and then take the test and if you fail the test you can still use a score that's taken from the second pathway and the third pathway is the portfolio appeal which will take place October the 8th through May 15th in front of you uh you can see uh you all have this handout at your seats I'm getting into the actual and we did pretty good good with this I'm very proud of the work that we have done with this you can see that right now this year in red is last year and the previous year is listed in red and black is the current year this year 83% of our students are graduation ready according to this test so 83% are graduation ready versus 82% of the state which is statistically around the same thing Dr basille is this um was it a couple of years ago State Board of Education there's a controversy because they lowered the cut score yes so the was it both or was it just for math both so these are based on the lower cut scor no these are the recent Cut St cut scores yes and we also see here that in math we did 59% state did 55 you see in the red so last year we were at 81 and 81 in ela uh last year we were at 59 and 59 in math this this year but the state was at 55 so we were upper form the state last year and if you look at all students where you just put together the aggregate between the ELA and the math score uh last year we were at 70% this year we were at 71% the state stayed the same so we are essentially around the same place that we were on last year but this is where I really want to show you what our what's going on in pasca way as well so according to the GPA 59% of our students are ready by the state on the math test and 83% are ready by the state for ELA out of the 539 students who took the test 59% in math uh graduation ready and 83% however we need to understand that if you factor in the graduation the other Pathways that they could take there were 98 students who have already passed the second pathway in math and we have 15 students have already passed the second pathway in ela so if you mix those and combine those together we currently where we are now is we have 44 students out of the 539 who are eligible to who are graduation ready or 77% in math and 86 of 464 students in ela if you combine those two together any questions were there because we keep a careful watch on that and so right now we're watching those numbers to make sure that those students who we need to capture another 23% in math another 14% And we know exactly who those students are this is real small if you look at the subgroup data you start breaking it down by ra race uh I focus in primarily if you see in red on the left hand side uh the three major uh as far as numbers are concerned the three largest demographic groups in this particular class makes up they make up 85% of the 11th grade class now going to grade 12 and so you see the Asian population they had a if you go all the way over to the right graduation ready last year was 91% this year 94% currently graduation ready as of this particular test not factoring in the second Pathways we see that 75% of of African-Americans are graduation ready not factoring in the other aspect of the test last year was 71 and we see that 81% of our students this year currently now are graduation ready versus 74% from last year so you see that uh as we look at disproportionality and we look at how we're trying to pull up all uh disparity groups we see that we have we've grown in the uh Asian the Black and Hispanic communities by 9171 and 74% based on this test alone and the reason I ask I'm I'm just trying to in my mind this controversy so the controversy was that if you lower the cut scores of math the lowest minimum like math course that they would have to pass would be eligible one yes is that is that still the case yes that's still because if you go back and look at the slides that I originally gave you the test itself the minimum Ma so I think a better way to look at it would be to look at the standards not to necessarily score so if you look at going back you will see on the first second page that the math component is aligned to Algebra 1 and geometry standards so they're aligned to the standards if you see on back to page where we have the uh subg group race if you look at the math same thing we see there all the way over to the right side we see that last year 80% of our Asian population was proficient this year is 86% last year 38% of the black were African-American were proficient according to this test this year was 41 and Hispanic 41% this year was 43% so we see gains in all uh also I want to add if you look down at the bottom last year we had 980 students take the test this year we had 1,078 students take the test uh and so we looked at what accounted for this and then it was simply this we went into Genesis and we looked at the class from last year is that the previous class that trans uh that went over to this current year they were 10th graders now they became 11th graders that was a larger class and that takes up for a larger number most of the time when we have there's an inverse or opposite relationship between a lot of times enrollment coming into the district and proficiency rate so a lot of times when you have a large uh enrollment coming into the district especially the high school and the testing grades it doesn't always translate to higher proficiency but lower but here we see higher proficiency is because these kids have been sitting in our schools and so a lot of the kids are not new to Piscataway themselves if you go over to subgroup by gender Ela 87% last year by females this year 88% statistically around the same males last year 77% this year 79% statistically the same and if you just go down and just look at where we are statistically we're basically hovering around the same thing even though we have more students that took the test uh the next page just a good example where you can just see another visual of a distribution level of achievement on all subjects uh 73% for the females and 69% for the males following that you look at program interesting here is the free and reduced lunch and I had a conversation with Mr David Oliver about this today as well uh we see last year that we had 93 students tested this year 174 so we went from 9 93 students tested to 174 who own free and reduced lunch but if you go over and look at the proficiency rate last year was 67% this year 79% of the students on free and reduced lunch and one of the main reasons why we see that is because of our Title One tutorial programs and the enrichment programs that we use to try to booler those students and give them more opportunities on task so we can see that also you can see highlighted our English language Learners uh last year we had 25 this year we had 22 uh last year was 56% this year was 50% but you can see it is only off by a number of students by about three or four students and we can look at also our sped students and we want to look at how we are increasing last year our special education students were 29% and this year they were 36% so we're looking at how we are focusing more and you can see one of our district goals is focusing on our elll and our special education students following is just a nice visual for you a distribution level of the various programs and how well the students did and every data presentation has to be coupled by the state with some type of plan of action Piscataway high school has a plan of action that they taking all students registered to a schooly course where all pathway assessment information will be located so every student has a schooly course where they will have all of this information in that particular School of your course sessions to administer the acup Placer will be held um acup places an assessment by the College Board math qas the qualitative reasoning algebra and statistics English right Placer we also have a um ESL English right Placer student study guides all these things are given opportunities for students to take multiple assessments also a plan of action will take place these are the dates that we have established already on Wednesday August the 20th the 21st Thursday the 22nd Monday the 26th and Thursday the 27th we will have acup Placer taking place at these sessions what we will be doing is we will do a quick review with the students we be held in the patent students will come in do a quick refreshing a quick review and then they will be allowed to take the test while they are there uh the results are instantaneous so they get that information back and they can take the test multiple times and so we have staff that will be with the students to take it on this day on October the 8th which is also a PSAT day we will also give another accuplacer test on October the 8th so that the students who are coming in for the PSAT we can actually also give it to them on that day as well any questions are the students that come in for the accuplacer test I'm sorry which are the students that come in for the students normally who will come in for the active place are the students who need another pathway and so what has started happening and we're trying to look at how we're going to deal with this because a lot of times the students would rather take the pathway than they take the actual GPA themselves so they know now that they can actually take the pathway and so they basically just don't take the uh GPA the seriously they need to take so we're looking at now in ways to make sure that they just look at that and just realize how important the GPA is as opposed to just relying on being able to take an alternative pathway thank [Applause] you make sure they eat and they had plenty of rest that concludes the superintendent report uh thank you Dr Bas um that was item uh eight superintendent for so we're going to move on to item nine which is personnel and Labor Relations Miss rashed um be resolve that the following motions identifi as a through G be approved as presented could you second second second please call the rooll Mr King yes M rashed yes M Rivers yes M Stafford yes Dr Connors yes motions carry committee reports um he just gave me oh here it is I believe only two committees met since our July 11th meeting uh one of the Committees I chair which is the fiscal plannings and operations committee so I'll I'll uh I'll read that um we didn't meet oh wait a minute sorry sorry you're right you were on vacation uh two committees met policy and legislative committee and the curriculum committee um I I was at the uh curriculum committee uh meeting uh and I was at the policy meeting but I'm not going to read both of these because uh we're a board of committees and uh so let's uh do it this way I'll I'll read the curriculum committee and then uh I'll ask Loretta to read the um policy and legislative committee okay okay so augers the curriculum committee met August 5th to discuss curriculum guides and screening for gifted and talent programs uh gifted and talented screening the district will begin to use uh of the Cog at screener this school year as a more robust way of evaluating and identifying students for the gifted and talented program further implementation will continue in 2025 206 Dr basille has visited several schools in milx County to gain additional information on gifted and talented programs um this was a great meeting by the way see his he was actually summarizing um I love that the August meeting where you do the curriculum guide updates with the ntion the New Jersey standards and all of the supervisor High schol go through it it's always a great meeting so uh math grade 1- six Rebecca Dayton curriculum has been revised to reflect pending new standards uh measurement and data literacy are split up changes in uh in um Money have been added to K through K to one grade five will emphasize da literacy um that's actually a topic money math grades 7 to 12 Frank rki uh curriculum um has been updated for new standards High School standards are designed AS Plus standards the state moved from algebra standards down to 8th grade Visual and Performing Arts Rebecca staki Minor updates were made to course structures for piscato High School choir and dance courses and students um supports and curriculum connections were highlighted Career and Technical education Robin Kay um she talked about Junior Achievement um Junior Achievement curriculum has been added on recommendation of the state due to its alignment standards engineering students get dual credit uh Project Lead the Way as National curriculum the this is the industry standard for high school engineering the administration is recommending a name change for the co-op cour for to be called Workforce Readiness the Administration has met with middlex County Workforce Development to ensure students are learning content area knowledge professionalism and critical thinking engineering design and development is now called uh the uh Project Lead the Way Capstone course Miss Kay shared about the professionals that visit regularly to work with students uh the Administration has an agreement with rockchester Institute of Technology for students to get credit uh transferable to any college with an engineering progam program and pasca whales has a partnership with Rucker School of Engineering also in here it's actually linked with our Energy savings Improvement program part of the picking the contract for Honeywell is Honeywell actually sends us the engineers to the high school and shows students the engineering students the kinds of things we're actually doing at the high school to get our Energy savings so it's pretty cool uh social studies 9- 12 James Knox uh minor curriculum updates were made to psychology apsy ology AP World History AP US Government mcway high school has some new teachers in these courses and they helped update the curriculum highlighting cross curricular uh connections student leadership and student supports us2 econ will be changed to an honors course scway High School language arts Scott Hood course revisions were driven by revised standards feedback from students and accessibility making courses available to 11 12th graders to provide as many Pathways to the curriculum as possible mythology and composition takes a more Global approach to make this course different from other English classes race and gender and literature is more media Savvy building connections for students that are looking to pursue race and gender studies Beyond High School diversity of literature has been added speculation in literature focuses on how to connect to a future that hasn't been lived yet uh connecting current events technology and Society K through 8 language arts uh Janine albanes the changes in these standards aligned in Reading Writing speaking listening Ing and language with a very explicit teaching of reading and a more inclusive standard for all students this is a specific curriculum for Accelerated literacy in grades 7 to eight and more dialogue between eth and ninth grade teachers health and physical education Dr basell um Health shifts from textbooks to uh techbook on student iPads these align with the njsl SN will update as needed all of this will be housed inside a schoology group letters for each chapter will be available in English and Spanish and PowerPoints will be available it aligns with all students in integration in schoology will make things seamless for students and families World Language and ESL um glenisha ger 10 curricular updated to improve articulation between grade levels all curriculum is uniform in grades uh 1- 12 grades 1 through eight is acquisition driven instruction students are using the language in a way they can understand the CC is cultur driven and students have opportunities to learn about Spanish culture all over the world freshman seminar n um April seminar freshman seminar Mentor courses have some light updating based on feedback from students and teachers classroom observations and focus groups additional media literacy mental health lessons were added social awareness uh lessons were adjusted a pacing guide was added for community services and a mentor guide has been updated with clear expectation of a p planning uh template was added to the Menor I just want to say about this freshman seminar this isn't that old this is maybe about what five years old so we started this and then it's a it's a great way for freshmen to to partner up with upper classmen and really get acclimated to the to the high school it was a great great program 6 through eight social studies Chris uh arando personal fin lesson Finance lessons have been facilitated by social studies teachers uh uh a gr's 6 to8 curriculum map was made to satisfy the state mandate for personal finance classes will move away from the district created resources and replace these with Junior Achievement I'm going to add one other thing is that um and I asked you this question in the meeing is that uh the Malcolm uh Jenkins Foundation um uh last curriculum meeting uh made a presentation and there's a state standard for financial literacy through what whatever so he had a friend from the NFL who came up with a program that's more engaging to the these high school kids into the families on financial literacy and and closing the wealth Gap closing the wealth Gap and um and uh Dr B is going to get it going up at the uh up the high school which is great so you're using you know a graduate coming back and um financial literacy and the kids can that the kids can relate to right k28 science Dr Jeffrey uh celebrity seventh grade life science frog dissection I thought this was funny since I was I'm a science I thought this was funny is that has created ethical dilemmas for some students students have been accommodated as needed this year's classes will use synthetic frog dissections for students as needed uh this is realistic but not uh on an animal allowing a student to participate without you I mean I'm old schooled and no more from Malahide smell I guess from the uh from the but but this was a it's a it's a a move forward it's a great Wayward and that is um Madam uh president that's vice president that's my report okay and then we'll move on to uh policy legislative committee legislative committee okay so the policy legislative committee met on August 1st 2024 to discuss the various proposed policies and legislative actions the committee discussed and approved the following policies and regulations for placement on the board of education agenda for first reading all of which reflected updates in terminology or legal requirements since the last versions were adopted policy 20200 was curriculum content policy 5337 service animals policy 5350 student suicide prevention policy 8420 emergency and crisis situations and policy regulations 8467 firearms and weapons the committee discussed and approv for placement on the board agenda for first reading and amendment to policy 66 60 Student Activity fund suggested by the business administrator addressing the deadline for graduating classes to redesignate donations to the sub account of another class the following policies were recommended for ab abolition by by the board as suggested by Strauss SMA SMA is it close enough okay policy 01 64.6 remote public board meetings during a declared emergency in policy 7231 GI from vendors the committee discussed proposed policies and regulations 3160 and 4160 physical examinations and proposed regulation 5200 attendance which updated the current policies and regulations to reflect changes regarding tuberculosis testing and allowances of an excused AB for students to attend a Civic event Mr Rubin advised that the administration is still reviewing the options offered in the Strauss ese templates for these policies and regulations the committee also recommended that the dra the draft code of conduct be reviewed by the administration to incorporate any changes to the list of excuse actresses ultimately reflected in the update regulations 5200 Mr ruin briefed the committee on two pieces of legislation a Bill signed into law in late June eliminating the basic skills test requirement for issuance of instruction certificates to teacher candidates the freedom to read act awaiting action by the governor establishing an orderly procedure for review of complaints about District Library books and also Dr Conor noted another recent enact Bill authorizing districts to enter into extended contracts at lease terms for electric buses thank you uh that that ends our committee reports anybody any questions or we'll move on okay next is approval of minutes uh Miss R yes uh for your resolve that the following business be approved as submitted business meeting July 11th 2024 executive session July 11th 204 2024 that motion motion second all in favor car all right uh next item is uh item 12 which is public comments from the floor is there anyone here who uh wishes to address the board okay then uh I'll have to read this first the uh the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and school matters of community interest in support of this position the law establishes a period of public comment at every board meeting individuals wishing to speak must State their name and address uh comments are limited to three minutes duration but an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard the board may require that individuals register speak part to the beginning of the meeting uh participants May submit written material in support of their position all statements and our questions shall be directed to the presiding officer and no participant May address or question board members individually all speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy rights of others whose legal rights may be affected please note while this is not the board's intention to stifle comment or Ma on matters of legitimate concerns to the school Community the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others and the laws governing during defamation or invasion of privacy they may face personal liability to the injured party if speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of their comments the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal adviser hi my name is dy Patel I live in pisc can you spell the first name please d h a r m i last name Patel thank you uh first of all I want to thank culum committee uh for all their hard work and especially Mr basketball for uh uh g&t program assessment and improvements uh I'm not going to go over all the details but we have been in communication since early this year and great to hear that um there have been some progress I am so happy to hear and this is not only for my kid uh if I'm not happy with the program I could have moved to a different program but I'm not one of those person I am uh always willing and doing things not for my kids but for others I have one child on the Spectrum who is doing extremely well and now I am a suppor of other parents whoever needs help I just help them so is this this is great to hear uh I just have only one question co has changed everything I know the way we connect the way we we do things all our lives have changed um during the school time is there any um anything that we're looking in to reduce screen time especially during Ela time uh to what I'm noticing it's it's it's impacting their um writing skill and also handwriting um that's something if if it can be looked at that will be very helpful for everyone because I I know when things happen we focus on what we need to to do at that time to think get things going but now I think we're pretty stable and that's something it's just yes right now I had one of them in jump ahead and said every day make sure your iPad is fully charged and and come ready okay I understand he's eight so I have to do that so I do it every day that's fine but yes I can limit their screen time at home but it would be better at least not even if it's school time if it's a jump ahead program time they can write more they can do stuff more especially with children with special needs they find more skill writing is very important thank you well thank you for your input is there any uh comments from the administration or we I would like to just say uh thank you and it's good to see you again uh I mentioned to you when I saw you earlier um my office will be in touch with you on Monday we schedule of time for you to come in and we can sit down and talk about things further U but as far as handwriting a lot of things handwriting has went through many iterations in pasca way so when we start getting the whiteboards we went to using sty white boards to use in handwriting as against as opposed to using what it's called the Z blouser books that we used to use so we went to the handwriting uh on the Whiteboard because we thought there would be a better usage of that uh but yes we understand how important handwriting is and so we're going to push handwriting now normally cursive writing starts in grade three but we're looking at pushing cursive writing down at least one grade more and put it in grade two as opposed to having to star in grade three so those are some things we're looking at uh as far as screen time doing jump we found that most of the programs and the curriculum for Jump Ahead is on the devices and so uh we we use a lot of the programs that we use during the school year they kind of Drive jump ahead but we have less screen time during the normal school day than we do in a program like jump ahead so you will find that when you come back to school in September even though we use our devices in the classroom we don't use those devices as much as we using those devices during Co time so there's more interaction between the students there's more Cooperative groups taking place um there's more direct instruction with the teachers there's more small groups so there are more opportunities away from the actual devices themselves so um but we can discuss that and we actually I can just preview the curriculum with you whenever you want to come in so you can see how we've addressed those things in the curriculum as well sounds good okay thank you Dr Bas thank you for for being here for your comments um seeing no one else coming to the podium do we have a motion to close public comment motion second all those in favor I I public uh comment the floor closed next item on agenda is item 13 which is fiscal plannings and operations uh and that's me so be it resolved that the following motion is identified as items a through n be approved uh as presented have a motion motion a second second there any discussion any discussions on items a through n hearing no comments for discussion uh support secretary please call the rooll Mr King y m Rasheed yes M Rivers yes M Stafford yes Dr Connors yes motions Carri item 14 is policy uh Stafford be it resolve that the following motions identified as items A and B be approved as presented motion second any discussion no discussion uh sport secretary please read the role Mr rashed yes m Rivers yes M Stafford yes Mr King yes Dr Connor yes motions Carri next item is item 15 curriculum uh Mr King be resolved that the following motions identified as items a through F be approved as presented second yes sorry thank you is there any discussion no discussion Mr board secretary please read the RO M Rivers yes Miss Stafford yes Mr King yes M rashed yes Dr Connors yes motions carry item 16 pupil Services uh Miss Rivers be resolved that the following motion ident identified as items a through D be approved as presented motion second is there any discussion seeing no discussion um Mr board secretary please read the rooll M Stafford yes Mr King yes Mr rashed yes M Rivers yes Dr Connors yes motions Carri I item 17 administrative and auxiliary on the Stafford be it resolved that the following motions identified as items a through e be approved as presented motion second any discussion uh the only thing I would say is that this is where we're adopting our code of student conduct and um also our annual District goals that we had agreed to at the last meeting with the superintendent uh so any other discussion seeings none uh Miss Board secretary please read the roll M Stafford yes Mr King yes M Rasheed yes Miss Rivers yes Dr Connor yes motions carry and before we move on to Old business I just wanted to you know read a little bit about this because often sometimes it appears that our our to our audience is that our actions are taken with very little comment and most likely with a unanimous vote but just realize that prior to this there's been a lot of discussion Etc so it may appear like we're just going running through but uh the members of the board committees work with the administration through our committees and um and when the Committees are satisfied it's presented to the board and it makes it to the agenda okay old business is there any old business to be brought before the board um I have a few I have just a a couple a few um in the spirit of continuous Improvement the first old business is at the next and last uh New Jersey school boards Association board certification training group session is scheduled for Monday September 23rd and then we just have to meet some criteria and then we'll get our from the New Jersey school boards we'll you know every bunch of years we try and uh hold these sessions so that we're up to Snuff on uh legal matters financial matters Etc so uh everybody's been doing a great job attending those this will put us over the top our 16 credits that's great um the second thing is that uh I was the only okay any other old business okay we'll move on to new business anybody have any new business I have a couple I have a couple the First new business is that in your packet is the fall Sports um we all received in our C packet the multiple activity schedule and everybody should have cared around with in your badge holder a uh greater middle six County administrative pass so if you could make every attempt you could uh to attend games and support our athletic department that'd be great the second thing is that um and um as most of you know I'm one of the executive state officers of the New Jersey school boards Association um and uh what was sent to us is that the New Jersey school boards has a delegate assembly which hears resolutions so that if the New Jersey school board as a whole wants to change its policy manual that it uses to Advocate our legislator on critical issues uh that goes through this resolution process to the delegate assembly uh if anybody has any issues um we write them up as a uh you know as a resolution and submit them the deadlines October 3rd for that and then the last thing that I have for new business is that September is right around the corner and in your pack it was also the back to school night schedule every one of us is a liaison to one of the schools where all Le on to the high school and also to Children's cor so look at that schedule and uh for the elementary you know children school elementary intermediates middle school master and what's not in there we'll wait to do so that we're all saying the same thing you'll be receiving a script of talking points so we'll all go out to the schools and say the same thing and that's all that I had under new business and that was it anyone else uh uh what's that last one oh 20 adjourn bid is there a motion to adjourn motion all those in favor I okay thanks