##VIDEO ID:r336rRClCOY## good evening everybody and welcome to the November 12th board meeting if You' all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mr Boyce can we have a roll call please yes Mrs Van hornn here Mr seril pres Sir Mr Jess here Mr Carlson is absent Mr pontillo is absent Mrs crasa here Mrs Dale here Mr kimick is here Mr kimick is here Mr Garcia Mr Garcia is absent Mr Shaw here all right thank you please note that adequate notice of this meeting in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act has been provided by action of the board of education at its regular meeting on January 3rd 2024 with notices to The Courier News and Star Ledger circulated in the school district and a posted notice to this effect on the board of education website and building bulletin board administrative headquarters 51 West Cliff Street Somerville New Jersey at this time we are open to members of the public for both items on the agenda and off the agenda anybody wishing to speak we ask please go to the uh microphone hi everyone my name is Bri this is Nick and we are the drum majors of the Somerville High School Marching manand uh we're happy we're here today to share our accomplishments for the season uh after we promoted to the highest division of marching man uh and K be in the country we finished our first season the Open Class division with some historic news for the first time in our school history uh we New Jersey Regional Champion Champions sweeping the division with a record high season score of 94.2 we didn't bring the trophies I couldn't pick favorite honestly special me right um so we won over eight competitions this season being some of the most historicly best bands in our division um and we ended the season with a third place uh finish at the New Jersey State uh championships and of course we couldn't have done this without all of your help we would like to thank the board of education for supporting our directors students and families such such a successful year could not have happened without your support we would not be able to go to our competitions and make those amazing memories if it wasn't for you guys not to mention our amazing staff helps us grow exponentially and we would absolutely not be where we are today if it wasn't for them the support for the staff has always been appreciated marching man is an extremely connected activity where people can participate and feel like they belong somewhere thank you for providing for such a good cause that means so much to every single member of the marching man it is truly something special lastly we'd like to thank everyone that has attended our competitions and performances uh your support really helps us continue improving and practicing and we could not have finished the season without you we are proud we're proud of representing the bill in everything we do and we hope that you guys continue supporting our efforts for years to come we will see you next year had a great look forward congratulations really appreciate congrats all right anybody else no all seeing none we have a motion to close public comment please so move sir thank you Mr Jim have a second thank you Mrs Van Horn any discussion all those in favor I any opposed any exension so move all right moving on may have a resolution may I have a motion to approve the minutes from the regular and executive session of our October 15th board meeting please thank you Mr seril may I have a second since I got seril as first please thank you thank you Mrs vanor any discussion all those in favor I any opposed any extensions motion carried word presence report all I want to say is I hope we're in November can't believe it's almost the middle so everybody have a great Thanksgiving and come back get ready because then we're in the home stretch for the end of the calendar year and with that turn it over to Mr lisco actually I believe we have our student rep here today so what what did you do to Riley did you push her out of the way today so she just no she's actually at her um soccer banquet tonight so you guys are stuck with me um so we'll start off with the um easier stuff so we have um still we still we're still selling yearbooks so if you're interested in buying a yearbook they are being sold on the J's website which you can find on the bill yearbook Instagram guys should all follow um or you can also find on the school website so they are now at $95 until February 21st and then they will be sold for 105 so I definitely suggest buying them now um speaking of yearbooks we also have our senior um ads being sold until February 21st as well um so that will also be on Instagram soon and it's on the school website um speaking of fall Sports one of our favorites to look at so those are starting to come to an end at least for most teams um so the girls soccer team lost in semi-finals yesterday after upsetting the second and seven seated teams throughout their playoff run so they made it pretty far and they had great comebacks to end their season strong we also had field hockey end and boy soccer end after um boy soccer came to end after the first round of playoffs um and speaking on football the football team is in first section of final so everyone should um come out and support the varcy team um this Friday at 7 o'clock where they'll play delsa in the sectional finals so that's exciting um we also have cross country so some Runners are still competing for the meet of Champions um this weekend so wish anybody luck who's running um so as fall Sports come to an end we do have winter sports so if you're still trying to register for those um I think the last day to get your paperwork in is November 18 so that's coming up so make sure again you go on the school website um to see what needs to be completed to be able to participate in those winter sports um so now in the school our marking period two has started so we're one4 of the way done sorry guys um we have hiking Club um and Key Club so hiking Club has their next hike this Friday um I suest bringing jackets it's getting really cold but the park is beautiful and there's easy walking trails and so many Scenic views to look at um there is a Google Classroom code if anyone's interested or you can reach out to Miss McDonald for any more information um now we have key clubs annual Thanksgiving food drive so if anyone's interested in um donating that will help the community family um to be able to gather together and have a nice meal um there's a cardboard box around the front um right by the main office so if anyone's interested in donating the K and also if you're interested in donating work um you should reach out to um Pro for those who donate you also get service hours so if anyone's interested um we also have mock trials so if you're interested in trying out for that or want to be in it um they're discussing tryouts at their next meeting in room 103 after school at 2:30 um and if you want any more information please contact the club advisor Mr sarles um we also have something very exciting which is going to be fun where the senior class is having a little fundraiser for a pickle ball tournament um so if that will be on the first um prizes for the top teams um they will have and registration dates are the 14th and the 15th in room um 315 um I think it's a $10 entry fee so if anyone's interested um please um reach out to Mr Clark or Mr buy um about two weeks ago we had Red Ribbon Week so Summerville High School partnered um two weeks ago with local community agencies to raise awareness about drugs and alcohol um we we did twin day a neon day hat day um a red day and we also did school spirit um Richard Hall Community Health and Wellness Center came and visited with two prevention tables to help raise awareness in the cafeteria during lunches for students um peer leadership had started and they're very excited about their first Outreach um so if you know any freshman make sure to ask them about that um we also have Club photos tomorrow so if anyone's in clubs um that will be in the gymnasium um and yeah that's about it that's going on there's a lot but it's exciting that's it thank you so much great report a lot of good information going on good luck in the second quarter and you don't have to stay you you're more than welcome to leave if you would like you guys thank you you made my job very easy many of the were covered now that was a very thorough report I appreciate it you just hear how busy things are on the fall and how wonderful our uh students have been doing both academically athletically and uh you heard uh musically as well um and let's not forget robotics right so we've had a very busy fall with a lot of Great accomplishments this Friday is a really special then it could be the first summer Bowl football team to go 12-0 it would be first section title they win that they continue into the group round um now that uh New Jersey plays to a group champion this could be a Monumental uh event but we'll take it one time one game at a time so I'm excited uh for our boys for Friday and uh speaking of Athletics we got to see a couple of them last night Brian myself Jerry and Tim attended the Hall of Fame dinner and it was uh really a great experience especially for a newcomer to Somerville it was great to to meet a lot of the folks that are so dedicated and supportive of all our athletic teams and programs so um I thank uh Billy garbarini for the invitation and for the the wonderful event um you know if you haven't been to one it's definitely worth going to you get to learn a lot about the history of Summer goal Athletics uh there were so many passionate people who have dedicated their entire lives to it um and they celebrate all the wonderful accomplishments so there were f all the way back to the 1942 track and field team uh which was apparently our best team in team history all the way up to um you know a recent uh a graduate um and Runner who is still competing and um doing a great job so uh really it was a an eye opening experience to see really the passion uh that the town has for for everybody so I thank um my administrators for for joining me there but uh Billy garini for the wonderful event um also want to thank Denise for volunteering for our summer Library Council uh that'll be a courtly meeting and she'll be representing the district there so thank you um and in terms of uh qack uh We've inched our way to the next step here there are a few hurdles that I have to obviously uh be jumped here and I thank Rob for taking the bull by the horns here and leading our our efforts in collecting all the documents it is a Monumental task to collect all those documents in the five different areas um but this is the first step and it is on the agenda tonight um it was a combination and I thank Sharon who's also here of our administrators uh we had a teacher and an association rep and also a board of education rep to review the dprs which is a self-scoring uh in those five areas um so uh that's just the first step the next one would be um the onsite building and Facilities uh review that'll happen later this month uh and Brian and Jimmy and uhab have been preparing our buildings for that we did a walk through yesterday went very well um and then you know the the big ticket item will be late February when they come to a review of all of our documents the full audit um so we'll keep you informed of how things are going but R's been collabora working with the Somerset County um you know superintendent uh to get our documents in order so I'm excited for that uh to to progress because it is uh it's a lot um for our people to to get ready but I know they're they're going to have it um in good order for us so thank you for that and I think Tanya is over there doing our second uh qack review this year even though they call it something different it is a special education qack audit that's going on simultaneous and uh she's trying to get us in a good position there where they won't have to come out uh to the site um if you get them certain documents and uh they meet you know the minimum requirement there so we'll find that out and keep you guys informed as well so those are some of the audits that are going on and as I said um you know this is you know we have to look at it as a positive this will give us a clear indication of where we are and speaking of a clear indication of where we are I will be presenting now the state of the district which is the culmination of my entry to the district um and it is going to Encompass a review of not only the interviews I was able to conduct with folks uh but some important documents including our curriculum audit which was presented last meeting um and some um you know Milestones that we want to achieve to implement those steps um recommended by our Consultants so um I'm going to head over there and get this uh going um it's only 76 slides so everyone get we'll cut you off yeah some good things to share there all right we're good will the volume be okay if I move around do yep all right can't sit still on that I wasn't joking about the 76 part but a lot of them are just uh because this will be posted for everyone to see and it'll give a reference point as to where the information is coming from a lot of the early slides I've shared with you in various means some through letters to the community some through um you know sharing the plan and posting it online and then of course having many many conversations throughout the district to learn as much as I could in the shortest amount of time coming in since August 1st um so with that said um the big picture the purpose behind this I kind of already gave you an overview coming into the district what I wanted to be able to do was hit the ground learning and find out as much as I could about the district in a short amount of time obviously that uh encompasses a document review a look at all our policies and procedures how we do business our history as a district and then of course talking to people because it's a great way to learn and get a cross-section and an idea of what people have experienced what their hopes and dreams are for the district and what their Vision uh and what they want to see uh in the future so that's really the purpose behind it um how did I do that as I talk to you interviews in the end talk to a lot of people um there are quite a few uh staff members that wanted to participate in it as I put it out there for everybody ended up having put people into groups because there were such a a big uh you know volunteer uh you know number of people and um I didn't want to cut anybody out um I felt it was a good way to really get to meet a lot of people and we did it in groups of you know three to five a lot of times um and it it really gave me a great insight into the district and showed me really the passion that people have uh for it and uh really some great things that are that are here for the future of Summerville so the goal was to as I said The Ground Learning but a thorough thoughtful transparent transition for me to understand what's been going on here um so that we can organize things in a coherent fashion be as efficient as we can in moving the district forward and as you learned uh last meeting there are some areas that we really need to focus on how are we going to do that so that's where we're going to finish um talked about the purpose what you can find embedded here is the curricul model but also the performance report on a yearly basis this is something that we put together and it's published by the state of Jersey it contains all of the necessary data that you know reflects our district at each of the buildings but also at the district you can go online and see any district and where they stand uh in those different categories demographically graduation rates what they have to offer how they're scoring on tests you know and we'll give you a three-year snapshot it is a year behind so we're putting together our 2024 um so some of the the information is a year old that will be in the charts that I pulled but the charts were so nicely done and you saw that the trends were the same in this year's data so I thought that was the best way to still capture it um and you know these are some of the things I've already shared with you but the the idea and and really my purpose is student achievement and closing achievement gaps that's you know I've heard that lab and clear from the community I've heard that lab and clear from the Board of Education that's where we want to go and that's what we care about and we want to engage the entire community in mutual growth and accountability and um you know I'm the district's most vocal Advocate and support and U you can hear you can see here by our dedicated administrators and staff members that people are really invested and embedded here and I thank everyone for coming out tonight and there's probably some folks that are here listening and viewing that way as well and it'll also be posted for people uh to take a look at um so they know where where we are and at the end of the day really what this will give us between the audit and this presentation is uh an understanding of where we are so that we know where we're going and uh the idea eventually is to figure out when we want to strategically plan that could be in the spring it could be in the fall but we'll do that as a community to set those goals and then will drive you know our fiscal Investments and and how we do things and what we identify as being our priorities you know and um what we really want to do is get input from everybody and that's what I was able to gather during my my interviews and my conversations and my my excuse me tour of the community losing my voice all right guys might get lucky as you can see here I really tried to get as many folks as I could put it out there to everybody cast a wide net talk to a lot of people not only in the community uh in the district our administrators our staff members board members um you know leaders civically anyone that would talk to me you know I was willing to sit down and learn as much as I could about the district and uh it was a great experience you know really really got to know um how wonderful and Rich the history is here and how much people care about the academics and athletic performance of their kids everyone's behind our kids here and that's just a wonderful thing to see and that's why you'll see at the end here some of our next steps you'll see that we have a very bright future ahead of us and there's some great things to come because everyone's ready and willing and wanting to join together and support our kids so really this should capture what we're looking to do we want to ensure that every student in somville receives an ex educations prepared for a bright future we want our kids to graduate with choices at the end of the day the more choices they have whether they want to go to college whether they want to go into a trade the military or uh go to work we want them to have choices it shouldn't be one option or no options right the more choices they have they can make that decision based on their interest what's best for their family what's best for them and that's where we want to prepare our kids and have them when they graduate from our high school so I just summarized some of the interviews there were five questions that everybody got asked and there were some specific questions I really tailored to the type uh and the group of people that I was talking to so I just gave you some summaries here and then a quote to capture a lot of them because there were some great conversations that I had and uh like I said got to learn quite a bit so deep rooted connections it didn't matter who I talked to there were people that were generational here in terms of their investment in Somerville they are on the staff they're in the administration they're on the board of education they're working in the community people really love Somerville they stay here they grow roots and they support uh you know the children throughout um diverse backgrounds uh you'll see this theme in a lot of places everybody talked about the diversity of Somerville and how much uh they value that and how important that was to who they are and and who Somerville is and that they wanted to support that um and Shar commitment everybody really wanted to support the you know from the community the educational opportunities of our students and that was just wonderful to see so this was a great quote I thought really captured you know the essence of of who people are that are involved started teaching at 40 but the people have been wonderful all three of my children went through the school system so there's a parent there's an educator there's someone supporting and that was uh true throughout all the different groups I talked to multiple ways they were involved so District strengths what do you proud of right this is you know just a a snapshot of what it was but what I kept finding was that no matter who I talked to there were a lot of similar thoughts and similar desires and similar uh experiences that they had so you have a tight-knit supportive Community you have administrators teachers and staff that really are committed and care about students you have diversity being at the center of that and people being proud of that and you have programs that represent the desires and needs of our community and giving kids a really uh you know great opportunity academically athletically extracurricular um the people here are knowledgeable and care about kids the Community Values its identity and resilience so that kept coming through in conversations I have with people there were some places that people identified that we needed to improve as well again we talked about it a lot at our last meeting where I went over the test scores and then Ron and Mike went over uh the audit um and reflected in what I had ation with people about many noted the lack of clear communication and trust between Administration and staff through the high turnover especially in ccul that's been a theme when I talked to people they said sometimes they had four or five different um you know direct supervisors over the course of the last 10 years that's a lot of turnovers that's a lot of different voices that that's a lot of different concepts um consistency in how curriculum was applied so that's that is due to a lot of different reasons people spoke to and then the evidence showed was um inconsistent professional development opportunities um inst inconsistent expectations and how it's going to be applied inconsistent application of it across grade levels I talked about that horizontal articulation inconsistent vertically right sometimes there were gaps in learning standards sometimes learning standards were redundant so that's what we're talking about there morale and relationship several people pointed out low morale lingering effects of that verial relationship from the past and you know those were still things that they were talking about last 10 years have been revolving High position so inconsistency become the norm that's not something we want you're going to see in a lot of the recommendations consistency is something we need to really focus on and getting a consistent voice um you know is a really important uh you know focus of what I think we we need to to do as a district um how do we improve it I ask people honestly you know what can I do you know what should I'd be doing and these are some of the things people talk about enhanced communication clear and consistent messaging was something people asked for it time and time again didn't matter who I talked to it could have been staff administrators people from the community people on the board clear consistent communication listening and collaboration people want to work together they want to band together they want to work towards a common goal so a lot of people felt they were working independently or on an island or they were working um individually as a as a building not coherently across the district so those are things that you know obviously we've been working on already and we'll continue to do so and visible leadership regular invisible from leaders is crucial right um people spoke very highly of their administrators and direct supervisors um but what they said again was that revolving door sometimes led to visibility issues so we want to of course address that open door policy that promotes visibility and accessibility goes a real long way I heard that one loud and clear um I've made that a priority in my entry going to as many events as I can being visible in the schools being visible in the classrooms I think that's important our administrators do a great job of doing that they go to events they're here now but they go to you know football games and sofware games and they go to robotics uh events they go to musical events uh they really prioritize that our staff are at all these things you know people really go to that and it makes an impact on the kids um they want that for my door you know my room as well they want me to be doing that something that I do anyway I value um we're all going to be doing that and then what advice would you offer to make these happen transparency and decisiveness these were things I heard from people time and time again being transparent really important people want to know what's expected of them and then how you're going to support and get them to that point right and how they can work with you to get to that point I think that's a great thing you know that's what people want they want to to buy into something bigger than them to work towards something that really going to help kids uh engagement regular involvement in school events and being approachable right I think that was talking a lot about central office right my my you know office in particular and consist in action leaders should make not make promises they cannot keep um and they want people to lead from the front and take ownership um we all need to R the same direction so you're going to see in a lot of our recommendations that the administration helped me develop was that rolling in the same direction we've been doing it since we met uh as a leadership team in August to align things more closely to have a consistency across the buildings and expectations out a consistency and how we approach things um and the staff really asked for that the folks that I you could see it and you could also see it in the surveys that you know I have some results for here you could see it in the conversations and otally that I have with people and what's your vision in one three years so Clear Vision and progress people want to see a clear Direction taking measurable progress highlight them talk about them right we talked about that last uh meeting and I have it in my recommendations here as well at least a couple times a year we have to be presenting on how we're doing on those off recommendations so I will be doing that we'll be 7 for slid talk about things in maybe a little more concise manner right um academic and Community growth we have to have metrics in which we evaluate those um those need to be clear and understood so there's trainings that have to happen for staff trainings for administrators and as you remember in our Auto conversation we need to teach you guys what you're looking at when we share some of these uh you know data points with you and then collaborative progress engagement and collaboration Reen is necessary um we really have to work together that's no matter who I talked to that was the theme of conversation at the end of the day was working together towards that common good so in one year this is what someone had said I envisioned building relationships and Trust by 3 years we should be operating more efficiently right so I think that's pretty clear and and things that we can make happen performance report I'm going to buzz through this but again it's there so that it'll be online people can see it the Link's there if you want to see all of the the slides I just pop some up that I thought were really valuable to our conversation um our mission statement um you know which is posted every everywhere again if we go when we go down strategic plan uh the Strategic process this is also something we can revisit but I think it captures what we care about provides the highest quality education through environment that promotes individual Excellence for all students um these were slides that we've already talked about in the GPA we did see some nice progress the GPA is given to our 11th graders and we saw a lot more students that were graduation ready this past year than they were the previous year and we saw them in the subcategories as well that was not as true in njsla as we talked about right so we've gone through this already we're seeing struggles here right and for a long time I think people talked about Ela being our bigger struggle that's not entirely accurate it's math so this is the slide we've been talking about at all those different presentations over the last few months uh if you look at the numbers depending on the grade we don't have a high number of kids uh becoming grade level proficient and remember that's what we're looking for at the end of the day the test results will take care of themselves if our students um are able to read write and perform math on a grade on on grade level right all that'll take care of itself if we can do that um so those numbers and the number of students passing all those different tests whatever it might be right now it's njsla and NJ GPA but you know go back years it was the Gea and the hespa and um cts's and all those other tests you took as a kid right we all took a million of them there's always an indicator but they take care of themselves that we're on grade level right so that's got to be are go um and those are the things we want to track those are the things we want to get tracking is an issue and you'll see that in a lot of the recommendations that we don't have a precise tracking um methodology right now that's something we've been working on you know you can really pin it back to July right with Ron and Mike and then continuing with myself and my team here everyone's been working towards getting a system that's more accessible and consistent and giving us metrics that we can actually determine where our kids are consistent right um there was some gaps in it there was some redundancy in assessments again you'll see that in my recommendations in our recommendations but they're coming up so again I'll buzz through these but these are things that we're all very aware of very passionate extracurricular opportunities for our kids they culminate in the high school where we have very high performing kids academically exing athletically um musically um performing arts and in terms of our clubs lots of opportunities for kids uh this is very important and some rille values this greatly our kids need those areas uh to express themselves a lot of times it's a great leverage point for young people to perform uh in the classro as if they have something they're really passionate about here right we have great teachers great um coaches and great advisers that leverage those for good right to get kids to perform better in the classroom and you guys do a great job of supporting all those opportunities and they trickle down all the way to middle school and the elementary school we really value that and it's great to see and we have great performance facilities kudos to uh Brian and Jimmy and his team they are meticulous in their planning here we are always on time with our updates in our infrastructure they always make sure we have the boilers and the roofs and all the things that are so essential to having a safe and and comfortable learning environment but then they also prior prioritize some of our facilities that allow our kids to really Excel whether um it's on the athletic field the three turf fields unbelievable it's wonderful for our kids to have that opportunity allows all those different sports to compete without worrying about the Readiness of a grass field they have that you know at the ready um so we've always committed that and the board has always uh invested in that and it really shows in our great facilities and the great Planning by Brian and Jim school safety has been a high priority at the end of the day we can't do any learning if our kids don't feel safe and if our staff does not feel safe so this has always been a priority of ours um and currently Ariel and Rob team to make sure that we're safe and all our kids are safe so there's some things that we did ahead of you know other people in the state the standard response protocol that's something we team with uh the police on and have been doing prior to other you know districts doing um infrastructure Investments That prioritize safety we're going to continue to do so we'll talk about one of those later in this meeting not during my presentation but at another time and uh behavioral threat assessment teams uh we were ahead of the curve again on this now it's mandated by the state but we had such a robust infrastructure and I again thank the board for that to support our kids social and emotional needs and now it's just organized as the state asked it to be but uh those folks were there and always have been supporting our kids and ever since Co you know you hear this everywhere but it's the truth the number of needs in that area have only exponentially grown so it's beautiful that we have that infrastructure not everybody does and and I thank the the board and I thank our staff and our Administration for supporting that and uh this combination of preventive measures partnership with law enforcement infrastructure all keeps our kids safe so they can learn right you have to be able to do that before you Le technology and stem has been a high priority in our district as well we have a robust opportunity curriculum wise for our students to delve into stem uh to delve into technology opportunities and this is only growing every year and it trickles down again to the middle in elementary school we want to continue to do that because that gets our kids ready for 21st century you know job opportunities those skills are invaluable to the expectations when they graduate so we're prepar our kids really well then and should continue to do so we have a one to one Chromebook from K to 12 and look at some of those opportunities our kids have academically in stem te and I like this graphic it just kind of gave a snapshot of who we are right um maybe you've looked at this recently maybe you haven't but we hover in the 2100s for students prek to 12 we'll talk about prek a little bit later how that's expanding our English language Learners have hovered between four and 6% all right I think why this has been a higher priority in a lot of the conversations I had with people is because the number of uh of new folks um the high intensity needs has grown not so much the number of students that fall into e it's the number of of newcomers so that's really why I think that's been you know a higher priority lately and we need to need to have our Focus we're really happy to have Mary coming on board in the month who has an expertise in that um our our students with disability at 15% average teacher experience number of economically disadvantage so this is something I wanted to point out to everybody so it says 28% here but that's for the whole District when we look and we drill down in at the elementary level and the Middle School level we hover over 40% right so that opens up different opportunities ones that we're exploring my administrative team has been looking at whether we can leverage those some better opportunities but it is different in our our K which US me fre K to8 experience there's a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students and the 28% did pop too for the whole District where it was normally in the mid 20s and it popped to the high 20s recently and then student to teacher ratio so again I'm going to Buster these but you can just see some of our percentages we've made remain pretty constant in terms of our socioeconomic Factor um as a district so these will be you know for your review available to you but you can see the percentages aren't changing much they didn't if I put 23 24 up there it' be very similar right our uh racial and ethnic makeup as a district our prek so we've hovered around the same number of student offerings we're going through a little bit of a uh a blip right now where that will remain and may even drop a hair because of our construction we're going to try to maintain it as close to that as possible but point for bringing that up is we're very close to having a whole bunch of new opportunities in classrooms for our threes and fours and when we talk about some of the struggles we have this is a great way to get our kids into the school system earlier to identify their needs and address them at an earlier time um we notice a lot of the students that need supports when they get into K1 and two maybe didn't go to any type of formal uh preschool education and if we can get them in sooner and address those needs earlier they're going to have better outcomes later there's going to be less supports needed right so that's a priority uh I kudos to the the district to Brian and his team for putting in and getting that 40% discount on the construction it's going to take a little bit of time we thank the uh the community for you know bearing with us with parking and traffic and all that they've done a great job done a great job in organizing that so uh but it'll it'll be a great thing for the district uh you can look at home languages here again it's hovered around the same so if I put up you know this year this is you have to the same numbers so although Somerville has changed over the years and is more diverse than ever um some things that have happened we have higher number of free and reduced students um but regardless of people's socioeconomic background you see really a supportive group of of folks everybody in the community Embraces it that's conversationally I told you in the an interview evidence but also in the um the surveys that are done yearly for the state of New Jersey families come to Somerville for better opportunity our Administration staff and Community are proud of their diversity we have really uh well organized culturally responsive practices and curriculum and uh there are some opportunities for growth though and we've talked about this again every meeting I've been at achievement and opportunity gaps have to be addressed right and this is true for the entire United States especially for New Jersey being such a divers State everybody wants a more diverse teaching staff so we need to prioritize that and continue to recruit those folks is very hard those people are in very high demand um but we're a member of CJ Pride which is U you know program for recruiting diverse Educators we obviously partner with local universities to you get students right out of college you have a better chance of retaining them and then uh membership to other organizations um just to try to recruit more of those folks uh as they say there's better student outcomes a lot of times when your teaching staff reflects the student so you want to try to get that absenteeism were below the state average again that number is hovered it spiked a little bit during Co but then settled back down into the teens um our graduation rates have fluctuated usually in the low to mid90s um Co effect you can see here we we dropped a little bit to 90.6% we want to get that back into the mid90s what we saw was a higher transient rake we also saw a few more dropouts than we traditionally had so that happened in back toback years and it happened uh with the students that were transitioning from middle school into high school early not the established high school kids those numbers remained about the same with five or six dropouts but in the uh the eth and nth grade those kids that were out of school from March and then hybrid the following year there were higher numbers of dropouts there we noticed and um you know of course we want to continue to address those we have two founding f right here for the maps program which helps a lot of our folks that fall behind curricularly and we'll continue to have that that's a you know absolutely Gem of a program um but other acceleration and supports have to be considered right so that is something we need to address when receiving some of my recommendations postsecondary we're above the state average and kids going off the two and foure universities um in terms of our leadership talked a lot about our our administrative team um we have a great one here a lot of experience a lot of dedication to the district and a willingness to grow and work with uh you know our staff so comprise a strong individual wealth of different experiences they've dedicated their lives here um opportunities for growth um you'll see strong desire to support instructional practices enhanced data practices right they've really embraced it they want to continue to learn and work collaborative with the staff and school Community want to look at new ways of communicating that's more on right making sure we're efficient in that and making sure it's consistent right I've talked about that since you know the early slides and then District strategic plans expiring you know there's an opportunity to participate both staff Administration and community on that one and an excitement to address teaching and learning now our staff very very experienced very dedicated wonderful group of Educators there as well um we look at some of the trends there relatively High number of four years or more of experience that's great um again we can uh thank the board for you know supporting that our Administration for supporting that we want to continue to keep people here it's hard to find good Educators more so than ever uh New Jersey is graduating I think the a quarter of what they used to was the number last time I I heard in terms of graduates from 10 years ago with a teaching certification to now so if you there's that less you know that fewer people going into the the business there's going to be a higher competition for the folks already in it there's more transience than ever in education but we want to retain the folks here we have a a nice um salary guide that we can certainly compete there so thank the board for that one we need to of course support those newcomers to our district so that's another thing I have on there coming up and then um same thing I said about the administrators was true about the STA strong desire to grow instructional practices enhance data usage and work collaborative with the admin um ID find ways to cultivate potential personal student body they've done that in the high school new teacher opportunities there getting kids early interest there um and then an excitement to address teaching and learning now uh talked a lot about this but just understand it's a community that's changed Community that's dedicated to his children and wanting to see them be successful a lot of Pride um you know pulsing through this community the survey again I'll just bounce through this quick but we have to do this yearly we have good data that we can pull on each school does it on a yearly basis and it tells us a lot of what we've already talked about you can see professional growth which I'll address in terms of some of my recommendations is an area that not all staff are satisfied in you'll also see that there's a mixed response with 70% feeling positive but there are some people um and this reflects that other statement I said with that inconsistency especially in the one Department um in terms of leadership parental involvement and engagement High number of parents that are involved which is wonderful to see and a smaller percentage of parents were unaware of what was going on or less aware student behaviors 25 to 30% reported concerns the majority were not concerned right again this Spike that you looked at the data after Cod a little bit we're trying to you know temper that down a little bit and then both groups generally rate student Behavior positively though some people did say there was some time um a significant amount of time needed on social and emotional challenges that has spiked since 45 uh cleanliness and Facilities again Brian you come up bis here uh keeping our buildings in great shape and um the staff indicated pride in the school's appearance they should you walk through the Halles they're spotless our facilities are in great shape and then academic and behavior standards most felt that our teachers had set high expectations which as we know is a huge indicator of success you have to set high expectations in order for our to reach those uh and we'll continue to do so um and the staff members felt the same some of them felt it was difficult though at times to differentiate for the different Learners in the classroom we've also talk about that so this is the you know the the me of it and I thank the administration for their input uh it was really invaluable to setting the course and these are Milestones they'll get more specific especially as like row my team as you know we're going through that now uh and we need those folks to drill down on some of these and some of them already started and are in the process of happening right immediately upon that audit being available uh you know we've been working towards implementing as many of those as we could uh with Fidelity and working with our Consultants um you know on those So based upon the curriculum a with actionable steps so these are things we'll be able to revisit and talk about at a later Point Human Resources this is a big one right it was in the audit it's something you know we need to pay close attention to but we need to make sure % certification verification of all new uh applicants interviewed obviously as I've been here this has been happening want to make sure that continues to happen we want to P develop a pilot of standing operating procedures to ensure consistent interviews again they're working with our consultants and have the the framework of this but we want to have one that then can be communicated at all levels and everybody follow those same priorities uh and expectations for interviews a centralized database with districtwide access So eventually uh the would be that your human resource documents are available in a central location for everyone to follow with sing operating procedures on how you would do things like leads or tuition reimbursement or all those things they are in existence but bringing them to a central location with consistent uh documents um and and directions for them I think is a really important step and launching a new staff support system um looking at new staff orientation uh the Administration has put this in place but enhancing it more and then really leaning in heavily to the summmer Institute uh working and targeting those non- tenur student teachers and giving the support they need so they're successful most teachers lead the industry in those first five years more than half actually nowadays so not only are we getting Less in the industry but more leaving than ever before so those are important things for us to focus on goal setting um finalizing organizational restructuring this is a big one I've spent a lot of time on and we'll continue to do so uh with our Consultants looking at how we do things and how we're organized establishing the 5e I plan calendar again whether we do it spring or fall this is an important one we want to get everybody and all stakeholders involved and and focusing on some of the training which you know we talked about um things like that we have to do ethics and CSA evaluation but also uh looking at our committees goal setting interpreting academic data which I already mentioned these are things we want to um you know get to implementing building specific academic goals this is something we started in the summer and we'll continue to do so this is so that we all roll in the same direction um having a goal for the entire District which then are um you know followed up on at each building level and then also having one that's associated with the evaluations from the previous year all best practices that have been happening want to continue to do so but getting that centralized goal that everybody is then reflecting and having all subjects follow that is a very important one that we did uh this summer then assigning clear responsibilities for all district roles making sure uh that they are trained and there's accountability quarterly progress reports and then semiannual updates to the board on how we're doing on these things curriculum practices designing and implenting regular articulation we've been talking about this for a long time and I don't want to get into jargon but we wanted to horizontal and vertically be you know looking at how we do things how we Implement them and then establishing and conducting a 5-year curriculum cycle so the story of curriculum here is that about three years ago it was in uh non-updated inconsistent you know format um in which some of them didn't reflect all the standards over the last three years they've been brought up almost entirely we're working with the county to get it finished before qac and online so everyone can view it in the new format uh that can be consistently utilized now there's one more step to that once we are in compliance we need the next step which is reducing curriculum clutter we talked about this with our Consultants taking a look at those you know that curriculum model and not just having you know a document that sits on the shelf and collects dust but one that actually reflects the practices and the students in that classroom and then of course reducing it so we're not just doing things to check boxes but doing ones that are going to help our kids achieve and get on grade level and as I said grade level performance will take care of all the testing um that that we want in terms of numbers elevating instruction and student achievement by aligning data practices so strategic Vision different than the Strategic plan we're talking about for data and making sure that we have data teams on the district level which we already have established that is happening that is representative of the directors and then a building administrator in each that building administrator then has his own team or her team in each of those buildings they have been meeting will'll continue to do so but we want to start with training the trainers getting our uh interventionalists and our administrators in each of those buildings up to speed with how data practices should be then utilizing those folks to teach and teachers getting into those meetings uh for Comm playing time grade level or team time so that we can make those practices and practice what we've been talking about in real time and then adjust our instruction to the needs of our students in real time so that's the goal with having data a data system that works it's a heavy lift and we're in the progress of doing so and we'll continue to do so it's going to take more training both on the administrative and staff level that's the capacity building that I'm talking about there and then aligning PD which will be on the next slide which is absolutely essential to getting us to that next step and then streamlining data collection and calendar I talked about it already about taking away some of that clar from the assessment schedule not just assessing to assess for making sure that it reflects you know who we are and what we need observation and evaluation aligning evaluation assignments by ensuring interr reliability we did this over the summer locally continue and want to continue to bring strong in for that annual inter related reliability but then also implementing a system of walkthroughs for our supervisor to get real time feedback to our teachers that's absolutely essential and then a feedback cycle Improvement this is happening already but continue to build that Rapport that's where you really see growth is when there's trust between the parties they're getting you know feedback and then acting upon and as we build that trust with clear communication and expectations I think that's going to only enhance itself intervention and enrichment this is one of those big ones we've been talking about um that system needs more work it will continue the need work work some work has been done and it will continue to be but a comprehensive npss RTI system so multier system support incorporates RTI actually enhances it but is a tiered system of support for your students in which you identify the ones that need assistance and then get them the necessary support they need so that's uh essential so the training has happened with our Consultants there's more training that's needed we'll continue to train um so that we can have a system uh that is aligned um k first and then we'll continue and move it from there um so we want to utilize data teams to help them and to get them that feedback our teachers feedback so here's one piece about the data teams I want to to understand the first step to a successful data team would be for them to be the experts being able to take that data of their students then help and give that to the teachers and actionable steps it's going to be a lot to ask teachers to all of a sudden understand all of this you know data that you know is available to them so making it more understandable is a huge part of the data team that's the purpose behind them if the experts on that team help the teachers understand what it is that their kids are doing and where they're lacking and what learning standards they need to focus on um budget analysis to support Staffing and programmatic needs we have to look at this whether it's interventionalist coaching or all of the above this needs to be a focus of the budging budget cycle to make sure we get more of those folks in to help our teachers and then build upon recent gains and intake tracking and feedback in MLS as I said this is an area of strength for incoming director we're very excited about that to continue to work on that system and get it up to where we need it to be our kids needs remember the numbers have't exploded it's more the type of student and their needs has changed more of those High uh um those high level needs in MLS has happened so more of our kids are newcomers npv revised professional development plans make sure the offerings are data driven that they Encompass um the administration and uh staff in the collaborative you know means of identifying what we need to do um explore the feasibility of literacy and math coaches as I talked about and then reimagine the district PD committee and opportunities Sharon and I have had many of these conversations we'll continue to do so we want to find a system that's going to be comprehensive in nature provide our teachers with the training they need be collaborative in nature and have voice of everybody when that happens then you can really have a professional development system that works we're taking necessary steps we're having the meeting but there's still work to be done there so little summary sheet maybe you think I should have just put this one up and not talked for the last half hour but nonetheless here is where you can look and see what it is that uh you know we just talked about this is exciting stuff maybe it didn't excite you it excites me because there's such potential here so if you look at that first one this is the the the great news looking for the district's well positioned to leverage his wealth and personnel and program programmatic resources to cultivate positive School culture that promotes students academic success every single metric I look that and piece of data that was available surveys anecdotal evidence data conversation everything points to one thing you have invested people both in the staff and the classrooms right in the ad administrative roles on the board of education and in the community that want to see us grow and get better so people are ready for it they want to be invested in creating a plan that's going to help our kids achieve right so that's the wonderful news the curriculum audit and state of dist report are to foundational data points that can help us get there and build that strategic plan out when it comes time and in the short term make those necessary changes to build the systems that we need in professional development data and Human Resources right priority step towards this goal building relationships based on clear communication I heard this lab and clear from every single group of people that I talked to we want to reduce inefficiencies and miscommunication right that's only going to work against our our our goals and expectations we want to have board trainings that I talked about retre stre work together for common understandings and continue to uh the good work already underway by maintaining collaboration transparency and fiscal responsibility these are hard things that we have ahead of us not going to be easy it's going to take time we have to be patient we need to invest in incremental change that is going to be lasting and meaningful and when that happens good things are going to be in our future I promise you that and I'm excited about it um we have great people in the classrooms great people in the administration great people on the board great people in the community that all want to see this happen so that's the good and the exciting part of this conversation with you so I hope uh this helped it'll be available um you know just clean it up for for posting and get it out there so we have it as a data just like the website as well so thank you everybody that uh you know invested in that time allowed me to pick your brain and learn about the district uh it really is a wonderful place it's clear that people are ready for this they want to take the next step they want to work together it was time to roll our get the one thank you I wasna wait till you thank you this very good uh report I appreciate all the work that you and staff thank you so much for the work I really appreciate it now any comments or question from the board for Mr go ahead Mr I know you're dying to say something well I here is two things one um I did appreciate seeing two slides that you represented one was the your approach to to your recruitment initiatives um and then also obviously uh the extracurricular slide in athletics I I appreciate seeing that I have two questions one surrounding though uh security and this is just a curiosity question because obviously at this time it's it's something that can't that's under constant risk and gas assessment right so is the district um is the district collaborating or say from a workshop Consortium perspective working with other County districts just to share best practices because I can imagine this more Global uh a global approach there are three different areas that we collaborate first of all with our local police department and and responders right second would be uh on the county but also on the state level so there's different ones that Rob and aiel attend so they have County consortiums that join together on a regular basis I think you have one coming up in a couple days right once a month um once a month yeah um and then also on the state level so whether it's a it's um I can't remember his title but gaale um on the state level and then obviously on the county level yes they're both attending workshops constantly a workshop on all that and then turn keing that with our uh you know building level administrators and and then uh my last question was probably more comment only because I don't know if the question applies here when you're speaking of data I'm thinking of data integrity and how that dat is protected yep um so probably would love to sit down with you just to ask you more questions think wrap my arms around that because if the data can't be trusted right then and that what value right okay a focus is cleaning that up absolutely thank you I had um two quick questions as well um so the uh recruiting interventionists do we have a timeline for that is that something that we look at happening this year or next year so we have an in we have an infrastructure of interventions but in terms of the coaches that I mentioned and increasing that that would be for next budget cycle so next year adding to the ones we already have okay and um right now at at the elementary two at the middle level okay um and the second question was about enrichment I saw it in one of the headings but um could you explain your plan going forward for the enrichment programs in the district AB it needs uh a full investigation and Analysis um it is a plan that uh right now is incomplete and right now has the you know infrastructure of the system that's been in place but it needs that refresh and to look at so that is going to be something Mary and I work on and hopefully to get into place for next year it's not soon I mean we have folks right now that are dedicated to it but we need a fresh look at it thank you yeah that was great thank you very comprehensive so I appreciate was able to follow most of it with the the curriculum peace and the opportunity are there best practices that you see in neighboring districts or or wherever that you are star to look at that you might want to consider bringing in like how do you figure out what you might want to change specifically now that you done have diagn absolutely so number one right away we have our Consultants to lean heavily into so they have an expertise over 50 years uh for for Ron's expert's there also helping Mary come on that's number one number two there is the county Consortium that works together for U some counties don't have them in place you know where I was previously in toay they didn't even have that County curriculum person so we meet regularly but we are lucky here in uh Somerset County to have that meeting regularly so that's number two so you can share those best practices number three uh I'm constantly meeting and talking and establishing better lines of communication with with Miss Chase and we want to start those meetings where we can include them in our curriculum conversations for um you know that that bridge here of course that's highest priorities the eight to n but then looking at what are they doing at the elementary and middle school level and what are we doing and how can we better align and share you know practices there so yes absolutely all thank you again much appreciated we look forward to the progress and great things to come than all right now moving on to the board of uh report of board items and committee reports we're again going to do a consent agenda so the first items we're going to vote on are going to be for Somerville only which will be Finance items 1 through six curriculum items one and two and Personnel items 1 through 7 but before we do that I'll start off with Mr Carlson see if we have a report this evening report any report evening for curriculum no report we do plan on meeting the curriculum committee before next month in between this month and next month we'll have a report we'll have a report next ex thank you so much all right therefore um so moving forward can I have a motion to approve Finance items 1- six curriculum items 1 and two and personel items 1 through 7 please thank you Mr Vann thank you Mr Carlson there any discussion on any of those items Mr Boyce please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr seril yes Mr Jess yes Mr Carlson yes Mrs crasa yes Mrs Dale yes Mr kenck yes Mr Garcia yes right and now moving on to the remain the agenda may have a motion to approve Finance items 7-5 curriculum items 3- 11 personnel items 8-22 and policy item number one please have a second thank you Mr any discussion on any of these items Mr boy please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr seril yes up to 9 through 12 item 13 I abstain and then yes on the okay Mr Jess yes Mr Carlson Mrs crca yes Mrs Dale yes Mr kimik yes Mr Garcia yes Mrs Shaw yes all right moving on to Old business is there any old business that we have see none I have motion to close Old business Please Mr Carlson have a second thank you m any discussion all those in favor I oppos attention motion Carri any new business to be brought before the board well the only thing I will say is ticket this Friday's game can be purchased online and at the gate I don't know if it's up yet I'm not sure so the game will be live that was question any of any good um uh just one thing the environmental club and the environmental Commission in town on November 23rd doing a town cleanup will the farmers market be open this weekend yes and next weekend those of you haven't been to the Summerville Farmers Market which is held in middle school parking lot it's really great you should go have a lot of vendors and a lot of really good local produce and foods and items and it's it's really worth the time yes Sunday from 10 to 2 10 to 1 10 to 1 in the back parking lot here so very good all right uh may have a motion to close new business please thank you Mr may have second thank you Mr Carlson any discussion all those in favor I any opposed intention motion carries all right the board does need to go into executive session so as we pursu njsa 10 col 412b the Board of Education May exclude the public from that portion of a public meeting or the board discusses any of the matters set forth at njsa 10 fors 1012b 1-9 now therefore be resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act the Board of Education shall conduct a closed session pursuant with provisions of njsa 10 col 412b for the purpose of discussing matters covered by the attorney clent privilege pending or anticipated litigation and a summeral Education Association grievance may I have a motion go into executive session please thank you Mr thank you Mr s any discussion all those in favor I any opposed any extensions we are in at 7:30 boom can I have a motion to come back into public session please I can see blinking light have a second any discussion all those in favor I any oppos exensions we are back in at 9:48 and can I have a motion to address please thank you second than you any discussion all those in favor any opposed any we 948 thank you everybody I can grab your folders