##VIDEO ID:tEKkfuKOLNw## e are [Music] can you tell me which one is mine right here we should we should turn them around be when I see how it is e e [Laughter] sorry if I bump I have to read [Music] good all I don't know what happens are you okay welcome I'd like to call the order tonight's meeting October 17th uh regular public board meeting Mr Jones can you please call the role miss barve here Miss Bower here miss Boral here miss Brody here miss serani here Miss Williams Miss Winkler here Dr Kowski here Mr Murray here motion carries so first is executive session report um we discuss Personnel hi suspension detention and a legal status report uh we have a couple of additions to the agenda and uh for those that were not in the tenure recognition ceremony uh Dr Mass has lost her voice so she will be um her voice will be Dr McGary this evening so I'll move over to the superintendence report presented by the assistant superintendent in the words of the superintendent I don't think it makes sense last week I had the pleasure of attending a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new wing of Evergreen it was a special moment to see my office meaning Dr M's office and my colleagues offices meaning my office converted into classrooms for students knowing that quality teaching and learning is happening there it also however was a reminder that all our schools need this kind of extra space to accommodate our growing student population and maintain the quality that is expected of SPF that's why it's still very disappointing that the plan to add this much-needed space failed by about 260 votes last month as I've said before the needs that existed before the referendum aren't going away since September the Board of Education and I have been listening carefully to community feedback and reviewing the election results to determine next steps we heard clearly through the September referendum that purchasing renovating and expanding LR was too big of a financial ask yet the community was willing to support HVAC electrical and fire alarm upgrades in our current schools an alternative path became clear this week when the owner of 330 South Avenue agreed to lower the purchase price and hold the property for another three months this new development is leading us to plan a scaled back bond proposal for voters to consider on January 28th during tonight's meeting you'll hear the board lay the foundation to hold another another much smaller referendum on January 28th while many details are still to be determined and won't be finalized until our November board meeting we anticipate that this January vote would give the community an alternative option at less than half the price the new scal back plan would allow us to purchase L Grand Elementary School with referendum funds if voters approve luckily the property owner has agreed to hold the property for this extension the district could then use funds from capital reserve to cover the cost of minor Renovations an expansion would be off the table for the near future and will continue trying to find and best utiliz space to deal with the growing population ultimately LR could be used as an Early Learning Center for our District's pre kindergarten students the district's program includes students who are required to be in the program and students who pay tuition by educating them in one building we could ease the current space crunch in our elementary schools most students would also get to remain in their current schools for the time being to the second question of hbac electrical and fire alarm upgrades in our current schools would also again be on the ballot since we heard overwhelming support for that through the election results I want to continue to be transparent at every stage of this process these are the the details we clearly know and while I understand that may raise many questions for residents we remain committed to providing more details over the next three months to give everyone an opportunity to make a fact-based decision I also want to personally invite any community members interested in helping shape the ballot questions and future of SPF to join a future ready planning committee the citizen group will meet monthly through January and then periodically after there after to provide valuable input on the future of our schools please contact Robin Broadbent at R Broadbent b r o a DB n t at spfk12.org if you are interested in joining more details are available at spfk12.org future you can also share any questions or feedback with future at spfk12.org we we may not be able to answer every question immediately but we will keep them and respond as details are finalized thank you for your continued understanding as we work together to address the space constraint in our schools thank you Dr McGary and Dr Mast business administrator report Mr Jones thanks yeah so this is you know it's really exciting night to to announce this and and really start the communication out with with the community members I just want to highlight um it's been this week has been a lot a lot of time spent uh negotiating and on the agenda tonight is the option the option to purchase the building at 330 South so I think um one thing just to address is you know why it was extended I think you know we're dealing with a business here somebody who owns it and of course you know he was able to lower the price but at the same time uh the the owner definitely the seller um wants needs more cash right so more cash up front um but a lower price and lower price on the back end so I think it was a took a lot of time and just want to thank the uh finance committee and uh you know um specifically uh Mr Murray here for helping us negotiate that and really uh push me to um to really think about all the options we had uh with the building um and then secondarily on the agenda I want to point out is the um an Architects proposal to go in and look and see what the uh the app what we can do how much it will cost to rent rovate it to get up the code and I would say when we say minor Renovations it's really bring it up the code and make sure that it's appropriate um for a preschool and The Architects are working with us this will they are you know uh at at a low relatively low cost and throwing in um they all they also have a structural engineer um that going in and making sure that it's this Foundation is stable because previously we're looking at some major Renovations so there's some additional work to do there um but overall I'm just really excited to get going on this and uh look forward to uh working with the community members uh over the next few months thank you Mr Jones board president announcement the New Jersey open public meeting law is enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which the business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Scotch Plain food board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices at 3:13 South Avenue Fanwood New Jersey such notice was also provided written notice forwarded to the Union County Hawk The Star Ledger the Township Clerk of Scotch Plains and the cler burough Clerk of Fanwood and the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings as adopted April 25th 2024 and revised August 27th 2024 sorry we're gonna really just turn around real quick Mr Miller apparently has something that he'd like to share Dr Miller sorry Dr Miller my apologies gns [Music] won congratulations so I I typically don't have an opening statement but I'm going to make one this evening because I feel it's important um because of um you know a lot of communication in in the in the community has been around the referendum and Community engagement and the board's um collaboration with uh both Fanwood and Scotch Plains as well as our role as board members um and you know why and and how we we're you know we're not able to really speak publicly um on behalf of the board so um I'm going to read you know some some points that I wanted to make sure that I got through um uh you know just to make sure that you know people had a full perspective on on all the work that this board has done and is doing continually for not only the on behalf of the community but the students um that we support so thank you for joining us this evening I thought it would be important to for me to dispel some of the miscommunications and misconceptions that have been raised about the bond referendum that was put forth to ensure the St children of our community have the best learning environment possible for their continued growth and development the first is that the board and School District need to and need to partner more with the both townships so for several years years um we've had um Regular partnership meetings with both the leadership of Fanwood and the leadership of Scotch Plains these meetings are attended by Dr Mast uh the chair of the Board of Ed finance committee uh at this point is U Miss Brody uh board president being myself both Mayors business administrator Township managers and representative council members of each Community the purpose of those meetings which were established um to ensure that all three entities have a full understanding and full disclosure of the District priorities and large capital projects there are discussions on ways to collaborate effectively in the best interest of the children and community members who are impacted by the decisions made by all three entities combined the second item was the township should be providing pilot Monies to the schools to assist with the expansion of the space needs to be absolutely clear we have consistently asked and have been told those funds have already been allocated for other purposes the third and final item I wanted to mention is about the communications to the broader Community about the bond referendum the school distri District administration has had many conversations with both communities governing bodies to enlist their support of the initiative and each decided to take a VAR a very different approach the leadership of each Community chose the level of which they wanted to participate Fanwood coordinated meetings with Township officials interviews with the superintendent and a supportive social media presence we worked with the township of Scotch Plains and it was the decision of the majority of the sitting council members to not share any information on the school bond referendum through any of their communication channels that they have with their community so with that being said it was extremely difficult for the district to reach the broader Community as the source of that information outside of the school Community lies with the township there was no lack of trying just a lack of support and my final comments are to review some of the roles and restrictions as board members as you all know we live in a society driven by social media if you want to know something just go to Facebook if it's on Facebook it has to be true right so we ask that you please stop getting your information from Facebook and reach out to The District administration Dr Mass has always made made herself available to the community and their concerns I can attest she spent two hours walking around the high school track with a parent just to talk about a specific issue that she that that parent had heard on social media as for myself and my fellow board members we've said this many times board members are prohibited from speaking on behalf of the entire board the role of the board member is to see that the school district is run well the written policies of the board provide guidance and direction to the chief School administrator um board members have no legal Authority except when sitting with other board members in a legally constituted meeting an individual board member cannot make decisions for the board take action for the board or speak for the board unless the board has authorized them to do so likewise concerns of individuals in the community which are brought to the attention of a board member cannot be acted upon by that board member but are referred through the established Channel such as the board president Andor Chief School administrator that being Dr mast in closing I just want to let everyone know that we always have and always will have the needs of our students as a top priority I encourage everyone to continue to raise concerns to the administration and as Dr Mass continue to communicates her door and phone line is always available for a conversation thank you now on to our student Representatives so we have Mack who is our senior board rep and we actually have a new representative joining the board and in the junior board rep capacity and that's Grace McDougall thank you I just wanted to start off by saying that I'm excited to be here and to move up to the position of senior representative I'm also really excited to welcome Grace McDougall to the board as our Junior representative clearly we're already on the same wavelength outfit wise so I'm sure we're going to work great together this year um first I just wanted to give Grace a minute to introduce herself yeah um wait okay hi I'm Grace I'm the new Junior Board of education representative I wanted to start off by just saying a few things about myself um I'm a tennis captain at the high school for the girls tennis team I also am involved in model un as a youth secretary and heavily involved in the Spanish language clubs such as salsa and hea and um uh Union Latina um I'm very excited to be given this opportunity to be able to give back to my community in a way as well as offer a voice for other students at the school and overall I'm very excited for this new year and what it has to bring and being involved in my community so thank you welcome now moving on to our report um we are over halfway through the first marking period in the district and I know a lot of seniors are in the thick of college applications um and also going out the high school is our fall play this year which is called game of tiaras and we're currently in rehearsals for that um my aspect of the report is that for tennis we recently have been doing much better this season with the new freshman coming in and also just have been performing better um we have three games left in our season for PSAT testing we had PSAT testing today for juniors which changed the schedule a little bit so we had to get launch after but um it can be stressful sometimes but it reminds us Juniors that we are now approaching the bigger steps of our future um as well as implementation of ID cards um it has been running smoothly at first it was a little abrupt of a change for many students to adjust to the ID cards and there were very long lines to enter the school which kind of backed up things however now these next few weeks we've been doing well with scanning in and it's become part of our routines I just wanted to add that we had a varsity football game last week against Cranford and Jalia Richards who is a sophomore at the high school uh scored the first Varsity touchdown by a girl in New Jersey history which is such an incredible accomplishment and varsity has another home game tomorrow against Perth and boy and lastly next week is homecoming week at the high school so we have Spirit Week taking place and our homecoming dance on Thursday and to end the week is the homecoming football game against Summit next Friday which we're excited for yeah thank you thank you and welcome okay we are now on instructional updates so we're going to move to the state assessment report so as you heard earlier um we did vacate our offices at Evergreen um which included the board meeting room so we're still getting used to having our meetings in this new space which means my presentation is going to be behind you it makes the meetings interactive so you get to take a break maybe stretch a little and [Music] refocus so welcome everyone to our 2023 2024 State assessment report presentation I'm Robert McGary the assistant superintendent and I'll be walking you through our District's performance on state assessments this year today we'll be covering results from three main assessments the New Jersey student learning assessment in English language arts mathematics and science the dynamic learning Maps which which is an alternative assessment and the access for L's a test for our multilingual Learners so before we dive in I'd like to set our data lens these assessments provide valuable insights but they're just one measure of student performance they focus on core subjects but don't capture everything we value in our district I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge everyone who contributed to this process from our curriculum supervisors who are here in the audience this evening and our building administrators to our teachers support staff and our students and their families as well as the board curriculum committee who got to have a preview of this the other night um special shout out to Miss Lisa Howard and Dr Timothy donu who coordinate all the testing that happens around the district which is a very labor intensive process this truly is a team effort and the dedication of everyone I've listed here matters and is truly appreciated so we're going to begin with the D Dynamic learning Maps or the dlm which is an alternative assessment for students with significant cognitive abil disabilities it's administered to students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 for ELA and math and grades 5 8 and 11 for science this assessment helps us understand the progress of our students with the most significant ific cognitive disabilities looking at our results this year in ela we had 17 students participate with seven reaching Target or Advanced levels for math we had 18 students take the assessment with a seven at Target or Advanced and in science we had just five students take the assessment um with one student reaching the target level we use this data and by we I mean our administrators led by Dr Lisa rimus Andrea Tesco and Diane Panino in in special services use it to really make some curricular decisions provide instructional feedback and we use it as an additional data point to monitor student progress and growth so turning to the access for L's which is an English language proficiency test for multilingual Learners this test is administered annually to students who are identified as MultiLing Learners it helps us monitor their progress in academic English across four domains listening speaking reading and writing this year we administered the access to 97 English language Learners or multi multilingual Learners um and they are scored on an English language proficiency level from 1 to six a key highlight is that 18 students received a score of 4.5 or higher qualifying them to exit the ESL program this result is consistent with District performance over the last several years now we turn to the njsla results starting with English language arts these assessments give us a comprehensive view of our students performance in core subject areas this chart with SPF in the blue and the state in Gray Compares our District's Ela per performance to the state average note how we con consistently outperform the state across all grade levels our strongest performance you might note is in grades four five 7 and nine where over 70% of students are meeting or exceeding expectations moving to mathematics we again see performance above the state average our strongest results in grades three and four we see some opportunities for growth in other grades and in geometry in particular though we're still outperforming State averages in all of these except in geometry and lastly in science which is tested in grades 5 8 and 11 we're significantly outperforming State averages grade 11 shows particularly stronger than State results with over 50% of students at or above the proficient level so now we'll break things down um a bit more first as a review here here are the five levels uh performance levels used in the njsla um in the ELA and in the math um those range from not yet meeting expectations to exceeding grade level expectations understanding these levels help us interpret the data we'll be looking at this overview shows our Ela performance across grades 3 through n note the consistent strong performance with a majority of students meeting or exceeding expectations in all grades pay attention to the patterns as we move through the grade levels I like to follow the progression of the yellow band um as with rather consistent orange and red yellow can tell us a great deal we'll be taking a three-year look at performance thus in the slides that follow you will see a set of three bars each representing a different school year from 2022 to 2024 note this is not real data on this slide it's just used as an example then you will see on the slides that follow um you'll see subject and grade level headers and then you'll see each slide whoops broken down into two halves with the left half um representing SPF over the years and the right side representing the state this make sense as a reminder this is grade level achievement over time with each bar in the pair of graphs you you'll be seeing representing completely different groups of students with each group having unique pandemic and pre- and post-pandemic experiences okay here we go looking at grade 3 Ela over the past three years we see fairly steady results however there remains a gap between this grade level's performance and the results we earned pre pandemic for grade four Ela we've maintained strong performance over three years there's been a notable increase in students exceeding expectations from 24% in 2022 to 33.1% in 2024 this suggests that our early literacy initiatives are having a positive impact over time in grade 5 Ela we see consistent performance over the three-year period however the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations has improved by over 5% our Focus will be on moving more students from the meeting to the exceeding from the lighter green to the darker green as we did this past year for grade six Ela we notice a slight dip in performance in 2023 but a recovery in 2024 the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2024 is 67 . 5% up from 61.7% in 2023 this Improvement suggests that our targeted interventions are working in grade seven Ela we've seen gradual improvement over the three years the percentage of students in the top categories has increased 11.6% over these three years for grade 8 Ela performance has remained relatively stable over the 3 years we're seeing 73.7% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 20124 versus 52.9% in the previous year I'm sorry 52.9% across the state so if you take our 2024 versus the state's 2024 it's a 52.9% um better performance for SPF in grade n Ela we've seen a positive trend over the three years the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations has grown from 61.8% in 2023 to 72.7% this past year this suggests a strong transition from middle to high school Ela instruction so on the next slides that follow we're going to take a look at cohort growth meaning we're going to look at how the same students performed over subsequent grade levels so here are current fifth graders and how they performed in third and fourth grade so in um we see growth from 61% meeting or exceeding in third grade to 72% meeting or exceeding in fourth grade this positive trend indicates that effective instruction and and that we're seeing significant student progress for our current sixth graders we're looking at performance from third through fifth grade we see 61% meeting or exceeding in third grade 72% in fourth grade and 71.5% in fifth grade this steady and improving performance shows consistent growth as students progress we see consistent results for our seventh graders as well while our eighth graders saw a 10.6% increase in meeting expectation meeting or exceeding expectations and a 14% increase for our current nth graders when they transitioned between seventh and 8th grade and our current 10th graders showed a very strong transition to high school another way that we look at the data is through various demographic groups um so we're going to look here at the ELA um data broken down by by gender first um where we see that um 75% of females are meeting exceeding expectations which is an increase of 1.54% from last year and we see 64.8 one% of males meeting or exceeding which is an increase of 4.26 percentage points the Gap the gap between male and female performance has narrowed slightly in ela achievement by ethnicity and race we see improvements across across almost all groups notable gains in the black or African-American group up 3.55 percentage points and Asian students continue to per perform strongly at 82.3% meeting or exceeding expectations and the last look is at um students who are in specific programs um students with disabilities are economically disadvantaged students students who have 504 plans and are English Learners students with 504 plans showed significant Improvement um of 2.97 percentage points over the previous year our economically disadvantage students improved as well and English language learner showed a modest gain of 2.44 percentage points these results suggest that our support programs are having a positive impact our Ela supervisors Miss Dunston and Dr McKenna have been digging into this data data with our teachers and thus far have observed the following consistent above State average performance across all grades ongoing increase in ela proficiency rates improved performance across diverse demographic groups growth in complex non-fiction comprehension skills and the need for continued focus on literary analysis in some grades some next steps in ela is to leverage diverse assessments for targeted professional development and advanced literacy instruction we just came off of having a professional development day where we we engaged in a lot of this work already enhanced literary analysis instruction in Elementary grades is a priority strengthening cross-curricular support for complex text comprehension and refining our fifth grade teaming or platooning as we call it and content specific planning now let's turn our attention to mathematics performance like Ela we'll examine grade level Trends cohort growth and demographic breakdowns this overview shows our math performance across grades three through the course geometry at the high school note the strong performance in Elementary grades particularly grades three and four we see some challenges in the Middle grades and in geometry and as I was reminded by one of our board members who's a a former math teacher in the district um this pattern is not uncommon as mathematical Concepts become more abstract in these years so again we're going to look at um grade each grade level ac across the the previous three years in grade three math we've seen steady performance with close to 20% more SPF students meeting or exceeding expectations than students across estate this strong Foundation is crucial for mathema for future mathematical success great four math shows consistent high performance we've maintained around 70% meeting or exceeding expectations across all three years with a 6.4% increase in 2024 bringing the percentage to 74.6 which is above prepandemic outcomes the stability here indicates effective instruction and curriculum alignment kudos to our fourth grade team and to all who worked as math tutors in our Spring High Impact tutoring program that that was funded through a grant in grade five math we see a decrease of students scoring in the red and a small increase in meeting or exceeding over 2022 this progress is encouraging as students transition to more complex mathematical Concepts grade six shows some fluctuation over the three years this grade level often sees challenges as students encounter as as we said more abstract mathematical thinking many students in this cohort are now being provided with a specific math lab course as an intervention rather than the former math Explorations course in grade seven we've seen gradual Improvement the percentage meeting or exceeding expectations has risen from 54% in 2022 to 61.1% in 2024 which is 23.6% above the state average while there's still room for growth this upward trend is positive Algebra 1 shows improving performance in the decrease of students scoring in the red and orange ranges and a 5% increase in students meeting or exceeding expectations this is particularly encouraging as algebra 1 is a gateway course for higher level mathematics and it is also noteworthy as are one of the few districts to provide Algebra 1 for the majority 95% of our eth grade students as I shared before geometry is a concern and something we are digging deeper into in terms of the alignment um of the curriculum and um the units that we study in what is known as alge Al analytic algebra and geometry um we'll now take a look at cohort growth as we did with Ela for our current fifth graders we see strong and consistent performance in third grade 73% were meeting our exceeding expectations and this increased slightly to 74.6% in fourth grade this stability indicates that students are successfully building on their mathematical Foundation we see a greatly enlarged yellow band in um in this cohorts progress notably in when they were in grade five we will definitely be digging deeper into the students scoring in this range to determine possible causes of that expansion of the yellow for our current seventh graders we see some challenges in fourth grade 73.2% of them were meeting exceeding expectations this dropped to 62% in the fifth grade and in sixth grade it further decreased to 55.3% that this trend highlights the need for targeted support in the transition to middle school math which is exactly what we're providing via our new math lab course the pattern is is a little opposite um for students who are now in 8th grade where we're also implementing a new math lab course to bolster bolster student outcomes so looking at demographic breakdown in mathematics uh 56.6% % of females are meeting or exceeding expectations which is a little bit of a of downward turn of 1.13% males uh 6.26% are meeting exceeding expectations which is up um less than a percentage point and the gender gap as a result of that is widening a little bit um from the previous year we're developing targeted strategies to support and encourage students in mathematics but one example is that we're continuing to study the sense of belonging in math with our partners at the University of Chicago for math performance by ethnicity and race Asian students continue to perform strongly at 78.6 3% Hispanic or Latino students improved by 1.23 percentage points this past year um black or African-American students maintained their performance with a a slight increase of less than a percentage Point white students saw a small decrease of less than a percentage point and we're focusing um as a result of this and have been for since our strategic plan and and probably before that um with targeted interventions to close achievement gaps while maintaining high performance across all groups in math performance by program students with 504 plans improved by 5.52 percentage points economically disadvantaged students gained 4.55 points in English language learner showed significant Improvement up 6.08 points and those those um groups the economically disadvantaged um and our English language Learners were students that we really looked at um in selecting students for our high impact tutoring program these mixed results show the impact of some of our targeted interventions but also highlight areas needing additional support so here are some of the observations of our math leadership team Miss Rosander and Mr Orin again above State performance in most every grade level or Math course improved results across diverse demographic groups performance dips in transition years so third grade is the first time they take the njsla so that's a transition fifth grade being that moov to Middle School sixth grade being a move to to sort of more complex mathemat abstract mathematical um thinking and a and a different math program and geometry grades five and six are are still outperforming the 2022 cohort despite a slight decrease from 2023 so next steps that um our leaders have identified are to enhance PD for small group differentiated instruction M Rosander LED several um workshops on Monday on this specific topic for um Elementary grade level students uh teachers um we've identified that we need to strengthen vertical articulation in transition grades the fourth through six and the 8th to 9th we need to bolster fifth grade platooning with content specific support where we have some fifth grade teachers teaching math and others teaching um reading we need to strategically Implement map data findings integrate njsla style questions into quarterly assessments diversify questioning techniques to boost critical thinking and continue to maximize the high impact tutoring funds that are available yet again this year so turning to science so um SC so science is tested a little less frequently than Ela and math so these results will give us a snapshot at key points in our students academic Journey science also uses different levels of performance from below proficient to Advanced proficient this overview show a strong performance across all tested grades in science when compared to the state averages we looked at earlier grade five shows 42.7 proficient or Advanced proficient grade eight shows improvement from 27.7% to 29.7% and um we've also seen a decrease in those in the percentage of those below proficient and it's important to note that while we've got 27 or 29.7% the state percentage here is only 18% grade 11 stands out with 51.5% of students proficient or Advanced proficient including 177% at the the advanced proficient level in fifth grade science we've seen steady improvement over the the last three years um our proficient Advanced proficient percentage has increased from 39% in 2022 to 42.7 in 2024 the percentage of students in the below proficient category has decreased each year and this trend suggests that our elementary science curriculum instruction are improving and that the platooned approach to fifth grade we implemented last year may be having a positive impact 8th grade science showed a positive trend we've seen a notable increase in the advanced proficient category from 3% to 8.6% over time in 11th grade science results are particularly strong compared to the state with 23.4% more students in the proficient Advanced proficient range in SPF than in the state and now again we'll take a closer look at um the demographic groups in science in science we see balanced performance between genders um females 40.3% proficient Advanced up 1.6 percentage points from last year and males 42.072 percentage points over the previous year the consistent growth for both genders is encouraging though we're working on strategies to boost overall proficiency rates science performance by ethnicity and race shows some positive Trends Asian students lead with 57.5 7% um which is an increase of 4.64% black or African-American students saw a notable increase of 3.5 percentage points and students of two or more races showed significant Improvement up 13.1 um percentage points to 63.23 per. and lastly by program science performance by program shows mixed results students with 504 plans improved significantly to 4.47% up 6.27% points economically disadvantaged students increased 18.6% Up 3 point up to 18.6 which was up 3.3 percentage points English Learners showed notable Improvement up 11.1% up um so which is really significant the the the multi lingual Learners and the former multilingual Learners as last year was the first year that Miss Howard our world language and ESL supervisor developed and presented specific um plans for all of our English language Learners to teachers of all content areas of those Learners our science supervisor Miss Faria has observed the following outperforming State averages in all tested grades improved proficiency and advanced Proficiency in fifth and eighth grades with fewer below proficient a slight decrease in 11th grade proficiency but still well above State average and positive gains across diverse demographic groups reflective of inclusive instructional efforts while implementing the following steps fifth grade teaming as I've said has showed some positive impact especially in physical science and critiquing practices so we're going to continue to deepen the curriculum Focus there Middle School maintaining the integration of njsla science style questions across all grades with the help of generative AI um and at the high school balancing content demands with science and engineering practices emphasizing investigation sensemaking and critiquing to boost literacy and proficiency so I've endeavored to bring student voice into this rather number driven presentation each year because remember this is about students right right um typically this has been the voices of high school students this year instead I asked some of our fifth graders at Terell and nedham what do state test results not tell us about you as a student here are some of their insightful responses they don't tell us what I'm good at they can't tell us that I was very scared and nervous to take the test they also couldn't see that I like different things I guess other than Ela Math and Science to state test results don't tell about what we felt while taking this test they don't tell that we are smart and we know how to learn they don't tell us that I work hard they don't tell who I really am and who I want to be state test results do not tell you in a student is what is happening at home or school that is causing distraction or discomfort and my favorite state test results don't tell you about how I am a hardworking student a loving kind and grateful friend and passionate about my sports and I appreciate my friends and family so these responses uh remind us of the importance of seeing the whole child Beyond test scores they highlight emotional aspects of test testing and the many strengths and qualities our students possess that aren't captured by standardized tests as we move forward with our Improvement plans we'll keep these student perspectives in mind ensuring our approach to education remains holistic and student centered thank you for your attention to this comprehensive review of our state assessment results they provide valuable insights but they're just one part of how we measure and support to Student Success we're committed to using this data and other um aspects of of classroom data that we collect to inform our practices and improve outcomes for all students are there any questions about the data we reviewed or our next steps I don't oh you have a question I didn't have a question I had one question when is the high impact tutoring funding ending so um it was extended for another year and we were actually given a little B bit more money this year to to put towards that thanks for the reminder y so just a final reminder that behind every data point there is a child thank you thank you Dr [Music] McGary our next update is ssds and hi reporting good evening everyone the New Jersey Department of Education utilizes the student safety data system to report on the electronic violence and vandalism Reporting System evv RS and the harassment intimidation and bullying investigations trainings and programs I will report on the evrs and Mrs iusi will report on the harassment intimidation and bullying investigations trainings and programs and school self assessments the data I present is based on five identified categories by the state of New Jersey and is entered biannually into their reporting system this data is reported publicly to the board um at two two times a year the following data is for the reporting period of January 2024 to June 2024 in the category of violence there were nine incidents is reported um in all schools vandalism two incidents report reported weapons one incidence reported and in substance zero incidences were reported Mrs ausi will um report the number of incidences regarding Hib it's in the back good evening everyone uh so tonight I will first present on the the school self assessments for the 2023 2024 school year and then give the harassment intimidation and bullying investigation trainings and programs report for the January through June of the 2024 period so there are slides behind you New Jersey Law requires school districts and public schools to complete a self assessment to help schools and school districts evaluate their efforts in implementing the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act it serves as an opportunity for schools to reinforce and strengthen Hib prevention and intervention programs policies and practices each School completed their school self- assessment in the spring of 2024 there are eight core elements you can see listed here element one covers Hib programs approaches and initiatives specifically the section asks that schools annually Implement document and assess Hib programming that are designed to create schoolwide conditions to prevent and address HIV element two covers training for both adults in the schools and students element 3 covers other staff instruction such as HIV and suicide prevention within a 5-year professional development cycle and professional development for our abss those are our anti-bullying Specialists school safety teams and administrators element four covers curriculum this looks at our provision of ongoing instruction on preventing HIV for students and the participation in New Jersey's week of respect each fall which we we recently had element five covers Personnel this element asks that we appoint an anti-bullying specialist and create a school safety team in each of our schools additionally as required by the law the anti-bullying Specialists meet regularly throughout the year with the anti-bullying coordinator there are two options for core elements number six and seven based on if there was a minimum of one Hib report element six covers incident reporting this section looks specifically at whether we have implemented specific procedures for reporting HIV element 7 covers investigation procedures following the proper steps and following the timeline and element a covers HIV reporting and asks that our procedure for reporting ensure that we gather all the required information here are the self assessment scores by school for the 2023 24 school year each element has one to five indicators on which a school can re receive points points are given on a scale of 0 to three for each indicator to arrive at a total score with a maximum value of 78 school grades are then averaged together to make the district grade as you see the district grade is blank and that is because the scores do not get submitted until after this public meeting and on this slide you can see the scores per School our district grade the number of HIV reports and confir confirmed cases for the past three years beginning with the most current year in the left column I will now move on to the next portion of the presentation which again is the harassment intimidation and bullying investigations trainings and programs report for the Janu January through June of the 2024 period here is a list of our anti-bullying specialists in each School building who led the 50 investigations for our school District last school year out of the 50 investigations 20 were confirmed and all the investigations have been completed regardless of the outcome of each Hib investigation each case identifies remediations for the students involved including the bystanders I have grouped the remediations into three categories support skill development and prevention for support we had counselors use the referral process for in school and outside Services plan check-ins with the school counselor Oru student assistant Specialists social workers School principles and when applicable the case manager effective School Solutions and recers Behavioral Health Care also provided student support for those enrolled in the program in their program or through referrals for skill development the areas of concern were addressed in many ways to develop positive social skills through explicit instruction and opportunities to practice those skills some examples were peer mediation conflict resolution lessons on friendship building and neurodiversity other approaches were behavioral coaching the use of literature to enhance learning and incorporating zones of Regulation to develop emotional regulation strategies in counseling sessions and in the classroom and lastly for prevention there was a student creative poster activity detailing anti-bullying behavior and how to be an upstander check-in and checkout charts were used to help with goal setting digital citizenship and diversity lessons sensitivity training guidance toward an apology of action lessons on cultural biases parent communication and involvement with the school logical consequences chart and linking the student to extracurricular activities to increase their sense of belonging we'll now move on to trainings each School conducted training to support a safe School climate the elementary schools continue to implement the second step step social emotional curriculum throughout the school year some specific trainings to highlight are the nurtured heart approach training for fifth grade teachers and the instructor training at the middle schools school-based threat assessment team training substance use and child abuse training Teen Mental Health instructor training we now have six teachers as certified instructors and school safety climate team meetings Hib training for fifth sixth seventh and eighth grade stakeholders and anti-bulling specialist and anti-bullying coordinator meetings this brings us to the final slide which looks at specific programming students and staff have participated in to support a safe and positive School climate and prevent or reduce HIV incidents some of the programming was districtwide schoolwide or grade level specific at the elementary schools there were anti-bullying and school climate assemblies one to highlight is school On's Pride character education student lead assemblies at all the schools the teachers conducted bullying prev ition lessons student assistant specialist LED small counseling groups or classroom lessons for social skills peer conflict and regulating emotions classroom teachers delivered Second Step seal lessons during responsive classroom meetings at Brunner these meetings also included approaches on teacher talk morning meetings and logical consequences student leadership opportunities continued in our elementary schools through student council events Service Learning and peer-to-peer activities such as reading Buddies think purple week activities and lessons focused on drug and aloh alcohol prevention by focusing on Wellness the great kindness Challenge and activities for kindness week took place in several schools Evergreen celebrated Autism Awareness with many activities school one had a schoolwide bubble celebration on neurodiversity mcginn's career day had the theme be you belong and school one Incorporated seal with the theme social emotional learning meets career day a celebration of diversity equity and and and inclusion happened in several ways celebrating differences day classroom lessons Multicultural night monthly themed announcements for Heritage months Global family night and Global cultures day koh's emphasized School climate activities such as Friday March Madness and movement May there was high school Heroes Mental Health Awareness Month activities and valuable PT assemblies with Daryl harell on disab disability awareness and the Mr socks Rock concert also took place remembering our teachers during their appreci appreciation week was another spring highlight toward a positive School climate at the middle schools there was an assembly with speaker Sam Anthony during think purple week a three plus Health poster contest leads police School celebr uh collaboration excuse me for positive decision- making for our fifth graders nor math NR n o RC how do we no RC math sense of belonging Pals and heroes student leadership group student council another leadership opportunity safe space club uh Terrell Joy netting ham this past June for their prom Dr dumes was the DJ I heard effective School Solutions and Ruckers behavioral health program provided interventions for students with increased risk factors star advisory which included career education lessons shining fourth Awards program for positive student behavior and committees for both School climate and health and wellness which included a school climate survey at the end of the school year and at the the high school we had Green Dot and upstander training was provided to the last last year's nth graders during their health class as well as a lesson on establishing healthy friendships our former 12th graders received consent 101 to receive Biser training as well as information about sexual consent and non-consent and last year's 11th graders received Teen Mental Health First Aid which teaches how to identify and understand and respond to signs of mental health including the impact bullying Behavior can have on their mental well-being and lastly our 10th 11th and 12th graders worked uh from various clubs worked with Mr Dory our student assistant specialist at the high school at the elementary level developing and providing think purple activities to our um ever green students and our school one students so that is the the end of the programming thank you for the opportunity to share many of the ways our staff and students contribute to maintaining and and enhancing our school's positive School culture and climate are there any questions thank you missy Dr aimus anybody questions just kudos to the amount that goes on yes thank you very much thank you thank [Applause] you and now for our next instructional update it's uh from the EF I want to introduce uh Mr Joe Lano from the EF uh thank you members of the Board of Education uh for uh introducing this topic to the this evening's agenda I wanted to share with you that uh on behalf of the education enrichment Foundation of scotch blings Fanwood I'm pleased to inform you that the foundation has approved the budget of $10,000 for a grant to support the creation of a music recording studio at Scotch blaines Fanwood High School this initiative has been made possible through a generous request from the family of Joanna Rodriguez Joanna is one of the founding members of the EF the request is specifically restricted to supporting music programs at the high school excluding any salaries or competition related expenses I want to share that with that we have uh a guest uh with us this this evening Lisa Rodriguez Lisa is uh Joanna Rodriguez's daughter um during the recent ef's uh meeting on June 24th the planned budget and expense was unanimously approved by the foundation in recognition of M Rodriguez invaluable contribution and Legacy the Education richond Foundation will also provide a plaque to honor her memory which will be installed in or near the recording studio upon its completion uh we provided the budget for materials uh for the recording studio uh required to outfit the recording studio which includes a variety of items essentially for a high quality music production environment such as sampler and sequencers microphones musician monitoring systems cables and additional accessories these components have been carefully selected to ensure that the studio is equipped to meet the music production needs of students and faculty um I want wanted to share with you that uh the EF is excited about this opportunity to enrich the musical experience for students a scotch BL Fanwood high school we look forward to working with the district to bring its project to fruition um and at this moment I would like to extend an opportunity to Lisa Rodriguez uh she wanted to share a a couple Thoughts with the uh Board of Education come up careful try to get it together my mother felt that public education was everything and that Scott's family was the best place ever and she felt that we had my brother and I had the most wonderful education here and even though she did a lot herself she was an educator she was a learning consultant she worked in planfield and and Rosa Park mostly but she felt that Scotch planes was really something special and that's why um that was the the reason she made this choice so I thank you very much thank you very [Applause] much I also wanted to acknowledge that Sally Hogan who's also a founding member of the education en richond Foundation is also here with us this evening and uh I appreciate her being here for support and uh she's been a very strong guidance along the way as long as as much as uh Dr McGary and Dr Mass have been uh so we present this uh planned expense for Budget approval and acceptance by the Board of Education thank you you so [Applause] much thank you very much it's very much appreciate the students are going to definitely definitely love that it's great so we'll move over now to public comment uh our first public comment section in accordance with Scott Spain Fanwood Public School bylaws 164 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comment maximum 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first in the time remain speakers May address other matters speakers please state your name and the town in which you reside please note board Ed public comment period as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but do not debate issues or enter into question and answer session or cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or her design so I will now open up for 15 minutes if you have a public comment please come to the mic state your name and the town in which you reside hi I'm Talib Morgan I live at Ford de Court in Scotch PLS New Jersey obviously it's New Jersey just used to staying New Jersey after Scotch planes um but just want to um offer my support and say how how glad I am that you guys are moving forward on trying to again purchase the to get the building to move forward and providing the support that we need for our students um I'm disappointed that the referendum didn't pass as it was I thought it was a a good referendum that people in the town disagreed but um I I support you all again what I can do to help I'm happy to do so I think you can see from the scores that Dr mgar presented um from the performance there that you know this we have such a strong School District such a strong group of teachers and administrators and and the performance shows um and I and I think that we need to be mindful of that as we look at as we look at this building and what the future looks like here and how we accommodate the students and best provide for them and I think this this school goes a long way to this this school this property goes a long way to doing that and I'm glad that you guys continue to move forward and and worked for um our students I have I have a a 13-year-old and a nine-year-old both in both in the school in the school district and I'm glad that you will continue to work to do the work that's necessary to provide for for not just them but all of the students who are here thank you thank you Mr morg anyone else for public comment okay seeing no one we'll move on to uh letters to the board there was five and they were received and sent to the appropriate administrator committee reports sure okay the you're on you're good is it okay everyone hear me the curriculum committee met earlier this week we discussed a dissertation study proposal um in which a teacher leadership doctoral student at ruter wants to collaborate with our our district on a study convening focus groups of middle school girls um to examine their perceptions of math and stem subjects um so the research will provide it allows us an opportunity to uh provide Insight um into our stem and math curriculum um and enhance teacher practices create supportive environments that encourage our female students um in the pursuit of stem and math so we're going to participate in that we also discussed AI um in English and language arts Dr McKenna who was here earlier discussed how our district could use AI um since we all know it's not going away um across the grade levels to generate content but still engage in the reading and writing process responsibly and in a developmentally appropriate way um and only use it once required skill levels are met as an enhancement not a replacement of those skills so um we were able to preview a um like a a guideline or a parameter um that might be implemented across grade levels um where it provides a range of allowable AI use such as no AI um where assignments would not allow any use of AI and then the Continuum would be AI prompted AI assisted generation AI assisted editing um to maybe AI completion and then human evaluation um and so that's something that is going to be um examined um for potential use and the district is providing professional development for teachers about using AI I think it some of this has already started and how students can engage effectively with AI use okay we also discussed so those were informational um on the agenda for board approval tonight are the course proficiencies for for for two new courses one is Italian one that um is is a new course at the high school allowing um now high school students who might want to switch their language of focus or start a new language to take Italian currently there are 15 students that are taking it um so we have um those course proficiencies on the agenda tonight as well as a new course um for for our English language Learners called ESL high intensity and it's sort of a more Dynamic ES L course at the high school that combines ESL and English English language arts standards and it's designed to meet the English language arts requirements for multilingual um newcomer students and the objective is the in the course is to provide access um to to um more mainstream English language arts standards for our multilingual Learners and kind of engage them in more Dynamic learning and discussion and the last thing that we discussed is the curriculum committee always gets a preview and has a discussion about the state assessment report which you all heard tonight and our next meeting is November 12th thank you serani any questions from Miss serani committee reports Miss Brody Community uh Community Relations Committee met and the community relations committee had a lengthy discussion regarding the new negotiations with the owner of the building and our decision to move forward with a scaled back referendum all of these developments and new negotiations only occurred this week we still have a space issue that needs to be addressed and at this point this was the best option the previous referendum question regarding 330 South Avenue was for a full scale full scale pre- fifth grade elementary school we heard the Public's concerns therefore this option is a dramatic decrease and from the previous referendum we took all the community feedback very seriously and communication and are going to implement some of the things that we have learned some of the highlighted changes that we discussed were the last referendum we had a Communications committee made up of a cross-section of the community as part of a new community signup we want to create groups that can be engaged over a longer period of time not just for this vote we need to plan for creating additional spaces in the future we value our community input and we want to work together to decide on a long-term future for the building we're going to have open mic microphone virtual and inperson town halls two mailings to ensure all community members are informed school specific Community communication groups to be formed at all schools schools to gather feedback and spread the word we're going to seek Community feedback regarding the question setup and Poss and the possibility of including or not including a vote for Staffing at this same time as the referendum we as Board of Board of Ed members will be more engaged with the community at all levels to communicate the need and details of this scaled back referendum we have given we have been given another opportunity to procure the current school that we can modify to suit our short-term needs with a fraction of the cost of the previous referendum some questions and I'll address them now is why wasn't this plan an option in September the plan that voters considered in September would have provided Scotch PLS fin with students with the space that they need it would have relieved our school our space crunch in the middle schools and provided music and art classrooms and Innovation spaces at the elementary schools the plan was a big ask but one the Board of Education felt strongly warranted Community consider for Community consideration however the board and administration heard that the election results and feedback from the community that the price tag was too high even if the community values of our schools get um and wants to maintain class sizes after listening to this feedback reviewing the election results and renegotiating a better deal with the seller of 3:30 South Avenue we are planning a revised referendum that is less than half the price this wasn't a plan that was already in the works but instead one that arose through conversations with the community and seller after the September vote another question would the district's prek program change no changes to the preschool program expected except that the location would move to the Grand it if the voters approved this would free up space in the elementary schools by moving nine classrooms to the gr and another question that could be uh be on people's minds immediately how could SPF still capture state aid for necessary agback and other system upgrades the district could still receive 11.4 million as part of the revised referendum if voters again approve the HVAC electrical and fire alarm upgrades the state's form formula would not allow state aid for purchasing the grant however minor minor re renovation costs could be offset by The District's capital reserve thank you that's it any questions for Miss birdie thank you thank you other committee reports okay uh weeded the enrollment report we now have superintendent and curriculum motions Dr McGary on behalf of Dr Mast on behalf of Dr Mast uh I would like to move that the Board of Education approves the superintendent's decisions in the following the right thing no I don't move that the Board of Education approves the additional 2024 2025 school year outof District placement as attached you want to go through the other three yeah could block them you want to block them per okay move that the Board of Education approves the superintendent's decisions in the following HIV cases discussed in executive session on September 18th 2024 of the two cases neither was determined to be HIV case 050 245 24251 and case 065 2324 d17 and we would move that the Board of Education approves the following field chip requests number one a high school club adviser requesting to take the club to a restaurant on November 21st students have the opportunity to taste the cuisine as a way to experience the culture that is the focal point of the club um trip number two the high school board language teachers request to take Spanish class to a theater destination on November 21st 2024 the students will experience a performance of traditional Latin dance field trip three the high school Club advisor requests to take a club to participate in competition at a New Jersey high school on January 1st 2025 field trip four Middle School choir director requests to take the sixth grade choir to a destination in New Jersey to participate in a coral Festival the festival provides an opportunity for the students to perform in front of their peers and clinicians and clinicians provide feedback field trip number five in addition to field trip two request World language teachers request to take Spanish class to a restaurant after the theater experience on November 21st to experience authentic Mexican Cuisine field trip number six High School Club adviser requests to take Club to fall finals event held at a New Jersey University location on November 23rd 2024 if they qualify and field trip request seven a high school club adviser requests to take the club to Winter finals of the Season at a location in Atlantic City New Jersey on February 22nd 2024 um there's also a list of um self-contained program trip lists for 2425 to be approved um and a new motion that the board um move that the board approves the following 2425 proficiencies Italian one English as a second language high intensity thanks Dr McGary do we have a motion to approve so move second is moved by by Amy borof second by Amy Winkler any comments or questions all those in favor I curriculum Rees yeah we should do a roll call for curriculum okay roll call all right Miss barve yes Miss Bower yes M Boral yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani uh I vote Yes on 1 three and four I have to to abstain on the hit vat okay um Miss Winkler yes Dr Kowski yes Mr Murray yes motion carries Dr McGary Personnel on behalf of Dr Mast move that the Board of Education approves the superintendent's recommendations for personnel on the Personnel report dated October 17th 2024 in the areas noted below okay do we have a motion so move Dr kakasi we have a second we have a second any or questions Mr Jones please call the rooll Miss barve yes Miss Bower yes Mrs borov yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani yes Miss Winkler yes Dr Kowski yes Mr Murray yes motion carries business functions Mr Jones yes okay number one staff training number two special education related Services number three is maintenance PL this is a standard report we have to report the minimum amount of Maintenance that is due on the buildings and that we are spending that amount uh number four is the architect proposal I mentioned my opening number five is the option agreement uh for 3:30 South a um six is a what we do every year least purchase bid is how we uh purchase our um computers our iPads uh number seven is the sale of those iPads um after a certain amount of years uh number eight is our theater vendors number nine is the lbrary book disposal uh 10 is the grant donation that was presented earlier 11 is another Grant donation of the gazebo at Brunner uh 12 is these These are rest of our standard reports fire drill Financial reports dispersement listings and payment of bills thank you Mr Jones do we have a motion so moved M borof do we have a second second Miss Brody do we have any comments or questions for Mr Jones on any of items all those in favor I opposed motion carries we'll move on to board policies I believe we have nine new policies and two abolishment M Winkler yes sorry yes the policy committee met on October 7th um you all received my report Miss win if you could just move the microphone closer y quickly I will reiterate that we met on October 7th um no do I still have to be closer yep am I better now okay okay thank you so we met on October 7th um We R viwed A number of policies uh for revisions and a number a few regulations for revision visions and a policy that we're going to um abolish um uh so policies that are being revised p141 board member number and term uh p2200 curriculum content p3150 and P 41660 did I type that wrong on physical examination P 5337 service animals P 5350 student suicide preven ion P 8420 emergency and crisis situations P 8467 firearms and weapons p91 81 volunteer athletic coaches and co-curricular activity advisers and assistants um are all policies that were uh that we're we're making revisions to also revising regulations 3160 and 4160 that go with the policies 3160 and 4160 on physical exams um regulation 52 on attendance um that is particularly interesting uh New Jersey recent legislation permits New Jersey public school students in grades 6 through 12 to take one state excused absence each school year to attend a Civic event so uh we're revising the that regulation to account for that um also r 8467 on firearms and weapons and then we're looking to abolish the policy 01 64.6 six remote public board meetings during a declared emergency since um since that part of the administrative code has been uh has expired uh so at this time I would move that we approve first reading for the policies and regulations that I mentioned above and and approve abolishing uh policy1 64.6 do we have a second second Miss barf thank you do we have comments or questions for Miss Winkler on the policies I have a question sure um the firearms and weapons in the agenda it says 5467 is it 5467 or 8467 you say you said 8467 right right okay I was just wanted I can double check but I I'm going to assume it's 5467 that's your students section um the 800 section is usually operations yeah 8467 good catch okay 8467 it is all those in favor opposed motion carries new board business any new board business other board business oh oh not new board No Other Board business liaison reports that's what you guys wanted right that's where you were so excited I know so we have Garden State Coalition and we have CPAC you know Nancy and I with our little leaone situation the microphone good let's go CAG first or Garden State who's going first well I'm going to go first cpag cpag first so um and again I actually want to take a minute to really um I know we had some cpag members here earlier tonight um I do really want to acknowledge the amount of um time that they put in to facilitate the meetings and coordinate them and arrange them um we did meet on October 7th and um some of Lea zones gave us um you know it's the start of the year they're just sort of situating so um it looks like the two middle schools have already met with the principes um and to collaborate on different things going on at both schools um cohesively and then individually um but they discussed things such as uh theme weeks and are starting to schedule regular check-ins um at the meeting itself we um had a discussion about post high school plans for students um with 504s or IEPs and what that look like looks like and I'm not going to go into the detail of it um I am going to encourage people um that if they do have a child um that is Department part of the Department of special services that an overview of the type of meeting that this was is what you can expect um resource helping parents to figure out what the next steps are as they're preparing for their children to move on from high school and what that looks like from a college perspective vocational perspect perspective or internally program within our district um and I will end it by saying that one of those programs um that we have within our district is um career onsite job training um through an an in-house program where some of our students will go to local business bues and the reason I brought that up is because in about 2013 when I owned b craft full I had um Mrs Robertson was uh would come and bring a Scotch Plains Fanwood student to my store once a week for job training and um it was always inspirational to me so I'm glad to see that we still have that program and the next meeting is November 11th at Terrell Middle School at 7 p.m. thank you miss bof any comments from Miss bof no okay Miss Bower okay um I did want a report on the Garden State Coalition of schools uh we met yesterday um we always typically have a speaker and um uh the speaker was Joel Joel Moore he was uh from uh the education Commission of the states and he was speaking on National Education policy trends um and um I'll mention the six trends that he uh uh highlighted but um it they do research they do um uh reports cyclical reports um and and they're also available for questions and and so forth the legislative Trends and educational policy that he highlighted were uh related to teaching and recruitment retention K12 funding um and also um uh CTE and workplace programs a Workforce uh early care uh early childhood education uh chronic absenteeism and health uh and so I won't go into all of those but that just gives you a little overview of what the meeting was um we also uh had um the director of Garden State Coalition of schools is really our lobbyist in Trenton so she reported on a number of uh things that was a very busy summer in Trenton um and so she talked about that legislation and uh for board members next week at the New Jersey school boards uh annual fall conference um the Garden State always co-hosts a legislative panel and uh that's going to be on Wednesday at uh 10:30 in the morning so if you have the opportunity to go um the um uh Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ru Ruiz is going to be there um and uh the Senate education committee chair uh van gopal and a number of other legislators so thank you Miss B any questions for Miss bow on her report any other please on reports yes M County School boards Association on October 9th um un County made the 100% for workor Union County School boards Association met on October 9th uh the Union County Union County has made the 100% club for Workshop which means that every District in Union County is sending people to Workshop um and uh you should uh when when we're there we should go to the what was known as County Cafe I think they've changed the name of it now and get uh the 100% Club ribbon um the school boards Association launched their new website uh last week um which should be a little more user friendly um they also mentioned that school boards Association has volunteer opportunities for anyone who's interested uh you can apply through the website to be on standing committees or on H task forces uh qac they mentioned um a number of districts in the county including ours are due this year so um visits will be in January February and March um they talked about what else uh Monday what else Monday at Workshop uh keynote speaker Marie Chang who is a robo a roboticist is going to be speaking on Tuesday uh is John kones and um kones I'm sorry um and on Wednesday Sonia manano uh is going to be the keynote speaker I know I'm looking forward to that one particularly um what else uh they talked to so um we had a presentation on the uh building board relationships thank you thank you can't read my own chicken scratch um yep uh talked about um uh being having a strong vision and Mission and um that we serve the students uh shared vision and consensus for maximum support opportunities for input and feedback actively listening and allowing uh that to inform decisions assessing goals and progress um and the roles of the Board of Ed versus the role of the superintendent and you know sort of stay in your lane kind of thing and um that's pretty much it thank you miss wiler any comments for Miss wiler questions any other Le on reports requests to attend workshops Workshop reports resolutions do we have a motion to approve the minutes from the September 18th meeting moved M Winkler second borov any comments or questions all those in favor I opposed motion carries second public comment section in accordance with Scotch planes Fanwood public bylaws 0164 and 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comment maximum 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first if time remains speakers May address other matters speakers please state your name and the town in which you reside please note board ose public comment period There's an opportunity to listen to C and concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross-examination between the public and the individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or her designate with that if you would like to make a public comment please come to the microphone state your name and the town in which you reside hi everyone how are you good let's go M so baseball update unfortunately I'm sorry I'm sorry Jo Liv in Scotch planes this doesn't count at 3 minutes baseball update the Yankees unfortunately lost an extra innings and the Mets are uh behind one or two Ls two one one I thought you were checking okay so I so anyway I thought people would want to know that um so um I too am uh my name is Joe scotch PLS I too like the gentleman said before me I'm disappointed that the uh Bond referendum didn't pass and um I really want to thank the school board for their continuous hard work mean this is a lot of work in terms of what you came up initially for the bond and then quickly pivoted into it sounds like something that's still going to help build our future and I hopefully um people in the town get the message that things like this take hard work time and a lot of money and what what is the result the result is what the numbers you went through on the board up there they continue to make us very proud and our children go on to do great things so I wanted to say that thank you I also um what he said and what he said and that's Dr McGary and Dr Mass you couldn't have put it a summary of what's going on more perfectly so I only have three uh suggestions recommendations if you listen to them one is communicate the second one is communicate and the third one is to communicate and uh right we'll get then everybody together and uh you get a yes hopefully all right well thank you thank you thank you so much thank you for coming in any other public comment okay seeing none uh we will upcoming schedule meetings we have as a superintendent at netting ham Media Center on October 29th and then we have our November 21st and December 19th public board meetings in this room at 8:00 pm we'll move to the good of the order I have a couple things obviously we want to congratulate the girls gymnastics team again on beating Summit tonight um congratulate uh Jaylen Richards on obviously first female the score of Varsity touchdown and football in the state of New Jersey it's great and then uh the girls volleyball team has their second round Union County Tournament game against Westfield on Saturday at 12:30 other good of the order yes I just want to say as a a previous member of the board of the EF I want to thank you all for your efforts and uh and thank the rodri family as well thank you well uh I was also present at the ribbon cutting the ribbon cutting for the Evergreen School opening the new eight classrooms that were forly the board offices and the children and the students and the AIDS that were there uh in the hallway when we did the ribbon cutting were so excited to have these new classrooms and I don't know if they realized we gave up our offices for them but we did get a tour of the facility afterwards and it was beautiful and the classrooms are all greatly furnished and the assoc uh the necessary equipment for the specialized classes that are there everything was perfect and beautiful for the students and I was glad that I was able to be there with Dr Mass with Debbie and with Amy among with the other um principal and faculty from the Evergreen school then later that night again Dr mass and Debbie and Amy I guess you were online for the Union County school board meeting it's another way we get to interact with other school board members we sat at a table with some raway board members and we had a very nice time meeting and socializing with them in addition to hearing the presentation um for the board and the um local manager the service person that was there was Jean clear who used to be part of our board so it was nice to see her there again and then um also the football game the very next night on October 10th unfortunately our team lost but it's still nice to get out and support the students and and watch the football games and can't wait for the next two that are coming up to clear out our season thank you thank you Dr kki other items for the good of the order I just I just want to welcome Grace to our board and just say I really enjoy having the student members you've add a whole new dimension and energy to the board so I appreciate you um and I want to thank uh Christopher for just all his hard work going back to the drawing board and um I know there were many conversations this week and um just a lot of hard work and so thank you so much for all of that thank you um I'd like to uh wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween please be safe two things actually um just one thing the marching man state finals are coming up um November 3r third um they're doing I mean it's they sound so great this year and you know if you go out to the football game tomorrow you'll see them there as well and also it's crazy at drop offs so everyone be careful out there um but I think you know we're I feel like by October schools mostly have their routine down so it's looking pretty good out there too anyone else I just was going to mention we heard a lot of wonderful tributes for tenure this evening but we have three people with us tonight we should recognize and that's uh Christopher Jones and Robert McGary and Christine ausi so [Applause] congratulations Dr McGary anything on behalf of Dr Mass you want to say I think I think we've said it all all right do we have a motion to adjourn so second uh any comments or questions no all those in favor I opposed we're adjourned thank you everybody for coming