welcome to this public meeting of the Princeton Board of Education the board is an elected unpaid group of 10 citizens who set policy and make decisions on educational Financial okay and Personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all residents we're always pleased when members of the public attend our meetings the board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the publish agenda or other matters of interest to them the board reserves a right to limit the time allotted to public participation law limits discussion of individual personnel and confidential matters we hope our meetings provide useful opportunities for communication between the board and the community thank you for attending as required under the open public meeting act njsa 1046 at sequentia adequate notice was given for calling this meeting it was authorized by the Board of Education and forwarded to the municipal clerk Princeton packet in the Trenton Times on January 6 2024 was also distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy 168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this in-person meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is is being live streamed the representative of the sing district is authorized to vote on such matters that affect sending District students or affect the governance of the princet public schools as more specifically designated in njsa 18a 38 8.1 sending District votes pertaining to Personnel actions refer to high school Central administrative and districtwide staff only votes otherwise are considered extensions in the event that the statute is amended the wall shall take presidence over this byw thank you Mr Balden would you please call the RO sure D kendel here Betsy Bago here Beth Baron here Adam Beerman here Debbie bronfeld here Mara franceski here Elenor hubard here Susan caner here Brian McDonald pres Rob Christopher here we have a quum thank you Mr Balden um can I please get a motion for adoption of the minutes for February 20th 2024 Mara second Brian dfy Kendall yes Betsy Bago yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mara franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden um good evening everyone thank you for joining us we have a a packed agenda tonight so we'll get right to it um under the board president's report we have uh three uh wonderful things that we're going to celebrate um we'll start with the streak of kindness presentation uh we'll move on to uh discuss our proposed our proposed contract with um our administrator Union and uh then we have um some good news about uh our Acting Superintendent uh so with that um Mr custa Gia and I did not say that right so please correct me I should say Angelo Angelo but how do you say your last name I'm very sorry Mr okay yeah I grew up with a name like daphna so it's very important Italian that's just how it is story of my life and you brought Mr B and you brought Mr bur with you Mr B it's part of Angelo's streak of kindness he brought me to this meeting and I'm really just here to say uh it is middle level Educators month so how appropriate it is that you all invited us to come and speak in March and you've chosen a really great topic because uh Angelo's really done a phenomenal job and trying to get people United around uh some things in school to kind of get us all pulling in One Direction with kindness so I'm going to turn it over to Angelo but happy middle level Educators month and uh appreciation to all of the staff at Princeton Middle School uh we couldn't do it without you and uh Angelo take it away right uh hello everyone uh I want to thank all members of the board uh for having me giv me the opportunity to speak with everyone my name is Angelo castagliola I'm the proud e8th grade counsler at Princeton Middle School um is important to note that March happens to be middle level Educators month um so if you know any middle level Educators please send them some love send them some kindness uh you know one week away till spring break times uh get a little crazy but um you know that's that's middle school for us um I have the privilege of seeing and working with the incredible dedicated and driven Middle School Educators at Prince and public schools and they all do such amazing work as principal Burr loves to note uh Middle School is the place to be um so I'm here to speak with all of you about this amazing initiative that we have been utilizing within our building that offers a collaborative approach to unifying our staff and students uh but but before we continue uh if you guys want a little bit of a trivia knowledge a little bit of Jeopardy knowledge um if you guys don't know this in the wild a group of tigers is called a streak um and it's very very special because it never really happens in the wild that much um so when it does happen it's really really good and really really kind um really really good so um that Motif is kind of kind of string along throughout uh this entire talk um as phase two of the re-entry to pre uh Prince of Middle School postco Prince of Middle School administration under the leadership of assistant principal ebony vladimer in collaboration with the Princeton Middle School counseling department uh turned our attention to expanding students sense of belonging at Princeton Middle School through building relationships uh promotion of wellness and developing an overall understanding of what it means to be a part of the Princeton Middle School Community by utilizing a simple common language of what happens around here um the streak of kindness initiative is centered uh on visible representations of Princeton middle School Community throughout the building as well as tapping into our talents as counselors and Educators to assist our students in finding their streak uh of like-minded individuals when they are in our building uh this originally started with helping our students find a club sports or activities that they can that they can join uh we also handed out stickers to staff we also handed out uh t-shirts and sweatshirts we also SE celebrated World kindness day which is November 13th uh in our building by spreading kindness like confetti throughout the district by having every Princeton Middle School student create a kindness themed bookmark we then distributed all 788 bookmarks throughout each Elementary School each Princeton Middle School student uh took a kindness pledge that outlined how they will be intentional about being kind within our building uh we also had a kindness patch uh design contest with the winning design now um integrated into our merchandising for this school year over the span of this year uh this mindset is used through all throughout building level Educators when interacting with students uh because the belief of addressing the whole child is so prevalent and ingrained within the Princeton Middle School System this kindness initiative is able to highlight safe adults and places that students can go to in order to connect receive resources for a myriad of supports by uh within the school and within the community as well moreover during the summer uh as you can see up there uh the amazing members of our PTO and the stre of kindness initiative came together um and we partnered with John Witherspoon graduate Marin Marlin Dila who's a local artist to create um this incredible mural that Embraces all things Prince to Middle stool uh continuing with the tiger Motif we are able to have this beautiful blue tiger and this jungle scene with the golden lettering of Princeton middle school and then uh spearheaded by our assistant principal Ebony ladimer and our science supervisor Dr Barnes Johnson we were able to partner with the Paul Robeson House of Princeton uh to commission a colorful and vibrant mural uh in dedication of pra Robson both of these murals represent the second arm of the streak of kindness initiative and how we aim to highlight the bright and vibrant passion of our middle level Educators and how we can utilize our walls and educational spaces to reflect that love and care for our students and the community that we are centered within um and that is in our drama department so that's right in front of our drama department so it kind of just brings the to life everything that we got going on over there uh continuing Jason Burr Ebony laimer and John mcken partnered with the streak of kindness initiative to come together to revitalize a system of acknowledging student achievement our tiger stripe system aims to highlight kind acts that student showcase within the given school day a staff member can then give a student a tiger stripe which is then collected by our front office staff all tiger stripes are collected and our administrative team of Jason Ebony and John uh hosts a pancakes with the principal event uh this time uh this is the time where all students all have earned the tiger stripes can come together and participate in a short uh social emotional learning uh exercise with Jason and then enjoy uh pancake breakfast so what's what's better than that um the overall goal of this program is to highlight the act of doing something kind for our fellow students or staff members we have hosted two breakfasts so far and our third is set to be the biggest one yet uh towards the future we are looking to create more Equitable and dynamic ways to integrate kindness into our building the streak of kindness initiative aims to expand the mindset of middle school being a place to be we aim to make the students staff and Community understand that middle school is the place to be you to be a community and most importantly to be kind to one another and to ourselves uh thank you all for allowing me to speak with you all and uh welcome to the street thank you thank you very much we uh really appreciate it and happy um middle school education month to both you and Mr Burr and thank you for joining us and what a wonderful thing you're doing um it's you know you're catching kids being good which I they're probably not used to yeah especially Middle School had two yes so we're very thank you for coming we appreciate it thank you thank you guys thank you all right uh so next up we have um the ratification of theou uh with our um um Princeton administrators Association uh the proposed contract um is a four-year contract um with um a 3% increase and um I I should have started by saying we're in the business of educating kids so people always say oh in Corporate America well we're not in Corporate America our business is kids and the most and I think what sets us apart from Corporate America is that um our employees work directly you know with our product which is our kids and it's very important um that we have the best uh of the best working with our kids um and that extends from our um administ administrative unit which is our Pressa our teachers union which which is the p and our administrator is Union which is the paa and um these are people who go uh above and beyond constantly and um and the focus there could be a lot of different things going on in the district but the focus is always on kids and um we're just so very grateful um to have this level of professionalism um with our you know our employees so as a board we believe you know we'll take care of our employees and they will take care of the kids and um that is part of the secret sauce of princ and public schools um so with that could I please get a motion Brian second Debbie is there any discussion great D the count wait Brian want to oh sorry um H having been in the room I just wanted to um give thanks to the representatives from the union for their professionalism and their clear and evident passion for uh the district and our children and they're willing to work with us to come up with a contract that you know is is fair and allows us to move forward with um purpose and great energy for the next four years also want to thank our board president um DNA Kendall for leading the effort on our behalf um she did a fantastic job and it really was um a great experience in that everybody worked well together and was very professional and also it was short um and we're grateful for all of that yeah and I'll Echo those things and also thank you Brian and you Debbie for serving with daphna as part of this committee but we thank our administrators Adam just locking in for four years smooth ride now we can focus on other things thank you and I'm learning about negotiations thank you anyone else all right now you can go great D Kendall yes Betsy bagale yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes elen Hubbert yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes um motion passes all right well thank you um I I do see some of our administrative leadership in uh the audience and I didn't know if they wanted to come up and say or do you want to wait for public comment but you don't have to because I know you have an early day tomorrow hello everyone hi hello I have my voice back now so I can speak during negotiations I had laryngitis um I would like to say on behalf of paa we would like to thank the board for working collaboratively with us um for what we believe is a fair contract and we would especially like to thank the board members on the negotiation team daphna Kendall Ryan and debney and Debbie excuse me for listening to paa's needs which makes the membership feel very appreciated and so we thank you for um a quick meeting we thank you for just hearing us all right thank you so much thank you okay and my last piece of good news for tonight is um then we'll get to the regular business of the district but I'm going to be asking um for a motion uh to approve the waiver um to allow our attorney to request a waiver for um Dr Foster to continue on as our Acting Superintendent through uh June of 2025 can I get a motion Beth second Mara um I just want to start and say that um when Dr uh Foster joined us in November um we were very lucky um that someone with her experience her kindness um her understanding of education and children um would would join us at the time and today 5 months later just about to the day um she having been been here for 5 months wants to continue on um and this is instead of retirement with a brand new grandson so it I guess it's interesting right it's not it's not boring it's not boring um so when um Dr Foster joined us um we were going to wait until January uh for the new board to be formed um to to discuss uh the search for a permanent superintendent um and that discussion never happened um we immediately um you know the most important thing to us is that our staff uh I is confident and comfortable with um their leadership and so and that was very clear um and so you know we we we waited a little bit uh we don't want to seem too needy to ask Dr Foster um if she would continue you know staying on um the way the state calculates she Dr Foster spent uh six months here in Valley Road as interim assistant superintendent she spent six months at Princeton High School as interim principal or acting principal acting principal and uh so she's about um when we get to November um that will be a year so um Dr Foster has agreed to allow us to request uh an extension from the state to allow her to stay on um and our attorney has spoken with the executive count County Superintendent MCA County um you know who thinks it's a great idea um so um that's the background I think uh the next step should the uh exe should the Department of Education approve uh the waiver we would then um negotiate a contract with Dr Foster for um so right now she was supposed to be here through November um 14th of uh 24 we would look to extend it to June 30th of 25 um and so once we get that approval the contract will be discussed um in public um absent any change in state law Dr Foster this will probably be it uh June 30th 2025 um so sometime in in early 2025 uh the board would begin a search for a permanent superintendent so I just wanted to fill the community in on what the board has been uh doing but the most important thing for us um is stability for our employees um what we're hearing is our employees are thrilled uh with Dr Foster um as the leader of the district um and I'll speak for the board we are also thrilled with Dr Foster um as a leader of the district and so um again thank you for staying with us all right now are any other comments I'll just Echo that and say um Dr Foster we appreciate your willingness to stay it establishes great continuity for our staff and students as de mentioned um and we appreciate that students are always at the heart of your decision making and you're moving us forward so thank you Adam yeah and again nothing's going to be perfect and there'll be disagreements and who knows what's gonna happen in the future but just looking when I talk to people though um on the uh cognitive um emotional IQ or organizational your past Robinsville um yeah I mean it is more of a whole package right now and and Lord knows after it's been quite tumultuous in the past so I think it's good to have a you're solving bomb it's get things are much smoother now very good Elenor yeah I'd like to add my thanks um to your staying with us I'm thrilled that we're able to move forward with this now I've been looking hoping for it for a long time and I've been blown away um by your competence uh which is really just extraordinary to see that's it we're all out of compliments yeah all right M okay so who made the motion you said Beth Mar Beth and Mar okay I can't I don't have eyes on the back of my head d m Kendall yes Betsy Bagel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mario franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes unanimously um I I'm so grateful first of all um I'm glad this is live streamed because I want my uh children to hear this on the whole package because I'm not sure if they would agree but um I have to say I love this community I I and I truly do um from the first time I came here in the first role but um this is an incred L student centered passionate and and Incredibly uh smart uh Community uh filled with outstanding staff members from you know the bus drivers Food Service uh instructional aids to our professional Educators and supervisors administrators everyone it's wonderful and and working with the board who you know yes we all say is this what's best for students and that's how we make our decisions um and I really am so grateful and and it's such a joy so thank you very much all right well thank you Dr Foster and with that I will turn it over to [Music] you here so I appreciate um Matt helping me um move the PowerPoint so I can look at my talking points and just make sure uh we highlight uh the great work that is happening in this District so as you know uh the Strategic plan um is in its you know first year up to 2028 and so we want to just give an update of where we are with uh the priorities and goals so I just want to highlight a few things now I'm going to ask you to to be a little patient um we promise to post all of the data um on the website but we have what I would say is a wealth or perhaps a boatload um of data to share with you and a and a lot of it is promising uh as we make progress towards our strategic plan goals uh and some uh raises questions which is a really healthy part of any organization because creates a curiosity to find out why uh we we might notice uh data that is not trending in a positive way and so with all this said um you know I want to uh extend my deep gratitude to Dr Tu uh the administrative team which includes the supervisors principales assistant principal uh for taking the lead on this important work and then it really we must recognize our outstanding professional educ ators and classroom teachers who have years of experience and yet continue to embrace a reflective stance uh as they adopt new initiatives uh new pedagogy uh to really make sure that uh we are meeting the needs of all of our students in the in the district so um thank you for that so I love this quote uh by the the chist um the most found foundational value we hold as Educators is to keep our students physically and emotionally safe we also want our students to love learning and live joy-filled productive lives the Strategic plan actually puts students at the center of every decision we make so we can be truly worthy of them so this is our promise our covenant and our mission we promise to prepare all of our students to lead lives of joy and purpose as knowledgeable creative and compassionate citizens of a global Society here are this year's uh strategic plan priorities um they uh they spiral through each of the years uh that will be extended but each year we capitalize on a particular part of that goal so early focus on early years there is so much research about how children begin uh so ages three to grade three wellness and inclusion support for all and we just seen a wonderful presentation about how that can make a difference in the lives of students opportunity and achievement for all and preparation for a meaningful life beyond Princeton Public Schools so we want them to go out and be confident and competent uh so that they can choose to do many things in their lives so we're going to start with preschool so this bar graph represents the preschool program overall there are 130 students the purple bar represents children meeting the widely held expectations for their age in the six areas of development and learning social emotional physical language cognitive literacy and math and the green represents the number of children exceeding the widely held EXP expectations this is actually data from December 4th preschool is actually an intervention it's an intervention program and focuses on the processing skills most predictive of school Success uh out of the 10030 students 32 students are economically disadvantaged 35 students speak a language other than English 78 of the children will are four-year-olds and will be in our kindergarten next next fall there we go uh preschool at risk students are those who score two levels or more below the uh widely held expectations within each area of development and learning so this graph shows that there are 27 individual students who are at risk in one or more areas of development the blue bar represents data from December 4th and as you can see the orange represents data from our January 19th checkpoint there's been a 63% reduction of children falling well below the widely held expectation overall and the biggest reduction in the literacy domain uh with a 77% reduction of students falling well below the widely held expectations and just so you know of the 27 students identified at risk 17 are either multilangual multilingual Learners or economically disadvantaged or both all right so now we're going to go through data uh as we uh in the early grades as we focus on uh kindergarten 1 2 3 and four so this is a literacy Snapshot from February 14 uh this matches the goal of at least 16 out of 20 students will meet or exceed proficiency standards in literacy uh just so you know this um is part of the Orton Gillingham initiative that was happening and you can see uh the kindergarten skills and how they've improved just from the fall and winter um these are things that you know we kind of take for granted sometimes and yet it's amazing to see when kids uh start to really get that aha moment and see Connections in language so this kindergarten specific data um shows Orton Gillingham which is our structured multi-sensory literacy approach and District initiative uh and that's for all teachers in K to1 this year uh next year all teachers in grades two and three will be Orton Gillingham chain uh trained and just so you know that imse because we love our acronyms stand for institute for multi-sensory education so that's um part of the assessment for eron Gillingham uh we're continuing with kindergarten specific data to show structured literacy uh and if you notice um uh name sounds the data is a bit lower due to the fact that they have not finished learning all of the sounds of the kindergarten alphabet yet they're about halfway through uh now we're on to grade um one uh there are 200 students in first grade and these are deeper level skills that will continue to be worked on through the spring okay you can move on first grade you'll see great growth in reading words and you know if you remember as parents um what a miracle that is when students start to uh become independent readers and there is more reading sentences for first grade okay the second priority and goal is all about Wellness inclusion and supports so this is across our K 5 um District um and as you can see so uh last year in the winter 2023 there was uh a survey about um feeling a sense of belonging and there was a recent uh winter survey uh this past year and you can see that there's been a slight increase we apologize because I know it's tiny we captured it um this was self-reporting so these are students who are reporting this um my school is a welcoming place to be I look forward to going to school when something is bothering me I have at least one trusted adult and teachers at this school treat me with respect and oh these are some of the initiatives that they've done for so social emotional learning so some of the pieces that they've encouraged to make a sense of belonging is the responsive classroom School counseling Second Step curriculum zones of Regulation everyday speech Behavior expectations in schoolwide assemblies honoring cultural celebrations and of course parent and PTO Partnerships uh and school pledges here's um the Middle School uh as you can see there is a slight increase as well um these are a middle middle school students uh there are 783 middle school students again this is self-reported just so you know and you can see that there is an increase over time okay some of the initiatives we've we've gotten to uh witness tonight uh the streak of kindness the the stunning mural uh unveiling and dedic ation the uh variety of clubs that are offered for for students and of course who doesn't want to have pancakes with the principal and then there has been a great effort and you can see the the the graduated greens are um the positive uh pieces uh that they have seen an increase and they're still working because there is still a lot of work to do for all students to feel a sense of belonging and to feel scen uh at the high school this was a fabulous um moment and I'm so glad uh Dr Barnes Johnson captured this um with this photo uh for Black History Month uh this was uh an assembly that culminated the whole month's celebration and it was student run uh student um lead and the powerful powerful student performances uh besides the uh Black History Month assembly there's also the March mammal Madness in biology Hall and we uh we have to honor once again the PHS research uh Team who um won the Samsung project for 2024 uh and with their um they developed uh AI they used AI as a tool to um preserve the Mayan indigenous language of course we heard uh I think a couple of board meetings ago about the East steam Saturdays program at Princeton middle school and we do have our beloved PHS uh research uh that continues uh throughout the year and will culminate in the spring now we are on to the third goal which is OPP opportunity and achievement for all we're going to start again uh at the beginning with grade one um and that is um the Dr scores Dr uh again another acronym stands for developmental reading assessment it's individually administered uh and uh it helps identify a student's reading level and measures fluency accuracy and comprehension so you can see that there was an increase uh from the fall to the winter from 56% to 70% on grade level grade two Rose from 58% to 79% 219 students and grade three third grade did not have the same growth Trends as K1 and two so again we Embrace this we it makes us curious it makes us wonder why is this what what is going on uh we do know that we are um the uh curriculum team is going to spend some time training third grade this summer in a 30-hour structured literacy course uh and infusing a daily structured literacy block next year um so but there's more work to be done for grade three grade four remained consistent this is one of the largest jumps up in Dr scoring and goes from small increments of increase to large grade level bands of increase so again future structured literacy training is planned and fifth grade similar looking forward to diving into the spring data for the 260 students to see what's going on there now this is the common we're on to 6 through 12 common lit benchmark assessments which track students growth and identify student Performance Based on literacy standards this is the first year these assessments are being administered although the intent is for all students who are not in AP courses to take the the assessment some teachers of sections of AP English courses who also teach other Standard English courses elected to administer the assessments at the beginning of the year to help increase the data available for them for planning lessons for their students um and uh the team uh under you know Kesha's work um guidance that she's still working to increase participation rate at the classroom level data is used to inform instruction and support intervention plans for students who may be referred to inrs um it informs curriculum revision and implementation okay now we're on to math numeracy check-in uh the goal was at least 17 out of every 20 students will meet or exceed proficiency standards in numeracy by the end of grade three so you can see second grade data shows 64% meeting and in the fall and 7 77 meeting in the winter third grade 48% meeting or exceeding in fall and 65 meeting or exceeding in Winter fourth grade 49% meeting or exceeding in fall and 60% meeting or exceeding in Winter and last one grade five fifth grade 48% in the fall and 65% in exceeding in um the the winter now for 6th through 8th grade um the we have for sixth grade 38% to 58% uh but grade seven is 42% and went down to 40% so again raises questions of what's going on uh one of the things that um math supervisor uh Tiffany Brennan said is because the district condenses the six seventh and eighth grade standards um so much um that maybe uh we need to take a look at the curriculum and and the way uh the progression is they're still learning seventh and eth grade math standards for the first half of the year uh uh for meeting um expectations and the different forms from a form a to Form B uh so you can see that they're not quite ready yet and then I apologize because it's so tiny but um you can also see that um this is also a challenge uh with algebra 8 8th grade H let's see is did I get everything and oh this is geometry this is the high school now so if you notice there's work to be done uh at geometry and you'll also see work to be done in Algebra 2 the next one yeah okay uh so science doesn't have um the uh same assessment tools available for them as Ela and math and so what the teachers do under the guidance of Dr Joy Barnes Johnson is they use classroom level data so this is an example and I know it's a little overwhelming but it's pretty cool to look at is um it really is it's a seventh grade teacher and she breaks down the questions she asks on an assessment and looks and sees how many students got certain questions right and how many students got certain questions wrong so that informs her teaching uh if uh most of the students get a question wrong you know she wants to revisit what the lesson looks like so that she can either retach or uh teach in a different way so this drives lesson planning and drives curriculum um they are working on uh common benchmark assessments across the board for science currently okay and again I know it's busy this is thanks thanks Dr Barnes Johnson um but this is um again the types of questions and if you look at the top so the top are the uh Princeton High School student performance on specific science tasks and the bottom is are the middle school student performance tasks and she's just showing how they're working to create common assessments that are standards based so that they can compare a Ross classes and skills okay and one of the goals for the high school was to increase the number of students enrolled and accelerated and AP courses so here's the data from 2122 and then uh here is the data also that's the Baseline for the work and here is the data for this current year and you can see that there is an increase in the number of students enrolled for VAR ious categories um increases in most all categories except um free and reduced lunch that's that's the last one and uh Hispanic went down uh 0.1 the last goal um is preparation for a meaningful life uh so what is life beyond Princeton High School I'm sure Alex and Oliver are wondering about that um and probably looking forward to it um so one of you heard a great presentation by Dr two um a month ago or two about um the professional development around a portrait of a graduate and all of the work that the professional development committee has done to create uh these important and essential skills that we want students to take with them uh and as you know March 20th is the deadline for the art submission uh for the um I'll put a little plug March 20th for the art Mission art contest uh for the uh portrait of a graduate skills this is the timeline that shows um the portrait of a graduate uh and and I think um Dr two had that in her her slideshow as well so you can see um how um this is going to be rolled out okay and yeah we made it i' say thank you for your patience uh any questions uh thank you very much it's really nice to see so much um hopeful data um especially that the elementary stuff um looks pretty good uh with some very impressive increases um you know we do have some um you know some results that aren't quite what we want them to be in algebra and geometry and I was wondering if you could give us a bit of a sense of what kind of work the district is doing um to you know to to make progress in those areas you want to answer to and I can join in oh here let's switch yeah yeah exactly I'll talk about ma um so that's a great question um so one of the things that we're doing as part of the math program review is have an internal committee to talk about curriculum revisions and standards alignment so there's New Jersey has just I feel like I'm a broken record has adopted new standards for ELA and math so we have to revise all of our curricula K through 12 in math and English language arts um so speaking with Tiffany Brennan today our supervisor making sure I think one of the concerns that I have looking at the high school data is I think we have textbooks and I think we're following the textbook but when um textbook Publishers publish they make textbooks for the entire country as we've talked about in Sac before and they don't necessarily tie it to New Jersey standards so I would really want our um internal team to kind of go through the resources that we have and make sure that we're not spending extraneous time on things that are not in our New Jersey standards and that we're really focusing on the core um so that's something that you know we have our curriculum and we will Target those type of things so curriculum revisions um are coming the other thing um that we're going to talk about more another plug math placement night at our Middle School is Wednesday night uh we're having a webinar at 7 pm um is just talking about the alignment of the standards in sixth seventh and eighth grades and I feel that we really compress our standards in uh Princeton um so one of the things we want to do is well what supports then our in place place for students to have multiple opportunities to spiral those standards and get practice in those standards um so I'm not as concerned about sixth and seventh grade because what we are finding is algebra 1 particularly at the middle school they do a lot of frontloading the first half of the year with seventh and eth grade middle school standards and then get to algebra one they kind of catch up and and we do really well with algebra 1 scores in seventh grade um one of the concerns that I do have is like looking at um students who might have like compressed those standards and now they're in Algebra 2 in high school or geometry in high school algebra one is such the Cornerstone of mathematics so how do we make sure that we are tucking in algebra along the Continuum so they have more exposure to it and that they can kind of keep circling back to it especially students who had Middle School online you know because some of those high schoolers I'm sure they can you know speak to it aliver and Alex you know took maybe Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 uh virtually um or partially in person so yes more work to to come but I do think that there's some really promising um results as well um and I feel knock on W like we're really starting to come out of of covid with some really promising yet it's not saying everything social emotionally is where it needs to be or academically where it needs to be but I think we are seeing some positive jumps um just U for my own iteration with um the uh prek literacy how much how is the par parental invol how is Parental involvement going and individual instruction and yearound instruction is that picking up or is that part of it for the preschool program you're talking about specifically yeah so uh part of our state requirements are there a certain amount of family engagement pieces evenings and things along those lines so um Valerie ol is's our supervisor preschool uh and Amy nashco who's our instructional coach really work with our community liaison uh Liliana to kind of connect families to the program and provide them that early support and resources um it really uh really do a good job of of bringing people in um and we really prioritize um seats in our program for students who are multilingual Learners as Kathy was saying and also students who U might receive you know federal assistance with lunch um because we really want to make sure that we're providing a really um Rich educational experience even before they come to kindergarten um so we can always do more engagement I'm not saying what perfect but I think that we really do a lot of Outreach um to support our preschooler because we know that you know the early supports really a difference in the long run and just do you think Orton Gillingham helps with decoding and spelling it's which is really important too yes um really it's about uh explicit reading and writing instruction and and phonetic and pH phonemic and phonological awner so yes decoding and encoding so breaking down words to read them encoding breaking up uh making words to spell I always say this and you know I have a first grader in another District I wish she was learning what you know our kids are ling to see the amount of growth within a year I was just in a meeting today at community park and the kindergarten first grade teacher was saying like wait till you see the kids next year like they're so much stronger in some of these areas um so the teachers themselves are really seeing the the work and and kudos to them because it really um there's some front loading that needs to happen when you're taking on a new program um and it's been a lift but they've really as you can see from the data done a really really great job and I can say this enough kudos to Sarah Moore for being here for training our staff and doing the support she's doing three weeks of training this summer with our staff and actually West Windsor is joining us as well because words gotten out um about our programming um and the support it brings to kids and I'm not being paid to say this but so you're building a foundation you're changing a culture and I do see it so very good thank you yeah um I was excited to see with our emotional you know social that more kids are feeling they have you know an adult in the in the um school and they're reaching out and obviously with our presentation you know that we have adults that are really there for our kids and I hope that continues to increase and again you know a lot of it is from actually being together being in person yeah and I will say I was at Riverside when um uh principal oal uh did the uh review of the data and the staff took it so seriously and we're like really diving in and like why would this be and what could the and just really took it with a curiosity stance and just came up with ideas of mentoring programs and just different ideas so it's just nice to see that we all want to see that as well with kids because we know that's the foundation and I'll just add on to that and say the culture you're creating by um allowing these conversations about data to happen you're not as you're saying you're not just sort of collecting the scores but you're allowing teachers the time to come and talk about them um and then I assume we do you're looking at those specific students who need help as well so we're not just looking at Trends across but those are very important but then um the students who need more assistance get that as well thank you so much I just have a question too we've gone from zero to nine sections of prek in the last I guess four to five years and so I'm curious also the numbers are amazing to see beginning of the year to the end of the year the Readiness but are we also hearing anecdotally from our kindergarten teachers I mean I assume they're seeing the benefit of that we're actually getting kids even more ready it's a great question yeah yes they are seeing the benefit um one of the things I was talking uh with the supervisor Val ol uh this morning was there's still just a gulf between prek expectations and kindergarten standards and so there's a lot of conversations across the state about um they're really changing the language and they're they're really utilizing the word the phrase Early Childhood more because they're seeing that developmentally kids are just different and they need more of that social emotional time they need more of that downtime self-regulation and then you come into a full day kindergarten and it's content content content which listen we always want High expect ation but we also need to know they're five right they've been in the in the world for 60 months um so you got to put it in pers perspective right um so I do think they see it but I do think one of the goals that we want to have is to a better transition from our preschool program to our kindergarten program and more articulation so that not that we're driving everything down to the preschool but there's similar language and expectations and um we're looking at elementary minutes for next year and in kindergarten adding a second structured play block um to give then that kind of time to decompress is one of our goals C ask a quick question um so as our two senior academic administrators how um confident are you that these are the right tests that we're administrating administering and also that the testing rates are sufficiently High um so that there's you know I don't know what the error bars are in terms some of these were you know um significant changes and some were not significant neither Direction so your confidence in the the tests themselves and then the the quality based on the enrollment versus test State first you want to go first okay we canag we can tag team um so that's a great question I think um one of the things that you saw a lot of linkit data which is what we use for math linkit is basically a test that predicts is has done a ton of research and design how well students will do on the njsla so this really helps us it's standards based and it's Criterion reference so uh districts across the state utilize it um I do think it's really helpful to have common lit goes a little bit so lincol also has Ela um assessments we chose common lit because we felt that the texts were richer that they were exploring the students um in the program and we've heard really good you know feedback we researched you know different variables and felt that that data was valid um when it comes to the um Orton Gillingham it really is is is basic it's writing capital letters it's writing WR you know so it it's the the growth on uh piece where we might change in the future is the Dr is the developmental reading assessment that we use um for reading levels one of the concerns that um you know people have shared is that after a certain level it becomes a writing assessment as well as a reading assessment so after about second grade when we ask students questions about their comprehension they have to write um and so that's hard for some students Orly they can tell you you know just fine this is the sort of main idea Etc but when you're expected to write I feel like that becomes a different type of assessment so we're looking at different um reading assessments like Running Records I ready um and we actually have a meeting on Friday with teachers from across the elementary programming and Sarah Moore um to look at you know if we were to explore different tools what would we want to use um to measure um and then formative it's all standards aligned so we which is the science uh platform so basically the teachers pluck New Jersey student learning standards they give uh um questions that are based on them and then we can kind of analyze so I feel like we kind of have a continu for that's very structured like linkid and more of a common lit and then sort of less structured classroom level uh with formative um but you know as Kathy said we we're still linkid has science ones that are tied to the njsla but they're still new and piloting um I don't like putting all our eggs in one basket I like kind of um seeing um some different things but I do think um this also has been a change for our district um so you know we do get some of the we're testing again you know so it's that balance of you know when do we test and then also I always say if you're going to give assessment to someone you have to make sure you're looking at the data and talking about the data so making sure we're finding the time to leverage the data um from these different um assessments and the MZ ones the Orton Gillum are weekly um they're short but they're their weekly assessments that are not on a computer um so I hope that answers the question if you want and and I was just going to say with the common lit um this is the first time I think that um the middle school and high school have done um sort of uh you know benchmark assessments so I think this is a good entry point but I think there are other good uh tools to use when teachers become more comfortable because they have to be comfortable with administering and then reviewing and collecting the data and then analyzing it and applying it so I think um right now common L is is a good one to start with but I think there might be others um that we can take a look at yeah um I just uh wanted to do maybe highlight a little of the focus you've been doing in the middle school and the high school on having kids feel that they belong and that work really continue coming out of the pandemic you know while we've made some improvements like that to me is such an important part beside you know obviously we want kids to to read and to do math but we also want them to feel that school is welcoming and safe so as you're looking at the schedules as you're looking at different supports like the new schedules that you're contemplating in the middle school and high school like really seeing those kids really feel seen and heard I think you know is always the priority I want to kind of emphasize because I think that will help in some of the other areas and make improvements right thank you thank you both um moving on now to the um student board member Report with Oliver and Alex sorry as always thank you so much for having us since February a lot has happened at PHS oh my goodness so there are a lot of uh student perspective related topics to cover first of all Princeton High School held its annual Asian Fest this month the program offered a wonderful chance to experience the diverse cultures and backgrounds of students at Princeton High School yeah in Performing Arts news phs's spectacle theater um put on our school's musical Beauty and the Beast this last weekend it was legitimately a great show no bias here it's not like ton of my friend friends are in it or anything great amazing and it was so fun to see so many students uh come out and support our uh performing arts program but as we approach spring break we turn our attention to next year and the new bell schedule starting next fall PHS is planning on removing the 3-week rotating bell schedule in favor of a simple straightforward onewe one we recently got a look at the schedule and it seems extremely promising indeed uh the new schedule looks to put it simply less confusing than the current one rotating letter days made it hard to create consistent routines at school and made weeks feel sporadic and unconnected with the new schedule because tiger time for example is always on the same day of the week students are offered clearer more consistent opportunities to meet with their teachers and that holds for pretty much you know every class um because they'll be tied to a specific day of the week um we've heard a lot of positive feedback from our peers about the new schedule and we're excited that tweaks are still being made to ensure we get enough time for lunch and during passing periods uh we'd like to move on to a quick review of our comments last month about the counseling services at PHS a little call back moment Oliver and I continue to be so thankful for the people that spend so much time helping out our students uh at our school and we're happy to report that a lot of positive developments have occurred over the last two months that we wanted to let everyone know about and comment on um indeed last month Alex and I pointed out that the new construction at PHS meant that the counseling Suite felt somewhat disconnected from the rest of the school thankfully Mr McMichael the wonderful supervisor of School counseling at PHS and the middle school has propped the door open to the suite and made it more easily for students to meet with their counselors without having to have an appointment in advance yeah so PSA to any PHS students watching if you feel like you need to meet with your counselor you can go mute with your counselor now which is super exciting and you know maybe a lot easier to make those meetings happen uh Oliver and I also thought it would be cool uh to interact with our counselors more outside of the context of their rooms in the counseling Suite which is a move that hasn't quite been made but is starting to be made uh in the quo for example we think that school counselors and members of the child study team could be posted in the front entrance for at the beginning of the day or in the hallways you know as a school day goes on so that students get a chance to interact with them and build relationships outside of a context where we directly need something from them and the relationship feels transactional left shift gears a little over the past few months there's been a lot of discussion about the high Toops organization and it's curriculum emphasizing diversity equity and inclusion we've heard criticisms that the high tops curriculum discusses privilege and oppression in a way that harms Princeton public school students as student board members who both went to the Princeton Middle School we disagree with that view yeah even though Princeton is known as a rich town it's the second most economically unequal municipality in New Jersey this means that discussions of economic and social inequality are an imperative for students to understand the world and the town that we live in when we discuss social issues in school it causes students to understand that not everyone has the privilege of a supportive home life or the funds to par participate in field trips so the ability to ski in Switzerland during a winter break as students at PHS we've been privy to the numerous ignorant comments students make in class whether it's asserting that hunger doesn't exist in America and that low-income individuals fake hunger for money or that unemployment is simply the result of laziness PHS students are often blind to the world that we live in and of course having those sorts of conversations is important but it's important as well that there's a counterveiling force that's helping to make sure PHS students again understand the world that we're actively living in discussing privilege does not equate to shaming people there's a reason the high Toops curriculum never labels students as oppressors the purpose of these discussions is to encourage our school Community to actively support each other rather than to tacitly accept systems that perpetuate inequality starting conversations is important and easy and really I mean interesting and fun as well when it's done right these lessons also don't undermine our education in fact they deepen and compliment our understandings of stem Humanities and social sciences for example in my freshman biology class I applied my knowledge of the cell and biology to understand the issues of environmental racism and the harms it poses on marginalized communities in world history students use global history to contextualize Modern political crises including the tunisia's political crisis the Russo Ukrainian conflict and C in West Africa in multivariable calculus my classmates applied their knowledge of derivatives to explain the causes and devastating impacts of financial crises to add another example to the list this year our school's research program which was discussed earlier was a state winner in Samsung Sol for tomorrow program the program's project focused on utilizing artificial intelligence to preserve indigenous Mayan languages and to help ESL students learn English this sort of project is impossible without understanding the historical context of language loss and the way that preserving indigenous languages can help to highlight voices that are all too often barred from our conversation the world we inhabit is complexed and nuanced again discussing social issues doesn't dilute our education and stem Humanities and social sciences rather it complements it we think a high school curriculum that doesn't cover societal ideas and issues like privilege and oppression is a curriculum that leaves our students not only unprepared for the world that they will enter after they graduate but unable to help the world become a better more Equitable place thank you your time thank you um I especially appreciated um the feedback on U Mr McMichael opening the door um I mean it's really important and thank you for sharing that and everything else with us hope you guys have a relaxing Spring Break um get ready for the final push yeah all right um so right now we're going to uh just switch things around a little bit we're going to move our first public comment now uh and then we will uh listen with baited breath to Mr Balden but but for now we'll start we we'll start um public comment and we'll start with uh Thomas perk so if you please come up just um state your name uh the street you live on and uh if you could please keep your comments to three minutes thank you good afternoon I think you remembered me from uh last meeting my name is Thomas perk I live on Chestnut Street uh I very excited that I'm following these two gentlemen with a very articulate view of the inclusion of activities um I have a implore to to the board for something that occurred in in in February I understand that the the um the high school sponsored a spirituals and gospel Festival of Music celebration I guess in tandem Black History Month and uh despite that how interesting that could have been uh it I think it's a complete violation it's the separation of church and state um these are not churches these are not religious organizations and any religious uh festivities or songs despite the fact that it's it's Black History Month is not a place for our school it undermines my efforts it undermines what these gentlemen have been talking about so clearly and I asked you to consider that going forward that to be absolutely adamant and and absolute about the separation of church and state uh even with minorities even with black history month or Asian History Month anything like that um it undermines um my efforts and my efforts of being and it undermines everyone else's efforts um and uh I hope that going forward we could choose that there's so many other um black Americans who contributed that we could celebrate uh this New Jersey this area of New Jersey is a hub for uh the pharmaceutical industry there's so many advances in the pharmaceutical industry uh in the Sciences of black Americans have contributed that we could celebrate um now law is a very um strong indicator of of our times right now um there's so many blacks who have African-Americans who have contributed to our US legal system they Marshall KI Brown Simpson we have a black Vice President we can talk about those things not church or anything gospel and uh I thank you for your attention thank you um next up is sioban Karen hello uh this is my first time coming to one of these meetings I just moved to Princeton a year and a half ago I have two little kids who are going to start in community park my son is going to start in September in first grade of my daughter then the following year in kindergarten uh I've heard wonderful things about community park and the duel Spanish program um one thing I've heard continuously since I came here was the uncertainty as to what's happening and with the Spanish program and me and lots of other parents of young kids that I've met since I got here are very excited about the Spanish program and very much anecdotally everyone seems that I've met here wants their kids to go to that school um people that I've met with older kids that moved here during Co said I would love to have had my kids go to community park and do the Spanish program but I don't speak Spanish I was struggling as it was to teach my kids at home not mind doing it in a foreign language or a language that I don't I don't speak um so I'm wondering if maybe in planning for the future and what's happening with Community part in the due language program if maybe people aren't fully anticipating the demand in the community and among people living here to have their young kids raised with a second language like that's what would happen if their kids went to community park and I know numbers have gone down during Co but I feel like that's there's a whole other reason and explanation for that my understanding is that Community Park intake is going to to be capped for the Dual language program for two classes and I'm wondering can that be looked at again is there way to explore what the future demand is going to be and if it looks like the future demand is going to be higher if that can actually be fed into the planning for what's going to happen with the elementary schools and the Dual language program going forward so this is a conversation I'm having with lots of parents and um I decided to come here get a babysitter come here and actually say it to you guys because you're clearly the people who make these decisions and um I'm just one parent but this is a conversation that I know is happening a lot and I wanted you guys to um maybe look at it again and see if there's something else that could be done thank you thank you uh next up is Hillary Smith hello uh I'm Hillary Smith I live just down the street on Valley Road um this is also the first time I've attended a meeting um and it's oh welcome um first off just want to say thank you all I mean as a a parent of very young children um in this community it is so clear just how much you all care about the kids and sorry I'm like eight months pregnant so I might start crying don't don't worry about that um so like sioban that um I also just wanted to um just speak for a few minutes about the Dual language program at Community Park um I have a young son who will probably hopefully start there in three years and then the other one will hopefully be there in five um but uh just just such a unique program with the Dual language such an such a wonderful draw um to this community and this this school in particular so um as sioban said just want to um hope that the the the need and the demand continues to be reevaluated over time um I know there was a lot of talk about meeting the needs um for the children in this community in the Strategic Plan update so um we just hope that the the board would continue to be thoughtful about that and hope and and reevaluate uh need and demand over time thank you okay thank you uh next up is uh jungan Chen hi Johan Shan M um I'm here today on behalf of the American Chinese Community primarily comprised of immigrants here in Princeton to address a matter of profound concern that resonate deeply with our collective experience we have come together to present a petition that voice our apprehension regarding the inclusion of the intersectionality course currently taught at the prin Middle School which is informed by the framework of Paul feri can crenell both both of whom have roots in the ideas propagated by extreme leftist ideology such as Marxism the core of our concern lies in The Uncanny parallel these theories draws with the ideological underpinning that fied one of the darkest period in Chinese history the cultural revolution during the decade long turmoil Society was fractured into rigidly defined categories ostensibly through violent and cruel methods to promote proletarian value and will eliminate boua elements we bring forth a unique perspective on Marxism one that is not derived from theoretical study alone but from immersive Liv of experience all Chinese immigrants residing in Princeton have navigated an educational system in China where Marx's ideology is not merely a subject of study but a fundamental pillar this intensive mandated engagement with Marxism across various stages of our education equips us with a deep nuanced understanding of its ten tenants methodologies and implications with our deep personal understanding of marxist ideology we have H the ability to discern its Nuance across various context informed by our experience in historical Insight from China to United States in contemporary educational content like the inter intersectionality course we recognize Echoes of these ideologies elet with modern twist instead of focusing on class struggle these modern adaptation use identity politics including race and gender as tool to challenge and destabilize traditional society structure aiming to pave the way for a new purportedly liberated World these shifts while appear appearing in ative still reflect the core Marxist principle with which we are intimately familiar to us attempt to modify or beautify these ideologies are akin to putting lipstick on a pig no matter the embellishment or reinterpretation the ugly core remains recognizable to those who know what to look for just as one might discern the underlying feature of a pig beneath cosmetic enhancement we can identify the essence of Marxism within this modern framework regardless of how they are dressed up or nuanced Our intention is not to dismiss the intent or value of academic exploration but to caution against the uncritical adoption of any ideology to be taught in our classroom without a thorough examination to its origin intention and potential negative impact all right thank you and um I have sent the petition to all of you received thank you thank you um next up is uh Nicole uh pezel tanok hi um I'm Nicole uh hanock and I live at one25 Jefferson sorry Jefferson Jefferson sorry you guys can all come over now um uh I uh want I I know it's not on the agenda tonight the long-term planning committee's presentation on updated demographics and um updated um plans for the additions at CP Littlebrook and and the Middle School um which I take is actually maybe a positive sign that you guys really are taking a lot of care and proceeding um you know very intentionally toward uh you know a final plan um as you proceed uh there are a couple things that I continue to hear from CP parents and and I hope that they're part of the discussion that you're having um one is uh the impact on traffic and parking um This concerns not just uh CP parents but CP staff members um as well as community members um it the the Carline um it does back up onto onto Witherspoon um twice a day um but it also is incredibly difficult for staff members to access the the parking lot because there's only one entrance it's the same entrance as the Carline um so and then you know our our Carline does end on a very tiny residential street Birch Birch Avenue um so so it would be great if there was um some attention paid to the impact there um and how to make an already kind of dysfunctional system more functional as we add capacity uh the other thing that uh I can continue to hear is um concerns about the impact on the playground uh because of the size of the footprint of the two additions planned at community park and um I I I've brought this up you know personally to to some committee members and I hope that it is something that the architect is looking at to make sure that um while we build the the necessary capacity at the school that we're also really cognizant of the fact that the the playground is the heart of the community and I'm not overstating that it really is and um it's it's the heart of a community where a lot of people have small Lots or no Lots at all because they're already in apartments so uh it's vitally important and one way that you might help to um allay some of those concerns is to maybe show what the cp5 uh preliminary sketch might have looked like versus cp4 um just to show how it was reduced and that that really is um you know part of the thinking they're going forward thank you so we do have another public comment section but anyone who would like to speak now please feel free to come up hi my name is Abigail kach and I live on Orchard Circle um thank you gentlemen for your feedback on the high top program and um it really is a incredible program and it's incredible to hear you guys speak I'm not speaking about that today um I'm speaking in support of CP and echoing what Siobhan said um and also what Nicole was saying um and also trying to tie in with your strategic goals it was actually really nice to hear that your first strategic goal is from age three to grade three um I'm a neuroscientist developmental neuroscience scientists and learning languages when you're in the womb literally is the best time to learn it and basically each year after that your ability to learn languages goes down uh my daughter is a second grader at CP um she's been spending less than 40% of her time in Spanish in the Spanish Immersion School um her math scores she is definitely in the poor section of the math scores because of the word problems math itself in English she's got it it's because the um I think that we aren't structuring the immersion as a full immersion like the other schools um in this in this town it's um starts at 100% full immersion at ages three and four and in um kindergarten um and even the New Jersey um Department of um education has written about how when programs are trying to get to a 5050 split um Spanish English they start at 100% or 90% um of the second language and 10% of the of English um and then hopefully by third and fourth grade um that balances out to 5050 um so in order to really get the most out of this dual language program The District really needs to invest in more Spanish teachers um right now it's encouraging that the preh class at CP is spending 70% of their day in Spanish but that quickly drops to 40% of their day the next year um supplemental conversational Spanish classes should be offered um for an hour after school for comparable costs as after care some Spanish teachers and PTO members tried to create something but weren't allowed for reasons I don't understand and that's was partly in me continually to ask for additional Spanish help because I don't speak Spanish and if you guys have a seven year old girl and you say the wrong thing say the wrong thing in another language with the wrong accent doesn't go well um and Spanish Camp should be offered throughout the summer not just for one week um as someone mentioned earlier year round support and early development is key um and then also to sponsor classes and resources for parents to learn more um and I Echo especially Nicole's words about the CP playground if you see these kids playing after school or in the after school program they're like gazel out on the um SAR and Dy and they're having the grandest time running from one corner of the playground to the other um even when there's mud and everything else to play with and we don't that's part of Education we need to give them space thank you is there anyone else public comment oh thank you very much and thank you both for your comments I really appreciate that um my name is Lanna Jony and I live on lyen Lane and I feel a a little bit like The Lorax because I speak here not for the black um and minority Community but as a member of the community and thank you for sharing the data as a teacher and educator I really reflect on it too and I just want to clarify for this slide that was shared about AP numbers were those numbers or percentages it's a great question percentages okay um so thank you for sharing that they were very disappointing um just for Black and Hispanic and particularly for low-income families too and as a member of that Community I was a low-income student and it was only through access through um accelerated classes that I was able to attend a wonderful Institution for undergrad and so knowing that those doors are being closed to our students from high school is very disappointing because it does set them up for lack of access to Future opportunities um and so my background is actually in encouraging lowincome High achieving students to do their best and then to eventually apply to top tier colleges like I did and so I know some practices myself but after attending the equity committee one of my suggestions was to for the board and for the staff to go to ins to institutions that are primarily serving African-American and Hispanic students to see how are they doing it because it's not as much of a struggle as it should be and so that is my recommendation and I will be back to speak for the trees thank you thank you is there yes hi um Brett Jack now for an Road um so I just want to say uh Dr Foster we're really glad that you're here we're really glad you're staying you've brought great continuity stability to this District um I know myself my wife my our house is thrilled that you're here um your journey here came at a great not through no fault of yours um came at a great cost to this community um emotionally um and fiscally um and this is not directed to you this is sort of more for the board now um you know this district is paying for two superintendant right now um I Heard uh pres the vote earlier about um the contracts which were uh renewed for 4% increase 3% okay so our tax rates still go up 2% so I don't know what the budget looks like but this District's going to need to raise more money so I'm under No Illusion and I could be wrong that there's another referendum coming um this is an election year a presidential election year where voter turnout is exceedingly higher than at any other election year um and I just hope that this board does the right thing and if it does go ahead with the referendum that it does it on Election Day on this November election day and doesn't do it as an an cycle referendum I think that would be disingenuous for this community the voter turnout is not a a better it's not as good of a representation of the community as it is on the presidential election year so I hope that if we go ahead and do that that you guys will do the right thing and do it on Election Day thanks anyone else for public comments all right I'm going to turn it over to you Mr Balden great thank you so tonight is the um tenative adoption of the budget um we will the board will vote um in the consent agenda portion and then we submit this budget by uh Wednesday afternoon to the county and uh they give back any technical feedback um the adoption of the budget is public budget hearing on April 30th so um first we'll talk about a little bit about strategic planning goals zerob based budgeting how we look at it here the budget calendar um School tax overview tax impact Debt Service analysis um and then some details analysis of the budget itself then we'll take questions uh from the board and the public if they have any um we read this before Dr Foster had a wonderful presentation so I'm not going to read this but um it is our mission and our promise uh to the our students and the community um strategic planning goals we just went over um zerob based budgeting uh philosophically is where we build each budget um from scratch it's a goal um and we try to consistently get better at this and not just add on but to really look at every dollar that we spend as a school district um you know the last gentleman who spoke you know we have tax uh caps um it gets more difficult especially in the last couple years of severe inflationary pressure um we haven't seen in you know 40 years so it's uh adds a lot of challenges so it's really important to look at each dollar we spend every year um the budget calendar uh we are in the highlighted portion there we started back in November um working across the district with our staff um we're at the tenative budget adoption I gave it a brief overview of uh what the rest um of the budget calendar looks like and uh I'll continue making uh moving forward with the presentation um I go over this a lot there are a lot of things that make Princeton unique U world class University in our backyard we have small schools um especially at the elementary level with generally um very uh good favorable class sizes which means small um we have a large number of student program and opportunities we have a lot of services in the community to support our elementary middle and high school students um we have a very experienced teaching staff um programs that are far above the state minimums um we do have a higher percentage of uh students navigating or families navigating poverty than uh most high performing school districts and uh we have a strong commitment to equity uh the 2425 budget drivers um you know it cons cons uh consistently uh still tends to be meeting you know student needs post pandemic I don't like talking about the pandemic I'm you know done with it myself but uh it has uh exacerbated um you know learning for uh many students and it and it affected the district um and and the world as a whole so we're consistently dealing with that and trying to offer more services to uh meet the needs of our students um inflation I just spoke about um in scarcity uh there are less teachers unfortunately graduating from our schools every year the uh cohort from TCNJ is it seems to be smaller each year it's a super strong uh pool of teachers in the state it's what about 12 miles from here um so it's it's challenging um transportation costs have gone up um over $2 million in three years and and uh we also face pressure on health care costs and insurance which is um even if we haven't had uh a lot of you know catastrophes here insurance is uh pulled risk really across the whole world so all the um climate change that's happening you know these massive uh floods I forgot the term that they call the the rains that come down you know uh in Los Angeles uh particularly but all throughout the the world affect our insurance rates um we're uh also consistently improving our pedagogy pedagogy um we uh want to make sure we have adequate funds for improving our curriculum instruction and we continue um each year to focus on maintaining and improving our facilities it's something we're proud of um some other accomplishments really over the last uh uh we passed two referenda uh in the last two years um these referenda have been focused on uh that improving our facilities um in the past few years we have completed reviews of math dual language immersion special education and Technology departments and programs and um we're continuing to plan for um The increased development in our town with our long-term planning Consultants um and our committee and administration um we're consistently improving our pedagogy with rolling out new data tools and improving multi-tiered structures to support which help our students who need help uh we we utilize grants available from both Princeton and the state to offer extra supports and tutoring for some of our students um get to start to talk a little more about the financials um both pie charts are virtually identical half the taxes just under in the town that taxpayers pay um go towards the schools about um a little under a quarter to the mun Municipal Taxes and um getting close to a third goes to the county taxes our 2425 uh tax levy is is uh two pieces to that so um I talked about the referenda on the right would be The Debt Service Levy which funds long-term capital projects and are approved by taxpayers via VIA referenda um as of June 30th 23 uh we had 40.9 75 million outstanding uh the bulk of our spending is our operating budget um we are subject a 2% cap with certain waivers that allowed for enrollment increases over time and uh Health Care uh cost increases um we did Issue new bonds just at the very end of December in 23 on the um November 7th ref referendum um so as of December 31st we had just under $54 million of debt outstanding our AAA uh credit rating with Moody uh was uh reaffirmed we're of two districts in the state with AAA uh credit which is the highest that you can get so we're happy to um to still be attaining that high level you know what the other one is I think it's Milburn but uh standard apports has a a a few more than that so this uh slide looks at our um our net Debt Service quote unquote net which means uh Debt Service net of State um Aid when uh we as um a school district issue bonds we get up to um 34% back from the state technically speaking uh when you read the question the ref in the referendum it says 40% but it's pro-rated so that's the maximum we can get back so that's what net Deb service means um our recent Peak was in fiscal 21 we are over here now in fiscal 25 um which should be slightly less than uh fiscal 24 um Rising interest rates have uh increased our borrowing costs but um as the uh money sits in the bank waiting to be uh waiting to pay down the capital projects um the earnings are higher too so that adds a little bit to the uh to the equation um this looks at our our different uh the difference between the school district which is on a fiscal June 30th year end and the town's on a calendar so each year um taxes are collected through the town to pay uh and they pay the school our past budget um and it breaks out the um so H each calendar year is half of one of our uh fiscal years and the other half of the fiscal year um uh so the tenative um adopted calendar 24 uh toal total School tax levy is 90.1 76 million um the school taxes tentatively increases um from uh 1.23 6 to 1.26 4 the um tax assessed uh net assess valuation numbers did rise uh about 0 2% um which means that the tax is um paid for over a larger base which helps the taxpayer um the 2.48% estimated calendar year School tax levy um would be a 2.26% quote unquote effective School tax increase because of the larger base um of taxpayers so that's a good thing um this is a uh a historical uh where we were with our tax levies really want to focus uh each year of the increases this year it was proposed at this tentative budget adoption um on the uh net or the total which would include operating and Debt Service uh 2.07% um over the last seven years um the average is so we're slightly under that the average has been 2.14% um the average taxpayer um for the tentatively adopted budget um which is right around $850,000 uh per home would pay $236 and6 61 cents of additional taxes uh this looks at the last N9 years of um the difference when I talked about briefly about effective taxes so because of the favorable um you know the strong economic viability of Princeton we've had generally speaking Rising uh tax base over the years so the tax ly increases of 2.44% over the last nine years and that's a compound uh annual growth rate uh feels more like a 1.94% increase so that's a good thing um this chart looks at uh historically our um operating general fund um tax increases here at the bottom um 2.1% for this year um the total is 2.07% so they're fairly closely tied together this year and these uh this is a projected enrollment for next year um can see the covid dip um here so we're kind of trending back to some of the community growth that um I briefly discussed earlier um this is a chart of the uh combined or total operating and debt Services tax levy growth uh the 2.07% um so banked uh tax cap so we talked a little bit about the tax um caps that have been at effect more than a decade now um at 2% um so if we if we don't tax to the maximum or we have waivers that we don't use um we put them in a um banked um a tax cap bank so to speak so that lasts for three years so um this year we have um in red we have $51,000 just under 52,000 expiring so that has been uh proposed to be put in the um tax levy for this year along with the 94,6 184 that was generated last year um so that 146,000 and change uh makes our uh proposed tax um Levy increase go over that 2% slightly um it does appear that we're going to generate somewhere a little over $600,000 um from uh this current um budget because of healthc care waivers um we will not be taking this year so that'll be available for three further budgets starting in the 26 going 27 and then 28 so that'll be available in the future if we need it um this looks at our fund uh balance um we have seen growing fund balance um I combine a lot of the categories there's a lot of uh New Jersey likes to make things confusing with the accounting um the capital reserve once you put those funds in capital reserve the only thing they can be used for are for Capital related projects um even if a district were to suffer dire Financial consequences there's no statutory remedy to take that money out and use it for operating purposes so um so you know you don't want to put all your money in there but you want to have adequate funds to be able to fund certain types of um projects that come up um so we've been using capital reserve over the years but we're looking to add back to that slowly um to build up for projects that we may need that would have to be done outside of um referenda uh this looks at how we spent our um operating budget in 2023 as you can see the giant uh buckets here are salaries benefits and Charter School making up uh 82 83% um when you look at what's left there there's not a whole lot um insurance and uh students Services out of District tuitions energy costs um not a lot of discretionary funding left when you look um outside of the big three so this breaks out a little further um salary benefits and Charter School costs are just under 83% total other expenses are 177% and then to the right we break out that 177% and um you have insurance legal and Professional Services is um here $2 million maintenance custodial 2.3 million uh energy transportation and then out of District tuitions um at a little over $3 million um and this was for actual 23 results that leaves 4 million $4.8 million um of other costs uh everything outside of those um things that we mentioned um so this is uh looks at our fiscal 22 fiscal 23 actual and our projected fiscal 24 um estimated uh results which is our current budget year fiscal 24 um it highlights those areas where we are um spending more money student services multilingual Learners AIS Elementary guidance has shown um you know 10% uh increase over two years and that's annual so that's that's pressure the Budget Transportation as I mentioned before is very high over the last two years uh 1.6 million um District benefits which includes Social Security and pensions so part of our most of our pensions for certif uh so most of our pension costs are paid for uh on behalf by the state of New Jersey it pays for all districts across the state I think it's a single largest I know it it's the single largest item in the state budget on the pension cost for police fire for um but for all teachers and certificated staff certificate administrators like myself on the state pays the pension costs across the state um but we do pay for non-certificated pensions and that is increasing somewhere about around 15 16% each year um so that's driving up um some of these benefit costs we've had uh favorable um Healthcare claims experience over the last couple years we hope that continues um but this is a um trying to uh analyze better um some of the salaries we look at in totality and allocating them to the areas um with our charged to um the adopted revenues uh 92% of our revenues are from local sources including uh cranberry um we only get 8% from state aid um we now do get 2% of our our revenues from pris University um we are forced to balance a fund balance number each year this year um it it's $3.5 million um that would be money that um we don't plan on spending every year if we did we would run out of money very quickly um but we are required New Jersey has very conservative accounting rules compared to the rest of the um the rest of the country when we did our Debt Service uh debt rating review a couple years ago um it was made made very clear that you know other school districts in different parts of the country have as much as 20% of fund balance and we're mandated only keep 4% so that's where that that different um that's where that 3.5 million comes in we're forced to budget it each year but we don't want to have to budget it and we don't plan on spending it each year um so that's our snapshot of our revenues um there has been like I said with interest rates going up we have had some positives I'm a little more um investment earnings you know with short-term rates being uh hovering over 5% for the better part of a year now um it's helped a little bit um but obviously it hasn't fully offset the rising uh costs that we talked about um these are some of the big picture movements um clear here that I'm not including um fund balance in the budget that's why you'll see that it's $3.5 left less than the tentative adopted budget resolution um so we look at the the big picture things here we want to focus on you know salaries and benefits um so in three years um you know 4% increase um it becomes you know challenging to maintain uh that uh we also did get more state aid this year um unfortunately it was offset on our funding of our local Charter School U not that we don't love our Charter School um but you know so was kind of a net net there um we have had um increasing state aid um in the last seven years um under the current uh regime at the state level uh we have spent um you know a lot on maintenance in custodial each year um this actually was a kind of a peak year of spending in 2022 um so it looks like it's kind of gone down but we have consistently tried to maintain and fix things um it's it's important we Tred to do it as cost effectively and efficiently as possible our maintenance staff is much lower than it was in District um compared to 10 years ago um so it's a constant challenge there um you know our our out of District tuitions have gone up on one of the things I talked about earlier was some of the you know we're certainly not going to um use covid as a scapegoat but there's certainly a lot of pressure on um You Know A District our size you know we're not really able to maintain every individual type of specialized uh special ed program that all our students need it just wouldn't be possible in a under right around 4,000 student District so we do have to we will always be sending students at a district you know when a district gets closer to the size of well like a West Windsor you know around 10,000 students and more and we're able to be able to program out all the different types of various programs that are needed um so it's one of the more unpredictable um parts of the school district's budget um like ours the add District tuitions they go up and down um es and flows um and then the transportation costs um are increasing and uh hopefully are stabilizing and uh those are kind of the big picture movements here I'm looking at this is the actual tentative adopted budget um which shows the forced budgeting of the $3.5 million in fund balance um we've had um Princeton University has been a great partner over the last couple years and um extraordinary Aid um has kind of flattened out the state how though they've increased their educational spending uh significantly um has not been increasing that line item and I think the inflation um has driven that so that's another one of those prated costs it's basically a grant program where each year we submit to the state all those students that have um exceedingly High educational costs um both in District and out of district and the state refunds a portion of that um it's pro-rated uh forgot what number was down to the low 80s last year percent so um we got $2.6 million if you divided that by the pration um I think we submitted cost of very close to $4 million so we never quite know it's one of the the hard to uh factor in budget items um we don't know yet um the last time I checked the state has not published their uh detailed state budget which we get to see what they've allocated at their um in the state budget towards this extraordinary aid program um but they do spend Statewide somewhere uh around $450 million across all the districts so we're all we're competing as other districts for that those funds um and once again this shows a Topline oper ating tax levy increase of 2.17% um this looks at our tenative adopted budget expenditures um which by law have to have to match the uh revenues 108.5 S9 108.5 S9 um thanks dhna so we're really trying to control uh Personnel um growth um I think it's uh the you know 75% of our our budget goes to salaries and um benefits so it's important to maintain that and keep that under control um and you can see some of the challenges here with Transportation um with energy costs uh we do we are going out to reverse auction tomorrow for both natural gas which doesn't expire till the very end of this calendar year and electricity um we're hoping to get favorable uh bids um back um to hopefully help with Rising energy costs um and you can see here that year over year our charter school budget um went up uh about $600,000 to 555 5 52,000 so um in a nutshell our benefit costs are um this looks like a huge uh increase but it's not because this is kind of where we put the fund balance that we don't want to spend um so we've been trending okay though um lately with benefit cost so we hope to keep that Trend going um that's the summary of the presentation so now I'll take questions from board members thank you Mr Balden um what was um let's say from 21 through 24 what what's the um inflation rate 21 to 24 yeah the CPI well it's been up and down it um is now back to just over 3% but it hit eight nine you know percent yeah um I think you've done a tremend you and jeie have done a tremendous job keeping the budget in the in the twos um given all those pressures thank you thank you Adam um yeah it seems things are going to probably just go up and up though um where um savings again I know I'm new to this can we compressed can teachers do more uh in the sense taking our teachers and can they go teach at different schools I know that might happen um collapse some some jobs if possible again that's teachers are the most important things on the front line special ed we spend a lot in special ed are we over um some students in special ed who maybe um don't qualify I don't know we have to um it's just gonna keep going up though I think that's what we're facing yeah we try to be uh as efficient as we can with the quote unquote discretionary spending we have kept flat um in um Miss Kendall pointed out asked about inflation um rates so we've we've capped our school budgets now this is the fourth year um so we do have to kind of reallocate them each year because um of uh we do get some title funding and they mandate that so each school will go up and down based on their enrollments and their waiting um of their students uh that are classified so we are trying to uh maintain costs where we can because no matter what we are I mean maybe that's what we want but we we spend more we're always in the top five in spending for type two schools and that's what the board wants and the people want but let's be things are going to be going up I I I'd be air on the side of um that going to happen I think and everyone should be prepared for that then um I'm not an expert yet you are and everything about what how schools save money is it to the def is it to a deficit to education though I don't know we have to see Matt um just to clarify there was a lot of numbers as there always are um and it's hard for us to follow all of it so quickly um are you posting this will this be available for people to see and kind of digest yes that brings back well I I won't get into that but I have a funny I have a a funny set of coasters from a certain president who said and I won't even say who it was but it must be a budget it has a lot of numbers in it numbers it was not me no not a school board president okay the US president said that um we can all guess wasn't me I it wasn't you I have two questions one was simply I noticed when you talked about Princeton University I think we've talked about this in our committee um you have a 2.3 386 number we have a 2.7 we started at 2.75 it's going up 4% every year I believe you're taking a a a block of that 500,000 maybe or whatever is appreciating by four 4% yeah it was new to us and we did budget the full amount they are um allocating $500,000 to uh fund certain strategic plan um initiatives so although that was you know it's non um it's not restricted technically but we are now accounting for that in Grant fund so right special Revenue fund so we can track those programs and then report back to the university on how we're spending uh that money so it's it's a number that's over 2. uh8 at this point not 2.3 the total from them is is growing just want to make sure people see that because I looked at it again and I always forget but so that's a big number thank you and the other thing I just want to just the bottom line is we we had a couple different numbers 2.17 um it's a 2.48 like what is the increase or what's the levy this year 2.48 estimated Levy which is effectively a 2.26% because of the the size of the tax base which is increasing is that the number 2 point 48 uh the total tax levy uh for the our fiscal year school tax levy is 2.07% when you combine the operating and the capital 2.07 okay with both okay so that's helpful and that's the U actual not the effective right okay and of course the calendar is different because it takes half of our fiscal 25 and half of our our previous year so it you know but the number that people like to focus on thank you yes you're welcome Matt one uh line item I think if you go to the prior slide uh uh no actually it's like 24 or 25 yeah penes yeah uh 26 there that's fine um Athletics um shows it shows going up by 18% um we've been through this in operations um I wonder if you could just comment on the I believe there are four reasons for the increase that provide excellent context for that yeah the the two major reasons uh the first one being that we have outsourced the management of the pool uh from a full-time salary position to a contracted uh position uh we also contract with a um an agency that provides um athletic Training Services um we used to have more um people within the district that would were able to cover those events um and we're not able to do that anymore those are the two major drivers and then I I correct me if I'm wrong but I recall two less big drivers that were also significant one was an increase in the number of lifeguards to conform with state law and the second was the increase in transportation costs which are in the Athletics budget and not in the transportation budget that's right the contracted Pool Services include fully Staffing um the PMS pool um we use it probably close to a thousand hours during the school year teaching swimming um and the size of the pool necessitates by law that there are two lifeguards on the deck um at all times um can I just comment on for the benefit of our newer colleagues um that obviously this is a long-term effort and we and our and our Ops committee now are looking trying to look ahead three years we when I first got on the board it was just year to year and we just got everything dropped and now we try to see what we can work on and one of the things we do in long-term planning is think about how we try to manage the costs because we know costs are going up and it's a it's a problem it's a challenge for us but transportation for example I mean Transportation we've been hit with this incredible increase but it's one of the things that we hope through um smart planning we can try to kind of get back under control if possible because have we have a lot of children who are moving all around across the district every different direction uh currently because with covid and and uh the the fact that we have a dual language program and students aren't going to their District so there's a lot of Transportation costs that we hope that with long-term planning we can try to get a handle on a little bit more and on the energy front I know that we have now after the last two referendums improved the buildings the facilities the roofs with an idea of eventually bringing in some solar right so we're trying to think about ways and I think the help of Jenny lmer on getting our buildings to compete against each other in terms of Energy Efficiency and kind of changing the culture it's very exciting because that offers us an opportunity to bring some of those costs down um and I also would note that in long-term planning we think about when we think about these different models for what we want to build if you build a new Standalone building when you talk about utilization of personnel which is one of our biggest drivers you know you think about how do you structure the district going forward to try to most effectively utilize the people that we have and not not uh create additional positions so I just wanted to make that point because I think it's important that you know this is not just a one-year thing this is something we have to be thinking about moving looking forward three to five years thank you yeah any any other comments from the board all right I'm going to open up public comment now for just uh the budget so again please just say your name the street you live on and if you could please keep your comments to three minutes thank you hi there Jessica Vieira Stockton Street thank you so much Matt for all of the work that you do on this it's tedious I know I appreciate all of the information as many of you know I've been pretty active in the master planning for the town or at least not active but commented on the master planning for the town um and one of the areas that I'm particularly interested in is the cost of Transportation as well as the traffic that we experience in our town um transportation has gone up 13 14% um in the last whatever two years three years um it's over a million dollars in our budget over the last four years or almost two I would love to see cooperation with the town especially for folks who are close into town where maybe we could get a circular bus that's running during school hours for kids that are Middle School and High School aged so that they can ride the public transportation and maybe that would help to eliminate some of the high school busing or at least share the cost it would also help for moms like me and many of us that are in this room and probably on the call that shuttle our and dads that shuttle our kids back and forth with no reason I mean I guarantee you that most of the the traffic that we see from you know 7:30 8:30 is because of the school as well as from 3: to 4: so just something to think about and working with the community thanks so much thank you and we would appreciate your advocacy on that okay um any other comments on the budget okay um and any yeah I just uh did want to take the time to not just thank a match nen and the team but this is a year where Dr Foster and Dr two um and members of the central staff really dug in um and so in terms of Matt's desire to have this space function as a zerob based budget it only works um if you get the attention of the CEO so to speak and the top folks and um on behalf of the operations committee we're very grateful um for the active role that the senior Administration has played in the construction of this year's um budget and the care that you've shown uh to make sure that we Preserve um all of our Frontline uh teachers and all of the education the resources that go to the education of our children thanks Brian all right uh moving on now um J1 harassment intimidation bullying and now we're going to the board committee highlights uh with my reminding you it's 9:30 um and the first one up is yeah long they didn't change the clocks Matt spring ahead yeah longterm longterm sorry sorry for letting you know longterm planning uh with Beth uh Susan will be speaking I'll be speaking I'll keep it short um longterm planning met on March 29th as the work uh continues in The District in the planning uh process um we know know that they've been continuing to listen to feedback like we heard tonight from the public and also an FAQ is being worked on which will summarize all the questions that we uh have received from the public and hopefully in one place give people information on where to find things so we thank everyone for the input they've continuously given to improve the plans as they develop thank you I'm guessing from the movement that Brian McDonald's will be giving Brian McDonald Brian McDonald will be giving needs to take a sip of water or anything before I dive in go ahead um I'll be shorter than usual um we received updates on approximately 10 projects that are part of the 2022 and 2023 referenda uh Matt has prepared a draft of a spreadsheet to make it easier for the committee and the board to track the progress of all of the projects and he's going to continue to refine it with feedback from the committee and within a month or two that should be available to the full board so you can see everything that's going on and it's quite a lot um three main observations all projects are progressing in a satisfactory manner um second it will be except an exceptionally busy summer and as reported earlier New Roads our construction manager will have two full-time staff on site with one primarily focused on the roofing projects and third both the 2022 and 2023 referenda are currently moderately under budget uh and we're tracking that very carefully um playgrounds a topic of great interest to everybody um Edwards engineering um and l2a will be reviewing all five playground projects to ensure that repairs upgrades and Equipment purchases are all carefully planned that and that there is clear communication with central office administrators principes and the pto's um so we have resourced this to make sure that there is uh sufficient um uh oversight to drive these projects forward as some of us feel that they need to move forward a little more robustly than perhaps they have over the past um six to nine months um middle I wanted to highlight a couple of other things Matt talked about the energy auction um but the Middle School softball scoreboard project we were informed that the long delayed purchase of the installation purchase and installation of a scoreboard for our softball teams will move forward at an estimated cost of $25,000 which will come from maintenance Reserve um uh School dudes which is the information system we use to manage um ongoing maintenance is getting more and more attraction which Dave Harding um spoke about um he told us that the number of outstanding work orders was manageable and being attended to he also noted a recent focus on some projects at Littlebrook which I know the Littlebrook Community will be happy to know um they're getting um attention that they've been advocating for um and the last note was just on the budget um and I said my thanks but thanks again thank you um moving on now to personnel with Mara uh Personnel met on March 7th um it's job fair season we had Rebecca was very busy PPS was attending job peers at um tcj ryer and several other colleges and CJ Pride John mles presented on the guidance coverage for the summer at PHS and PMs and we've approved this as we did last summer so this summer there will be uh guidance coverage at the high school from Monday through Thursday Fridays are off the middle schol and the middle school so and on the agenda tonight we have three job descriptions for approval one's for the supervisor of Early Childhood to support our growing uh preschool program one is to support the supervisor of the multi-tier support services and special programs which includes grants for the district and we have a chief technology officer job description to better support the growing technology needs of the district thank you thank you and can I just ask are those new rules or um are they redefined uh yes yes it's it's it's actually both so um so the chief technology officer um what we are doing is we are um creating this position by collapsing another position within the technology uh department and it really allows us to seek a leader with indepth uh technical experience in the infrastructure uh as well as um some in um Innovative technology uh and working uh with the uh staff the current staff and then the other two uh are taking o it's hard to replace Val or uh and so we're we're really splitting that role um so that one will be the supervisor of early childhood and the other supervisor of multi-tier systems of support and special projects and I believe that is being funded by um yes the supervisor of Early Childhood will be fully funded by the pre preschool education Aid because they uh fund us as economy to scale so I I missed the beginning of Matt's presentation I'm sorry Matt I you know you do great work um but I one the good news pieces was that our paa monies also increased um this year because we are adding classrooms and we we continue to add classrooms to have someone dedicated to the program because it really is like a principal ship we're across you know nine different classrooms we have Community Partners we have uh preschool rooms within our district it's Transportation it's Food Service it's curriculum it's you know identifying for special services all of the things so uh to have that funded fully by the state is is wonderful and so that's why we were able to kind of divide up the role at a cost uh neutral um support and then the other role I'm super excited about uh because it really Bridges our general education program and our special education program um some of the audit findings that took place a few years ago were how can we kind of bring those two houses together and provide early interventions and supports to students you saw in some of our data that we're making some great strides but we still have room to grow um and improve and so this person will be sort of overseeing the intervention Referral Services program at each one of our elementary and middle and high school and talk about tiered systems of support for behavior for academics and for social emotional well-being and having that dedicated person sort of tracking the data looking um overseeing testing and grants sort of how do we align the funding and the data to the programming is going to be really instrumental and it's something that I think um is really exciting and can bring a lot of positive um systems change to our district okay thank you so the question I should have asked is is it budget neutral yes yes yes okay thank you uh moving on now uh to policy with Beth yeah uh thank you uh with policy committee met on March 6th and we spent I think uh the whole almost the whole meeting just talking about the new policy alert which we received from our policy um service Strauss Esme and there were just a number of policies which we have moved forward to first read and many of them really were related to a um kind of technical changes that were made by the State Board of Education with respect to the equity policy which really and added a new category of protected class in terms of income um and I think also um I can't remember the other one there's there's two new classes and they just kind of changed about four about eight or nine policies that way um so we moved those forward to first read and we talked a bit about governance and and our our calendars and how to better track um a board understanding of what we do throughout the year and also looking forward over the next three to five years just keeping track um and we meet again on um April 17th at 3:45 pm and that is a public meeting thank you thanks Beth and next up is student achievement with Betsy thank you we met on March 8th um we've been busy in student achievement we met a few times um but uh the first thing we discussed Christa gallan came from our technology office to discuss the work of the onetoone device committee um and the committee has looked at the onetoone uh the program that was rolled out just when the p mic was beginning um a survey went out to staff for feedback on how students use these devices and it's found that the biggest suggestion is to implement Chromebooks at the middle school and to roll that out uh over time at this moment there's no board um you know decision to be made but they were keeping us informed so we thank them for the work and Debbie you serve as the board rep for that committee so thank you for that um Dr tup proposed three overnight trips there on the agenda for today for this evening um we also Dr Foster discussed how our district is working on uh looking through and just thinking about a policy for an adoption of an anti-Semitism statement we had many members of the public attend our meeting on March 8th to discuss this topic and we thank them and everyone for for participating we then met in Clos session on March 8th and March 12th there are three topics we discussed that are on the agenda for today so I just wanted to note them um special thanks to the middle school for developing a day trip to Washington DC this is back um it used to be an overnight trip we all may have children who went on that trip at one point but this is the first time they're going back since the pandemic we appreciate that they've found a cost effective way to do this trip and it will be a very long day but we wish them a wonderful trip that happens in early April um that's also on our agenda this evening there's an a textbook adoption uh for new US History textbooks that thanks to Kesha Smith Smith Carrington for joining us at our meeting to describe why these are so needed we talked a lot about the digital subscriptions that come along with hard cover textbooks and uh the way things are going so all students needs will be met if they need a hard copy textbook at home they will have one finally uh we have thanks to miss Burge who's still here a new dual enrollment program with TCNJ one of our High School courses uh accelerated sociology will be offered for dual enrollment at TC J so we're still working out the details but the memorandum of agreement is on our board agenda this evening so I think that's it our next meeting is April 12th at 11 it says 11 I think it's is it 11 or 11:30 we will it's 11 we switched it when we did 2024 to 11 y 11 am thank you thank you all right and now uh we'll move on to the the rest of the agenda which is quite lengthy so you know stop me if you need to um L1 policies for first reading L2 policies for second Reas reading moving on um M1 resignations um M2 retirements um I'll just say that we have three uh employees that are retiring uh from the district with um 58 years of experience um and we wish them well and long and healthy retirements um next up is appointments M4 Personnel items M5 leave of absence M6 substitutes M7 curriculum instruction M8 student services M9 job descriptions uh moving on to curriculum and instruction N1 NJ doe 2425 preschool expansion Aid uh and two Grant application uh to expand access to climate change um that's good good luck to us um we haven't got gotten one yet so fingers crossed um next up is the dual enrollment uh the M for the dual enrollment that Betsy mentioned um um and I think you said right that they would get college credit um I'm not sure I said it but yes okayge they will get college credit there is a fee for that and we're working we're sort of working out all the details but that's a very new initiative right and that's an in addition to the AP the 40 or no 29 AP classes great thank you uh and four student day trips um and five student overnight trips and six purchase of materials and seven educational uh Consulting and um this is just a pass through is that right I think it is yeah yeah y yep um no uh 01 educational placement moving on to the business uh reports P1 Financial reports P2 fire evacuation drills P3 adoption of the tentative budget P4 travel expenditures for 2425 P5 renewal trans Transportation contract renewable uh P6 is renewable athletic Transportation p7 Transportation agreement p8 is the window film contract award so we're seeing some of uh the referendum money is being spent uh P9 formal bid award the pool lighting upgrade uh P10 um again we're seeing some of uh the referendum money uh Turf and track pool lighting and playgrounds P11 resolution uh that we're going to do that uh electric reverse buyback that Mr bden mentioned good luck uh resolution authorizing the purchase of natural gas supply also good luck and uh p13 Professional Services appointment p14 registration travel agenda and we'll move on now to our final public comment is there anyone who has anything to say and just so you know this is a bonus public comment SE so we have three does have anything to do with the budget so I'm back so we have three we had three public comments tonight um I just wanted to say thank you to Kathy for um helping at the high school we got some great support in the technology department and it has opened up um the access for all of our students to get their computers and their devices repaired which has been huge but I don't know if anyone really looked at the numbers as much as I did but I did happen to notice that $155,000 was spent on repairing Apple Chromebooks most of its screens that all seem to be timing out at the same time um my son is one of them I have nth grader who received his computer in fifth grade and three of his friends all at the same time had the same issue where they started getting crosshairs and the screens needed to be replaced um it happens I get it but I just wonder that going forward could we make sure that we stagger the um the roll out of these systems because they all seem to be failing at the same time and then secondly I have a child who went for 10 days without a a device because there were no devices available which meant that he had a lot of homework to do in the evenings on my device which wasn't the best either so just something to think about maybe rentals or whatever else but thank you again thanks and Jess I'll just say that uh there were some uh product uh quality control issues uh around the pandemic right so that's no I I get it but it's a lot right and that's only the people that didn't have insurance so I can only that's 50 people in one month of expenses I Can Only Imagine the total number it'd be interesting to look at just to see thank you okay anyone else hi Abby call back again um for this bonus session uh I just wanted bonus round um I was thinking about we don't want the meeting to end either yeah sorry um so I'll be really quick um I was thinking about one of the comments ear tonight about having Gospel Spirituals in um the schools for um for Black History Month and to celebrate Black History I am a product of uh Catholic schools and am the first one to say like keep religion out of schools and other places I also know though that um musical at um that gospels and spirituals were a form of um singing and protest and a way and I'm sure more of these songs were sung on the fields versus in actual churches and so there's a big disconnect between what is Christianity and what this music is and so I think if um but this misunder understand or this not not knowledge of the entire um aspect of a diverse presentation um can happen if we're not also educating the parents along with this and perhaps next time next year when the spirituals go out there could be a little segment as to why this is not a separate or this is not a blending of church or if we talk about the Stonewall riots um there's a way of getting education to the parents about why this is important to talk about and um some of my colleagues who've discussed um high tops inclusivity are no longer here tonight but that having further education as to why different groups of people were uh marginalized in the past was something that was of interest to everybody um as knowledge and history and so I think we can tie that into the curriculum um both for the kids and the parents we can have a more cohesive understanding of why these different voices matter so thank you thank you all right anyone else all right and with that I will move on to our consent vote um can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda debie second [Music] [Music] Mara de n Kendall yes bety bagale yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian mconnell yes Rob Christopher yes cons sen jenda passes right thank you Mr Balden and thank you and J for a wonderful job on the on the bud the tenative budget we appreciate all your hard work um we hope you respond your emails now I have been I said I may be slow to this I know yeah yeah yeah um but anyway good job um yeah I i' like um this is our last meeting before spring break and I'd like to wish that everyone our staff uh students parents Community have a restful spring break uh and then we'll come back and we'll have the race to the finish so thank you everyone can I get a motion to adjourn Beth second Betsy all in favor right good night thank you