##VIDEO ID:BoNQjCIhFKg## all right good evening everyone my name is Sergio alot I'm the president of the Board of Education here in Rutherford I'm joined tonight by my colleagues over here in the Board of Education we are going to begin this regular meeting of the Rutherford Board of Education on October 21st 2024 we're going to ask everyone who can to please stand face the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Rutherford board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place posted on the bulletin board outside the borau clerk's office mailed to the heral South bergenite and the Record newspapers and filed with the bur clerk hard copies of the agenda are available in the meeting room and the agenda is posted electronically on Friday before the meeting date on the district's website at www. Rutherford schools.org subsequent to the meeting a video of the meeting will be uploaded to the district's website www. Rutherford schools.org the video link can be found by opening the Board of Education link and clicking on public meetings and then videos uh so board members in your packets there were minutes to approved from our regular meeting oh yeah uh first we're going to call Ro Mr Whitford please here all right thank you uh so we have minutes to approve from the regular meeting of September 30th 2024 board members any questions or comments about those all right seeing none I'll ask Mr Whitford to please enter those uh congratulations you've just been through the first three minutes of a regular Board of Education meeting but I going to turn it over now to Mr Morano who is going to begin our annual Board of Education Awards I'm used to the kids uh you know thrown a couple poos not parents not giving me a round of applause uh but all seriousness I stand here before you today with immense pride and gratitude as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of our students it's an honor to present the Board of Education award to those who have maintained a GPA of 3.7 or higher with no grade lower than a b min us this award represents not just academic Excellence but also dedication resilience and hard work each of our students has demonstrated that Success is Not merely a result of talent but a commitment to continuous growth and learning let us recognize the unwavering support from teachers family and the entire School community that empowers our students to reach these Heights together we are forcing an environment where excellent is not only encouraged but achieved D to our award recipients I say this your hard work has not gone unnoticed you are the Future Leaders thinkers and change makers of our world continue to strive for greatness and know that we are incredibly proud thank you to Mr Hurley our superintendent of schools Mr debarry our assistant P principal Miss uh gagliardo our director of guidance and Mr Whitford our business administrator once again congratulations to these exceptional students and thank you to the Board of Education for recognizing and celebrating their achievements and your continued support of the Rutherford schools at this time I'd like to introduce the superintendent of schools Mr Jack Curley I don't think it's loud enough unlike U unlike Mr Morano I didn't have to ask for Applause um you know it it's it's hard to follow the remarks that you know Mr R made because obviously I Echo those remarks Mar s but I will say that I know speaking on behalf of the board uh this is always a very uh special night uh for the Board of Education uh where they get a chance to um see and honor the students who epitomize what we all work for uh for our students success and growth and achievement so on behalf of the board I congratulate the students I congratulate them for their Endeavors and again if we looked at the resume of all these students who are beginning to file in uh we'll see that they're not just students they are student athletes students artists students actors uh student community members uh student leaders and they take their talents and they and they epitomize their talent and their skill and their Drive in many many areas for the parents and family members and grandparents and who may be here in attendance tonight uh again these are moments that I hope you cherish uh we appreciate your collaboration with us uh in helping us to work with your sons and daughters to get to these milestones and enjoy these moments because you're a big part of their success maybe the major part in many ways of their success so this night is for you as well so again congratulations to uh all the recipients Who currently came in the ones who are in I guess the green room waiting to come in um and congratulations to everyone The Faculty the staff the administration the board the parents and this whole Community who work together to produce such fine uh students and and young men and women enjoy the night congratulations and now is my [Applause] pleasure it's my pleasure to introduce our director of guidance Miss Jackie [Applause] gagliardo thank you thanks for the Applause I've been known to scream on this microphone so I hope I everyone can hear me well so it is my pleasure to give out these Awards tonight to our students we're going to start the program with the Bronze award it is presented to students who have achieved a 3.7 GPA with no grade lower than a B minus this award will be distributed by our principal Mr Morano we ask that you hold your applause until all names are called please okay students let's get let's get going Benjamin Almanor Ryan bake F okay Elizabeth bzel Mariah beo Mark bradski Kush bani Charlie Bohan Jamie bager Jaden Cabrera Andrew calvo Tyler Carol Zoe Cal katrice castillan Donovan Charles Marley trasan Sophia clwy Cameron Cole Leo con Michaela Ceno Gabriella Delgado panav Desai Thomas dimitro Deborah debado Salma El shini Andrew Erikson Ariana Eugene Grace farum Bailey fedck Sophia fedorko Lyla Griner Emily Griffin Leah Griffin Naomi Griffith Eva herworth Majed itani Malik itani Graham Jordan nahara kamalia Sophia lafler Payton Lewis Howen Lee Andrew L laka mjia Luchia marchesani Emma Marquez Grace meth Juliana minervini Andrew merer Samantha munera Ariana Nelson Anthony nunziato Andrew aoyi alif Naas orhan Dora ozer meet Patel KO Pito Joseph Phillip Juan Roos Vivien scbo Samantha Serrano slow down see got to get my Cadence mahisha Lea Shin Juliet Singh Alexander sitars Gregory Smith Gabriella Sperling Maya Stadler Elena strubel Molly Sullivan Tess Sullivan Khloe tarfi Nina tavani Alex todorov Karen tortor fabrio Tulio that was good Cammy usan Ava valz Emily Villa Savannah vialta param verani Franklin Weiss laurelai white and Madison Williams that should conclude our bronze Awards recipients thank you well [Music] done all right great job we will move on now to the silver award the silver award is presented to students who achieve a 3.7 or higher grade point average for two academic years the silver Awards will be handed out by Board of Ed president Dr Sergio alad we kindly once again ask you to hold your applause until the end all right students Serena Alves Ariana Amante Janina Bara kav Baron Hannah boobowitz Devin Bergos Christopher Burns Andrew Choy Matthew Chu David kareah Tessa Davidson Danielle delator Vincent denunzio Kate finan Raina Forte Jasmine gadya aot gohill Maya goak Ava Hernandez here herar Sarah aoro Joseph Keeler Samuel kerna Jaden Lopez Yan L Chase Maloney Serene Millian Kate Meer Victoria myk Katherine Miguel rtio Sophia Moran Amira Najar screaming Hannah Nishi kaara GT pacov Lena pal umber Patel Eddie Raymond Michaela Rossi Marley Santana Leonardo sarahi Blake Smith Natalie Turner and Ella Walsh and that should conclude our silver award [Applause] [Music] recipients thank you our next award is the Gold Award the Gold Award is presented to students who achieve a 3.7 grade point average or higher for three academic years our superintendent Mr Hurley will be handing out the gold Awards please once again hold your applause Until the End we're going to go a little out of order here first recipient Thomas sinku Aiden Baron come on aeden Christa Bellinger Ava Bergman Tada Bisk poppy bimson Mor Morgan bager Daniella bordoli Alexis Capello Zade Castellanos Kaden Cole Andy concepion Kate Dylan John Eustace Juliana gallotto Mia Garcia Tristan gy Gianna hero did I get it yes I got it Grayson crocus sorry Sophia lancha Madison Lewis aari McGregor Sophia Mendes Haley Moran Angelina NAA Kaaya noguchi that Lucy olivo Pollock parit Brandon ramch Nicholas gagon Wesley schlimmer pranav shrier Oliver Tapia Margaret turo Rachel Vidal paa walek Fiona Waller Gian yanero Barat yeet barill Yeet mad at me I did it I said it I said ye Jaden you Mia zanella and that concludes our gold Awards [Applause] thank you and we just have a few certificates to give out from some of our colleges and universities uh Mr Morano is going to hand out those certificates to our students the first certificate is the National Merit Scholarship program for commended students this award certificate is in recognition of outstanding ability and potential for academic success in college we have two recipients Prav shridar and Jaden Yu come on up guys Mr Morano was sleeping yeah I know you're so funny okay our next certificate comes from the University of Rochester we have three award recipients the first is Bou and LOM honorary science award this Stu these students get a certificate as as well as a medal the bowan LOM is in recognition of outstanding achievement and Superior intellectual promise in the field of Sciences this award goes to Poppy [Applause] bimson oh bless you our next award from the University of Rochester is the Frederick Douglas and Susan B Anthony award this award is in recognition of standing commitment to social justice and dedication to continuing their unfinished life's work the recipient of this award is Thomas sinu for Thomas our next award from the University of Rochester is the George Eastman young leaders award this is in recognition of outstanding achievement and leadership in academics the award recip is Gianna [Applause] hero our Xerox award recipient is not in the audience tonight our next uh certificate comes from renier poly Technic Institute it's the renier award in recognition of superlative academic achievement of young men and women and to motivate students towards careers in science engineering and Technology this certificate goes to Wesley [Applause] schlimmer and our last certificates come to us from Rochester Institute of Technology in recognition of leadership service and achievement women in stem this award goes to Kate Dylan [Applause] for computing Barat [Applause] [Music] Yeet did he come no okay um science and math poock pert perit for Art and Design Ola [Applause] walek and our last certificate and award of the night for Rochester Institute of Technology is Humanities and social sciences for Fiona [Applause] Waller congratulations congratulations to all of your students I am going to I am just going to turn the mic over to Dr aot once more for closing remarks thank [Applause] you so as I look around I I do see some familiar faces uh my daughter Julia graduated in the class of 2021 my son James was on this stage last year had the honor from uh class of 2024 it doesn't just happen getting these Awards it takes a lot of hard work and commitment and discipline so can we give all of our uh student award recipients another round of applause so congratulations I hope you take this work ethic on Beyond the Doors of Rutherford High School to all the places you're going to go um we invite families now if you'd like to take photos uh with your uh children please feel free to do so remember you don't get these moments back uh but if you really want some fun and you want to come see the rest of the Board of Education meeting we're going to be in the high school cafeteria and we're going to take a short break and then we'll reconvene there thank you everyone for coming have a good night all right our short break is over I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent for the report of the superintendent um tonight my report will focus on the report of student achievement uh honestly I think after what we just uh witnessed uh that could be the report of a student achievement but uh statutorily I have to report any test scores that come through the state within UH 60 days of our receipt of the of the test scores so I included in the packet a rather voluminous uh report um just so you understand the template is not of our main this is the state template that we're supposed to fill in and um within a day or two this will be on the web which um has there's a quick link to the report of student achievement so I'm going to walk you through some of the highlights and um explain to you some of the things that the report does tell us and some of the things that it does not but before that sounds like a criticism we get probably the same volume that this report is 70 Pages or so on each School uh we get statistics on every student we get statistics on every standard question because every question is aligned to a standard we get graphs that show where we are um in terms of the state average above the standard or below the standard so it gives us historical data that we could look at and say it seems like every year we struggle a little bit on this one standard so let's look at maybe why right um the reason why none of that information can go into the report that gets presented publicly and gets posted on the web is that there's always the possibility of identifying individual students through that information so anything where there's a possibility of identifying an individual student we can't report publicly you you'll see even in some areas where let's say fewer than 10 students took this test let's say a dlm which is a dynamic learning that for uh students special ed students who do not follow the regular curriculum uh we can't report those scores if there's fewer than 10 because you don't want to potentially identify a student but I will say that the the data that we get from the state has improved greatly over the years and gives us a lot of detail which is very useful um unfortunately some of the stuff to be honest in here isn't as useful okay because it's more Aggregate and doesn't really pertain to student growth but anyway let me walk you through it uh the first couple of pages are notable achievements and uh without reading through all of them you'll see that in just about every case uh on just about every standard in ela uh we scored above uh the state average there was one standard in grade three where we scored below uh only two students took that question because the tests are not identical so there are different questions not every standards on every test so I'm not too concerned about us being below uh the assessment with only two students had to answer that that particular question uh in math we did uh just as well on the standards um where the majority of grade levels we scored above all the U standards except when you get to Algebra 1 and I do want to remind the board and anybody who's uh maybe looking in on this on uh the website later that we had moved Algebra 1 to 8th grade um several years ago and students who achieved a certain level in Algebra 1 then moved on to geometry in nth grade and those who did not stayed with algebra 1 and what we have found you remember we had committees that are still functioning on the academic areas we found that um some of the skills that were taught in the old 8th grade math were really intrical to the ability of students to do well in Algebra 1 and we weren't really doing a service to kids uh by fast tracking them past certain skills that they needed to do well in Algebra 1 so this year not reflected in this test if you recall from our reports from last year when we had mming and the other supervisors and administrators here to report on the Committees we revamped our curriculum to reinstate accelerated math in grade 8 for which is algebra 1 but the majority of students now are taking 8th grade math which means the majority of of ninth graders won't be repeating a subject that they didn't do well in and maybe now you know throwing their hands up on but getting it fresh with the proper foundational skills in addition primarily because what we were seeing in algebra when you know our math scores are great and then all of a sudden come seventh 8th nth grade they begin to dip we looked at a new math program which we put in this year in grades k28 The Envision program so we are hoping um that that is going to show some improvement now I don't expect next year's scores to just wow you know go through the roof it takes sometimes a year or two of a new program for the teachers to get acclimated to it uh the kids and parents get acclimated to it which is why we're doing a parent Academy on on the uh enVision Math and so on but we do feel um and when I say we the teachers the Math teachers and the math supervisor who chaired the committee that this was a step in the right direction so that was a direct Rel to a consistent pattern this is not new that our algebra one scores were not up to speed compared to the others uh then there are pages that show a comparison between the 23 24 test scores and um in every subject area I want to just make a cautionary um comment on this for the most part what I'm going to tell you is that throughout all the data that we've looked into we had a pretty good year on the test where we either stayed pretty flat compared to last year or we showed some improvement it was only a couple areas where we dipped a little bit however if you look at this chart you'd say no no that's not true you know we have some big gains and we have some big hits but let me explain to you why this is a misleading chart for what the test is supposed to show so if you look on page four and you look at grade four students who scored a four or a five now four or a five is passing okay if I mean that's not the term that we would use but that's what it really means right it says that we took a 22% decline in grade four language arts so if you go up to grade three level five in 23 you'll see 88.7% of the students scored level five if you go down to grade four in 2024 that those same group of kids went up to 23.8% scoring a five so in fact our grade five jumped by what 15 almost 15% they're looking at grade level scores which are a different group of kids what we're looking at with the data we give us is student growth is it's irrelevant to say wow you did worse this year year in grade four or you did better this year in grade four when it's a whole different group of kids unless you look back at what happened in grade three so if you went through that kind of diagonal line you would see areas where there was significant growth you will see a few areas where there was decline okay but you're not going to but this chart is misleading it's speaking about a whole different group of kids and how they did so we look at the data that I can't share by the state rules to show growth of students both individually and collectively does that make sense with what um and you know in some areas we did we did show some decline with the same group of kids the other thing is you know we might have declined in in level four but we moved up in level five that's a good thing right and when you get to levels one and two you want a decline right you want fewer students doing the lowest level right so those areas of declin is a positive you have a if you have a gain there that's not such a good thing okay so on pages four and five which is for Math and um and Page Six for science you'll see a similar type of comparison I'm going to talk a little more about science when we get to another slide science scores are abysmal okay they have been for a long time science scores um even though we showed flat or a little Improvement in some areas and wait till I get to the one where the state scores I want to talk a little more more about science when we get there okay uh the next couple of slides are simply the percentages of students who take the test the state penalizes you if you don't get like 95 or 92% or you know we're always close to 100 this is really a throwback to the days of park when there was a big push back about taking tests uh very few people now opt out of tests uh you know the dynamic of the test has changed and um so some people still do not many sometimes the kids absent they don't make it up sometimes a student isn't taking a test because he may be taking that dlm I refer to right so as long as we're in that 98 to 100% range you'll see geometry is lower because that's the kids who are in the honors section and as percentage of the class is lower than not honors but they I've done well in algebra one so as percentage of the class okay we then get to um language arts where there's a couple of pages that show our scores compared to the state level so for example in 2024 third graders in the State uh 19.8% scored level one which means they're not meeting expectations for a grade third uh three student in our district we had 4% so again those are very healthy numbers uh when you look at the other end of it um in the state 37% of grade three students uh had exceeding expectations which is um I'm sorry that's meeting let me go to exceeding uh 6% had exceeding expectations we had 8% so you know the areas that we want to be in levels four and five we want to be above the state and just about universally except for Algebra 1 and science we are um on levels one and two we want to be below and we are and sometimes by large amounts okay most time by large amounts most of the state most of the states at level one in double digits and um and and level two and we're for the most part and single digits on all of them but I'll tell you that um yeah as an accomplishment um I've said this before you know I expect us to be doing better than the state uh I expect us to be doing significantly better than the state I'm very proud of what we do academically um you know and there are a lot of areas in the state that have a lot of issues with socioeconomic conditions um you know overcrowded conditions um no parental uh support conditions and they are some of our biggest areas of population so we should be doing better than the state um but that doesn't take away from the fact that we are it's still something to you know to celebrate then following that Ela interventions I want to give you a quick explanation I know you've heard this before um and I want to tell you something we're doing different and this will be the same now for I'm going to lump language arts uh Math and Science together so Mr ursi for language arts Miss schenning for Math and Science take all that data we get the data like in August early August and it's embargoed from everybody um until we get to the official release which comes early September and that's when the 60-day clock starts but beginning in August m m sming and Mr ursi along with the principles begin to look at those areas where we aren't doing well okay and on that chart I told you about and look at the standard and look at interventions we could do with our students to help them in those areas and you'll see in the standards they also tell you how many of the students were assessed so for the most part like for example the first one only seven students took that test uh that question remember not because they skipped it because the test is manufactured with different not every standards on every test so they put time in with things that we can do either with programs that we H have for example ISL or things we could do that are teacher made or things we could do within the curriculum to improve in those areas I think these standards are very help I mean these interventions are very helpful and they're a good tool for teachers to have however this is a mandate that has to be in the report I have to report to you this year we took a little different approach where we said to the teachers we want to give you some time to do data dives into the do what Mr ursy and Miss schmeding have done you look at the data and you talk with your grade level teachers or your department your peers they're your students what what did you do last year you could do differently uh what areas what interventions do you think you can use what strategies can you develop if you want to use this bag of tricks that's fine but might come up with your own because I think ownership of it is a is a much better technique right not oh you know Mr ursi gave me something to do maybe I'll do it maybe I won't I'll do it but I'm doing it because this is what he told me instead of saying hey take a little time one day so on Workshop day we had a lot of our teachers work on this data mining in lie of a meeting where we have plc's I know Pier Pon has a whole team that goes into this by grade level um um Union school did a similar approach the high school Works through the supervisor and the department uh Washington school is taking the same approach I know the schools are doing this where we want the teachers to roll up their sleeves and do what the supervisors have done because I think there's better ownership there okay and then a similar for math State comparison which is same thing I said before for the most part except when you get to Algebra 1 we're doing better where we should be do better in all areas you know lower where we should be lower higher where we should be higher okay and then there's strategies there for math as well and then you jump to science and that's on uh page 62 I want to mention a couple things about science you know um it's the only test that Pearson doesn't own and pearon doesn't give then the details that we get with the other test we don't get as many we don't get the report by standard in science we don't get the same amount of information that we get in the other subjects but here's something that we finally all when I say we the administrators not just in Rutherford around the state administrators supervisors superintendents have finally woke up to and before I say this I want to I want to preface it by this I don't accept the fact that because everybody's doing bad we should do badly too okay so we looked at our science remember last year the the committee that we had again M meting and I think Mick saon here talking about we we looked at started with Elementary where we changed we now have our science specialist going back into kindergarten where she wasn't there for a while we have her getting into the classroom more we started a science fair that we got away from for a while we're doing more science reading in even language arts right because reading is reading correct we we went with the claim evidence reasoning statements of the sers we started that as early as grade two okay um we also have revamped our our course structure in the high school and this year the goal of that committee which now Mr Viola who is now the assistant principal at Union and comes from a Science teaching background same as Miss axon did now that she's a principal Mr Viola is now chairing that committee and that Middle School approach is this year's project to see what we could do in middle school with either program or sequence or structure so we have to do better but here's the thing there's only five levels here level um one and two for science would be the areas where you consider students as failing okay I just lost my note but oh here it is no I don't know where I went Prim oh here it's way back here okay if you look at that in the state approximately 70 to 75% of the students in the state who take the test test for the lack of a better word fail it every year and this is a consistent number year after year after year and that means in Rutherford which we you know our language our scores are pretty good our math scores are pretty good our kids can't do science you know and I'm telling you in every Community it's a very similar pattern nobody has really good scores so if you're a teacher right I mean m b you're a teacher if every if every test you're giving the kids can't do well on after a while you start to question the assessment you know I mean why is it that nobody in the state of New Jersey could do well on this test and it's hard for me to believe that consistently 70% of the kids are not can't do it so we've pushed back a little bit to say can we take a look at the assessment and take a look at the curriculum to see if the assessment is actually mirroring what's in the state mandated curriculum I think it's a good question I don't know I think my colleagues and I all didn't do well on the critical thinking assessment because we should asked this question a few years ago right but it does it does make you wonder so that said we still are doing a lot in District to address science because you know i' I'd like to be the one that way they say hey everybody in the state's not doing well except for Rutherford right well I have a question so what what is the state's response if um if you can't well you've been you've been working in uh public education for a while what do you think the state's response is we're going to take it under advisement we're going to look into it and U you know they say they're going to look at it um I mean there's no standards that's coming back again the other thing which but the other thing is we don't get I could point to every single question every standard on the language arts and math test and see exactly how every one of our students did we don't get that data with science so it's even hard to try to figure out you know why language arts and math eventually when the kids get to high school are right now a graduation test science is not so you get a student who sits through a couple of days of language arts testing a couple of days days of math testing and now has set through a couple days of science Testing and and they know doesn't matter you know so there's a lot of things that we can be doing I think you know I think science I'm a language arts guy that's where I was right I think science is a key to so much right now with no matter what job you're in no matter what your career path is you know I mean I'll I'll take the term science out stem right so maybe it's time to elevate the importance of the test to the same level as importance of language arts and math because if I think something's important I'm going to gear up for it a little more if I think something's going to mean I'm graduating or I'm not I'm going to gear for it a little more uh I think also it's time to you know we're trying very hard to change the mindset and I think it's working of our teachers to embrace how science can be infused into language arts classes and Social Studies classes and things like that in terms of reading but um I'm hoping U Christina to your point that the state's listening to this and they're going to look at you know some of the revamping of of the test I know the Q act they did know the Q act remember I mentioned how next year they're changing the the value of certain tests and qac it's not going to affect us this year but next year the science weight is going to be lessened from the test scores because they're recognizing the the the anomaly of why science is so low and it's negatively impacting school districts so you know at least are looking at then we have the subgroups there are no surprise in the subgroups I mean areas I I was pleased to see that for the most part uh we have showed again either relatively flat or or some slight gains uh in in the where you see the comparisons by years we had a I think a pretty significant across the board uh gain with Hispanic students especially at Ela uh and we had uh some areas of gain with our special education population um a couple areas with a little decline but but but minimal decline um so we were pleased with that there's a slide on page 72 about dynamic dynamic learning Maps as I mentioned those are students that um take this in Lee of the state test because they don't follow the regular curriculum they are usually students either out of District students or uh in some of our special ed programs in District uh is a small number so we don't put numbers in of how they did this slide on page 73 the profile of the class of 2024 none of this information is new to you or new to the public is there a graduation rate from last year remember it's 97% because it's a fiveyear rate not a fouryear rate okay so um it changes a little bit some of the kids who didn't graduate on and we have the 18 to 21 program uh the colleges and fouryear 2year uh non- col um schools like technical schools uh all all that information had reported back I believe in July once again I'm very pleased with our advanced placement results uh this year we had the highest or last year had the highest number of tests administered that's on page 74 388 exams uh 79% of the students scoring a three or higher which means those students potentially get college credit 173 students with three or higher um we had 219 students tested if you look on page 75 you can see over the last 5 years we have hovered around 80% of students getting 3 four or five you'll also see how our numbers of students have been high and now they're getting higher with more courses and with more students taking them um and the number of students three are higher is also growing and as you I hope you're aware we've been on the U college board honor role now just about every year for the last five years uh it is a remarkable um change that occurred when we we didn't take away all the requirements to get into AP but we lightened it up a great deal opened the door to more students to take it and instead of bringing our scores down it raised scores up as kids accepted the challenge and moved on and that's a very positive sign um sat results they no longer provide for you a state averages or a national average a I can tell you the mean score of 1114 um is pretty consistent what we've done in the past and usually was above the state average I don't know what and the national average I don't know what that is anymore but I'm not overly disappointed in the scores they're about what we've always done we also get a relatively large number of students taking the test and um that always impacts sore the Act only um slightly fewer than 20 16 students took the ACT um the act used to be something there very few students in the east coast and the Northeast took now a lot of students do take it a lot more colleges do accept it the average ACT score is run you know we're we're all kind of familiar with SATs right 200 to 800 uh act goes 1 to 36 but the 25 uh they do tell you what the national average is is 19.5 so as soon as I took it scored on the aggregate higher than the uh the national average okay so I'm I'm pleased we we've we've seen U we didn't see decline we saw some some growth some areas some significant growth on the state test um it's I think it um gave support to some of the changes that we are making I think areas where we need to address and have not addressed yet or begun to address um are still crying out for to be addressed so I'm glad we're moving in that direction uh I I think the um the other the AP and the SAT and the act and those scores uh reflect real achievement of our students and again I want to remind uh everyone you know the state test is a one is a one snapshot of one moment right it's not it's really not the whole picture of what a student is about however it does provide us a lot of information that speaks to curriculum and speaks to the way we assess students and the way we address standards and we use that information and I do want to give credit to the supervisor and the administrators um who and then the teachers for the supervisor administrat is really taking a deep dive into the data and then opening the door to the teachers to take part in that conversation to develop uh ways to keep doing things better and last I think the atlas that J is talking about that curriculum model is going to help us too because that's going to be able to clearly help have us find areas of how where are standards addressed in not only curricul but in lesson planning what type of assessments are we giving um things of that nature to help us pinpoint areas of maybe deficiency and how we're presenting material or how we could do something better okay so that's my report um if anybody has any comments or questions I'll try my best to answer them there's a lot of stuff I you know I may I may not be able to answer everything specifically but try Mr sprayer is there any studies going around or any work on the T results uh I think overall there there has been some learning loss but when we looked U Mr cissi and Mr Manning did kind of a a a six-year study and this test it became the test maybe right right before the pandemic entered um we don't really see we see a little dip nothing tremendously noteworthy you know academically we managed to keep our doors open uh we we had a computer at every kid's hands right I don't think we took the hit there I think we saw a bigger um dip in the executive functioning skills social interaction especially with young kids who you know um I mean like you know kindergarten first second grade who maybe lost a lot of time and now here they are a second grade third grade first time in maybe a year that in a full classroom and and in a full classroom where you could be closer than six foot near somebody and you can see their face you know so I think that was a bigger impact honestly you know than even the academic side of it but yeah there was the answer go yeah there was a dip we didn't have I think a real serious one and I don't believe that could be any reason to explain because I could go back even with different test these patterns have been somewhat consistent over time of success and needs to improve anything else y can I if once we're done with this I have two other quick things to go over any any other questions a question about the interventions U are they do you get down to the student level or is it you know this modified no this is like a lot of this ISL I you'll see a lot ofl in here ISL is a computer program where you can pinpoint standards and and topics and students can work either independently or with a teacher so I mean almost all these interventions already to be used with with students um I mean some of it some of them could be how you structure a test question or how you structure a unit but but even that eventually is going to be the student involved but to my point I made earlier I hope the teachers are using them I trust that they are but we want to let the teachers say hey why don't you take a look at these these suggestions and see if you can come up with some of your own that you think are going to be more beneficial well I appreciate that you're looking as closely at the data as you are and that you've got these committees in place that have been kind of working on these curricular areas so it's another another data point yeah yeah um if there are no other questions just very briefly um there's a couple of things I'll mention when I think it be better just mention it when we get to that segment on on the U the Q Act the the DPR I mentioned something there and the calendar and one or two other things uh but I did want to mention about committees we are um Mr wiffer and I discussed that probably in November we'll have finance and building a ground now finance will be starting the budget cycle and that meeting in November will simply be the budget calendar um but one of the things we talked about in committee and I think we talked about briefly at a board meeting is trying to come to a final wrap up right of referendum funds and money that may need to be utilized in an area and money then that would then go back to offset some of the the debt right um we had met with uh PSA Matt where like in uh beginning of October end of September uh we went through and we asked them to uh review some of our suggestions that we made to the building of grounds uh for both um priority and also cost right so that we can get some real numbers around the guesstimates and uh we're hoping we already got some things back uh we have a couple of others still in the hopper you know and um so we're hoping that by the middle of November to the end of November that will be finalized then we can meet with building and grounds first of all to say Hey you know here's what we can do do we want to do it right and then with finance and building grounds to say here's the financial and result now of of of the of the project uh I apologize a little bit that has taken a while but you know you meet with um The Architects and then they want to bring in the engineers and you know all that kind of stuff so nothing nothing is as easy as it appears when Matt and I talk about it you know we we figure it out in our office but then they they come in and change everything around uh so hopefully that will come soon the other thing we policy Strauss Esme has a alert that they say is forthcoming so once we get that I'll do what we always do I'll send it out there's a need to meet we'll meet if there's a need to do we could do it electronically and then uh at some point uh Dr alot I'm sure will be speaking uh to the Rea negotiations um which you know um will probably commence in January like it usually does so most likely in November or December right Dr that group will get together so between now and the end of the calendar year building your grounds finance and uh po possibly policy we'll meet virtually or in person and Rea so we'll have a and and so it might not all be on that November 25th so what I'll do is once the once we get the information I'll put it out to you nice and early to say hey are you available to meet at this time or this day and we'll get I know it's a tough November and December are tough times with holidays and and all that kind of stuff but we'll have to get those meetings in in those two months okay and that's my report all right thank you any questions for Mr earlyy hearing none we will move on to the report of the president uh so just briefly thanks to those who were able to walk the parade during homecoming I heard it was an amazing football game uh I am sad that I couldn't be there but if you need to get scores and you need someone who's going to text message you really really quickly go to Mr bosan just giving me in the- moment scores uh but it was uh you know great day I heard almost everyone was able to make it so thank you for that uh just couple of things that are uh in Mr Hurley's memo just to site so specifically the buildings Finance uh buildings and grounds and finance so it's Monday November 25th so just mark your calendar uh for those meetings in the evening uh and I appreciate that Mr Hurley uh puts out in his memo some events that are coming up if board members can attend those that's always great uh just a plug for the RAF casino night they're reenvisioning it this year it's going to be at the West Mound Country Club one thing they're doing differently this year is as opposed to having two Signature Events which are typically casino night in the fall wine tasting in the spring they're just having one signature event a year and they're going to rotate between casino night and wine tasting so they're not going to have a wine tasting this year in the spring uh so if you're thinking about going to one of the big events this is the one to go to uh so it's November 15th uh I think that's about it for me any questions or comments all right then we are going to well I would typically open the meeting to the public but we don't have anyone here in the public this evening so we'll open and close the meeting at 8:09 p.m. and then we are going to move on to new business where there is action to be taken and we are going to start with Personnel Mrs Cole good evening Personnel did not meet this month and the following 14 motions are to be put forward at the recommendation of the superintendent number one is to accept the resignation um of a teacher at Pier Pon School number two is to approve a social studies teacher at the high school number three to approve a confidential business analysis in analysis in the business office number four is to approve to approve a consultant in the business office number five is to approve a lunch monitor number six is to approve the following faculty member teaching six classes number 78 9 and 10 is to approve a disability leave with pay number 11 is to resend approve the following coaching assignments at the high school as listed number 12 to approve the following teachers for presentations on lesson planning and curriculum Basics as listed number 13 to approve the following internships clinical placement student teachers in the Rutherford Public School District as listed and we're going to go to number 16 to approve the following travel reimbursements as listed all right thank you questions or comments Mr could you explain number 12 the service providers is that um is that new yeah there's um a mtion in program that um we started as you know new teachers get a mentor if they're not if they're provisionally certificated but we started uh Dr vko suggested a year ago that maybe we develop a program where we get some of our teachers to Mentor all new teachers to the district voluntarily the new teachers whether they're a first year teacher or a fifth year teacher right um it was a success and uh it's done strictly by the teachers none of the administrators are involved it was such a success that the the teachers in last year's first year program asked hey can we do a year two program so what we're doing tile those funds right Mr wford are for professional development and um we had the curriculum for lack of a better word in place for year one we had develop one for year two so we're paying some teachers to who give up their time they don't get paid for doing the presentation but they're getting paid to write the curriculum on their time through professional development funds okay and I think it's a great idea I mean you know it even if you're experienced teacher sometimes you know you come in like how do we do things you know so I think it's and it's voluntary and um I'd say maybe I'm doing this anecdotally half of the people who were in the year one program wanted to do a year two program so thank you uh Mrs Cole do you want to move motions 1 to 13 and 16 yeah I like to move motions 1 through 133 and 16 all right do we have a second all right Mr Sprayberry any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take rooll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maome yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes drot yes motion to carry all right thank you we're going to move on to curriculum and instruction M Jones thank you we did not have a cni meeting and tonight there are seven motions that are put forward at the recommendation for the by the suprem um njq performance review do you want to speak with this now or do you want me why don't you go through everything then I'll speak we did have a meeting October 16th and Mr Ry will speak to it a little while uh two is revised school calendar with the addition of Monday March 3rd a afternoon professional day for teachers we have 184 total of the year now number three out of District placements four field trips totally in 63 thus far five emergency bus evacuation drills home instruction for three students and summer Enrichment Academy um 2025 to include the rising fourth grade all right thank you okay let me comment on a three items I think there's three items uh let's start work backwards number seven um we've had over the last few years you know we've had a summer enrichment program probably 12 15 years we used to call it jump start and then we changed the approach um Mr monello who's one of our teachers has been um directing that for the last maybe six or seven years um we've had parents over the last few years um say why can't we do one for Rising fourth graders um we had qac well Esser money but you know money not qac money get all my acronyms wrong Esser money that we got through uh after the um Co that we did run a fourth grade program at Pont for I think two years utilizing some of that um you know credit recovery and um loss uh money and it seemed to be a smaller program than the grade three but one that people really like so we thought this year we would go with the uh the the grade four and house it at Pier Pont so that it's really not only academically jumping to grade four but it's also being in the bigger building being in the bigger desks you know uh that sort of thing uh this is a pay for itself program so you know there no impact on budget um and we think it'll be successful I I think Beyond grade 4 it will NE you know I don't see it ever expanding Beyond grade four kids get to grade five a lot of them are involved in other camps other activities um they're they don't want to be at school for another month you know but I think this grade four is a good idea so how's it up hereon um and we need board approval obviously for a new program also um as Mr whiffer um and I have been working on um going out to bid shortly we'll talk about this building in grounds in November for un events at Union and at Lincoln so there a very good chance then that next summer the enrichment program has been housed at Lincoln will be at Washington next year because Lincoln will be doing the UN events and then in the discussion with Mr monello and um Dr vko uh the thought was you know maybe it's a good idea if we alternate every year uh one year Lincoln one year Washington because then you know closer to one side of town for one year and also you know our custodians have to do like a mad rush to get the building ready every year so that could be in every other year where you know it gets a deeper clean so I think it's a great idea about the program I think it's a great idea to alternate the buildings too as time goes on but as you know it's been a very successful uh program uh let's see I said I was working backwards I should have worked in the right order oh the calendar uh we mentioned this last last time uh the March 3rd date of 1 session day for students for professional development for some of the work we're doing on the on all the goals and initiatives last year we added three uh this year we think one's sufficient and we think March 3rd will be um plenty of time to uh notify parents and the lake okay um and then qac the the district performers review is has to be submitted by November 12th so that's why I had to do it for this meeting uh to uh the state and what this is is the self-evaluation that we do of how we think we're going to score on all these areas okay and there are five areas you have to get at least an 80% in every one okay so all the administrators most of the supervisors uh some of the secretaries have started working on Gathering the data and the support that we need for all of this I mean this document the evidence that we need is 175 page um volume so we're looking at board agendas policies meeting minutes uh contracts uh treasurers reports uh you name it everything we do we have to be able to show documentation right some of is done electronically before they come a lot of it they want to see when they when they get here so we won get done with the documentation until probably shortly before I I asked all the administrators to get to me all the documentation by November 22nd because I don't know when they're coming yet they could be here as early as January 3rd they could be here as late as early April uh six years ago or whatever nine years ago I guess it was nine years ago uh they came on or six years ago whatever it was uh we were the number one draft chice they were here the first day January 4th okay um then the next time they came January 25th uh I did ask if they could come a little later this year uh because you know Mr Ryan that office is a big player in this and Miss Fargo did it many many times Mr Ryan's new Mr wiford did it in his previous position but he's new here so I thought with two key players knew maybe they give us a little more time but I still want everything by November 22nd because then I have to go through it to make sure we've hit every Mark right so Mr Whitford and I and Mr Ryan sat for a couple hours one day and we went through that 180 pages to make sure that we felt confident that we had everything that we needed so that we could then say what our score should be right so now we have to fill in all those spots to prove that we're right okay the reason why the curriculum instruction turns out to be whatever it is 40 is because the first seven or eight questions of test all based on test scores that the state populates so they'll they'll put that in I mean last time I think we scored a 92 I think that's what it was we're not going to get a 100 there because you know they look at the scores and okay um the reason why it may have looked a little different to you this time if you if you remember back three years ago and 3 years before that the state already had the scores in there by now okay the state we already knew by now when they were coming to visit everything's coming a little slower so we're approving you're approving that you're supporting our self-evaluation that we're going to score 100% in all the areas that we can score and the ones we can't score we have to wait to give what the state tells us okay and um what we need is to to submit this by November we between November 1 November 12 we need to have a committee sign in page which we have we need to have the DPR which we have and we need a board resolution as the board approved the submission of it so that's what this is for okay so those are the items I wanted to mention on the curriculum any any questions um any questions and Mrs Jones on the committee and the committee we had what about 13 people we had custodian a couple administrative supervisors teachers um board member uh Mr whiffer Mr Ryan on the committee all right uh M Jones you want to resolutions 1 through under instruction all right do we have a second Mr Mone any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take rooll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maon yes Dr rine yes Mr spurberry yes Dr lot yes motions Carri all right thank you we will move on now to finance Mr beian uh we have not had a finance committee meeting since our last full board meeting tonight on the agenda we have six motions number one is the routine approval of bills number two is the August uh treasurers report number three is a August budget line item transfers uh number four is to accept with gratitude a donation of 150 latex swimming caps from the Rutherford swim Association to the ruford high school athletics swim program number five is a donate to accept with gratitude a donation of playground equipment appropriate for the preschool class at Washington School from Joanne Abate uh and number six is to accept with gratitude a donation of 150 plus care packages promoting Dental Health from Dr chaal par smile today Dentistry of Rutherford all right thank you questions can I make one comment uh you know the last two or three meetings I'm doing this from memory again we've had several donations um none of which anyone solicited you know so it's really uh very nice that the community is reaching out to whether it be a a building principal or to me or to someone to say Hey you know can you use this can we can we bring it for I think this speaks very well to the community and also the community's um appreciation for and collaboration with the district absolutely what so what do we do with playground equipment do we is it go in the classroom or is it have uh it actually we didn't know what it was actually like a for the prechool kids so it's more like a little bus and you know so they'll they'll put it in their non-fixed equipment um yeah moov exactly uh all right uh Mr Bei you want to move this I'd like to move motions 1 through six on under Finance all right do we have a second Mr Hy any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take rooll Mr ban yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr M yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr lah yes motions carry thank you policy anything Mr hilly for us no we did not have a uh committee meeting since I last board meeting and uh questions all right thank you we'll move on to buildings and grounds Mr Sprayberry even have ground committee we have one motion to put forend um M4 um and I'd like to uh say great job on it I actually read the the whole thing went through it so great job thank you all right any questions hearing would you like to move this all right do we have a second M Cole any last questions or comments hearing none Mr Whitford please take roll Mr pan yes Mrs Cole yes Mr Healey yes Mrs Jones yes Mr maone yes Dr rine yes Mr Sprayberry yes Dr L yes motion's Carri okay we'll move on now to Old business is there any old business Miss Jones uh I did attend the Washington School PTA meeting it was Jessica saxon's first meeting and Mr Hurley was there also and there must have been about 40 people there that me had wow very interested parents and it she did a nice job nice welcome her to Washington school that's great thank you Mr Hy yes I attended the uh Kinder PTA first meeting and Mr H was there presentation and same thing was more than usual great thank you Mr Sprayberry everybody else Mr ear's there ear's everywh PTA so uh it was uh it was good to be back there with uh and I apologize for the current second GR Mr Good was good meeting you good be back in the keep hearing about that class and then I was at the high school PTA meeting Mr Hurley was there Mr Morano and as we all know usually the high school PTA meetings are a little light because of the parents are you know in freshman Junior sophomore seniors senior class is off to a good start so it was good to meeting great all right anything else we will move on to legislative update M Jones anything for us yes um interestingly enough it was suggested that we might want to read the anxious gener generation which was a book that Mr Hurley had and I did read it I am very grateful that I brought my kids up at a time when this was cell phones weren't even heard of um but also the apparent Academy has a sheet out and there are several sessions just on uh the anxious generation so I'm I'm going to try to see if I can in conjunction with that the bills that I'm not going to go into any detail with them but there are four bills one in the Senate and three in the assembly that all have to do um with establishing distraction um features for for school programs and devices to help them concentrate more um another bill 4855 concerns policies uh governing and um the use of cell phones and social media platforms and how disturbing that is to kids and these policies are now going to be well they're going to be voted on and then hopefully the uh Department of Education will come out with even more strting um requirements what we have so ours are pretty good there must be some districts that don't even have one yeah I I don't want to interrupt to you I'm you know um I was down at a meeting in Trenton where this was a big part of discussion um see I'm not just at PTA being I've been Tren to um and uh you know I I have mixed feelings about legislating certain things and coming up with policies you know and and then you have to enforce them right so what are you going to do it's a deal you know what are you going to do when that all of a sudden you make what I think are pretty I think I think a lot of what's recommended in that book about cell phone use in schools we already do um so you know if we have to do something more now is it a battle we're going to win and if we don't win it how do you handle it you know I think there's a certain amount of letting districts figure it out um and I think we've had a pretty good approach and we're not perfect and there's always if you have a rule there's going to be somebody who figure out a way to get around it right but you know I I think we I think we we we do it pretty well so this is a um a big topic on with the the Department of Education Board of Ed um with local Board of EDS with uh legislators it's a big topic but but you're you're looking at and I don't want to go on and on about this because I can I'll stop after this two sentences and I want to say something about the parent Academy um you're looking at cultural change right so those of us who were old enough to remember early 60s and cigarette smoking and when the surgeon general's report came out and how gradually over time right Johnny cars wasn't smoking on TV anymore uh you couldn't have ads on TV right it didn't happen overnight I mean now it's kind of rare to see somebody smoking or to or to smell it you know or to smoke indoors I mean that used to be a big thing right in school smok nobody they Vape now but nobody smokes indoors any more you know I mean you don't even think about it even if you're a smoker you don't think about it so that took 20 30 years of change you don't you don't do cultural change overnight and whe we like it or not this has become part of our culture so I think we have to take intelligent and and you know very um strategic responses this can't have a nuclear reaction to this not going to work and I'm glad we're in a place where we could tweak things a little bit and not really create a big upheaval right The Parent Academy I'm very pleased with what is out there right now uh and the people that are going to be involved in the presentation um we're we're going to be adding more things to it we're talking about the new math program we're talking about uh phonics we're talking about uh uh executive functioning skills which are three or four of our school's goals we're talking about the use of phones and the and and um you know social media we're trying to make those age appropriate we're doing them in the morning when we'll get some audience because of the young parents we're going to film them Mr Met's working with us uh lending out his equipment and working with us so we could uh V record them and then put them up on the web so people can see them uh we have staff members who have volunteered to be a part of it uh teachers and uh clinicians and sacks and administrators and the like uh so I think it's going to be a really really good thing Miss Coy oversees it uh she coordinates with with other people to get it going so I'm I'm really excited about that endeavor and about the reaction we've been getting to it you know so the first one is next Friday at Washington is on the Invision math program uh they're all going to be held either at Washington well I shouldn't say all there is a night one but that's a different one through a PTA but we're taking on the umbrella they're all going to be at Washington Lincoln or peer Pon because that's where you get parent drop offs and if other parents from other schools want to come they're welcome to come and then we'll record them there because we do these things at night you know if nobody shows up you know I hate to ask teachers and administrators give up a night and there's an audience of three you know so we get a crowd in the morning morning and we record it we'll put it out there but I think it's a really great Endeavor and yeah the book you know you could agree with everything in the book you could disagree with everything in the book but it is a very thought-provoking and interesting uh book that um has come forward South Bergen uh superintendant have reached out to me and they like our Parent Academy idea and they're thinking about doing something a little bigger in South Bergen maybe like maybe in the spring about some of these topics and again I don't want to sound like we're Hawking this book it's about the topic of you know uh of the internet of social media of cell phones of executive functioning we can utilize some of the data he presents but you know we're not promoting his book we're promoting the topic that he raises so we're I'm talking to some of the other superintendants about that as well but you're right it's out there legislator and I hope they just use good judgment of what they perer and Mr Sprayberry by your smirk you're we're we're thinking the same thing all right thank you at 8:34 p.m. we're going to open the meeting to the public and then we are going to close the meeting to the public we do not have a need for an executive session which means we'll entertain a motion to adjourn Mr bosan seconded by Mr Sprayberry we got the jameses all in favor I all right we are adjourned