##VIDEO ID:ZVtdo5HbL04## e e e e sh e for e e just the I was say what the heck's the okay this must be the original I have a motion to exit uh EX executive session or resume public session second all in favor any abion we had Nadia and Jeff yep okay uh Pledge of Allegiance please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stand oh we approved the M up front now okay I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last month's September board meeting all in favor I me exensions you all right president's report good evening board memb staff parents and community members I'd like to start tonight's uh report by celebrating the celebration of the first month of school the first month is always a special time filled with excitement of fresh beginnings and New Opportunities our schools have been buzzing with the energy of our students returning to their classrooms building new friendships and diving into their studies a special thank you to all our teachers staff administrators who whose dedication ensures that our students are off to a strong start your hard work and commitment to creating a positive learning environment do not go unnoticed and we are grateful for all that you do um this past week rhs celebrated the pink out event at the homecoming game on October 10th I was able to attend this great event with my wife and son it was it was truly amazing um if you're able to attend one of the future games I highly recommend going and being part of the community there I also want to provide an update regarding the search for the permanent superintendent the board will be holding a special meeting on October 28th to announce the final selection please be on the lookout for communication from the district I'm also thrilled to acknowledge that our uh ba uh Nick McCree and John lir will be attending the School Board conference next week and they'll be presenting there this is a wonderful opportunity for our district to share our achievements and best practices with colleagues across the state it's a testament to our Innovation and expertise from the leadership team we are proud to have them representing our district and showcasing the Fantastic work happening in our schools we wish them the best of luck and know they will do an outstanding job F the recent observances of rashan and yam gapor These are times of reflection renewal and hope and we extend our warmest wishes to all in the community who celebrate these holidays uh may this time bring peace and joy to you and your families we are also looking forward to the upcoming celebration of dwali the Festival of Lights and wish joy and prosperity to all those in our community who will be observing this special time finally we look forward to a family favorite holiday at the end of the month Halloween please join us at one of our truck or Treat events uh at Sharon or hosted by Sharon and Pon ptas thank you all for being here tonight and let's continue working together to make this year a memorable and successful one for our students families and Community thank you and the superintendent report thank you Mr President as always it's a privilege to be here with you tonight and share the great work that's happening across the district before we dive in tonight's updates I'm excited always about my favorite part of our meetings now with our student Representatives tonight's updates come from yaaya and Nick grippa we're excited to have them on board and I know they will provide valuable insight into the student experience in our district I spent some significant time comparing your notes with my notes so I did the editing and you guys are front and stage and uh let us know what's going on in our schools testing all right so um thanks for having us as always and I'm Nick grippa your executive social director and to my right is ya your Executive Secretary of robins high school and we're here to inform you all about the updates of the three Robinsville school districts so starting with high school for athletics football plays this Friday home uh on the 18th for senior night against Hamilton West they're currently two and four hoping to add another win to the tally boy soccer currently still undefeated with a 130 and2 record they played hope well today and they ended up winning which means they won the division and Conference and the boys next game is away against Del Ran on Thursday the 17th so they hope to keep their undefeated streak alive girls soccer is also having a great season with a 84 and2 record they also played hope worldall today and the girls next game will take place at the nest vers Somerville on Thursday the 17th field hockey is 59 and one and had a great 4-nil win in the first round of the CVC tournament versus Steiner and their next game takes place on the 17th vers West Windsor Plains row South last week our cross country team participated in in the fall classic at Thompson Park and several of them won medals so congrats to them the Raven regimen just took first place in their last two competitions and they won first place for best music visuals and overall effect moving on the clubs the agricultural Club just completed a mum fundraiser which was very successful for the second year in a row the World Language Honor Society highlighted Hispanic Heritage Month with different videos every day in Raven time highlighting different aspects of the culture and girls who code hosted their first bake sale of the year last week and Black Culture Club had been selling cook uh chocolates they're also planning their trip to Washington DC and many of the honor societies have also been hosting interesting meetings over the last several weeks for exec Council they've been very busy last week we hosted our annual pink out fundraiser where we donated $2,500 to breast cancer research and the week before we hosted the annual homecoming dance which was a huge hit we sold 684 tickets during that week staff and students participated in spirit weekdays and new games for the pep rally which were really fun and comical and here's ya uh for the report for the report on Pawn Road Middle School October brings one of our favorite events of the school year the prms PTA trunker treat families decorate their cars SL trunks as students dress up and celebrate the event prms staff members pick the best Cs and costumes as we all enjoy the event together this year we will be welcoming some of our pond pre families and students to the event we hope that the overwhelming cuteness of the prek participants will not sway the judges in any way our school counselors ask Pawn students to write on a rectangular piece of construction paper what respect may look like sound like or feel like during advisory students wrote examples and submitted them some examples included saying please and thank you greeting each other with eye contact holding the door for a classmate or giving someone a compliment later this month the counselors will make each piece of paper into a link of a larger chain that will be hung around the main hallway every week we send out a staff newsletter highlighting upcoming events giving reminders and celebrating our wonderful teachers a small portion of this newsletter has staff members sharing their favorite family recipes we hope that by the end of the school year we will have a prms cookbook to share out we just closed the week of respect and it was a great week besides the spear week itself our kindness Club wrote positive messages with chalk on sidewalk at the entrance to Pond students were surprised to see their walkway colorfully decorated with wonderful messages about the week about our students the staff and the school as a whole our favorite reaction we witnessed was a fifth grader upon being surprised Ed by the sidewalk art saying who did this this is so cool for the rep report on Sharon Elementary School Sharon School celebrated the week of respect by coming becoming respect detectives the theme of the week was detect respect each class will be given a top secret folder with activities to reinforce our school wide expectations and fun ways to learn about respect the students and staff also celebrated the week of respect with respect themed Spirit Week spirit days last week we celebrated fire prevention week with the Robinsville Township Fire Department all students received a visit from the department and learned the importance of fire prevention Sharon school is excited to announce our fall in love reading Bingo challenge all families are encouraged to participate students receiv received a paper copy of the Bingo board in their take-home folders later this week Sharon school students will celebrate the fall season with our annual fall parties adult volunteers have been collaborating with classroom teachers about designing fall themed activities thank you so much for allowing us to sit on the board and speak at this meeting today we're looking forward to next month's meeting as well thank you check um yeah Nick thank you so much and it is not unnoticed that the rest of the team is here today with their advisor thank you very much for coming and making this a commitment to the district I know the board appreciates it and I do as well and it is great to hear the student voice every month um before I let you guys go because I know you got to be to school early in the morning I do want you to hang out for the next part of this and then I'll definitely cue you up um tonight it's my pleasure to introduce Sarah regimen um and Leslie Mario Mario who are business did I batch did I botch that up Mario I got it I got it you got to tell me you got to give me feedback all right Leslie Mario who are business Partners owners of Max potential and I see we have some great with us also which I am really excited to have here they are the owners of Max potential their work in our district highlights an incredible initiative that truly embodies the spirit of inclusion and opportunity for all students last year Sarah and Leslie launched Max potential to provide employment training and social skills practice for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities they have helped our students by program by giving them the tools they need to be succe successful in both workplace and everyday life Max potential operates two Key Programs first there's the kitchen program which takes place in the commercial kitchen of The Bridge Church where students student Bakers learn the art of baking the market program which runs year round at local markets provides real world employment skills to students and partners importantly all workers in the market program are paid New Jersey minimum wage for small businesses underscoring the value and respect placed on their work which is awesome Sarah and Leslie are dedicated to working with each student individually helping them to develop skills and find meaningful employment they continue to explore new avenues to create more opportunities for students of all abilities Sarah and Leslie and their team are here tonight to speak to you about the program share some great pictures of our students they might have a treat for us and we definitely want give them some uh recognition on our behalf so I will turn it over to you ladies and gentlemen back on is that working I don't think it's on there it is okay yes my name is Sarah regimen um oh it's supposed to go on auto play yeah want want it oh okay all right um I'm a licensed speech pathologist and I'm also a licensed Cottage food operator um I have a small business called macrs on a mission and I have two children in the Robinsville schools Marissa who's a junior and Ava who is a fourth grader um and this is Leslie hi I'm Leslie Mario um the owner of four peas and a dog I have a masters in architecture which I like to use for for decorating my sugar cookies I have four children in the Robinsville School District um ranging from fifth grade and I have a freshman in college who actually is at Rowan University and she's majoring in special ed specifically for elementary education um you guys already said some of what we were going to say so we won't reiterate all of that but um I think um I just want to to highlight the kids that came tonight so we actually have um five of our workers and three of our partners so would you guys stand up and wave okay so I want to introduce you so all right very nice okay so when I say your name can you can you just raise your hand okay this is Rosie all right this is Luke Luke okay all right Evan all right my daughter Marissa my other daughter Ava okay and then um Sophia who's one of our partners um Rebecca Abby and Dolce um Dolce is actually um was very instrumental in making the treats that we brought tonight she is one of the kids in our kitchen program most of these kids here are in our Market program so that means that they they work at um farmers markets or craft shows and they work together they help each other ideally I like to just kind of stand off to the side and let them make it happen so um I love to see it it's fantastic so let me just pause and say the pictures were going to run on autoplay but since they're not you can just feel free to keep clicking so this is going to be showing you both our Market program and our kitchen program the kitchen program you'll see is when the kids are wearing um aprons um and they're inside the church that's in Hamilton Square and this church is amazing it's called The Bridge we we are not affiliated with the bridge um we were told about this kitchen by the transition coordinator from Robinsville High School who is Jennifer diden if you would raise your hand she is fantastic uh she connected us and okay that's a lovely picture but um anyway so yeah so she connected us with that kitchen and they're letting us use it completely for free it's it's just it's a lovely commercial kitchen in their basement um and they keep adding to it so like over the summer they put in um air conditioning because the kids were kind of starting to wilt by the end of U May in the spring semester so it's much better now that they have that in there um all right so I think um I'm just going to skip that and want to just talk about yeah Leslie's going to talk about some of the highlights from what we've been doing and what's coming up so last spring we had a great success with our teacher appreciation sale so this was instrumental with like just getting them out there getting their big goods sold to people uh for teachers like the PTA was just amazing and they helped facilitate that so we sold out of that we sold out all of our products and the nice thing was that um our kids that were working in the kitchen were able to deliver those goods to the teachers at Sharon and the teachers at the high school and then the other um kids part of the special needs program at the Pond Road Middle School were able to deliver to those teachers so it was really great um the other thing that we're excited about is that we are uh partnering with Aramark which is the food services company that works with the high school right now and they are going to purchase all the baked goods that the kids make in the kitchen and they're going to sell them at the high school so it's amazing and this is great because one of the concerns we had was we we're making all these amazing treats with them we're teaching them how to do all this but how do we sell those treats how do we get money back into max potential to purchase more ingredients and to help them you know bake more Goods so now that's all going back in and we are good to go with that uh one more thing that we are in the process and we're almost done we have one more step but we are getting our wholesalers license so that means that we can not only sell to Robinsville high school but we can also sell to any local bakeries that may want to take our stuff which is awesome so we just have to have uh one inspection I'm pretty sure they won't tell us when that it's a priz so we'll see what happens but yeah that's that's amazing and then um last but not least we do have our number one volunteer Peggy Dam who's going to say a few quick words so and while while she's doing that I hope it's not is this okay Peggy I'm gonna have them pass out while you're doing that yeah you're she's a seasoned teacher so yeah hi good evening for those of you who don't know me my name is Peggy Dam I finished my 38-year teaching career at Sharon School in 2018 as Educators family members and Community supporters we know how vital it is to encourage our students from their earliest years in the classroom well into adulthood um as we all are lifelong Learners Robinsville is known for being inclusive and for providing opportunities for all of our kids to grow and to thrive Max potential takes this a step further providing essential job training to those who might not receive it otherwise the pairing of neurotypical student mentors with neurodiverse students is a win-win for everyone involved demonstrating that every child is entitled to our time our attention and our respect I encourage each of you to join us in this effort and congratulations to Sarah and Leslie for creating a model where every student can Succeed in Business thank you all right why don't you guys bring some of those up to the board if uh you have some more so these um are vanilla flavored and they have the red and the black sprinkles on them for Robinsville High School um so like I said Dolce was one of our bakers that piped them out so I did some of them but she did a lot of them so she's fantastic she's amazing thank you and um Luke he is also one of the ones that helped us make them Luke's specialty is he bangs our pant so something with macarons you have to bang them out after you pipe them so that they flatten out and he that's his specialty and he loves doing it I wish I've been able to get some videos on there too but anyway it's fantastic to see um we are on Instagram if you guys ever want to see what we're up to you can follow us and um we post there every day that we are there we try to post oh okay well um well each of our businesses yes we um we also have Instagrams but we weren't really talking about our businesses tonight but if you really you wanted us to okay so all right well we each also have Instagram and uh you can follow us there and um that will we'll we tell where we're going to be so we we do go to a lot of events and we try to bring as many guys with us as we can um our model is that we we do hire the amount of kids that we would need or helpers for each event but then beyond that that's when they're paid for Max potential so we get as many of them there as we can so yeah and the partners are integral in this like they are just amazing and they work directly with them and it's so nice and it just like my daughter you know she's at school for it and she was able to come and help and just be a part of it and it was just a amazing and she can bring that with her to the table when she's in classes and and learning up there so yeah it's really been life changing so thank you for having us thank you so much we appreciate it if you don't mind we'd like to give um your students some leadership um medals and take a picture with all of us including our student Executives um so we for e e e um is it the gentlemen thank you and thank you Lord thank you very much so ju just a quick statement on Mission commitment Vision so Board of Education and our job as Educators is to help improve the student experience and this is as good as example as you could get of improving the student exper experience and that commitment by the board and the whole and all of our teachers and every educator and every volunteer um and so when you see um that reflected in our students that should give you reassurance that we're on on a really good path um and our actions should match that all right having said that this is going to be a hard act for you guys to follow but let's give it a shot um so so um as per New Jersey Department of Education regulations um each year the board of education is required to um give a a presentation or an overview of testing results uh for the District 60 within 60 days of um tests from last year being standardized tests being um released to uh parents so we're within that 60 uh day timeline tonight it's my pleasure to um to introduce Dr Steve wooki our assistant superintendent of schools and Miss Christy defasio our director of curriculum instruction and assessment we'll take you through a presentation of our squs this is a brief presentation and it's intended to be a brief um presentation however it's a very incredibly thorough presentation it'll be posted on our website tomorrow and you can access it and feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions um we ran this presentation through our education committee and um now we're going to do it for the public so if you could give your attention steveen Christie it's all yours thanks first I'd like to thank Dr Gorman for setting up this uh order of events tonight so that Christie and I get to present after the most beautiful thing that I've seen all week so thank you now for the riveting test scores thanks Dr Gorman um no first just a reminder that this is a presentation for the board we don't take questions from the audience I just want to make sure I'm looking at the audience but it's a presentation to the board so we don't take questions from the audience and before we start I'm really glad if they could all if my three new members of our curriculum team can stand up these are uh staff members that we were able to bring over this summer uh I'd like to introduce first uh Dave Fusco he is uh in charge of our math department Megan tenery she is in charge of ela and Stacy camaran who's in charge of our K5 and I just want to thank them for all their hard work I mean they came in D one and they have been on you cruising from day one and um we're going to see some really great changes in the district because of these people their their level of knowledge is unbelievable and um you know the way that they work with Christie is just really admirable um you could go back into that back room and in and the uh the energy is contagious so thank you guys thank you and welcome to the district and Stacy welcome to your new position in the district right okay so the first set that we are going to show is NJ GPA results now for those of you that don't know what NJ GPA the NJ GPA is administered to all 11th graders it is New Jersey's version of the graduation assessment so uh all all um students in grade 11 throughout the state have to take this exam um they have another opportunity in grade 12 if they don't pass that and we'll talk about that in a second um it does measure Ela and Mathematics um graduation readiness this is separate for each test so you have to get a 725 on Ela and a 725 in math it is possible to pass both it is possible to fail both it is possible to also pass one and fail one uh the ELA component is aligned to all grade 10 standards so by taking 11th grade all students should be uh prepared for it and Mathematics is algebra and geometry which all students have to take in high school so students that do not meet the minimum requirement 725 do have other ways of graduation and I just want to touch on those briefly first they can retake it so um we do offer a retake early in the fall that's already happened so for those students that aren't uh don't have a passing score they're they're notified of it in August and then we provide them a second chance to take the test if not there's other tests students can take you see it right there there's the uh the act the acup plure PSAT and sat there's also cut off scores for those so once again if you need to take both areas you can if you need to take one you can and then if you still are having uh difficulty passing the test there is a portfolio appeal which I'll talk about at the end we had 200 yes just so if if a student already took the other tests and they provided those scores and they had the appropriate cut off then they would just submit that in place of taking it again absolutely correct okay which is why we have all of our 10th graders now take PSAT as well thanks to Lor's efforts in that um so we had 247 kids take both tests uh you could see unbelievable 95% of our kids passed Ela 83% passed in math both of these scores are up from last year you can see in we had uh 1.6% growth in ela which doesn't seem like a lot but when you're passing nine out of 10 kids there's not that much area to grow and in math we had uh a five % growth which is above what would be the state expectation um so you can see we're we're really doing a really nice job of preparing our kids for graduation you can see against the state um you can see that this is this year right here so we are 133% higher than the state average in ela and 23% higher in math so kudos to the high school we're doing once again this is evidence that we're doing a great job of preparing our kids in all of our presentations we always have to break it down down by uh if there are specific um uh groups that are identified if the group has more than 20 students in it taking a test we have to point those out today so here this is the first set that I'm going to talk about all students male female students with disabilities and 504 students you can see once again when we're over here in 2004 we're comparing our male and females in ela very close percentages all 100% of our 505 four students were able to pass the exam which is great and 68% of our special education students were able to pass the exam as well which is an unbelievable stat um in in comparison to what we would be looking at on the state averages mathematics Nick I can't go back best I can so you see our mathematics you see the same thing we're passing at 83% everybody 84% uh male 83% female so it's almost exactly that's what you want to see that there's not one group that is lacking uh we are special education students and 504 students had a little bit more difficulty in this particular area Ela and math need it in there they work on the individual skills that are identified on the individualized student report so the teachers the parents will get a report it'll break down the standards it will tell them what standards are doing well which ones they they're struggling on at that point that class they'll work with the individual student on the on what they're struggling on um on an independent level it's not like the whole class is sitting through the same lesson we're working on that with that child with the uh intent of having them pass the exam students then have the chance to retake it and they could take and the PSATs in the fall all special education students are required to take to sit for the exam as a student but it may be noted in their IEP that they wave the graduation requirement that would be a determination with the families and the and the child study team team but all students do have to have the attempt to take it did I go for it not good student portfolio so if we get to the point where we've uh we've taken the test twice we've taken the PSAT um we've taken some of the other exams and they can't they're still not eligible to graduate there is a student portfolio that is provided to for high school students BAS basically here you'll see that if they're an Ela they will create grade level reading passages and grade level writing passages in those math lab and and that Ela lab class there's rubrics that are de designed by the state the teachers are well informed of these rubrics we we submit our own graded materials to the state the state then says if they agree with our grading system and if so a student can then use that as a graduation requirement um in mathematics same thing where they either have to express mathematical reasoning or modeling and um the same thing there's a rubric structure we graded in-house we set this whole portfolio to the state of department and then they let us know uh the good news here is that only 1% of our students need to get to the portfolio right so we're looking at like two kids so we're doing a really great job out of 247 kids kudos to Mrs Avery in the high school I mean I couldn't be happier with these scores board questions next next presentation the second presentation is our njsla scores uh everybody should know by this point that this is the springtime test that all third through n9th graders take um in ela and math um then there's also in science all fifth graders eth graders and 11th graders take this test as well um these are going to be our summary of reports for those exams um just a disclaimer if there is a if there's a number missing that means we do not have an N number with at least 10 students in it so to keep it somewhat um private where we don't report that out and my percentages are not going to equal to 100 all the time because of rounding one other thing I want to thank linkit for their partnership in Pro in providing this uh work with us as you know Christy and I mostly chrisy as usual has done presenting on behalf of linkit we did a wonderful job she did a wonderful job I stood there and took credit and we um we have a great partnership with lincol Lincoln's presentation is 72 slides I am not going to give you 72 slides but we put it in an dependency and we're going to put that out for the public to see so that you could see the last three years of data and you could do any of your own data analysis that you would like nothing here is uh for our eyes only sorry ni all right so first our district analysis so this is just our scores right this is our scores up just here they are this is going to be our Baseline what I want you to remember levels four and five are considering passing level four is uh achieving and level five is super achieving um level three is you're getting close level two is there's some work to do and level one is that you might be two grade levels behind Okay so that's what is going to be our our levels um we so when I'm saying levels four and five we're putting together what would be considered achieving and like super achieving so that we are um on the same page that's what we're considering passing one of the great things I will say about this without any kind of comparison to any other uh data is that if you look at our level one scores that means two levels behind you could see out of all grades only 6% of our students and thousands of kids take this exam um you can see only 6% of our students are falling two levels below right so that Corp encompasses all students specialed students General ed students um students that are in our mtss program um any of our MLS All so out of all of our students you could see and when we get to the high school right that's where the rubbers meet in the road we're getting kids ready to graduate go to college only 1% of our students are really in that lowest level so that is a really great stat just into itself now one of the things that we work really hard on and we've worked on really hard for the last two years is our mtss program through linkit helping us with our students that are need the most support before they get to special education where they get a whole another level of extra support thank you all right thank you Dr R so linkit does provide a platform intervention manager where we H where we hold all of of our checklist we're currently working on that in the curriculum department for multi-tiered support system um where we're really able to dive down deep into this data and set targets for our students working with teachers and aligning our curriculum to make sure that we're providing the supports we need um to get students at the General Ed placement level um and further support them within their programming um we are working diligently with our data instructional coaches as well too um to make sure that this is happening as a te to support you'll he'll hear quite a bit which would be taking place within the classroom so that's something we're really trying to shift to and focus on in the district right now our small group interventions and we're trying as much as possible to house that in the gened classroom setting so students receive that level of instruction from their classroom teachers instead of being pulled out and receiving different levels of programming um which a lot of research lends itself to that kids perform himer when they're in their classroom and we're hitting the supports from their gened teacher question so um quick question here so if I read this properly uh what I'm seeing here is let's just hypothetically say grade three right this was conducted in Spring March April time frame uh May May so we conducted this for third graders in May of 2024 and 26% were meeting expectations below expectations approaching approaching expectations for a third grader in may now given the fact that at this point let's just use that as an example they're not going to be a fourth grader the fact that give or take I'm going to round up at this point 30% of that population is not even approached the third grade standard now they're going to go to the fourth grade how are you going to get them back on track in fourth grade to meet the third grade standard and on top of that ensuring that they're able to keep up with the fourth grade expectation because if I look at the again and and level three and four just question on that because that intervention by the time they're leaving they're gone in June a is not going to happen and B it's at the fourth grade level now I'm glad you asked that because what we see historically is that our third grade scores are always very low there's a couple reasons first year they taking the test it's all computer-based test that they're taking it on and we we're just in a onetoone system and and if you hang on two slides you'll see what happened to our third graders that were in the same boat one they became fourth graders and the amount of growth that they had in the those programs so um because at that point she's going to talk about the new magnetic reading program that we put in place at the lower levels and how it looks at kids on an individ like it breaks down the kids on the individual levels and starts to look at the kids from that specificity of they they are in approaching what are they approaching on and how can we help them on their individual areas and so what I would point to is that you start to see every year how you see when when we're we're getting this down to like 10% here at the high school we're doing a great job of moving those kids who in third grade were struggling to not yeah but question here is again if you look at just seventh graders and eighth graders yes you're still at the high 30% that means that one out of every three students is barely Meeting those expectations that's cor programing so we'll get to that too about the lack of ela programming at the middle school I will address both of them but if I haven't by the end ask me again okay so that's why we need context right so here's context of US versus the state so one of the things you see is that us passing uh and everywhere like this is where we should be clapping right now that it's all green that we are above the state in every in every area and you can see that the state level Jay is uh is also kind of in is consistent with our lower level which could be a number of reasons the the you know the the validity of that those scores uh the rigor that was in that third grade score and you could see that the state level is significantly lower in percentages within the third grade scores which is probably would correlate to why our third grade scores are are the lowest in our school district as well right because you can see here this is the state scores that's the lowest passing percentages for the state um but this is just awesome you could see here in ela in fifth grade we're beating the state by 20% in sixth grade by 23% um so I mean we're just you know one out of every four kids is doing a better job here than it is in other in other schools uh so that's that's that's a great piece of data okay so this is looking at the same kids right right so when we start looking at uh oh no this is this different kids so how did we do with in just third grade from one year to third grade to the next year so these are not the kids that raised up it's just looking at programming within that year so you can see we stayed really consistent with our uh with our Ela scores in here and in the middle school we had a little bit of a lower score just different kids so it's sixth grade from one year to sixth grade to the other the next slide will show the kids that were from sixth grade to one year to seventh grade to the other one of the things I will point out is that in the last two years all of these scores had been dipping right so that we were not we were not seeing it level off and the way that we are now but then when we start to look at the actual growth this is what I was talking about before our our third to Fourth Graders grew by 15% that's five times the expected growth uh that you would see in the state so most times the state would look for 3% growth of students we are having 15% growth can we talk about magnetic reading now yes so as you know last year was our first year with the new Ela program from curriculum Associates aligned to our I diagnostic assessment um we're working with Magnetic reading and ready reading all from curriculum Associates so last year was our first year this is our second year with the program our teachers are doing an absolutely fantastic job with it uh I have to say the training that's being launched at the elementary school as well as into fifth grade at Pond Road Middle School has been incredible um all teachers are Full Speed Ahead um moving forward with the curriculum as you can see as Dr wisuki stated about grades six seven and eight we are going to work with them this year and next year to ensure that they have the resources they need moving forward um they did not have the same opportunity um we will be working with them through the funding opportunities that we have this year to ensure that they have the resources they need to move forward we started K5 and now we'll be moving into 68 and 912 great so this really does demonstrate when we were had our resources and the time to to present our program we're looking at 5% growth and 8% growth last year in those areas that are you know five times and you know double the amount of expected growth and I would expect that we would start to see this in pond as well with they they're getting that same level of support with um with the materials that we're looking for can I interrupt can I interrupt you so I know everyone's looking at us and and many of us on the board here have heard this presentation so this is why we don't have 27 questions we actually already asked probably 50 our meeting with no not 50 we did great job yeah I would try to keep it contained but there definitely like 20 something on just me um but one of the questions we had and one of the questions you might be thinking back to history is when we when we heard you say I ready one of the things you were really tracking with data over time was the non-fiction component and and you incre am I stealing your SL no um and they're increasing the rigor on non-fiction programming specifically because they saw that in the data for a majority of kids from third grade through sixth grade that that was really struggling when I asked this specific question of are you seeing an increase in nonfiction data the answer is yes like that's the specific data points we we are asking questions on I know you're not seeing us ask them here but we H have been asking those questions yeah and I I just want to thank you for pointing that out because remember this is a single subset of data but as Christy was saying earlier we now have data coaches because we have a plethora of data that we're utilizing whether it be IR ready or if we're using link it or if we're using re 180 whatever it is we've started bringing programs in that are going to give us data Rich conversations where it's beyond just one right and sometimes districts fall into the Trap of looking at just this SC and not looking at the expected growth or being able to track it throughout the year not only are we tracking it we have how many data coaches now in throughout the District 20 20 25 that are working with their individual grad levels or their individual subset of of of curriculum to to look at these exact pieces that we're talking about looking at subject strands uh to see where are we where do we need support so quick question so if I'm doing a comparison so you're comparing let's just H I'm just randomly pick seventh grade over here yeah so the seventh grader that was tested in 2024 who between levels four and five 58% % now that same seventh grader who was a sixth grader last year if I'm following the methodology of it correctly that right at levels four and five we're at 62% is that an accurate statement yes okay what about levels three and levels two that's right so that's why there's 72 pieces of data and if I went through all of that tonight uh it the presentation would be so I think it would be good for you to share that with the board because you have that that you have in the presentation in the presentation three years of data you can go back and look at because you could go one to two two to three three to four link it does all of that for you and you bring up a great Point Jay because you know why right here right here is where we live and that's why we have Avid that's why we have Avid at the middle school that's why we have uh programs where they're going to have um small group instruction because right here is where the rubber meets the road between passing and not passing and you could have a kid that misses by a question one year and makes it by a question or vice versa that's why you're going to start to see some of those this small like here these are small small changes right those small fluctuations it could be a question or two for the child but we're able to now focus on kids on level three who might have missed by a couple questions find out what that subset of skills that they're missing and really focus on that in small group I'm so glad you brought that part Up Down by standards and skill you got to talk to sorry sorry getting better at that um so link it the beauty behind link it as well too the extensive reports that they offer can break this data now down by skills and standards that the focus of the data instructional coaches is to get them to the point where they're so fluent in data that they're having these ongoing conversations in those data meetings um we just came off of data meetings here at Pond Road Middle School today our first launch of it and we were just talking about the platforms and the skill sets and what we're looking forward to doing with our teaching staff um some of them are already diving Full Speed Ahead into it um which we're excited about that a lot of our teachers are taking the lead on this without even having the training just excited to have that data at their fingertips um so we'll have a lot more to present on and a lot more focus groups can I jump on that question sorry no go ahead go ahead you mentioned the instructional coaches can you just I I if I'm in the audience I'm thinking I heard you say that we have 20 instructional coaches can you talk a little bit about who those people yes I will clarify that pleas clarify they are teachers I just want to be clear we don't have 25 additional administrators although that would be amazing to have an army of Administrators um I do have my fabulous group back there um but we do they are 25 teachers that are taking the lead in The District it was always a funded position for instructional coaches but now we shifted that role to tailor towards data being front and center with it um we're taking a lead from a self-contained model we have Representatives at each building following our self-contained programming as well as mtss data leads which is supporting our inrs which is really that tiered supports um as well as either Department level or grade level data instructional coaches that will be working through this with us um Mr Fusco led a presentation grade 6 12 training the coaches and going through uh models of coming through formative and summative assessments so it's an exciting opportunity but again it's our teaching staff I just need to be very clear about that um who will be executing this uh during PLC time or after school during department meeting time so was Zero impact to the budget zero zero j i I misspoke when I set this up I set it up so it reads this way just for ease all right so I just Dro these scores down from that the following year so it does read horizontally okay so real quick real quick and so I understand you know this affects the the the changes were for elementary so we're seeing the the big bumps for you know the fourth and fifth graders I understand the red we want to see all greens here but the red has not been tackled yet that's at the that's at the middle school right and we're talking well when I talk when and that's kind of where I'm going Steve is you probably may see where I'm going I'm trying to understand what is significant or not when I look at a negative 1% is it is it significant not you may be getting there and if you are I'll stop no Christy said I wasn't allowed to speak statistically significance because it pours everybody to that but it would not be found to be statistically significant it would be within one standard you have throw something at me later right I but that that that's kind of where I'm going right because because when people see red right I want to understand what the red means and when I see small percentages like 1% it's really error potentially right maybe kids had bad days absolutely right and what because we all have bad days so what what becomes students having a bad day taking that test versus being significant and saying oh we have a problem yeah and that's why I saying before up here like the state growth is like 3% and when you see 15% that's statistically sign ific right you're you're five times above what the expected growth would be so that that's really where it would I would expect to see it there um so that that's a great Point thank you all right so here's just our raw math scores uh once again it's even when we get to the level one nobody's in double digits which is really great to see in fact I want to point out here are Algebra 1 kids at Pond 100% passing our Algebra 2 kids at Pond 100% passing and our geometry students which is a high school graduation requirement 100% that's where we clap right like Yay 100% like where do you get 100% right like and so I think what that points out at Pond is that we we've worked really hard to try to identify students that are going to be successful in the program and I think our metrics speak to that right if we were if we had only 60% passing at p I would question are we do we have the right kids in the program right but when you are having kids that have this level of success you know that you're doing a good job and and kudos to the teachers as well wait just I'm sorry a clarifying question so is if if we have algebra at the high school algebra 1 being 47% at the high school so assuming that when they were in prms they did they not um I guess they didn't get access to because I see it's it's lower at the high school if they took Algebra 1 so are we is the right level of support happening at the middle school so that when they do get to the high school it typical right so the typical placement would have the student taking algebra in ninth grade right and so uh the students that are taking Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 at Pond are in the advanced track um and so typically this is would be the uh the track that we would see for a typical student that's taking pre-algebra in 8th grade and then algebra in 9th grade this is why we've thrown out there that in the in the next few years we really want to look at being able to bring as many students into pond having algebra as possible um just because the setup is different right the the the schedule is different they have double the amount of time at Pond to do because they have math every day versus an AB block and so we've had a lot of conversations about how do we have more kids take algebra when they will have double the amount of time to to take it and then that'll also open up more opportunities for students to take higher level courses at the high school because algebra would have been taken care of there will always be students that will be taking algebra in high school right but with the more students that we can provide the opportunity at Pond where they have double the amount of time I think it makes a lot of sense once again against the state if we were clapping type people this is what we would clap at because we see all green which we said we would like to see and once again you see us versus the state can you look at these numbers 20% 15% 20 28% 34% 29% above the state average I mean that is doing some some heavy lifting uh you know throughout our district so congratulations these scores here have asri because the state doesn't delineate whether a student is taking in a middle school or high school this is their passing level right for all algebra 40% across the state so they're not delineating whe When you're taking it they're just giving you whenever a child takes it 40% of them are passing right so in that instance we're 60% higher so yeah well when you have the sorry if if we normalize it we're still doing great as well right because you're adding 100 to anything you're going to be doing great so not to be Draconian over here I mean I'm gonna you know uh put a a question mark here if 40% give or take right of our eighth graders are barely achieving eighth grade m is that something to be clapping about forget the state at this point I'm just asking you as Educators I would uh hold off until we see if there was any growth between the eth graders between their seventh grade and eighth grade year but here's the other piece the numbers get skewed when you start to look from year to year of growth because kids are pulled out so the same group that are taking in six grade grade less kids are taking the seventh grade test together because some now are taking algebra right so if you're in seventh grade and you're taking algebra you don't take the seventh grade test you take the algebra test if you're in eighth grade you're taking algebra you don't take the algebra test you take I mean if you're an algebra you take the algebra test you don't take eighth grade so each year in this area from sixth grade from really seventh grade and on you you are removing students from that n number because they're not because they're not taking that test anymore they're moving over to the algebra or the pre-algebra exam um but e8th grade as you were here last year at the time and I know you were that you know that that was also our weakest area and we've haven't ever hidden the fact that eth grade is where we need to support that eth grade track is where we need to support our our students I it's across the state all right and then here's our kids in their growth areas individually so our kids that are now in sixth grade who were in fifth grade last year anybody know any of those almost 20% growth of just those kids I mean that is an unbelievable unbelievable stat right there right our eighth grade kids that were in seventh grade to e8th grade that that were just taking the seventh grade test and then then took the eighth grade test those kids that we were talking about had 133% growth so once again that's at like 5% what we would expect to see the rate of of the rest of the district so while we know that it's one of our weakest areas it's still outpacing the rest of the state by by a great number okay Science grades five eight and 11 that's the only grades that take it so it's very hard for us to compare from one grade to the next because they're not the same kids you'd have to wait three years to get kind of the same kids again what you will see is that these are our levels which is scary until you put it in context of what's happening at the state level our 50% of passing in fifth grade is 23% higher than the rest of the state Mr Fusco and I and M deasio attended a meeting last week at NJ at yes why don't you say it you're saying it better TCNJ no but tell them what the the about the presentation we met with the the state science department yes so we did meet about assessments um it was a very uh Dynamic group of Educators I will say um and as we were in there I mean we it was a constant back and forth of science curriculum um and instruction that's taking place across the state level um and really trying to raise the bar but it really comes from a place of programs and that's something that we're going to be working on moving forward uh we secured e well we're securing Ela we're in place with math right now and we're moving forward with our science uh programming in the near future right so this is what's scary across across the whole state only 25% of the students passed so I guess the the question I have right is the state standards of testing increased or has that changed and has the Statewide curriculum of teaching not been able to keep up with the testing I mean those are the questions that we talked about at at the presentation the kind of why is this happening right because tonight we're sitting here 21% higher but there's grade there's schools that are at zero right across the board every elementary school every Elementary School in in the nation struggles with time for science when you're hitting every single subject with one teacher you're always going to hit the core subjects more so Ela and math from an elementary standpoint so the fact that we're still functioning at this level by fifth grade is pretty amazing um sixth 7th and eth we have to do program work and curriculum work behind that um so we're excited to see I I'm sure we're going to have a lot of potential moving forward yeah it's hard to put it into context when scores are that low across the board right just piggybacking on that particular question right I think you know this is great when we actually always compare to the state but you know with State doing so low I'm bit confused as to what should be our Benchmark is there another Benchmark that we should actually set from a Target perspective because anytime you actually kind of compare to the state and if the state is not doing good we always look better right so I'm I'm bit like you know confused around you know is that CU for us to actually understand whether we're doing good or not you know what I mean so I'm glad you asked that question um if you remember back last year I had the fancy chart that had that we had the heat map where it was like us versus every school district in the county and it was like green and red and we don't have access to people scores and until later on in the spring but so I can't create the heat M yet to do that against like the county to see how we're doing but that's what what I would do remember I last year we looked at the county and then we looked at the 18 school districts that are considered like us where it would be a K12 school district with an eye level for social economics and between 1800 and 30 3500 students and we identified those 17 school districts uh of which tenly was very high right and so um that those are some of the like comparisons I like to do I just don't have access to that data yet okay I think I see Jay thinking we do have a lot of work to do with science we're going to be fully transparent about that yeah I think it's not just science right because if you go back to your state math Spate State Ela I know we are higher than the state but even at the levels of pre-algebra e grade seventh grade some of the numbers uh and I'm not sure if we compare this at a I guess maybe a sister state or a national level because again as these kids are preparing to go to higher education they're going to be compared against other students from other parts of the United States competing for those same schools that they're going to be competing with so I understand that hey you know what if the bar is at 50 and we're doing 60 but the bar is still 50 where the bar may be 80 and some of the part of the of the the country we're still below the bar so I guess the question is do we need to look at that bar and do we need to start looking at hey I understand that the state may be at a below but we need to aim higher and Achieve higher two things one we can't compare to other states because this is the a New Jersey test to New Jersey standards so nobody else in this in the country takes a a test like this but we do all take SATs and we just got a presentation from our high school about how we are out performing the rest of the country in our AP scores which is coming to the Ed policy meeting soon with that being said too Jay to your point with math this is why the link it Benchmark assessment is a great predictor of how we're going to perform on njsla WE forecasted this to come which is why it there was a need for a change in our math placement we had students that were sitting in seats that were not a proper placement for them so this is why we had a rechange and refocus that math placement process knowing that this was coming um and holding ourselves to a higher standard but yeah I will be able to do all those comparisons like I was talking about with within the state later in the spring I think this this is it yeah that's the last slide we don't have that I'm looking at these numbers and I'm thinking of when I'm when I'm looking at I ready non-fiction specifically right and I'm looking at your fifth grade testing our fifth grade testing here and it's at 6% higher when we're comparing I'm assuming that and tell me if I'm wrong that non-fiction instruction has improved this score because when you're reading non-fiction science this this is the work that you're in right now what I look at for eighth grade here and what I'm I'm curious about is when when do we expect and I know it's like a prediction but when do we expect based on the linkit data that this number goes up is it a year is it two years is it with curriculum change like what what's the I know I know it was Ela last year it's math this year and it's in the future science and I I appreciate that we've had a long run of not updating our science I will say we were just coming through so we are going live with Atlas our curriculum platform um this coming December where the community will have full access to our curriculum uh through just our website so we are working towards that but with that being said as we're filtering through that we have a lot of updates to make to our science curriculum we have not had the resources the Staffing to really invest in that I think our teachers are doing a fabulous job for what they have but we definitely need to up our game when it comes to science and I think really our community is demanding that um having a very strong stem Community we hear that uh we hear our students they come forward especially at the high school level with the level of programming that they're asking for and just what they're doing on their own time there's a definite need for it in the community so we're trying to facilitate that process moving forward uh fixing our Ela and our math upgrading that and then our next move is definitely moving on to science right and and as far as a time frame you know when you develop a strategic plan it's like a three to five year strategic plan I would think anytime you're implementing a curriculum it's going to take that you're going to need professional development for at least the first two to three years you're going to have to have a plan on how you're going to give professional development to new new staff that come on and so um uh you know I would expect a three to five year just so I could point out the rest of the presentation if you want it will be up there here's all of our demographic information that is up up to date so you'll be able to look at that and then starting right here where it says appendix all 72 slides are available to you but I did break it down by demographics to make it easier for people to review uh in that area as well Christine and Steve thank you very very much thank you both so I'll give you my three cents uh on this one um one observations um the enemy of perfection is done so it's really important that we that these conversation and this Intimacy in data is the right type of work number two there are so many variables that impact schools it's not a causal relationship so you can't say for sure that the reason we're doing this is because of this so we're never going to get Perfection when we're talking about human beings and individual especially children that have different maturity levels that come to their epiphanies in life and their tipping points at different ages because they're raised from different families the fact that the conversation is so passionate and on the table as we have it is a really positive sign also the history of the district has not had strong curricular programs that the board has committed to so normal implementation comes with implementation dips implementation to Fidelity what type of support people come and go and so what is the turnover and the impact that way the really talking point you want to have here is that there is conversation here using data and drilling down to make decisions on moving forward and what I feel is an intimacy to each student um in in in the process um I couldn't be prouder and I take no credit for having great people around me but that's what you really need Steve uh mentioned the tenly students has very little to do with the adults um and and and you could you could extrapolate that to any school in America what your talking point is identify areas support the areas to improve and continue to promote this inquisitive discussion this this Rich dialogue and and and move and this is the culture that you want in your school this is the type of work you want in your school and because the um culture is committed to that because the families and the students want strong educational programs because we're not dealing with discipline problems every day and reacting to crisis every day we're allowed to do this work you could do a lot in a in a small time with the right supports um so kudos to everyone and and just the fact that we're engaging in this level of dialogue is a really positive sign for the district so thank you again um Stephen Christie um I know they could throw anything at you and and and we'd have an answer it might not be the right answer but it we'd have an answer and then we would continue that work thank you jorene thank you Lori thank you everybody David um Stacy and Megan um for continuing to be being passionate about this work because this is the right work I will tell you that um okay let me finish up um on my report real quick uh we've had a fantastic month with exciting activities at our school so i' I've mentioned last month um that the principles Now give me uh regular reports on some of the highlights and activities going on in the district um I have had to uh sort of cross check it with the kids because they're they're taking they're reporting out on a lot of it so that is good um let me just give you another minute worth of some news going on in our schools starting with Pond Middle School um they've had a fantastic month filled with exciting activities as Peter mentioned in his uh president's report in conjunction with the student of the month initiative we surprised students in their classrooms recognizing those who have shown flexibility these students were awarded certificates gift cards be treated as special breakfast in November um moving on to the high school we're also seeing some key initiative and projects take flight stfy as you know it's a top priority for the district uh we have a really big threat assessment training scheduled next tomorrow actually to enhance our preparedness um our artificial intelligence policy committee um is is getting together and will be meeting for the first time at the high school um we explore the role of AI in education um that is something that is rar current and uh we are working with our stakeholders teachers administrators to sort of Define our path with our artificial intelligence for my own um point on that is that um we have an obligation to bring kids along with societal changes and we have to embrace and find the right spot and complement it while holding um people accountable U on using it the right way um another exciting development is the launch of the Seal of by Literacy for the deal for the district program um Megan is working with our our high school teams and will be coming to uh our next education committee meeting to speak on our movement I met with uh um two kids today and uh one of them um shared that he speaks three languages fluently and I'm like have you talked to Mrs tener yet um and so we're going to set that up for you um I was excited to to deliver the keynote speech for our newest uh National Honor Society members the inductees on Tuesday night in between board uh committees uh there were close to 80 students that were honored and their for their commitment in academic Excellence leadership community service um and I'm really proud that they were recognized in that capacity um and lastly at Sharon Elementary School we've made strides in connecting with families and engaging students in new ways all of our staff have been trained in parents Square platform um which will be used for the fall party signups and conferences streamlining communication between teachers and parents um these initiatives and celebrations across all of our schools demonstrate our continued commitment to fer an environment of respect safety and academic growth um we knew this was going to be a long one tonight so we're here for and we're here to to be in it so we're here all night and we don't care um thank you Mr President um this concludes my superintendent report for the week for the month thank you Dr Gorman uh Nick the board secretary business administrator's report all right thank you and thank you for the kind words about the presentation for school boards uh conferences next week I'd like to say thank you to Mr Patrick Carri of lenx law uh he introduced me to a couple of gentlemen a couple lawyers and I've been invited to uh present with them on the school funding formula um many districts uh uh I've been calling us asking how we passed the budget uh the public question um it was uh incredible what our our Township voters had done in supporting the school district but there's at least 100 other school districts like us and U they're calling so we're we'll be presenting on that and how how we did it and how they can try to emulate it as well um so every month we're doing about 10 minutes presentation I have 10 slides to show you on budget so we prepare for it uh in upcoming March and April uh this month we'll be doing revenues next month we'll be doing the asssa that is the application for state school aid that's where we tell you and show you the trends of our student growth or decline uh class sizes and so forth um and uh and the in the next couple months after that we'll be doing uh expenses so uh a couple months of an expenses and showing you what the cost of certain items are um so we understand a left and right la limit of what is allowed to be touched what his discussion would be and so forth so uh there's a lot of things on here uh I can we're going to talk about historical revenues what we can do to increase that we try to have we have to have a balanced budget so if you want to spend more money sometimes you increase your revenues and the risks you take with that we talked about that last month with liabilities um we do uh many things here U then we're going to show some other things that can be done many of which were on the Strategic plan um to do all of these uh would be a Monumental effort um even though we do many things if you could do every one of these things you would be um probably the best in the state I mean there's it's hands down there's a lot of stuff on here and we'll go through that um so local local tax levy uh you know it's 2% which is 77% of the operating budget so really if you take 2% of 77 you're about 1 and a half% that's really how much we have to increase our operating budget um we've take that's the max 2% you also have Max Capacity healthc care wasn't really taken in the past we have started to take it basically if you if healthc care goes above a certain percentage um you're allowed to claw some of that money back and go above 2% so last year we took uh 267,000 when I say took we increased the tax levy in addition to that Student Activity fees it's gone from 55,000 to an estimated 175 now um before that is for clubs and sports across the the district um but some of you may remember uh before S2 funding came um it was much higher so it was cut in half and then we started raising it back again uh interest and Aid um interest we never really booked it interest interest rates were very low we found ways to invest the money on on an illegal manner with um uh in for short-term Investments we're making about $200,000 on that in addition uh to that and we budget for that so as interest rates fall that that is a liability we talked about before extraordinary Aid once again didn't really budget it budgeted a small amount and now we're pulling the full 867,000 uh for that um as that goes we've talked about that before if the numbers change um you pull that back now why is it that it was zero and then now we're putting more into it well we're trying to have a tighter budget in the past if it was extra money at the end of the year it would just roll to the following year or get put into reserves here we are using it to maintain our staffing levels uh fund balance uh it's been about 1.2 we've grown it to about 1.7 so when I say grown that fund balance we take that for the next year's budget right that's a hole that we're plugging in to get that that should be going to zero it's too hard to do that other than increasing taxes I'd like to keep it around 1.4 million why 1.4 it's 2% of your total budget around 70 million that's the goal 2% and it's mandated by the state uh new Revenue sources we launched semi uh it's a federal program we get around 33,000 a year the national school lunch program about $100,000 a year on that um and we started billing for State responsible homeless wasn't done before we bill it now we're estimating 84,000 so um the state's responsible you're allowed to build them for that uh rentals and preschools facilities rentals uh grown from 200,000 pre-co numbers to over 350,000 as of last year uh advertising Reynolds about 20,000 this was started by uh Matt delesio athletic director um and we're continuing to run that program and you'll see advertisements on an app on the scoreboards and other areas preschool Aid three and four year olds uh dramatic increase from 55,000 to almost 3 million for this year why 55,000 that's what we were charging parents uh for that part-time preschool program and it's grown to three million and I expect that to continue growing for next year grant opportunities as we cross uh to a higher percentage as we cross 10% on free and reduced that would open us up for more opportunities in the future same with title one uh uh three and four funding as well as two uh dual enrollment um there is a grand opportunity um looking at piloting that see what it is and taking a look at that for a long term and that's for dual enrollment as well so we are in discussion about uh putting in for that competitive Grant doesn't mean you're going to get it it is a competitive Grant um and a shared grant writer so the township has offered to to share a grant writer that they have already uh they've already submitted some items um such as a radio distribute an tennis system to help with the Police radios uh for us uh I hope we win that and uh that would be a great addition to our school districts and increasing our safety as well uh County Parks and bonding opportunities so uh the county parks you know um this is an older program um but they would chip in about a half a million for a uh for a grant the trick is that they have to own the land so if we do something with them we might have to sell our land to the township for a dollar and they would do that so it would be a shared agreement uh and a shared service with them so those are some items uh there's also bonding options uh if you have the money uh and you have a way to show it you are allowed to bond and a new law coming out um and we'll see more about that without actually going to referendum but it's a very unique method for that as well as going out full full referendum when the bond U most of our bonds fall off in about four or five years from now um and as well as teaming up the township for them to bond on our behalf um which could be a potential uh an athletic bubble or a pavilion right um this could be a major profitable Venture um this is a picture of Tom Rivers we send our children there to compete uh one year multiple year a couple years ago pulled up what they rent that facility just for indoor track and they make about $400,000 just on indoor track from other schools not other events so that is an opportunity obviously you would have to build it right you know um you could bond it you can use facility Ren's money for it uh and the space for it um I'm thinking half a million to a million in a year in profit just from that facility alone not to mention access to the whole community and to our students um we have some other potentials that came strategic plan uh I'd like to have Dr Gorman talk about this this is more instructional based yeah so um I'm on okay there you go all right so um as as I entered the district um I was taking a look at the long range strategic plan um and through my experi is I know that in this day and age there's not unlimited funding in public schools so um schools are getting creative in creating programs and bringing in students from other districts and offering it to students within the district on Specialized programming if Nick if you go to the next slide um here are just some of the programming that I've been involved with um in in other districts where we created uh three high schools of Choice created a Performing Arts Academy created a steam Academy um there is a strong emphasis on robotics here uh the international Balor program I was able to launch in a comprehensive High School um there is a big push and interest in students on um CTE and Career and Technical education programs and so when we use the words College and Career Readiness you could now use it's it's always been college career or career and col College it's the skill set that we're teaching uh kids but kids are definitely taking different paths than a more traditional program that a lot of us have grown grown up in the dual enroll the dual enrollment programs with different universities um that grant that just came out to us that um the cni team are really like excited about digging into has a very quick turnaround time um but they are looking for Innovative dual enrollment programs with getting creative with reaching out to universities and giving kids and parents the opportunity to get get credit and save cut down on the costs of college expenses by uh maximizing what they could do in schools um the engineering programs here this this town is ripe for engineering programs um such as um Project Lead the Way which has a medical biomed computer and an engineering um concept so this was all part of the Strategic plan when I got here and we're just tipping uh touching the iceberg on here but this is a definite has potential for future revenue for the district and getting creative and out of the box in the past you would say all right let's a lot money in our budget for these programs these programs just do not we do not have the money um to set aside monies for this so the way schools do it is they charge tuition um for specialized programs that they can create in their school so that is a a definite um venue for Creative revenue for the district moving forward um I've complimented Nick and his team uh repeatedly on being um out of the boox thinkers and Innovative and um when people talk to me about traditional teaching and traditional schooling um the implication is that traditional is good um but for me traditional means does not match where we are in society and usually means we're about 50 years behind Society in schools and so I don't like using that word when it's used um it's not complimentary in my opinion even though some there's always a blend um when we talk about you know technology and traditional learning um but we do need to move past that and not operate the same old and um Nick and this District are not operating on the premise of same old and just waiting for it to fall um they are getting very creative in their thinking Nick do you want to keep on going yes just to just to finish up on that I mean there's a neighboring one neighboring School District does have a program something like this for um and they only accept three children per grade and they make almost a quarter million right uh you start small you start you move forward we have exceptional programs at this high school already we were looking at this it's just you have to create documents and the process and procedures for the applications uh and and proceed so uh it is an Avenue it is a method um and the you know as you go through it just a real quick point of Robotics I mean it's such a phenomenal program here you know um if I put a sign up you know I was like I go to the event the robotics event and there were hundreds of students here uh across the state um you know and I asked the director if I had a if we had a program like this and there was 50 available seats just hypothetical how many would you before I even finish the question he's like I'll take all 50 just put one sign up here during the competition you will have and you can pick the cream of the crop now what does that do for our own students and our own programs is amazing and it's not just one you would have to do a holistic look across the board we have an amazing arts program um we have the new dance Flor that was just con just finished I mean these things beget and help and grow from within and we I've even had teachers asked to enroll their children in our school and buy law I have to charge them the full rate it's about $15,000 so we do have Avenues we do have people demanding to come here people move to our town it's it's it's a great thing and this could open it up and the opportunities um and we'll see where we are with enrollment next month it's big it's very big uh additional Revenue sources um these are some ideas we've talked about this some of the I I don't want to do I just want to point them out um cell phone tower people say you can make 100,000 on it uh it's unlikely in this area we're pretty saturated on cell phones okay I know it's hard to get it in this building in our buildings because yes right here right on top of this uh right next to the heater that that we're we're missing um um it's just you know we're we're steel and and and concrete so that's why it doesn't go through our buildings but bus advertising people like to see hey I've see buses advertise it's not really for our district um there's rules with it regulations but you really need to have a bigger district with a huge Fleet that's traveling a lot of miles so it doesn't that those people those marketing companies do not Target our bus fleets um due to our the way we operate Athletic Field advertising we talked about that what was looking for more um you could do naming rights of of things you can change a few things so if you find any vendors out there um we're open to increasing advertising on our Fields um and the billboard at Sharon so there is a billboard uh off of the off the turnpike it's dilapitated it's broke down it was built by the Turnpike Authority years ago from what I was told um there is a process and a method and a way to get that back up again but it's a lot of uh permitting hurdles to go over um I expect it to take a couple years if we're lucky even if we get permission there is a company that will pay for everything and just give us a residual as well as you can use the signage to promote the town and the school at a certain percentage of the day um red this is our before and after Care Program uh we're looking at expanding these programs um Community Education uh really a big one would be summer enrichment right uh doing our own full-time full day summer enrichment program more educational based uh than we have before um all day Affair uh akin to a camp of course there would be competition um Sharon is is a very busy area um and so there would and this would take over a year to plan so that is one method that we're looking at um how does that help us in the operating budget well once they're in the black uh you're allowed to charge them rent and you can just say give us $100,000 in rent and it goes right into the operating budget so there are methods to take that out of the before and after care but in addition we're looking at wraparound services with that right so it's not just educa you know it's educational before and after care um and more uh enrichment activities this town is is asking for it uh we'd love to do that uh the director Miss elme uh wants to do a lot more of it um and and bring those children uh after hours and and taking those services to increase our scores uh as well as enriching their their lives um facilities Improvement um this this is the last slide an esip lease we've done this before it's Energy savings Improvement plan um basically whatever you save on your energy costs you're allowed to do improvements um last time we did that was a little over a decade ago we're still paying for it it was almost $5 million uh for that um we've done other methods instead um we used uh uh New Jersey uh Direct Energy New Jersey clean energy to do LED at Sharon we're looking at doing Pond this year with HVAC and and that'll be a probably a payback 0% through through the um through the electri through the utility bills Robinsville High School does not qualify it is too big you would think that it would U so we're looking at doing that internally and small at a time and as my conclusion we're looking at a multifaceted approach to increasing these revenues um I know it's a lot to think about as a lot of stuff here that marries up with the Strategic plan and the fiveyear plan um we can talk about it offline um if there's anything questions right now um and please go right ahead thank you Nick ni thank you very much I think this was a very good presentation and I just want to clarify right you know these are all some of the ideas that the board asked just say that hey let's let's be open and put all the ideas in one place and this is what the slide is and none of these particular ideas you know or getting implemented I just want to make clarify and we will be actually discussing this as we move forward to see which one makes sense for us to actually embark on um the one question that I wanted to make sure or ask for um anything that we Implement be it like you know robotics for example or you know in an academy it certainly has some impact on the current infrastructure that we already have having said that it'll be great if we can actually kind of summarize this into a one pager and kind of say hey here are the IDE ideas and here is probably the confidence level of you know what we can do and what we cannot do and I think that's probably the future that we're looking at and once we start prioritizing and kind of align as a board I think we could then think of you know which one we pursue on this one but I think I liked everything the one thing that I also want to bring up is the county parks Grant um specifically uh I just wanted to understand that better or you saying that hey if there is a land that we have like for example the current tennis court we we can have the township own that for a dollar one and we can then receive the grants showing that that they own the you know they own the land and then we can actually do something with it it's an opportunity now you have to talk to the township has their priorities of what they want to do so this would be a long-term thing your one pager I'll do that I'll I'll type that up again um not again but I'll retype it as a one pager I'll put your confidence level in there the realistic ability and a time frame right that's more important right how long would something like this take yes right and then you'd have committee meetings discussions and so forth I will throw one out there for uh an idea we had years ago uh it's fallen off the table uh due to priorities um for example the tennis courts right let's rebuild the tennis courts Town wants tennis courts we want tennis courts and so forth it would be about a million and a half for tennis courts right different location better location and so forth so I chip in half you chip in half as in the town the state you know the county chips in half we're done mind you I'm talking on behalf of the township right now it's right they've got their priorities right because they have a list of things they have to take care of before they get to us and where do does that fit and mind you you're talking years out and would those grant funding still be there right to do something like that there was a discussion about doing something like that for a basketball building years ago technically the township must own the land because it's County Township Land open to everybody not school there's discussions about you should sell it and make money no no it's your own people this is your own town you you sell it for a dollar I do it in we do it in my town and um that that was one way right but once again everything has to align we are having quarterly meetings with the township okay um another one will be scheduled sometime soon but everything has to align together and work things out because it's not so simple as we share each other's buildings and so forth it's got to be a written shared service plan Mr Carrick has done these before they're T and they have their attorneys as well so it is a process so I think I think Nick this is all good information I think right now now just a probably a summary with impact from a dollar from a dollar perspective as far as um impact and then you know the ease of access to those dollars so that way we can maybe eliminate some of the lwh hanging fruit and then eventually get into the more medium-term ideas but I think all these from what I'm hearing is more of a medium-term in the in the beginning anyway but let's see let's see what that looks like yeah just and one additional note because this is this is incredible so thank you honestly I saw it and immediately thought tons of great ideas to work off of and I love the the thought about scaling like explaining which ones can be loow hanging fruit there's one thing you have a slide eight where it says um The Source the potential revenue and the notes so as we think through this next phase of the one pager like for example the billboard at SCS the high hurdle for permits just curious to know if like if you can put in the risks Associated or the relationships needed because I think amongst us perhaps or the committee people or whatever relationship ships that might exist already so if you say hey it's a county thing it's a Dan Benson it's a county exact or is it a state line let's just look at what that looks like and then see what what we as a board can do in the Committees itself with the relationships that exist all I think about is Six Sigma I'm doing some my my green belt right now and you're I know where you're all going with this so I'll I'll type something up we'll we'll put something together um the low hanging fruit is always the best right something quick you get momentum you move forward some of these things will generate enough that you can pay for other items right uh and we'll go through that and it just takes time the other key thing is we may need money fast but it takes time to build these things um but it's not it's it's great as well I wish you know every everybody's talking like this because typically I want to put a stereotype on there stereotypically people go straight to the taxpayer hey you you fund it now not let's try to help ourselves first before we go to that to that well um and as a taxpayer in my own B like I see what they do I've been on a board where we started acmy we started certain things you know we started a um you know um you know a junior ROTC program that paid for a full teacher there's so many things out there that you can do um because you've heard me say it before it's easy to it's easier to say no it's hard to say yes right um and so we're driving forward I know I've taken a lot of your time thank you for it um and we'll talk more about future things like this and the only thing I'm going to say is I've been in your office I've seen you have a green belt you're going this is your black belt project so thank you anything else Nick you good okay moving on board committee reports start with leaz on reports okay great so I went to what's brewing in educational law and it is exciting as it sounds um it updated me on all the new and recent legal cases setting precedent in New Jersey you could probably find it on YouTube its name is what's brewing in education law I really can't summarize it was so much it was an hour packed um my next meeting is November 21st and and it's seal providing support during challenging times I'm really excited for it oh yeah and we have like Monday Tuesday Wednesday of our Atlantic City board meetings next week thank you Amanda education development and policy Miss Tanya Leman okay so we met on the eth at 6 um so we have some actionable items here including um the policy updates which were primarily just language in um changes and that included what's written um in the uh agenda but Board of Ed member number and term curriculum content physical exams for employment and the list is all there but essentially it's it's really just updates to the language um the anti-bullying Bill of Rights is a self assessment that schools will perform and the district it it indicated that the district does not perceive a bullying problem but rather separate incidents and um this is related to strategic goal too which is um navigating the differences and diversity to lead to a bully-free environment and then we are we discussed the board and District goals Dr Gorman made the goals a lot more measurable so that was that's very helpful we need to do a deeper dive into that as well Dr wisuki and Miss defasio went through through the same presentation that you guys heard um so I'm not going to go through any of that because you you had a length lengthy uh introduction to all those scores so thank you for that um and then just some updates the committee discussed rigor and the Robinsville schools and that's based on some concerns the parents have had or they've expressed so the administrative team is going to be reviewing some data collaborating with principles and identifying areas of concern and will address the need for increased rigor going forward which I think is pretty important and then the next um meeting is going to be on the 12th at 6 thank you thank you Miss lemman Personnel Dr Pi thank you Mr President so the Personnel committee met October 8th at 7 o'clock um present were um Mr gady Mr Ray Mr banduka Dr Gorman Dr wuki M Tremor and Mr defasio uh we start off by talking about our monthly Staffing spreadsheet from there we worked on the approval for the following job descriptions for instructional Aid position special education we also reviewed job descriptions for red and facility support Miss Tremor talked to us about um exit surveys for employees to fill to fill out as they complete their checkout process that way we could use the data to reflect upon and guide future decisions by the administration in the B um just as Tanya mentioned we talked about the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh Dr Gorman presented on that a self assessment and he also reviewed the district goals and then Mrs Tremor presented um and talked about the school health insurance um on staff proactive Wellness grants that we'll try to use with the staff so actionable items today we have our monthly Staffing spreadsheet approval the instructional Aid job description board goals anti-bullying bill right self assessment and our future discussion items we have are for buildings and grounds and the red job descriptions for that we're going to talk about this coming month our next meeting is November 12th at 7 o'clock thank you Dr Pro uh business is myself um so we start we always start with facilities maintenance the um Pond uh the pond and Sharon uh playgrounds had Gates installed or I'm sorry they will be installed on October 21st that's under the preschool program Nick I believe y so that's part of the preschool program um Access Road between rhs and prms I don't know if you've noticed the cones that are out there um additional 20 Jersey barriers have been purchased to again provide a barrier for the children that will be walking along there to keep them safe so those will be coming um in in about a week or two um the cost to put a sidewalk in there is very high and the uh the safety of our children is also equally as important but there's a lot of other EPA concerns and everything so we're doing what we can now to make this the walking experience as safe as possible for the interim until we can get to a new budget season and figure out what we can do there um the pawn Road Middle School HVAC the three compressors were installed that's complete uh we had an energy audit where we're looking to work with uh the local psng to subsidize the LED upgrades for pwn Road Middle School um the Sharon Elementary door uh IDF doors were in uh space for staff will be uh so that's going to be installed uh the wand doors so that's the big doors that the High School auditorium they were built 20 years ago everyone knows they constantly break down they can't get parts of those anymore so we're assessing the high cost to repair versus replacement so that's being assessed hopefully in the spring um the facilities rentals so rhs the stage we're in the the I believe the township approved Nick everything yep so we're good to go there we're in the final punch list and be on the lookout for a celebration to celebrate This magnificant Magnificent stage that going up it's truly amazing I've seen it under construction and it look great I can't imagine what it looks like now so I'm pretty excited for that and we should celebrate it um we're working we're still almost done with the cafetorium the HVAC updates have to be uh finalized and hopefully by the next meeting we'll be totally operational Elementary School the summer project is the cricket pitch the Robinsville Cricket Association um is is fully funding Nick yes fully funding that project and that will be going in in in the summer and let's see what else the bills list was reviewed uh we reviewed the state of the budget that n state of the budget presentation um and we reviewed the high impact tutoring grants as well as the nlsp equipment grants um I think we received approval for the high impact funding Grant is that where we are yes okay so we but and we're working through what that means now yes okay start I think it started it started oh it started okay great started okay um and the next meeting is on November 2 November 15 2024 any questions no Comm relations Mr Ru thank you Mr President so we met on October 9th at 6 p.m. uh the agenda items that we discussed was Outreach to town on New and current residential project and timelines we discussed a process uh for a representative of a Boe to be periodically presented the township Council meetings to just you know keep us up to date on what's Happening um we also discussed social media post this is specifically related to parents Square integration with Facebook so that our Communications which go out in parents Square are also uh posted on Facebook uh to be very consistent and Administration has taken an action to make that happen um we also discussed about art display at prms up datum happy to see that particular art wall coming up in the prms um in the cafeteria which is great I love to see more art uh of the students um we also discussed anti-bullying Bill of Rights and self assessment which is an action item uh for today uh on the agenda and the Board of Education strategic goals and again thank you Dr Gman for making that very easy you know for us to actually not only uh comprehend what those goals are but also some measurable items which we can actually measure and keep track um and thanks for the recognition of Max potential today which was great um I think we have the next meeting would be November 13th at 6 p.m. thank you thank you ad hoc Securities myself um we met on September 27th and the the safe the schools provided a safety update so that' be this School principles um they they reviewed each of the actionable items at their schools uh they also talked about detectors that'll be going in at the high school um the police department provided an update where Robinsville will host for the county a um in November a full scale exercise for active shooter and Community rapid response partnership so that's a pretty big event that we're happy to host here and it's going to be fantastic so please be on the lookout for that we'll talk about more in November after it occurs um security cameras were uh uh discussed the bring updated in at rhs the facilities we were looking at um enhancing the the door alarms at all the facilities uh the generators at rhf were backed up um the preschool expansion we we talked about security film we talked about um I already talked about the gates but other various upgrades for security for the kids at the at the preschool level um the a refresh uh we discussed upgrading installing new boxes and and purchasing training devices um we talked about the curb uh we looked at school maps and we talked about red um there is no uh future meeting scheduled as of yet because it's an ad hoc committee any questions all right adhoc special education Mrs D'Angelo hi everyone so um welcome welc to our new special education assistant director that's Mr Chris Butler well we're so excited you're here you're not here presently but like in the universe um Robinsville Robinsville Rises uh first parent meeting will be on the 22nd next week at rhs Media Center at 7M the topic is uh first Parent Academy uh oh I'm sorry the second one is first Parent Academy understanding your child's disability and last but not least to connect kind of what we were doing in the beginning here with our programming for Max potential is uh our transition coordinator continues to work within the township to generate more Community Partners for our high school and postgraduate students if you run a business within the community or you know someone please reach out um and you can reach out to miss Georgine Johnson if you have an interest that you'd like to connect with the school about thank you so much thank you last but not least Mr Gadi ad hoc technology yes since the last board meeting we have not met so thank you thank you all right um public comments so I'm going to read the notice first and this will apply to the second one so I'll only read it this one time time be allocated for public comment at this meeting meetings of the public uh wishing to address the board of education on agenda items must State their name municipality and group if any they represent a member of the public shall not be permitted to speak until he or she is recognized by the res officer in accordance with District policy 0167 each each comment shall be limited to 3 minutes no participant may speak more than once no dialogue between a speaker and the board and or superintendent shall be extended shall extend the three minute time limit um provided here in live streaming of the meeting shall be for viewing only the public will not have the ability to participate in public session comments unless they are physically present at the meeting although the board encourages public comment the presiding officer can interrupt Warn and or terminate a part participants statement question or inquiry when it is too lengthy and may also interrupt and warn I'm sorry and may also interrupt and warn a participant when the statement question or inquiry is abusive obscene or may be defamatory moreover the presiding officer can request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable deorum in adherence to the protocol established by the New Jersey school boards Association the board will use this public comment period as the opportunity to listen to resident concerns but not to debate issues or to enter into question and answer session issues raised by members of the public may require review and investigation and may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting a com all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate uh can I have a motion open public comment for 30 minutes still moved all in favor I any n extensions no okay public comment is open for agenda items only any Robinsville thank you um I have a couple of questions um number one um this um agenda is not really giving lot of information like the ones that it was before but I don't know I guess you changed it for whatever reason that you had and there is not much explanation on anything in here and um the second thing that I wanted to tell you first of all Mr Jay glti thank you very much for all those wonderful questions that you asked when they were presenting because those were the questions of a lot of uh parents and uh even though I do not have children in a school they would be my questions and uh one of the things that I wanted to say thank you Mr Gordon your uh informations were very clear about all the topics that you talked about about this presentation but at the same time if the uh we are comparing everything to the state um a state have um schools that they are even lacking teachers for teaching a lot of this stuff so if we are comparing ourselves to the states we are not comparing to the highest number of the quality we are talking about just an average and Robinsville has been uh has never been average has always been above average because our children are are um have been used to those kind of um system and um I wanted to know that what is the comparison to hopwell what is the comparison to Princeton what is the comparison to Wester what is the comparison to um all the other restricts that we we heard that we do not have their numbers but we have the last year's numbers so maybe we can compare any of those things uh together because um as a mother of two k kids that uh the children went to school in here and uh I saw the numbers and I have been present for past 14 years to all the board uh Board of Education meetings so I have to say that the numbers were not looking really good you can say whatever you want to say I do not have any children in here and they are not really touching um my household uh but at the same time the children of this District are my children and at the same time we are spending a very good amount of money for what we have we are expecting in here so the numbers are not good and um I just wanted to um compare um the numbers U that we had for a couple of years ago maybe five years ago about the numbers about the ma about our science about everything else we were not in that level so um I wanted to uh ask you um thank you um for the presentation that you had it was very very clear thank you very much for the information that you gave and um if it is a possibility and I'm just asking uh if it is a possibility I am not a mother that has children in a school so a lot of information is not really clear for me if you can help me receive them thank you thank you are there any other comments on agenda items only not seeing any kind of motion to close public comment on agenda items so moved all in favor I any or extensions no okay um approval of the monthly resolution consent items can I have a a motion so moved second all in favor oh wait no sorry no no no no can I uh have any any discussion items see I'm getting better I'm getting better comments go ahead yeah I just want to say thanks to uh Christie and Steve uh I know we're asking a lot of tough questions over here that's our job um if we if I reflect back two years we did not even have this right so the fact that we started this we started the journey we got data we looked at the data we made adjustments second year we got more data you're making more adjustments so thank thank you for that I think we're just pushing you guys harder to do more quote unquote but uh but seriously thank you it takes a lot takes a village I know you have a lot of data experts and you guys are doing a lot of training on that but really appreciative of all the hard work and effort that you guys are doing so thank you and Jay I'll add to that too because I think a lot of looking at the at the data is not something natural for a lot of teachers to do so to get um you know really have to teach that skill to people too who want to teach their content right and want to teach kids and that level of learning so look using this data is very valuable and sometimes it's I think the other thing to keep in mind here is we're looking at very macro data as far as our district goes teachers are getting actionable data they're able to look at their kids individually when they're working on their plcs and in their teams and that's where the real work is happening um where they know how they can move their kids to go from that level three to that level four for and that's again that's that's the hard work that's the dedication of our teaching staff led by you know our administrators with that so I think that's something that we look at this and you can make all kinds of you know I think Pete you mentioned is it a good day or bad day for a kid taking a test but the real work goes in when we kind of get granular withth the data um teachers meet in their plc's and they're looking at individual kids and skill sets that are deficient or that they are progressing in so that's where the you know this is nice but that's where the world work in important work is happening yay great job thank you just in support of teachers I really respect what what Dr Pier just said so perfect yeah thank you thank you any other discussion items on the on the for the mon monthly resolution nope roll call please M banduka Mr Gadi yes m m Hill Angelo yes abstain from I yes to all abstain to I no Mr Howard yes I'm assuming all of I uh Mr Howard that was a yes Miss Leman yes Mr nandon yes yes Mr Ray yes Dr Pier yes Mr olberg yes thank you motions pass thank you everyone um old business is there any old business new business all right I'm not to read the notice again I'm going to do public comment on all items all School related items can I have a motion to open public comment on all items for 20 minutes so moved second J Anthony all in favor I any ner exensions all right public comment open not seeing any comment can I have a motion to close public comment so moved second Nadia Dr Pi all in favor I any n or extensions no and then do I need to can can I have a motion to open the second executive session on uh so moved second so move second so call out it oh for the healthy work uh Place environment there'll be no actional items coming out of that executive session will be coming out and we'll be closing the the board meetting Jing the board meeting after that all in favor any n or extensions no thank you thank you everyone