and welcome good evening and welcome to the Readington Township Board of Education meeting there's a lot of people that's a good thing uh this meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act and is open to the media and Public Notices were duly posted and the meeting was advertised in the hunman county Democrat and Courier News formal action may be taken may we get a roll call please M depento here M fi here Mrs mener Mr Peach here M borski here M Ryan here M here Dr C here one is absent can we all stand for the flag the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation godice [Music] the first thing on our agenda is uh administering the oath of office thank you Dr cerso so uh this evening we are swearing in a new board member who was recently appointed at the last board meeting um so first congratulations Mr L Y um if you'd like to stand and repeat I say your name I paules do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and that I and that I will bear true faith will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the government established established in the united states in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people and under the authority of the people I state your name I Paul Loops who solemly swear Solly swear that I possess the qualifications that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law prescribed by law for the office for the office of member of member of Board of Education Board of Education and I am not disqualified and I am not disqualified as a voter as a voter pursuant to statute pursuant to statute nor disqualified nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime due to conviction of a crime or offense or offense listed in New Jersey statute listed in New Jersey statute and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties that this office that this office according to the best of my ability according to my the best of my ability congratulations congratulations Mr welcome and we look forward to working with you on the board thank you next up is a superintendent's report good evening everyone and welcome tonight the fine and Performing Arts are truly valued in our district we we have an overwhelming number of students who participate in our band cors and Orchestra programs but we also have talented artists who Express themselves using a variety of different visual once again this year students from across the district were selected to have their artwork displayed in the hunon Art Museum's Young Artists showcase students were invited to exhibit the exhibit opening reception on March 23rd at the art museum the artwork included self portraits graffiti names celebrity portraits pop artist license plates and much more tonight our art teachers from Readington Middle School Three Bridges and white house will help me recognize these talented students so I ask the art teachers to come please so talented young artists your art teacher is going to call your name when your name is called I have a special certificate for you if you just come and line up right here we'll get a nice picture for your parents because it's about the we'll go pretty quickly um because I know they turned the Airing thank you thank you for recognizing the artists in the hard I'm very proud do Ben Anissa Bennett Alissa Bennett Grace blumberg hay Bola Leo Bella Grace deer Emma gger Lina D enza galdo inii Gman Sophia grao Olivia Hamley Evan Hendrickson Adriana [Music] Linka Leona kabashi Maddie Olivia Charlie Evelyn Mar Ella Maria Brena McCarthy kayy [Music] mki Evan Dominic Michaela Mora corales Anna Pagano Adonis pitz Luca Sans Jacob Thompson Gabby Argus and davidan hi I'm Mrs Kristen I'm the art teacher at Three Bridges school and it is an honor to be here tonight to recognize the Excellence in achievement in art for three bridg student artists delini a Everly Brewer Jani Mia Colona Tristan dream Jackson dun Luca BINA Francis hathway Haley Hines Leland Killy Jameson KUSI Fiona curo Rocco laora Agnes nuo Nolan Puda Harper Peterson James pulan Nora pulan Roselia pulan Maggie raldi Anthony sarapin dur Smith Addison Stokes gar Thompson Owen blay Dawson boel Lucas web Quinn Wilson Megan zimo my name is Lenora glaus I am the art teacher at White House and I first wanted to say thank you to everyone for supporting the Arts it really is truly refreshing to be in a place that that happens um Violet Adam Olivia aino Millie BAGI Amber furi Charlene Brewer Sienna Brooks Jasper kall sha cob elisia delello Bo Doyle Camilo garcis Lamar Emma elas Dominguez Virginia little dein n Benjamin Murray Bella Sati Perez Phoenix pittz Hudson Rado Elina rajie Thomas Raymond Stella Regio Caden Riley Felix Rivera Melanie SAR UD sing Lily s Juliet USIS Caroline leben and Ryder zer boys and girls congratulations thank you for coming tonight parents thank you so much for coming tonight one more round of applause smile real big [Music] oh yeah you're good find your parents and make sure they take [Music] com [Music] thanks for coming don't [Music] we do have one more recogition you're all welcome to stay have one thank you so [Music] well thank you for saying we have we have one more great recognition for you tonight so I'm privileged to tell the board that the New Jersey Association of gifted children annually recognizes students who demonstrate exceptional ability in achievement in academics leadership visual literacy and the performance Arts students must be in grade six through eight during the current year and must be nominated for this very special award this year one of our own RMS students has received the distinguished student award in academics and Leadership welcome me in congratulation congratulating here slou as the recipient of the Lord for the distinguished student in academics and Leadership from rton middle school so I'll say that my review of the njc website revealed that Pierce is the only award recipient from hunon County proudly representing Viking Gold and blue Miss Freeman Pierce's g&t teacher States Pierce quote exemplifies all of the Wonders and complexities of gifted middle school students from burgeoning intellectual curiosity and learning agility and to idealism and growing capacity for original thought leadership and action NJ agc's recognition and support is affirmation and a springboard for a student who has the ability and passion to embrace opportunity earnestly and make the most on of it on his own path to Eminence Pierce Lowden is is that student Pierce has a strong love of environmental science outside of school Pierce enjoys chess and paddle boarding and values traveling and spending time with his family his favorite subjects are math and science Pierce consistently excelled in science and math while earning several valuable biking Awards he actively participates in clubs like the E ambassadors the gaming Club junior Librarians modern un and youth in government recently he represented his school in the Taiwan delegation that spoke here earlier this year and the district's parent night just last month looking ahead here wants to contribute to Environmental Protection and education currently he's focused on improving his skills in coding at home Pierce has four pets uh three cats one dog Pierce is also proudly a first generation British American he's incredibly excited about the journey for E grade and Beyond so congratulations I have so many people I'd like to thank but I'd like first thank Dr har for recognizing me at this meeting I'd like to make thank my advisor Miss Freeman she's been with me throughout my entire education career at brington middle school and has helped me on the journey to where I am today I'd also love to thank my parents and my sisters they've been supporting me throughout everything no matter what it's been it's been a lot of things so and I'd love to thank all my other teachers Mr Sanders Miss way Miss Hendershot and Miss Solano they've also been so incredibly helpful and obviously the principal of RMS Mr Charleston Dr Moss the all the counselors I had Mr C Mr Connelly they all shaped me into the person I am today and I cannot thank you guys enough dad bio included his four pets at home that did not include any siblings talking M frean to I think said it right you just had to hear speak right off the to understand who he is and I feel like I can rip up this piece of paper of prepared remarks with Dr har but I can tell you that I think um one of the things that pierce will always say is that his greatest achievement is being the older brother to three younger sisters so I have to say right away well done Mr and Mrs Len because we know as Educators that it takes a strong family a supportive family and a whole village to uh raise up a child that is as strong as pieres and I thank Dr Hart for every opportunity that you provide for these students and to the Board of Education as well and then of course every amazing teacher in this District every counselor everybody hand developed because Pierce was recognized for both academics and Leadership and academics as I always say to the GT kids you know what everybody out there is going to be when they're performing at your level the straight A student What Makes You Different and then what makes you stand out and I can say that um Pierce and I just asked my uh put my colleagues on the spot Mrs Hender Scott and uh Mrs to just come up really quickly but um here are some of the things that um when I look back and think about PE I think okay here's sixth grade he stepped up right away being new kid to the district and kind of took over Eco ambassadors with the um with eighth graders what did that look like it looked like 275 K to1 students raply involved in read aloud and action that appear how Co develop what did that look like as a rising seventh grader it was a new principal coming to our school and Pierce just had a sixth grade and being new to our district joining with eighth graders to welcome our new principal in office and to give him the mission and the vision of where he saw the club that he had was going to go for the summer so right away um Mr Charleston was you know right on his side and I to thank Mr Charleston also who can be here tonight who also asked me to extend um his congratulations now that wasn't it you know we go a little further into seventh grade what does that look like oh all of the third graders across the district coming over to RMS for the first line for the first time and being taken through a learning path through the school um and having teachers collaborate how did that happen with student leaders of which was one does that happen during the school day absolutely not it happens after school for hours it happens over the weekend as if seventh grade wasn't you know awesome enough doesn't CBS News come out to um show Readington schools as some of the leaders in um in education and so of course who's going to be on camera who steps up and can talk right off the cuff about the things that we do at RMS and that we do with our other schools of course that is um Pier and then we have to go to Parent Academy night where he delivered the keynote speech and I think one of the things he said in his bio that you know is one of those things that kind of like oh my God great how old is this kid like 123 years old that um that his aspiration was and you with GT kids you'll get oh I'm GNA be you know an astrophysicist or you know some crazy like super intensive job that nobody's heard of but his is to make a change in the lives of others in a helpful way and I think that exemplifies who he is as a leader who he is as a human being and who he is as a student and so then I'm just GNA give this one last thing um Dr Harden mentioned the Taiwan deleg and so we call it the Taiwan delegation but what that really was was somebody from the Ministry of Education at uh in Taiwan the sen a senior director with the National Wildlife Federation a director of Education from Columbia University's Center for sustainable development and a director of education at New Jersey aot and then imagine Dr Hart is with us and then um Mr Charleston so you have what I call like all the Heavy Hitters in the room right and so here is Pier speaking this is when I think as a educator it just took my breath away because I turn around for a second I see this kid you know all in his white shirt and same PI right here but I see the cameras of all these Heavy Hitters trained on this kid taking in every single word that he is saying with WRA attention and then I say that's right you go that's exactly what we do here at Readington schools we look for those kids every single kid with potential and we look for ways to lift them up and so I say Well done peers well done loens and I'll turn it over to my colleages so I I had the privilege of having Pierce in um seventh grade math last year and I just remember being so taken aback by his Poise and confidence when he um walked into the classroom for the first time and a lot of you have had seventh graders that poison confidence isn't always Supernatural right away um it's it's you know seven grade um but Pierce knows exactly who he is and he has a way to put anyone at ease with a kind word in a laugh um he makes his peers feel safe appreciated valued and heard and he's just truly one of the finest students I've ever had the privilege of working with but also one of the kindest people I've ever met hi I wasn't prepared to say anything but I can't not say anything especially after hearing in his bio that Math and Science are his because I happen to be his language AR I will try not to take that person but I just want to pick you back off of what Mrs Freeman said in saying that his greatest aspiration is to help other people I think if you had asked me that as his sixth grade language arts teacher I would have been able to tell you that just in meeting him um every activity every argument essay every uh passage we read excuse me was an opportunity for him to think about how he can make the world a better place and again huge thank you to the family I know that this is all the group effort and I currently have loen and I look forward to having each other load each other thank you so much [Applause] the building so and Rebecca I want to get a picture of you guys [Music] that's a good idea been crying made M cry two three [Music] sorry Dr C I'll just turn it over to the bo of edit I'll I just want to congratulate all the students who are recognized tonight and in particular Piers What a fine young man you are and congratulations you obviously have a very Bri future so it was really great hearing about yes uh so the next portion of my superintendent report are the qac results from 2324 uh this is a required report um at the end of QC that I have to deliver to the Board of Education letting you know the results um otherwise we had such a great night I probably wouldn't have presented this but this this is something that we're required to do so uh for the board's information qack is the New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum so it's a process this is almost I would consider to be a self auditing uh Slash external audit from the Department of Education it is a monitoring system it is a self- evaluation tool that's completed by stakeholders in the district uh with then documentation uploaded to the Department of Education for state issued scores recently um the state has shifted the qac process to be something of uh compliance assistance monitoring and capacity building uh so there are a number of state and federal requirements laws code and statute that we're required to follow uh from the Department of Education this is the monitoring device that tells the Department of Education that we are within compliance of all of the code statute and ferally mandated regulations there are five key areas upon which we are monitor they include fiscal management governance instruction and program operations and Personnel so these are the five areas in which we are monitored by the state uh it starts with an administrative review of the qac requirements in the manual uh where in this room administrative staff with their support staff review the manual review the requirements I create a document uh with all of the name of each individual role or responsibility and what their responsibility is when it comes to uploading documents in husack we create five subfolders and within each one of those folders uh administrative and support staff are required to upload documentation from there um we have all of our documentation we did back in December our self assessment the self assessment our members of the County office visit the district and visit a group of stakeholders ERS those stakeholders include District administration the required components superintendent one member of the Board of Education uh one teaching staff member and one member from the association leadership um we met in this room the county office asked us several questions about the qac process uh we gave them information and then they stayed for the rest of the State Department of Education from the county state for the rest of the day um one with each one of the administrators so the executive County Superintendent state with me for the rest of the day the uh County Business official worked with Jason the Ed specialist worked with Stacy and Sarah the uh child study team director worked with Stacy beagle um and we paired up and reviewed all of the documentation we submitted our self assessment scores that were approved by the board back in December uh and these were the scores that we submitted from our own self assessment uh the dprs were as follows instruction program 40% fiscal management all the way through Personnel we all ranked ourselves as 100% we always figured it's better to try for the points and let the state tell us that we did not earn the points we submitted all of our documentation to the state and they returned the following scores instruction program 81% fiscal management 100% governance 100% operations 96% Personnel 100% we have satisfied the 80% minimum requirement for each DPR thus we maintain our status as a high performing District which is fantastic news instruction program is devel is made up of two scores and I want to mention this achievement scores which the state issued to us and our curriculum and policy scores so our total points were 81 which satisfies the 80% minimum requirement but curriculum and policy were all was all of the documentation that we up vaded for the Department of Education and reviewed and that means that we have appropriate curricular policies all of our curriculum documents are an alignment with the New Jersey student learning standards they have all of the required components of a curriculum document a strong curriculum document these include um modifications and accommodations for special needs Learners 21st century skills um and um cross-curricular content areas as well as a number of other things so it's good all of our curricular is updated and we received all the points achievement scores are measured by the state and they're they are comprised of academic progress in language arts Math and Science and this is where some of our points may not have been earned so here's the breakdown of all of the indicators within achievement so Ela and math achievement is just how kids performed on the most recent New Jersey student learning assessment as well as science its overall scores as well as well as subgroups so there's a special State calculation that they do to give us the for example 6.7 points out of 10 and those include overall scores combined with subgroup scores subgroup scores are when we break out student achievement by demographic race ethnicity gender socioeconomic status um limited English proficient those are all of the subgroups uh English language Learners that are all broken out indicator four and five are growth in both math and language arts now that we've taken the njsla for the past two years the state can tell us growth scores uh and then lastly uh we do not have a graduation rate because we're a k38 district Lastly lastly overall School quality and Student Success all of which uh are very good the one area where we received a common and corrective action was indicator number 12 New Jersey Administrative Code 6A requires that we have a record of immunizations required physical exams and Health screenings maintained in a student health record what the county noticed they made a comment that the district had incomplete health screening records and this was due to the fact that we didn't have updated screenings in our medical files for our five out of District students so five out of District students were screened they have medical files in their out of District placement schools we just didn't have those updated records in our files here in the district so our corrective action is we've developed an internal protocol to ensure sure we have annual reviews each year at an IEP meeting for those five out of District State uh students that we receive their medical records we bring them back to district and make sure that we update our files it's not that there said the screenings weren't completed it's not like there was anything incomplete everything was done just wasn't represented in the students file here on campus so we have our corrective action already so the conclusion is that there are no comments on Personnel fiscal or governance dprs this 100% score suggests our protocols procedures our policies in the area in these areas are all well within compliance there's no area where we lost points or received to comment we've already developed a rem remedy with internal protocols wherever we lost any points uh the feedback allows us to learn from this right now we know we have a better protocol for making sure we get more paperwork when we go to our out of district meetings the great news is we maintain our St status is a high performing District this is a uh a status that will be reported to the commissioner of education at a state board of education board meeting our district will be on the list it'll say high performing next to us um and this means that we provide a thorough and efficient system of education and we're well within compliance of all state and federal regulations that's the qac report any questions from members of the board I had two questions um I know that one of the recommendations that they had suggested the RMS LED lighting I know that doesn't show up on this it was just through the walk through um I can't remember is that budgeted are we doing that in this year's budget or is that next year's budget good Jason I'll turn it over to you um so that was not an official recommendation from state but um they did provide us that recommendation also in writing um that it didn't result in any um qac score loss but we are planning to up upgrade the lighting at the classrooms in the summer coming up uh so it should be ready by September um for students returning I was looking I didn't see it in finance either so I wasn't sure I knew it was happening I just didn't know um and then the other question I have is I forget what the timeline is for renewal for qac is it three years yeah so because we were a high performing District we have no monitoring obligation from the Department of Education for the next three years so the next time we'll be monitored will be 3 years from now and we'll go through a very similar process unless there is to the requirements so we're good for three years that's excellent I know I was involved as the board member on the committee for this and I I mentioned this before in previous meetings just how impressed I was with the process and how organized and amazingly efficient this district is run and it's great that we received the high performing again and um I think it's a wonderful Testament to the hard work not easy it's not easy I mean it's it's amazing so great job yes I Echo that absolutely it's um this is not easy to get that those kind of scores and it um it really is it says a lot so I I can Echo what what Beth has said and um that's that's really um it's really something to be proud of honestly so well done thank you I just had a question yeah um just because I'm not super familiar with all this for indicator 1 two and three the ELA Math and Science achievement what is that those scores based on like our testing or where does that come from yeah it comes from I don't know what the state's backend formula is for that but it comes from a one point in time score on the njla so it's based off of I believe this past spring Administration um so 2023 administration of those three tests and what they do is they have a formula where they calculate our overall achievement but then also balance it out by breaking out each subgroup so we'll take different ethnicities students with IEPs students without IEPs different socioeconomic status and they'll include their achievement rates also in the formula as well but I don't know the specifics of the of the formula okay yeah because I just see like three 3.3 out of 10 yeah it's a little concerning yeah and and it it shouldn't be considering that I think about 20% of kids across the state passed the Science assessment I I think there's some flaws with the formula and I think there's some flaws in in the assessments um the fact that we got all of the points not all of the points the fact that we achieved score above the 80% is a great Testament to how we achieved and grew as a district of course you know we always are looking for room for improvement um but there are a lot of districts uh in our region that you know receive scores where they may not get all 80% points uh for instruction and program uh so there's some corrective action here we uh we know that you know based off of all of these are all of the scores that we talked about back in October and even last month so it's all the same conversation they're just reported a little bit differently here yeah I was going to ask um is there a way to compare the the achievement scores with like neighboring districts do they not do this at the same time or I I can't answer that question because when I was at my last superintendent meeting we received our letter from the state with our scores other districts that went through qac this year have not yet received their letter so I don't know if the state releases the information all at the same time um additionally I'm reporting to you all of these subcores these are not required to be reported so I can't tell you if Flemington raron or south hunterton or I want to say maybe Clinton Township went through qac this year I don't know if they're going to report this publicly or if they're just going to report their overall score out of the 100% uh so it's really up to them for them to share the information with us if they want to oh this is not public well it this would be public yeah so this is this is what's publicly required to be reported we can get these scores with us compared to other districts when they release them oh but not the I don't know if they would release I it's up completely up to the district to release this information I gave it to you just as an FYI um but this is what's required to be released indicator 12's a little nitpicky a little extremely but that Randy that's how nit Ticky it is I mean like the you know the the smallest subtext within New Jersey Administrative Code or statute it mean is in the indicator and there are dozens of indicators for each of the five dprs we're talking about hundreds of indicators that we have to help documentation for but yeah I would I would agree and I also think the fact that we have the record it's just not on our campus it's also a little bit more but okay thanks everybody thank you Dr har we are now open to the public limited to action items on the agenda anyone anything online no there's there's no comments online okay next on our agenda is correspondence we received four emails um that are listed uh next we have um approval of the administrative reports can we get a motion to adopt 1.01 move that second get a call please M dependo yes M fi yes Mr Lopes yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan Yes M wolf yes yes passes can we get a motion to adopt 2.01 to 2.0 2 second Carolyn we get a roll call please M dep yes M Fury yes Mr Lopes yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan Yes m w yes Dr C yes passes can we get a motion to adopt 3.01 to 3.13 move second car and we have have a committed report we met on Wednesday April 10th and the first thing we talked about was solar expansion and the evaluation process no proposals were received during the bid opening vendors highlighted prohibited factors including construction and inflation cost for ancillary items and new state while capping at the utility rate the solar ad hoc committee will review options including revision of bid specifications shifting to a state contract Min bid mini bid process C or discontinuation of the project construction will not occur this summer due to lead times if the project proceeds it will likely occur in summer of 2025 we then discussed the late uh the 2023 2024 late spring projects several projects have been requested and includeed funded projects in the 2023 2024 budget baseball field custodia office relocation signage concrete repairs fencing Smartboard relocations security enhancements and others not currently budgeted for example headsets for playing performances softball fields Etc but they are being completed with Surplus the committee requests further information about the future of the preschool expansion and what options could be considered as the program grows we then discussed the summer 2024 capital projects several projects are planned for summer of 2024 including the RMS mean office improvements RMS LED classroom lighting it enhancements security enhancements and Private Preschool classroom enhancements plans are underway to communicate the RMS meain office project to families before September we then discussed uh the health and dental insurance renewals for 2024 2025 school year Communications with Union leadership and staff have been completed on the upcoming Insurance revisions additional Q&A sessions are planned to facilitate understanding of the changes and on April 30th the topic will appear on the board of that agenda which aligns with the deadline to submit the final resolutions we moved on to the budget update the budget was discussed and no revisions were proposed the budget will be reviewed at the April 16th board ofed meeting and voting is scheduled for the April 30th meeting a communication to inform the township residents will be planned um Finance agenda items and Bill list additional items were discussed including the Apple Co-op the YMCA contract eate Federal funding into the school district for internet construction vendor resolutions there were various preschool private provider contracts for 2024 2025 health and dental resolutions and maschio's food service contract renewal our next meeting is planned for May 10th at 8:30 a. and July 18th at 9:30 a.m. thank you Mr Pome any questions regarding those minutes I guess one question are PL on repairs or updates part of those spring capital projects or that separate um so those are part part of the spring um capital projects but they'll be installed after the end of school when students are not in session so they'll probably finish um by July of the summer thank you any other questions can we get a roll call please M Dita yes M Fury yes Mr R yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan Yes is both yes Dr yes a next is education technology can we get a motion to adopt 4.01 to 4.02 move that second uh there was not a committee report this time um can we get a roll call oh any questions I'm sorry any questions yes I had a comment and a question um um first a comment I think the updates to the reading program are so important um and Ma liter literacy skills are kind of the foundation for learning everything else so I had a question because um on the agenda is to approve a consultant um for September 3rd but we won't see the curriculum till it's written in August so I was just looking for a little bit more information on the intended curriculum um the pilot program I heard that there was a pilot program um how many participants there were and what were the results of that so our our generally our curriculum revision timeline um there there are a couple of things that are really the impetus for the language arts curriculum revision um first is uh the state has adopted New New Jersey student learning standards in the area of language arts literacy so that's part one um the second part is uh we recognized over the past um six years as we've been implementing more of a phonics based reading program in grades K through three and then we have our Veil word study program in grades three k through two and then 3 through five that there are still some areas in which we want to strengthen the science of reading research and phonics behind our reading program so knowing these two things um Dr Brown launched with a group of approximately eight teachers at both White House and Three Bridges um a pilot for a new reading program looking really specifically at programs that could fit into our lot in time for language arts which language arts total is about two hours gate grades K through two um and that had a really strong science of reading background so science of reading research is not entirely new but it's been something relatively new and a lot of programs have been updating the past two to three years so teachers uh volunteered for the pilot about eight teachers received kits they piloted some of the units of study uh over the course of the past five to six months uh so they were able to try different units they were able to implement different strategies in their classroom um and the results of the pilot over the course of the year was extraordinarily positive the teachers uh it was really well received the student achievement data um in uh reading through I ready uh showed uh great growth in improvement in our grades you know K through two so we had I I want to say two kindergarten teachers four first grade teachers and two second grade teachers and our literacy coach all involved in the pilot um Dr Brown looked at a couple of other programs hooton um Mifflin hardcourt was one of the other programs uh this units of study was another program I think cple um great minds wit and wisdom um imagine learnings uh learning program so she looked at a lot of different things and this was the best fit um and gives us a really solid background uh in phonics we currently use units of study um in reading and in phonics we have their phonics program as well but this new units of study program works really well with the phonic program in grades K through2 um so that that's the reason for the pilot um Dr Brown wants to secure the uh trainer for September 30 these people book up very very quickly um so we want to make sure that we have the trainer available and ready for September 3rd so the teachers have a strong background in the program before they have to teach it come September 4th yeah uh I think I got everything uh some of the the program components just so you know with the science of reading include early alphabetic knowledge Concepts about print phonological awareness phonics fluency vocabulary comprehension some other key differences that that this program had were practice skills with both decodable text and authentic text which is really important for kids to identify different um to identify words within different types of texts and really critically were resources for small group instruction and our multilingual learner population as well so those were some of the highlights of the program just off of what um an additional question is it replacing an existing program that we have it's replacing so this is a new units of study with a newer publication date reping our old units of study reading program um timeline Jen I'm sorry I think you asked about timeline so this is the typical timeline we purchase the materials in advance of curriculum writing so curriculum writing will probably start uh maybe at our May professional development in service day and we'll go through the summer and the edtech committee will review the curriculum documents in August and then they'll be board approved in August for you know implementation come September one thank you yeah any other questions okay can we get a roll call please M dto yes M Fury yes Mr Lopes yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan Yes m w yes yes pass I'm moving on to Personnel can we get a motion to adopt 5.01 to 5.16 so move Jennifer second Carol oh we also do not have the Comm report this time any questions about anything all right can we get a can we get a roll call please m d yes m f yes MREs yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan Yes m v yes yes moving on to Comm communication can we get a motion to adopt 6.01 to 6.02 and we do have a committee report Mr Peach a very lengthy one let me get started and I know you have to leave it yeah okay uh the committee met on March 26 uh first thing we discussed was Communications planning uh we discussed a survey which is going to be the first step in the planning um and Dr hard updated updated the survey based on feedback and it's scheduled to go out was scheduled to go out the Monday after spring break with a week left open um survey asked various questions about Communications and people's satisfaction with the communications um and it's also the survey is also directed to Comm community members so we're going to advertise it to people um and Dr har also noted that the Dr Hart also noted that the survey is is uh Anonymous uh next for communications planning is going to be the focus groups and uh those are going to be scheduled board me board members are going to pick a focus group to attend and parents are also being being given an option they can attend virtually or in person community members will also have a chance to attend a focus group and they're going to be run by an outside facilitator not a district administrator to ensure honest feedback and we should have rep rep on this for our June meeting like the very latest by July so that we can plan for the next year um and next we uh discussed the local realtor uh breakfast that the Administration has uh set up um we'll be hosting a breakfast for local Realtors on April 23rd from 9: to 10:30 a.m. at the board of ed offices uh This was um the result of the administration learning that um local Realtors um heard about the pre our preschool program and uh I think this is a big draw of the community they've actually been using it in their sales pitches to people to buy homes here so the administration thought it was a good idea to host a breakfast for the local Realtors talk about our district and our preschool program and things like our academic achievement low class sizes and uh the our green initiative next up we continue to discuss um alert 232 from stra Esme um for uh updates on our policies managing equity and education um and these are part of um well these come from changes in the state's administrative code and uh so therefore a number of our policies have to be revised uh so they comply with federal and state law including the New Jersey law against discrimination and we must also ensure our comprehensive Equity plan is of compliance with the changes first we discuss policy uh 114 educational Equity policies and affirmative action and uh a lot of what we're doing in these policies is because the law against discrimination has been amended to include new new protected categories um we have to update the policies to refer we're going to refer to the catch all phrase of protected categories listed in the code um one member inquired on this policy whether the professional development of Staff would now include instruction on culturally responsive teaching of the type ad advocated by the author Gloria lson dillings Dr Hart responded that critical race theory was not a part of our professional training agenda but that culturally responsive teaching was an example of type of training TR that could be and has been provided next we discussed policy 1523 uh which is the comprehensive Equity plan uh this has to be uh our comprehensive Equity plan has to be submitted to the state every three years uh we submitted our last one last spring so the next one's due in two years so this policy gives us information guidance about what has to be in the the C including with respect to professional development and classroom practices next we discuss policy 1530 uh with the corresponding regulation this policy ensures that we comply with state and federal law for non-discrimination Equal Employment Opportunity as well as Equitable hiring practices things like accommodations for Disabilities and uh the regulation also has a complaint mechanism now we had some discussion about some of the provisions uh we we discussed um the fourth sentence which seemed to talk about using race being able to use race as a basis for hiring if it corrected and imbalance um in in the protected categories and another member pointed out um that this sentence also used the word correct for in place of the word prevent which which implied that we had already perhaps committed a violation another member noted that uh you know we don't really have much choice because these changes are mandated by the commissioner um we discussed various options but ultimately um what was decided that Dr Hart's going to go back to stra Ese and talk with them and return with further information for the committee so uh policy 153 is not going to be on the agenda tonight next we discuss policy 1550 which is Equal Employment anti-discrimination Practices and this similarly addresses equal employment opportunity and non desination in the district um there's also uh a regulation sorry next we discuss regulation uh 2200 which is curriculum content um and this provides that our curriculum must eliminate any discription discrimination based on the protected categories and eliminating potential bias next we discussed uh policy 2260 equity in school and classroom practices uh this requires District provide students Equitable access to classroom practices uh deletes the word equal and substitute substitutes it with Equitable requires a district to achieve um within each School a minority representation that approximates the district's overall minority representation and it also requires our curriculum to address elimination of discrimination by narrowing the achievement Gap and U the opportunity Gap this policy would also ensured the Amistad and the Holocaust curriculums are included in our instruction and it has other Provisions related to equity uh one member remarked that this policy delad the phrase quote both genders unquote substitute it with quote all Sexes unquote question whether the policy now was that there were more than two Sexes and if so whether this was being taught in our science classes uh Dr Hart responded that the only class where students might be taught about for example transgender persons would be in health class and not necessarily in science it was also noted again that these revisions are the result of administrative code um which uh no changes are made by the commissioner which are been imposed on districts uh a member also questioned the pronoun changes in the policy substituting they for him her whether this was just in the policies or whether the district was also making these Chang in our curriculum and our classrooms Dr har responded that the changes in pronouns were not being made to the curricula um at the same time it was a District's practice to honor any special requests from a student about pronoun use but we decide this policy like 1530 will not appear on tonight's agenda Dr Hart's going to go back to stra Ese and then return with more information next we discuss regulation 2260 um and this uh this this corresponds to the last policy just has a complaint procedure next we discuss policy 2411 which has to do with guidance counseling and uh this has been updated um to note that uh this policy has to do with offering guidance counseling students Dr Hart added to this that this instruction can come not just from certified gu guidance counselors but from teachers certified in other areas um next we discuss policy 3211 the code of ethics uh this policy inor incorporates the code of e ethics published by the National Education Association it has been updated to reflect the protected categories of non-discrimination and to replace the pronouns his or her with their uh next uh policy 5750 which is uh titled Equitable educational opportunity and this policy has also been revised to use the phrase protected categories in place of listing all of them it also replaces the word equality with Equity uh so that's it on the policies um for advocacy uh it's noted that the qac code changes are not available yet but the administration's looking out for them and on tonight's agenda are policies 1140 1523 1550 2411 3211 and 5750 we scheduled our next meeting for May 7th at 4M thank you providing the minutes as we know for any committee is uh is not easy but policy in particular can be challenging but we do appreciate your thorough minutes thank you very much um does anyone have any questions about comments oh I just had a comment I noticed this after the committee the meeting on the um I was wondering if you could when Dr Hart goes back to St s May if you could just ask them on the code of ethics one and this is in the in the category of sometimes we're not sure where these changes are coming from and if it's from the commissioner or Strauss Esme I no with this one they were changing pronouns but it wasn't from it wasn't from the code of ethics from the Nea because looked at the Nea one and they had they had the old one so I'm wondering if that's a stra s thing maybe maybe you could find out about that it doesn't seem to be in the regulation either or the or what the Nea is doing is there a regulation for that one I thought it was just a policy well well no that St they list the regulations that have been that have been that are the reason for their changes okay I can ask I didn't see it in there so I was curious that's all anyone else have any questions comments okay can we get a roll call please um Mrs depento yes M fiori yes Mr Lopes yes Mr Peach yes Mrs borski yes M Ryan Yes Yes Dr C yes passes moving on to unfinished business uh regarding the board self evaluation I emailed everyone um make sure that you get an email tomorrow um the board self- evaluation is open it's an online tool through the New Jersey school boards Association um so click the links that I provided to you in the email it'll take you to navigate to the self evaluation um if you have any trouble logging in or you don't have a login uh yet uh Jason can help you get the login you fill out the self- evaluation the New Jersey school boards Association compiles all of the data gives it to Camille you can share it with the full board um and then we can use that as a spring board for our training and goal setting over the summer for next school year great okay I don't know if anyone had a chance to look at that if you have any questions please feel free to reach out over I'll be happy to answer any questions that you have about it all right thank you um moving on new business from the board can unfinished business can we just go oh I apologize was there something else um I just wanted to say we had the second board tour after the last board meeting so we saw Hollen Brook School and through Bridges school um so I just there was something Mr Charleston mentioned and I wanted to just say to the rest of the board because not everyone got to hear it um but the seventh grade and eighth grade bands have actually commissioned pieces that will be premiered World premiered this spring um they basically my understanding is that every time this piece of music is played or shared it says Readington Middle School on on the piece so it's a really big deal it's a huge they have two different um composers for seventh grade the piece is called saltwater taffy and it's by nine Silverman and the eighth grade band um will'll be playing classified and that's by Franklin Hansen so I thought that was really cool just wanted to share with the the board members thank you yeah when's that going to happen uh the May concert exactly and that's when it's de yeah the world premiere that's great thank you thank you for sharing that Performing Arts is really rocking well we'll have more um uh Performing Arts recognitions um later this school year there's a couple of things that I've been emailed on and teachers have provided me information and there's some cool stuff that's happening so you'll you'll see you'll hear more to come great any other un finished business anyone like sure yeah at the um December board meeting it was shared that I had earned the new board member Boardman certification and that Mrs fi had earned a certif certification as well um and we were waiting to find out when it would be delivered so I wanted to share that at the Thursday May 9th hun County board meeting um any certifications earned throughout the year as well as Awards um will be presented at that time and all board members administrators C are welcome um and you we have a teacher of the year from hunon County um so I just wanted to mention that to the full board if anyone's available to join you all um would have received an email about it is that the one that there there's a virtual option to that as well there is yeah there's an in person as well as virtual I think the virtual starts about 45 minutes later rightner yeah I'll I'll I plan on attending I you plan on attend attending gargi I think you'll be there too [Music] and Miss pouch will be there as well um with gari so we'll represent the districts but the more the marrier so I'm so glad you'll be joining me thank you that's wonderful congratulations thank you anything else under unfinished business okay moving on to new business from the board anyone anything I did have something um so I had something email I'm not sure if we had a chance to read it um regarding a our legal services policy I I read it very quickly this morning I know you sent it get a chance to respond you know I just have a couple of things with it um one our legal service policy has um a number of Point people that can contact the attorney and you know we've had a couple of unique situations in the past few months where we had to reach out to the attorney and the last time um the last meeting we learned that um Dr Hart and Mr bone both reached out to I think two different attorneys so I guess I had a couple of questions about that like did we now incur two costs um one was not aware that the other one reached out so I just want to make sure that we're using our um you know the we're not we're not spending money where we shouldn't be when it comes to our Legal Services I also think that our attorney has steered us wrong twice now um so I do feel maybe we need to go back and um possibly revisit having another new attorney on board so I don't know what your thoughts are on that but um it was a little disappointing okay a couple things first of all I I think it was just actually a thorough response for both uh Mr bow and Dr Hart to reach out to the two different attorneys uh we have two attorneys and I and I think that um that's completely their prerogative if they want to reach out to the attorney so I don't have a problem with them doing that at all I think it was actually a good decision uh and a responsible decision to do that uh regarding attorney costs you know relative to all the costs in the district uh they they maintain I believe Rel relatively low uh but you still no matter what you have to have an attorney uh to to refer to and ask questions I mean that's why they're there um regarding the mistake that the attorney made you know that was also I agree with you that was disappointing surprising uh and um he owned it you know which I appreciate and we moved on you know I think that it was good that it was addressed immediately uh total transparency which again I appreciate Dr Hart and Mr bone uh in that regard and then we just you know made the best decision moving forward which is what we did you know whether or not we want to revisit the attorney that we are currently um you know paying or or you know um Contracting with is something that I guess we can we can discuss but um you know me personally I feel that I was disappointed as well it was corrected very quickly and I don't believe unless you know we have some thoughts from other people me personally I don't feel it's necessary to uh revisit you know getting a new attorney because of what happened I think that we did um you know we vetted through several different attorneys and we felt comfortable with this particular one um um and it was just something that happen this is my opinion I have no problem discussing it as a board I'm not sure honestly if this is something that we should discuss here or an executive I do appreciate you bringing it up though and and I'm not sure if this is the time or the place to actually have that conversation but that's just my my personal answer to your question and I and I appreciate that but I mean to be fully transparent you know saying that the attorney corrected it it wasn't the attorney that corrected it I mean yeah you know we had a fellow board member first of all no one said that the attorney corrected is the attorney the the letter the the letter was written in a way that made it seem as though the attorney further researched the issue well no the attorney actually did further research and isue that was completely correct in what was written it was completely true and correct because the attorney did further research it it's not that the attorney did not further research it the attorney absolutely further researched it so everything that was written in that in that letter i stand behind it was 100% correct and true there's no question about that yeah I I do feel that the attorney um we have gone to the attorney when we probably have not needed to um the attorney should have known that we should not have um that you cannot get a opinion on somebody that's not a sworn in member so we've incurred cost on that um you know we've incurred costs where there's an answer that you can go to the njsba site and easily get we've gone to the attorney for that so um I my opinion is I I don't think this attorney is working for the entire board at this point okay I appreciate that thank you thank you for sharing that as well and like I said is this something that we should discuss in in second I'm not really sure I don't know if anyone else would like to I mean I I see a point in having to maybe revisit this policy and make sure it flows there's some you know to me how it reads is that there should be a designated contact person it does say persons and parentheses that shall ensure that the legal council is not contacted unnecessarily so you know what are we doing to ensure that what are the steps that are being taken you know at that point you know is there and it says that the request should be in writing so is there steps that are being followed where you know a request is being submitted inviting and then that contact person I feel like it should be documented somewhere exactly who that contact person is for I guess it would be the current year and then from there um you know making sure that that contact person then looks into can we find this information on the you know njsba website or you know is it readily available to us and document that yes we did check all those things off and then we went to legal counsel instead of just jumping right into legal council and I'm sure if that was being followed but it doesn't seem like it was if the way things went down so maybe I don't know if things need to be worded better in the policy um so maybe that's something we can you know look over in next uh policy meeting will okay no I I appreciate that as well I mean I feel that it's certainly the prerogative of the superintendent to and Mr bomes if if they feel necessary to just pick up the phone and call the attorney for a quick question to get a quick answer uh whether every single correspondence with the attorney needs to be in writing I think that's unreasonable and it shouldn't be expected uh so I certainly trust so that's why like that's what I'm saying like the policy is all so yeah maybe then well that's that's true so maybe that is something that can be addressed because there's nothing wrong I don't think with with either Dr Hart or Mr bomes calling the attorney uh and and getting an answer from that person uh and the other thing is anything as as you have as you have and other people have when you have a question about any bill that spent that sent that's spent you've asked uh Mr Bones and he has uh thoroughly provided exactly what have each dollar is spent he even provided the bill list for each one so anytime anyone has a question about it that question is answered uh you know regarding how the money was spent so and I think you know phone calls are not very expensive you know when you get into other attorney costs that's really when it comes into like with negotiations and and those types of things but that's the money's already been spent so like to you know catch it spent I think would be where we need no I I understand what you're saying but my my my point and again other people have an opinion about it my point is um I believe it's the prerogative of the superintendent to uh to be able to call when when they want to so I just I just would just say um I would ask the administration Jason and Dr Hart if um they get the feeling that you these are both and I don't know which which attorney it was I guess we used two and they're both just both huge law firms and if you ever get the impression that they're not we've got to be their one of their smallest clients you know so they get the impression that they're not getting back to us or giving us a quick opinion because of that you know we should I don't think we should hesitate to look for someone else you know well that again that was my understanding of why foby who is a huge a huge law firm up Buren County and they have a lot of larger schools up in beron county and I think that was one of the reasons why I mean they're they're very good with respect to negotiations policy Etc but that was one of the reasons why we even entertained looking into another law for correct me on because they were not responsive uh this new law firm zitar sh right um I believe has been extremely responsive um and and you know correcting that issue so I think we're trying to transition I understand what you're saying and and I agree with you uh we we need someone to be able to answer the our calls and our emails very quickly uh so I think that's the reason we're transitioning from one to another but you just can't go cold because you have to um you know there has to be a transition time thank you that um anything else I just want to say I want to assure the board that I mean I'll speak for myself and I Jason can chime in but I I can assure you that based off of the bills that I've read that myself Jason and Stacy beagle do exercise restraint before picking up the phone to call the attorney the three of us are very good at checking one with colleagues right other superintendents other directors of people Services other Bas about hey have you encountered this issue in your district there are there are individuals at our disposal that we can call we can talk to stuss Esme uh I I generally go to them with policy questions before I even go to our attorney because we already pay for their their fee so Strauss Esme will also you know give us some guidance and help on a lot of things we'll do research on our own um we'll contact school boards if need be um and most of the time when we do these things you know talking to a Schoolboard attorney or talking to a friend or a colleague or somebody from St SME they'll give us advice or thoughts and their opinion and then say but contact your board counsel just to make sure um you know so as much as we use all of the resources at our disposal policy code statute colleagues around the county and the state um school boards Association stess esate and all of the resources at our disposal the board's attorney is designed to protect the board from incurring unnecessarily liability and exposure I would like to think that you want me to do and Jason and Stacy to do our due diligence to ensure that when you have a difficult and believe me folks they get difficult student matter Personnel matter legal construction matter that we have done our due diligence and and gotten the strongest advice possible from our board attorney um I I I I think that you know we we call I I I give and I will say I expressly give Stacy and Jason directive to when they feel the need to call the board attorney to call the board attorney because they need to um you know sometimes there are situations that happen that at a moment's notice um we're getting threatened by an individual whether it's an employee a a parent a student and there's a situation that's significant and we need somebody on the phone within a couple of minutes to say here's my response and and this is what I'm thinking can you help me craft something um you know it's we're in the business of of you know providing a a thorough a thoughtful education for the kids and I'd like to reassure you that we use all of our Avail available resources and our board attorney is certainly one of them um but but we do uh you know do our research before you know contacting the board attorney and and sometimes it's a a three a question on my way home and I'll call you know Mark simmer on my cell phone and he'll pick up hey Mark I have a quick question this is what I'm I'm doing I have a meeting tomorrow how's that sound great and I don't see a bill for it um you know sometimes there are you know an hourong conversation where you know I need his help with a really delicate Personnel matter and you know for that we'll we'll get built but you know the the a lot of times the board will hear you know grievances complaints um informal appearances from any number of individuals and I i' like to think that when we're in those really difficult situations when we have a hearing from an employee or a student or a parent that you know that the board attorney has helped guide us through that particular situation so I just want you the to to have the assurance that we are as diligent we do as much much research as possible but you know when we find it necessary we really do pick up the phone and we call the board attorney because they are the board's attorney that's what they're designed to do protect our our interests I thought it was important that you know that thank you I can respect that I also just want to make sure that we are following the policy um you know that we should be maintaining a log of all legal services so I'm not sure if that's the case or not we get every month we get a bill Jason Stacy and I sign up review the bill adjust anything that's necessary to be adjusted on the bill if we don't have a recollection of that conversation or sometimes we test a bill if we feel like the services rendered didn't meet our expectation for that bill and the three of us sign off on the bill as well so that that process is definitely in place I keep on my calendar I'm sure Jason and Stacy do a record of my phone calls with the attorney link today I have one and it's on my calendar so I'll know called attorney about XYZ matter so I can compare the bill with my with my calendar to make sure that you know everything is adding up so I can assure you we we do I I I appreciate the conversation it's not it's not that I don't um I I just want to provide you some reassurance that's all that you know we are in a transition between two two attorneys we have one that handles some Legacy issues that we have still outstanding that's very good with contract negotiations that knows Personnel student other disciplinary matters prior to you know the first of the year and we have a newer attorney that we use for some new issues and concerns that arise as well and I think some of maybe Justina what you're pointing out might even just be our transition in adjusting to two two attorneys as well you know it happened so is it that going forward we are looking to transition to the you won that's my understanding mine too so I just want to be clear on that but there still are some pretty significant issues particularly with contracts and some Legacy issues that our previous board attorney was here for 15 20 years that but any anything that new that arises we should not be going with not necessarily thank you okay um and I do appreciate you bringing it up honestly if you have any questions about it uh the relationship between superintendent and the attorney is critical for again the attorney to keep the the district on the right path and if you compare attorney costs with potential um potential other costs that could be incurred by not having the correct advice uh there's no question that it's it's money well spent I have to just have to say for sure but thank you and again if this needs any further conversation please let us know we will do that um and the other new business from the board okay we are now open to the public for anything on or off the agenda on or off yes [Music] anything this is my board meeting and it's almost past my bedtime welcome uh so hi there oh my name is coko Shaw and I have four children in the Readington Township School District all four of my children have been in your schools our schools since they started kindergarten and I am here tonight to speak with great affection for our schools and for the teachers who have taught my children two of them are right there and two of my kids I didn't know they were going to be here tonight but they're actually kind of involved in this and Ro you don't know about it yet night okay so I think that we can all agree that literacy is the Bedrock for learning without the ability to read well learning becomes a lifetime struggle I have no doubt you are all familiar with the controversy surrounding reading curriculums in schools today and for those who aren't I wasn't um there is a battle between evidence-based phonics instruction and a method called hueing which believes that given the proper environment children can learn to read by figuring out words based on pictures and context and first letters um unfortunately queuing has been universally proven ineffective to date eight states have banned it outright in their schools including Ohio which was the state that originally brought this idea into the country from New Zealand 22 other states have legislation in the works limiting it the teachers college at Columbia University from which the American version sprang has dissolved it as of this fall and New York City has pulled it from all of its schools the curriculum is known by the names of the women who developed and championed it Lucy ckins and fontis and Pell it's also known as whole word or balance literacy and this is the reading curriculum that is used in Readington Township Schools um it doesn't work I know this because two of my children were struggling readers which surprised me because we're a household with lots of books and loads of story times my kids all love to read but to my confusion and increasing horror it became apparent to me through their schooling that two of them weren't reading they were pretending to read I'm very grateful that when I brought my concerns my Panic to my child's third grade teacher and fifth grade teacher um uh my she suggested screening and the screening found that that my child is dyslexic which in turn led to the testing of my second child who's also dyslexic so queuing may work for some but it's a disaster for dyslexics and struggling readers what does work with the evidence to back it up are phonics and decoding I think you're all kind of my contemporary it's what we grew up with right um it's sounding Out words even Lucy ckins herself who after 35 years of doubling down has finally conceded this point and introduced into her curriculum but it's too little too late I'm distressed that Readington Township is still clinging to this sinking ship and taking our children down with it I've seen in the curriculum that you implement online um and notice the addition of phonic instructions to go alongside the cockins and Fountain and pel materials that are used in our schools but where I'm from we call this polishing a turd you cannot serve two masters I have seen firsthand what evidence based phonics instruction does for struggling readers it changes everything my children were drowning and now they're being taught to swim under the tubeg of Mrs Riley and Mrs RoR and Wilson technique I am heart sick that they floundered painfully for so long unnecessarily by holding fast to a failed reading methodology and ignoring the evidence of its ineffectiveness this district has done a serious disservice to struggling readers and I'd like to see that changed I'm going to mention my experience in the hopes that it will Implement change for future readers I don't have skin in the game anymore my kids uh will all be in middle school and up starting next year um the 2014 law of the state of New Jersey states that a board of education shall ensure that each student enrolled in the school district who has exhibited one or more potential indicators of Dyslexia or other reading disabilities is screened no later than the students completion of the first semester of the second grade I'm greatly concerned that in spite of their obvious difficulties in learning to read this District did not screen either of my children as per the law for their first semester by their first semester of the second grade they were not screened until I asked for them to be in third grade and fifth grade respectively the law of the state of New Jersey states in the event that a diagnosis of Dyslexia or other reading disability is confirmed the Board of Education shall provide appropriate evidence-based intervention strategies to the student including intense instruction on phenomic awareness phonics and fluency vocabulary and reading comprehension in other words Wilson or Orton Gillingham it concerns me that in spite of their dyslexia diagnosis this District did not supply my children with Wilson instruction as per the law until the following school year for one and two years later for the second if she had been screened when she should have been and given Wilson that was owed her she would have now five years of phonic instruction instead of a week and a half she started a week and a half ago she's in seventh grade don't all of our students deserve to receive evidence-based reading instruction instead of a nationally discredited ideological one literacy is the Bedrock of learning please stop failing us thank you thank you [Music] Mr is there anyone else who has any any um any comments at all before we respond okay thank you yeah I can I I I want to mention this to the the board as well I I'm not aware um what happened prior to my arrival here uh in Readington six years ago but we do have um screening tools that screen for dyslexia like I ready and are literally Running Records these are the tools that we use to identify kids potentially for um reading um disabilities from that point the child study team really needs to take the Reigns and identify students that have a reading disability with their assessments their their uh both psychological testing and learning and achievement testing as well so um we do have screening tools uh we do have training that we provide annually to our teachers and screening for reading disabilities as well uh we have intervention programs for students who maybe do not qualify for um special education services or related services in the area of reading so we do have intervention programs as well but we also have um reading programs for students that have disabilities they have included prior to Wilson in The District we had Orton Gillingham both Wilson and Orton Gillingham are something called a multi-sensory reading approach it's a similar philosophy a little bit of a a different name and some different instructional strategies and we had kind of a mix of both um several years ago we had some Orton Gillingham we had some Wilson trained teachers but um Mrs beagle has really moved the special education department very um very well so through um training in different levels of Wilson and different levels of Wilson for instructional intervention so there are some students I think we I I believe we have three tiers of reading intervention programs for students who are eligible for special education services just words I believe is one and then the full Wilson Reading Program is another one as well um we use the units of study we use the old we've been using the old units of study which is um the program that I believe Mr Shaw is mentioning the newer units of study that we piloted this year um include and we've had phonics for the past uh six years right so when Dr Brown and I arrived here we recognized that there was a need for more systematic phonics instruction um I I don't believe with all of my background of literacy there is one program that you can buy in a box that's going to deliver all of the state standards and going to deliver all of the recommendations from the national reading panel for literacy instruction uh there are programs like the units of study there are programs like I mentioned the hardcourt booten mlin program that you can purchase uh that we're always going to need supplemental materials uh we're always going to need other things to make sure that we achieve the state standard and there's a difference between purchasing a program that comes in a box and writing curriculum and and the gap between those two things are all of the other supplementally supplemental materials that we layer on top of our literacy curriculum so we have a program that we purchase uh we have the units of study for reading we have the units of study for phonics we have systematic phonics instruction but we also have other piece of the program that we lay excuse me layer on top uh for our students and we also have writing as as well all of that goes into writing a curriculum document and that curriculum document really answers how the district achieves the New Jersey student learning uh standards and that's the goal that's the the bridge between them uh Wilson is a great program it's particularly good for students in Special Needs um it has a really nice multi-sensory approach for a child that has a learning disability in the area of reading um and that's why we have it we have different levels of it um in our resource rooms and in our uh special education program I I guess the other thing that I would point out too for the board is we've reported in October again in March and even uh tonight you know we our our district outperforms the averages for 100 in County um other districts for of the similar free and reduced lunch population um other District we we certainly outperform the state um in the area of literacy our our scores are on the njsla are very very good and that's our teachers do an excellent job with the students taking all of these layered complex literacy programs and putting them together and implementing them through the curriculum um and that's a testament to our students uh and a really good programming that we have for them our our students achieve and grow in literacy extraordinarily well the October report that we provided to you the midyear report of I ready showing over 100% growth in our students in the area of reading I think demonstrat that that um you know our students do exceptionally well I I appreciate the comments I I'll I'll talk to Dr Brown a little bit more um but um you know we did a pilot with the units of study program and um you know the results of the pilot have all indicators of us moving forward with uh with an adoption so thank you Dr har actually can I just ask a quick question so when we do pilot a program like for inst for instance you mentioned literally um you know I know there are mixed reviews in regard to that program from Educators to parents to students how do we how do we assess a program after we pilot it like what is our process how do how do we know it's working and it's going to work for our students so when we have the pilot we have a rubric that the curriculum supervisors use to rate the program in terms of a different criteria uh we have our achievement scores based off of the already diagnostic that we did at least in this particular pilot for our reading program in grades K through two um and then the teachers um keep track they they keep anecdotal records of their experience using a program anytime they do a pilot it's those things that we put together to decide to move forward for adoption I had a quick quick question Yeah question is is it common for schools to use different programs and then my question my other question to part I guess is if student starts off with Wilson next year will they end up he or she like won Gillingham because I can see how that could be a little confusing what do you mean by different programs like do we use well Wilson's a program and when Gillingham is a different one yeah so that's what I so we we had both and we found exactly what you're I think getting at which is some inconsistency between the two so the special education department stuck with one program which is the Wilson program both are multi-sensory approaches for reading um but uh we're we're choosing one program it's it's not common I'm not saying that it hasn't happened because I I almost guaranteed it may have happened where a teacher might be trained in Orton gingham one year and then the next year a child might have a teacher trained in Wilson we've made every attempt over the past several years to remedy that to make sure that all of the special education teachers are trained in Wilson whether it's the Wilson uh program or whether it's the just words supplementary program to Wilson they're all Wilson based but they're just different levels of intervention thank you can I just add to that I mean I appreciate the question and all these programs sorry that one all these programs have Merit so as far as whether or not they're G mind this I'm sorry um I'm familiar with all these programs that we're talking about particularly the Wilson Wilson just words and Orton Gillingham where a student might um have Wilson one year it's not a problem if they have Orton the next year because you know it's it's great for teachers to kind of enhance what we call their like their toolbox so what um one thing might be focused on phonic whereas Orton might pH might um help out with the comprehension piece so it's all it's all inclusive over over time and that's what you want you want to provide the student with these various modes so that you know ultimately they get you're trying to fill in the gaps so it it doesn't necessarily have to be confusing I I appreciate that question but it's really up to the teacher to provide that kind of instruction and um and again give the student what they need over time so I I think all of them are valid and it's really kind of it's I think it's a good thing to have various programs available in the district I I'll mention too that I understand the controversy around Lucy ckins remember and Miss is exactly correct um Lucy ckins used something called a queuing system in trying to teach students how to solve words right when they when they go through in their reading and these are like context clues right looking at a picture or something along those lines that's the big objection right for students grades K through two it's not the most effective way to teach reading we recognize that we recognized that years ago and we implemented a phonics program a Systema phonic program to make sure we taught students the appropriate way to solve words through the cues that they get or clues that they get based off of how the word is structured this is what I think we saw on the board tours over at Three Bridges school where instead of having word walls anymore we now have sound walls students are learning how words are working together grades K through two by the time kids get to grades three through five our word study program is the veil word study program it's more complex words but even more complex words have patterns to them and it's those patterns that are grades three through five teachers teach to ensure that kids are solving words the most appropriate fluent way um so I understand the objection with the research behind Lucy Caulkins um and and we get it you know Dr Brown and I have known about this for years so we implemented the phonic program several years ago so we have systematic phonics here in the district combined with the units of study which kind of bridges this comprehensive literacy program in the year 2000 the national reading panel published a report that said all good reading programs have to have comp components of phonemic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension you're not going to be able to buy one box program that's going to achieve all five of those things the that's in the year 2000 layer on top of that the recent past five years to three years worth of research in the science of reading teaching students how to read is a complex cognitive process and there is no singular answer to it it's not Wilson it's not Orton it's not unit of study it is highly skilled highly trained highly knowledgeable teachers with levels of programming in order to make sure that kids achieve that level and our teachers do an excellent job with it I I I don't think that we're failing our kids I think our kids are doing extraordinarily well with the the reports that we've um provided to the board about student achievement so just so I'm clear do we have this Lucy ckins um program in our district right now yes we do so am I incorrect that did I hear incorrectly that you said you and Dr Brown had realized that it's not so is there something maybe we shouldis this no it's not it's it's not that there's anything wrong inherently with the program itself it's that it didn't have a phonics component so we added the phonics component on top of the program with the new reading program the one that we're proposing to adopt it now I mean Lucy's been removed from that and it now has the science of reading research with the phonics component so it will be removed or it won't be removed the old units of it's all units of study okay it's all units of study it's all teachers College Columbia University what we have now what we will have next year it's all the same it's just that the old one is tied to Lucy and that research that's going away and the new one now includes science of reading research okay thank you thank you sorry question for Dr I think I asked this in committee this new one is an updated version so it was created like post 2022 incorporating the science of reading removing the three queing method and adding more phonics in the one program yes uh and I don't remember the publication date that Dr Brown gave us in committee but I I want to say like 23 2 even 24 very yeah yeah there are some genuine concerns so yeah to ensure that what we're looking at is an updated version incorporating everything that's being discussed yeah it's all everything that's being discussed here the science of reading phonic systematic ponics instruction and programming is all being updated through the new K2 reading program yes thank you thank thank you any other questions or comments at alling this um you want to come back of course absolutely sure hi Martin and my son with rington in high school now so success I just wanted to have um two two things one is that the child study team at the White House School who's responsible for identifying for intervention who is in charge of that and who would be in charge of with moving forward if you're not receiving Wilson who's identifying who should be re receiving was if you're not dyslexic so at that grade point cut off for second grade I believe the end of first semester second grade who's in charge of identifying intervention and then who would be the person if you're not dislexic to still before it get a case manager be in charge of that so two different programs here okay um intervention is a general education pullout program for what I would call A struggl reader right so a student who through our in District assessments is not performing up to the grade level standard could be identified for intervention and that process would go through our intervention Referral Services process with the general education teacher the school counselor the building principle so that's one type of program this is a completely general education child who may have some um remedial reading difficulties and we would provide services to that child pull him or her out of his or her general education classroom to go see an intervention teacher who would work on those specific skills um ideally the the goal is work on those specific skills for that child and then send him or her back to the general education and no longer pull them out the child study team on the other hand identifies students who have a disability so intervention is a general education child who receives additional services in the area of reading or math for whatever their specific potential deficit or struggle might be the child study team does testing to identify students with a disability if a student is identified with a disability call it a reading disability through the testing of the child study team the question then asked through the IEP process is If the child has a disability what type of special education services uh or modifications and accommodations does the child require in order to be successful um so they're two different programs that person would be the child study team and the case manager over at school for example I just want to just to be transparent here I am wasn't trained special education teacher I do know about that but I just meant um moving forward in this District correct me if I'm wrong there's one person that is able to administer rezen Wilson I believe at the moment in in the district there's one person trained in Wilson Reading I I know that we've added we've sent teachers to level one and level two training and I I can't tell you how many I know that it's more than one now I know that it's at least three districtwide that provide Wilson instruction at the middle school and here at holr okay I believe and I just wanted to be clear because if we only have one person that can service these children and you're saying and I do understand at second grade is when it would be identified intervention or you need to get the child side team in a child who maybe goes through intervention that never went through a child side team will never get to Wilson re and if we don't have enough people to administer it who's going to administer that before they get to the point where children are but but we have more than one person who is trained in the Wilson Reading Program yeah so we have but the child in order to receive Wilson reading Law yes right in order has an ie so in order for a child to get an IEP they have to go through the eligibility process of the child sing you know you're a special at teacher right so you know the process um but we have more than one person in the district now I don't know what your experience was years ago but we've trained our teachers and continue to train our special education teachers in multiple levels of Wilson I want to say there's three levels of Wilson we have more more than one okay I was unaware because I was from my from what I understand I could be wrong there was one and there was not enough Services there was not enough time for that person who was to administer Wilson so tutoring was offered and that tutoring is okay if you can afford it but if you can't afford it and you have an IEP you should be receiving Wilson correct I just want to so we have more than one person yes okay if you have an IEP you can receive Wilson as long as you're diagnosed with the reading disability and the IEP says that Wilson is the special education service that is to be provided to the child okay that's make thank you y thank you very much anyone else would like to comment okay um there anything else we are we can can I get a motion to adjourn move don't go anywhere because I have to take your picture by the way ohy left I know and don't have Michelle but now we have [Music] Paul know to do should I get a motion I okay can we get a roll call please M dependa yes m f yes yes MREs yes M yes M Ryan yes yes yes okay thank you everyone um you want want for a picture well it's it's completely up to you Ian we're still missing want to do I think