##VIDEO ID:fKmQnSb51wA## open public meetings Act was provided on December the 6 2023 by posting the notice for the respective of the city of lville B of stock and the township of West dwell and advertised in the huning county Democrat and the Trenton Times newspaper please stand for the flight uned States har Jennifer B here Martha Dennis Martha she looks muted we can't hear Gina pet has ran Keys here Kevin kovaleski here Aon o here Michael Strauss here Ronnie Tod Marino here Jim Gallagher here um let's uh we'll begin with the report of our student representative for the board hello um so the time between this board meeting and last board meeting it wasn't a full month so it's my report's going to be quite shorter but still detailed so for our Sports um we've officially started most of our winter sports um this year our South hunon wrestling team will be operating as the varsity team for the first time which I think is pretty cool um this is our first year in a while for our winter track to be back um and will also be a varsity team um our girls bowling team uh the other week won against won their first match of the Season against College achiev Central Charter and our Middle School boys and girls basketball is underway with the high school starting their games this week and midle school started last um for our clubs today our peer leaders helped see and serve um many of our local senior citizens at their lunch today verying the school um our Middle School and High School concerts um last week our Middle School had their concert our Middle School on location and our seventh and eth graders both joined in um their band and Choir concerts and this week Wednesday December 18th at 7M our high school be fire performing in the auditorium uh for our College trips um our high school will be hosting a college trip to Moravian in January this trip is open to Juniors and seniors that's it thank you any question you apologies I am here uh small technical difficulties but I am here okay I understand that there was the performance of the play I know you're involved play I'm not um I'm not involved with that this year unfortunately but yeah they did have a performance in uh High School and Middle School drama both performed for the senior citizens understand turn out was really good there was like people there there were there quite a few was very of my parents really my father reconnected with a neighbor that he hadn't seen from his from his childhood oh that's really a cool thing oh there were there were so many people it was so nice very okay um let's start with the laf we have an laf update PT hey guys um so we've been busy and this week is just really piled it on but um our kids night out December um was was a hit as usual we brought in around $780 after expenses um the kids had their favorite dinner for dinner um they had cereal for dinner they did crafts and then they played um a life-size game of Hungry Hungry Hippo which was really fun thank God for Miss Ryan because she's amazing with them um our prek events committee is hosting a gingerbread hous making um event and a story hour tomorrow night at the Elementary School in the multi-purpose room um this event is free for all prek families um we strongly suggest that um families pre-register with the form that went out it went out on a QR code on the flyer and it went out with a link in parent Square um we will certainly take people out the door but it just helps keep track of supplies um our luminary sale um has been extended to the 18th luminary kits can be purchased on membership toolkit and they will be delivered to families um on December 21st and 22nd the kits are $10 for 10 luminaries and um for those of you who aren't familiar they can be displayed at your curb or on your sidewalk and it's just a fun tradition that we started as a six-grade fundraiser and we do it in our development but it would be nice to extend it down to Lambertville and in other developments as well um last week we had our holiday shop at the elementary school um it gave the prek through fourth the opportunity to shop for holiday gifts for their loved ones um and the PTO ended up sponsoring about 30 kids and they had a $10 budget so that's really nice um on Thursday between 8 and 9 the PTO will be handing out cookies and juice to grades 7 through 12 and then we will also be doing donuts pastries and other Refreshments for staff members at at South too so oh and then in addition to that um later this week at the middle school on location and the elementary school the PTO will be doing refreshments and coffee bar have to talk you guys coffee today um and then today we just did this again but this year the PTO started a concess a concession stand um for middle school girls and boys basketball and wrestling matches so it was a little slow to start but now that the kids know that it's there it's becoming more and more popular and it's fun to see them and all that then the pre committee will be organizing crafts for the prek classes um at the middle school on location because they didn't get to do the holiday shop so we bought them frames so they'll do the craft and then we'll send it home as a gift for their for their families um our after school enrichment program committee um has been hard at work planning for our programs that will start in March um we had a lot of good responses for our class recruitment we have about nine staff members and two students one of them is here and the other one is mckenah hey so it's really nice that we extended that to seniors and and juniors who can come and share their wisdom with the kids the kids really like it too you guys are much cooler than we are so um and then if any other staff members are interested in teaching classes um there's plenty of availability we've HED to make it as big and grow it as big as we possibly can and then I've been working with Miss Ryan um and Jen bergenfeld to get the after school enrichment program off the ground to the middle school on location so far we have four class offerings that will open up um between January and March um and more information on that will go out probably tomorrow or Wednesday um registration will be on membership toolkit but there will also be a flyer that's going home what else um and also for all after School enrichment program there's scholarships available and the programming is designed to be accessible to all students in the district um and then please be on the lookout for the Shake Shack dine and donate event in January penny wars which will be going out districtwide also in January um in our Christmas tree fundraiser so if anyone has a truck in like three spare hours we really need people to help us this is a pretty lucrative fundraiser um donations are suggested at $25 but we can pull in quite a bit for very little overhead so if anyone can help us out um all of the dates are they've gone out on parent square and Via membership toolkit and they're posted on Facebook so um I think that's it all right thank you thank you so much okay um for our next item off correspondence we do have several letters that came in and those are available on our website through the agenda for the public review um next up uh we need a resolution to approve the minutes from the November 25th uh meeting have a motion second second for Brian thank you I discussion on the minutes we be approving the minutes of the executive session weren ready they were not ready meeting minutes will be approved in January yes any other on minutes okay roll call or not a roll call vote sorry A V all in favor okay now we have a report on our accelerate block Mrs our director of curricul you so I'll set it up just real quick so if you recall we implemented new schedules at our elementary school and then also at the 56 level full schedules included an accelerate block so janen tonight's going to give an update based on where we are with the accelerate block and and how we're using thank you good evening members of the board so as Tony said tonight's focus on my overview of accelerate is really just to inform the public and the Board of Education on one of the primary interventions um that we have put into place to address some of the unfinished learning the um lack or missing prerequisite skills and the student achievement scores of our curent students so I know we've heard a lot about what we're doing and um when I presented the achievement report we talked about what those interventions are we also talked about um last month when we presented the district Improvement plan and what the interventions are and what are some of the things we're putting into place and just so I can update the board and the community on the things that we are doing to address the achievement scores and to make our district more competitive above the state standard averages so accelerate is something that as Tony said we built into the schedule so this was a systemic change so we created a schedule in both the K4 building as well as the 56 building where there is a period um where students receive all different types of services so they're not pulled out of the classroom um with this schedule change and implementation of our standards and you've heard all about the curriculum and the initiatives we've done these are the things we're doing every single day to address what it is we need to do here to move South hun and dis School excuse me students um so I'll focus on tonight mainly just the K4 accelerate and the 56 accelerate you know that Flex has been in place at the middle and high school for about this is its second year so tonight's overview is really just a focus on those buildings just so you have a little bit of perspective um back in April we um presented about the new schedules for both of those two buildings and so the accelerate block happens for 30 minutes every day K4 and for 60 Minutes every day in 56 so just kind of keep those time frames in mind I go over the different um aspects of what we're doing so accelerate what does it look like so this is a pretty good graphic representation about what could go on during the accelerate block you know that we've been focusing a lot on small group instruction we talked about that before I even got here with Blended learning and how we were going to meet the needs of students with all different varieties of learning styles so in a sample time in a 30 minute accelerate Block in um the K4 building teacher may be working with a small group of students you can see those three at a table and they may be reviewing a skill they may be also enriching or an extending a skill and then students may be working independently on devices it could also be additional practice or enrichment and the color coding if you look over at the key you can see what those codes represent so anything with a green chicklet um represents a rich and regul grade level content so students may be practicing math problems that they just learned or they may be rereading a text um the blue are things that we do to scaffold and help support students and then additional support as we know from our data where students may need some additional support on some foundational skills so that may be knowing some practice on addition and subtraction skills in addition so that they can do double digit multiplication or that kind of thing so I just wanted to go ahead and show you the targeted differentiated instruction on the 45 minutes just shows how students could rotate and everybody can be doing something different so we talk a lot about mtss and I just wanted to draw your attention this is a New Jersey initiative so if you are interested you can Google New Jersey tiered system of support and write on the doe website there's a graphic um and there's a guide book and I you know there are paper copies um as well as information so just so the community and the board knows this isn't something that we created this is something that this the state has said this is things that you need to do and put into place so mtss as you've heard us talk a lot about is the multi-tiered system of support I'm not going to read each one of those blocks because I think it would um go on and on but I do want to draw your attention to the graphic on the right and so you'll notice that tier one is the bottom and I'm going to define a little bit about those tiers tier two is what we call targeted instruction and then tier three is intensive instruction so as we're thinking about what it means to intervene or do things before we need to remediate that's where a lot of the tier one comes in I also want to preface this by anything that I share tonight please feel free to email me or give me a call and I can U meet with you or we can set up a zoom call and I can explain anything a little bit more clearly um because this is a lot of educ and a lot of language that you may not have heard before so this is our process overview um when I shared these slides or uh similar slides with the District Parent Council on last week they wanted to really know how we're using the data so we talk a lot about the data and assessments and the benchmarks and when I came to South hunon I was quite impressed about all the data we had we just didn't have a very good way to put it all together and have it easily accessible for the teachers to use or to turn around and so as we've been looking at narrowing different types of benchmarks and assessments and we're looking at ways that we can actually hone in on what students need to learn so this is the process overview so you know that coming up in January as you all see with our assessment calendar that's posted online we give the fall we give the winter benchmarks after that I'll be back next month and I'll share a little bit about how we use that data and that starts with a data team meeting so these again are all suggestions and strategies that the state has said work really well well we've also put them into place and they have been working so far awesome we're getting kids the things that they need so after we all come together with the stakeholders so on that data team it'll be would be the Principal the counselor might be there we um what we call the standards with support teachers and those are the people that specifically provide the interventions there's classroom teachers the counselor could be on there the nurse could be on there it's a fluid committee depending on what the needs of the students are but the core of the team that's making the decisions about the data is typically the principal the standards with support teachers the classroom teachers me and then Dr lutko Who plays a part in our data integration so as you can see through the overview of the different process we identifi we develop a plan we look at the targeted two for small group we identify the students we create the plan we progress Monitor and then we continue again it's a cyclical process it's very fluid the point is that we're targeting these interventions so that we can sort plug a gap and then get the student right back to where they need to be so let talk a little bit about the overview of the tiers so if you hear tier one instruction I'm talking about what is taught in all of the classrooms we talked a little bit last year when I was um giving you information about wit and wisdom or fundations and I talked about how that was a tier one program that just means core instruction um I use the term core plus more because that is the instruction that all students get and so when we develop the accelerate block we knew that the students if they needed something beyond what was delivered that day or that week or that month then they could get that intervention or extension during accelerate so tier one is for all students we focus again on small group instruction elementary teachers have been doing this for years and years and years and years and oftentimes even when I was in kindergarten we had centers or Center work it's the same type of thing students if you've got a class of 15 or 19 kindergarteners you work in small groups because that way everyone can do something different and it's a great way to manage class but also to meet the needs of the students in the classroom um tier two is for the next 15% of our students in need of support So when we're looking at class sizes of 15 you can do 15% so that's a very small group what we've learned from our assessments when we first gave them they were all Baseline right so when we gave I ready diagnostic when we gave math when we gave science when we gave some of the Dibbles so we had a lot of students that were like wait we've got some gaps here we've got some unfinished learning and that is completely acceptable because we needed to have a place to start we couldn't start where we were we couldn't start next month we couldn't start where we thought third graders or kindergarteners should be we have to start where we are and that's great because you once you identify what kids know then you start to develop what they need to learn new things and then tier three again we're looking at 5% so again if we have 15 students in a class or 47 students in a Grade 5% is the number of students that we should be giving the additional support too for tier three so tier one we look as a prevention we learned and we talk a lot about prevention just like we um we exercise we drink water we do all those things to prevent um a Health crisis or an ailment or whatever it is we may do so we're constantly looking at preventing any type of um Gap or deficit so how do we do that we do that with core content in the classroom period and with identified students um it's focused on a skill or strategy um you'll see some pictures at the at the end of the slides where teachers are working with small groups and then students are working independently on technology reading a book working with a partner that is what the small group instruction looks like and it's all driven by the data what did it look like on the foundations assessment how did they do on an exit ticket um most of our math classes K8 end with an exit ticket or some type of assessment to say did they students get this or did they not um could be two or three questions and then that helps the teacher say okay tomorrow I need to pull these three students because they didn't understand that you can only multiply like unlike denominators whatever the the example may be we look at tier two is the intervention this is where we want to do the we want to really move the mountains we want to get the most number of students with any type of specific skill so again this happens in the classroom this is where the interventionist the standard with support teacher might come in and work with a small group to say all right we're going to read this passage or we're going to practice this Max fact that's not to say that the classroom teacher might not also do that but it's just a second person in the room who's been trained with intervention strategies and is familiar and comfortable with the data the suggestion is twice a week for approximately 30 minutes again we're a small District we've got all kinds of different things that make us South hunon so these suggestions could be for anyone or any District so we do the best we can with what we have available to us and then there's tier three for remediation as teachers we know that when we teach a lesson 80% of the kids are going to get it the first time around no doubt about it we also know that 20% are not going to get it when I say they're not going to get it that may mean they might need the directions read to them again that may mean they're going to try it with blocks that time or they're going to use Base Tens or the cubes or they may need a highlighter so I'm not saying that the remediation or the 20% is they didn't understand it at all or we need we have a crisis on hand that just means they didn't get the first time so we know that when we teach a lesson we have to have those things in the back of our head it's very different than delivering a math lesson on you know like denominators and everybody just being taught the same thing and then go practice your you know your one to 20 odds or then the next day do you evens right it's a very different way that we're teaching because that doesn't meet the needs of all of our kids so tier three is where we're really doing the most intense support and these are on specific skills that may be from a previous grade level they could be prior skills that they didn't know or that for some reason the student um didn't have confident mastering it's always data driven and we have progress monitoring which makes we means we take short temperature checks and that could be after a week could be after two weeks it could be after six weeks but we're always monitoring the progress so it doesn't go too far one way or too far another way we always have our finger on the pulse and then it's systematic so just to give you a little bit of where we are now in mid December we have a lot to celebrate there's been a lot of new initiatives um I have to just shout out to all of the teachers who have taken on all of new initiatives moved into new buildings have gone through training and there is very little that looks the same as it may have three or four years ago and so they've really we've all embraced this change because we know we need to make some changes to get our students where they are um to meet the New Jersey state standards so our students have taken the already diagnostic assessment in the fall we're looking forward to doing that again in the winter they've been placed in differenti iated groups four standards with support in tiers um two and three and inlex they're grouped according to needs and we've done some changes with the flex schedule to be able to meet those needs and then the teachers are using the accelerate to provide the tiered interventions with toolkit and my path and those are the I ready lessons we're also using foundations we're also using um interventions with our reveal program there's lots of different um resources that we're using that are all standards based and aligned to the assessments and instruction so how do we keep the students on the computer and engaged and how are we going to get them excited for the Diagnostic in January because when we gave it in September we really weren't 100% sure what we were going to get teachers were new students were new they hadn't taken a test online other than the njsla which is extremely rigorous um and so we want to be able to be transparent and have those conversations with our students there's no more guess my thinking as a teacher let me let me let me you raise your hand and guess what the answer is no we're going to have clear conversations hey I see you've done really well with these lessons let's celebrate the fact that you did four lessons this week or conversely wait a minute I see you're doing lessons but you're not making you're not making your progress or you're not mastering the content oh well I didn't realize that we were going to have a conversation about it or I didn't realize I was going to be held account accountable so we have these conversations as I I meet with teachers all the time to just say why don't you ask them what's wrong or why don't you ask them what it is so these are ways that we can celebrate and engage young students and then also with our older students um we've heard a couple um some feedback from students well why am I doing third grade material when I'm a fifth grader well did you click through we got that red flag that said you rushed oh I didn't know it counted well it does count just like the njsla everything counts so having those positive conversations celebrating those successes and you'll see a little bit about the next couple slides what it is we're doing to um to celebrate and get kids excited so this is what our goal is right now and what we're doing and this is where we pretty much are now that it is Jan December 16th and um this is the so we do spend I just also want to shout out to the teachers to say um thank thank them for the professionalism and their dedication to looking at data twice a month we have after school meetings and those are data-driven discussions we may be looking globally or at a high level of njsla and looking and saying oh well why did the ELA students in sixth grade not get this standard or what do we need to do in math to increase the modeling um practice that not very many students do so we do that highlevel data then we also look at the I ready where are the graphs what are students doing what are they not doing and then we also drill down even further and say what can I do in my classroom to make sure that they understand this mode of writing or what a sacratic seminar is or what we need to do to learn the vocabulary for the wit wisdom lesson or how they're going to do the Blends for the foundations so all of those different things we provide them and those are very data driven and it also gives them the opportunity to talk a little bit more about the whole child because we know as much as I'm talking about the numbers and as much as I'm talking about you know moving Reds greens yellows Blues state standards and not we have to know what who the student is as a four-year-old an eight-year-old or a 15-year-old what are they bringing in their portfolio that may affect whatever it may be with their academic achievement so that only comes from the teachers and the feedback they give us around the table or the feedback they share with each other and so those are things that is the qualitative data that we don't necessarily put a number on but it has to be incorporated into the quantitative data that we're using to make these decisions and so I just wanted to share share some of the things that are being done and um at the middle school on location they're calling it hype week so after um return from winter break there will be two days of the hype days and so just like we did are very similar to what we did with the njsla last year where we had a pep rally and the staff wore shirts on Wednesdays and we celebrated successes these are some things that we're doing to bring attention to the benchmarks and what we need do to be ready this is that opportunity for kids to show us that they can shine and that we know that in them and that they are much more than a number but they're also really out there to make us proud and make us proud of them so there's certificates um that can be sent home you may see these coming home um they're also this this next picture is a I ready goalgetter B board at the middle school on location and there are some students who have received some different certificates the different color circles are 20 lessons passed 40 lessons passed 80 lessons passed and so the students have all different um certificates based on the goals that they met and that they set for themselves as well as the um what I ready suggest and that is 30 to 40 minutes per week on I ready practicing skills that we know the students need some extra um they have some unfinished learning or some prerequisite gaps so I just wanted to share with you some pictures because it's easier to see um what it looks like um so in a Kindergarten class you can see that some of the students are on their iPad some are having snack some may be working on practicing their letters the idea is and it can be very hard for um people who are not teachers to understand what does it look like if everybody's doing something different well students are grouped in um that we look at Trends or groups so there's not 19 different things going on there's probably three to four different things going on because students fit in certain buckets and have certain characteristics that can help them first grade accelerate and this is what I was talking about earlier where a teacher is working with a group of students at the table students are working independently one student is is on technology one student is practicing her high frequency words so it can it can look very different in each classroom second grade was on a field trip the day that I took these pictures that's why they're not there um this is a third grade accelerate and what I wanted to point out to you here is the picture on the left is an ESL student a teacher that teacher is pushing in during accelerate so those students don't need to leave the classroom she's working specifically with those two ESL students students are working independently in the background of the second picture and then there's a teacher working oneon-one with a student who needs some extra support for math facts um those are beautiful tables and I just have to shout out that they're awesome for kids to write right on there with the teacher so again you're getting the idea that everything is different in every room but the students needs are getting met in fourth grade this is all in one classroom so the teachers on the floor working with a small group there are two children working independently the small picture up on the right is a special ed teacher who is part of the class as part of an in-class resource and she's working with students based on their IEP goals and then that is another special education teacher who's coming and supporting students within the classroom so as you can see it's a busy place because everyone is doing something different but everyone is very focused and everything is is very targeted and that is what we that is our goal and that is what we are getting to feel much more comfortable with as the months go on this we also built in some of our specials so music happens in accelerate for these students so again they're not missing math or they're not missing language arts they're going during accelerate for one period And I think it's once every three weeks but the point is they're going during a time where their needs are getting met for them because they chose to play an instrument and then lastly this just gives you a little bit of an understanding this is typically what's posted on a teacher's whiteboard during accelerate and so you can see the center time what the students may be doing and so as you saw the teachers and the groups that is not for the full 30 minutes that might be for 10 minutes and then the group rotates it could be for 15 minutes and the group rotates so I thought these visuals really helped you gain an understanding of what it looks like from the view of being in the classroom any questions from the board for L about the accelerate program okay um for the uh the 5% 15% are those like just how it kind of shakes out or are those we have to stick to no no it's research based so that's typically what if you look at um most mtss research information over the years um mtss took over from for RTI which is response Intervention which goes back several years um from all different types of federal programming 15% is typically what is the the suggested goal of where we are um sometimes we're over obviously because we just started but that's typically what we want to look for and the uh the data team review do you share any like output from that meeting with parents like do they know who met what was discussed and the outcome from that you know for a student like absolutely get that report yep actually everybody we meet we have a whole school data meeting so we spend the day and the the data the core data team stays you know pretty much is in the conference room and the teachers cycle in um for 30 to 40 minutes so we look at each classroom or each grade and the data and we look at the whole composite of the class and say are where are our students did we see growth did we see progress are there students that were that were ready to transition back to the classroom yes if there students that were going to now pick up then we send home letters and those come from the interventionist and the principal and that's says your child's going to receive tier 2 services in the classroom um and we just let you know of course any type of changing in any type of program or meeting with another teacher we certainly communicate with families and then my last question is how do we or has it not come up or I don't know but how do we handle if there are students who are just like I cannot sit in front of this IE ready if I can't I'm not going to do it like are there um Alternatives absolutely absolutely yes I mean not everything is for everybody so actually the lessons that the teachers pull from I ready are not on the computer so I already says based on this diagnostic based on these scores you here are lessons that specifically Target that skill and it is a lesson plan so it may be looking at passages from a text it is not online when they're with a teacher and T typic when they're with the teacher I would say 90% of the time they're not online the teacher may be monitoring what they're doing but that's the point of the face to face so I appreciate you walking through it and walking through it slowly I think it's you we've talked a lot over the past few years about the need to change practice we couldn't continue the same thing over and over and expect different different results and so this is a very clear depiction of how you not we not only using the data differently but how we're making space in the child's schedule doesn't pull kids out it's every single day and so even though you're talking about like tier three tier tier one that the that that intervention can happen on the Fly for these kids using the different tools that we've we've implemented um it's really it's really exciting and impressive and I know that it represents so much work on the part of the teachers understanding how to do it the Buy in it's not easy and it's also a ton of work that the kids are doing so I I always like having it like walked through and I think that the visuals were very helpful I'm also very grateful that now we're going to be getting regular reports on the benchmarks because we had them before but mostly we would focus on just the njsla and you know we'd be looking at in September we'd be looking at um last spring and it was less useful the benchmarks looking at it regularly allows not only us to keep track of it teachers to keep track of it but also I think families in the community because we need to know what's happening that's different absolutely and anytime a family member or um has questions about their child's data or how they're doing you know certainly reach out to the teacher um you know just like at parent teacher conferences there's information shared that that happens in early November but if you have questions about anything you know that the teacher is right there um and as I said before they're the experts on those children in their class um so they can certainly speak to um how their students doing we you know believe very closely in transparency right we're not high you know this is we want to know we want you to we want to help if you can help we understand that you know you might not be able to but you know three minutes in a car ride going over math facts can do great things right or whe whether you've got the foundations Rings or whatever it might be or tell me about what you're reading or you know so I understand um you know everybody's family Dynamics and your schedules outside of the school hours um are very demanding but if you if there are things that you're interested in helping please reach out to the teachers um because there's we can always use one more support we're going to look put more of those reports in on course at some point too right any other questions could you tell us a little bit about the relationship between the my PA curriculum and PR students are getting in math class absolutely for example or i' like but I mean I guess also absolutely absolutely so the point of the ma the my path and really why we went to I ready was because with the njsla scores we realized that there are certainly gaps in what we're teaching and what the state is assessing so please know that the New Jersey student learning standards have now been updated in for 2023 so we have new Ela standards and we have new math standards so the ELA standards the new standards will be um assessed this spring the math they gave us another year so 2026 so the state is Shifting what the expectations are for students and what they need to know and be able to do so the Common Core state standard ccss you may have remembered they came out and everybody got really upset because kindergarteners are now being asked to do what first graders were doing fourth graders are now being asked to do what fifth graders are doing I've talked a lot about the three-dimensional Science assessment that's very different than labeling the parts of the flower right they're given a task and they have to extrapolate different information from a graph from a passage from a map so as we as the state has changed the standards we've had to change but you that we can't and many many many students in many school districts across the country can't keep up with all the changes right there is a crosswalk so we could say they had to do this but now they do this so we realize that there's some un finished learning whether it was maybe we didn't have a solid standard space Ela program which we didn't before Whit and wisdom we had great things that were in place but it was it wasn't quite as consistent across the board reveal this is our third year with reveal but the program before reveal envisions might not have been aligned to the standards and so when the students were tested they it was like this we didn't meet we didn't hit the target because what the state is asking and what this we're learning for Envision didn't necessarily match up so my path gives them a diagnostic assessment you go on and you take a test of all different things for ELA and for Math and then it says these are skills that should have been secure in second grade but you're a third grader now you don't there's a little bit of Gap or unfinished learning or prerequisite skills so you're going to practice those skills and then you're going to meet you're going to get proficient so that's that that's where it becomes the personalized learning so every student that gets on my path has different problems than the person sitting next to them based on where they are what is taught in the core instruction or in tier one is the reveal math and those are the New Jersey state learning standards for math those are the New Jersey state learning standards for ELA that Wht and wisdom and Foundations address so they're learning what third graders are learning at that point in time whereas my path may be addressing what they did not completely master in second grade regrouping area time money things that are always challenging for kids to learn so more practice on time and money may be what's in a first grade profile for my P so it seems as the theel is the accelerate period when we're talking about maap used primarily or exclusively for my path and bath related musin or is there also poor curriculum uh instruction going on during acceler there's not Core Curriculum because remember some kids are going to music some kids may be going to an intervention some kids may be going to the counselor some kids may be going to speech so there's no Core Curriculum but that's not to say that a teacher couldn't be meeting with a small group and reviewing the math lesson from the day before with students that may not have understood or the homework or a teacher may not be work may be working with a small group um we use books called cables or reades that one group of students may need some extra practice with so they may be using those or a fundations review so I'm not saying that it's 100% my path or the I ready lessons it is a mixture of what the teachers feel is best for the students typically there's an Ela day and a math day and an Ela day and a math day and then I just have one other question which is you gave an example of you know a kid in sixth grade asking why am I doing third grade math if I'm in sixth grade and obviously I'm doing sixth grade math in my regular meth so I guess my question is if that student is working on third grade math and accelerate how is that going to assist them on the njsla because the njsla that they're taking is going to be for sixth grader not for a third gr because when they took the when they took the diagnostic they indicated that they didn't know those problems I understand but my question is about we got what also say you have to close it right I mean we can't just spend time on Sixth Grade if they don't have the core third grade they're going to need to build off to get the sixth grade so obviously that could wind up being a tier three student who's getting some intensive interventions to hopefully close that Gap and gain those grade levels as quickly as we can or or it could be or it could be four it could be four lessons and I ready and 100% Mastery and the student moves on so it's just like that so they're not doing the the third grade lessons for weeks on end they they just may be appearing in the my path and they see it and they click through it well every time they click through it and don't do it that's a essentially red flag right so if they that's why we have these conversations to say I realize this is easy you do these three lessons or four lessons in the next 25 minutes and you're done and you move on to Fourth and then you just keep closing those gaps and that's what the students need to be able to tell us because obviously there was something on that test whether they clicked through it or not that gave us a red flag to say they didn't know this so how we need to make sure that they know it well enough that they want to do it was it too hard they didn't feel like reading it do because if they do those if they have those strategies or they use those those techniques for I ready who's to say they're not going to use them for njsla right that's the point we want to make sure that they understand that that this is um what needs to be done to close those gapsa oh um I I wanted to ask an easy question and hopefully a secondary decent question um the first one is how often are those data teams meeting um and then can you also I I know you you talked a little bit about it but I I want to focus on the word team in there and that giving our teachers our our professionals the opportunity to really articulate and strategize and can you talk about sure what that looks like so right now um so last year we had two data team meetings just to have a meeting and look at data we didn't have the same type of data but the point was that we were all around the table we looked at a spreadsheet we talked about the student you know data can be I want you to know that it's a treasure hunt and not a Witch Hunt right data is very personal because I'm the teacher and I taught the math lesson and now my student is showing me that it didn't so we need to make people comfortable with the fact that we are only here to help support the teacher and help support the student so last year we just had to have a conversation about what it is and this is what we're going to do there's no stakes in the sense that we're just coming together this year we we had because of the way that the assessments fell and it took longer first year trying this we had the whole month of September and then we extended it a little bit so we had more of the informal data meetings we we met Peter and I and the principles met with the standards with support teachers we've met with teachers but the idea is that coming um in January the end of January we'll have this formal data meeting that we had last year but now we'll be looking at the data and we'll be looking at progress and growth um so for now and for this year those data team meetings will probably happen three three times a year after the assessments but that's not to say at any point in time the principal me Peter or just the principal and me and the teachers or the teachers and the principal it's again a very fluid process where we have conversations um so that's really the point of it the universal screening or the benchmarks are just the temperature check right they're they're going to the doctor and Tony gives a great example they're going to the doctor you get all the tests done great okay so your blood pressure is great your temperature is great but oh your A1C is hot or something I'm just making something up right so now we have to follow up with just that so that's the same thing of a universal screener right we give all these different assessments yep you know your letters and sounds yep you can read fluently but you're having difficulty with the n nonsense words so oh nonsense words dyslexia like what does this mean so that's really the point of universal screening in the benchmarks and then your second question was I feel like I'm on the interview what was the second question they were you thought of both it's it's basically how often you did it and then how the teachers were in involved in that process and and really the the team part of it oh absolutely we can put together the rosters and run all the data but you know then we come to have a conversation well that student was in Paris for 12 days okay well that's not a tier three student then let's let's give that child some time or that child just moved here or they're new to South hundon let's give them some time so we need to get the teachers in there teaching because that's what they need and the time and then we see the grow there any other questions from the board okay thank you thank you by the way for the for the audience we will have a public participation in a few minutes and Mrs Glennon will be here so you're welcome to ask your question to the board and if it's something that that she can answer we will uh we may call upon her to do so um Mr Graver thank you for you can go home if you need to go home okay but anytime you're ready to go want to mention it before the superintendent report and now we'll do superintendent report yeah so I have a bunch of things to update tonight but before I do I do want to acknowledge hopefully uh you saw this come out on social media within the last week or so um but we did select our governor educator of the Year word winners we have a few in the audience this evening so I just want to point out from the high school we have Brian Riley who I know is here in the back there um we also had Christen her tures who's our speech pathologist from our Middle School on location we had gavon penah who's a par professional in Cindy viic who's an ESL teacher and then um from our elementary school also in the audience lindsy Jameson who is in the back back there and then Melissa patina so just want to say huge congratulations we do a formal recognition at our March meeting we'll be inviting you back and and the board will be recognizing you and we'll be saying some awesome things about you but I did want to just congratulate you in public for the first time since you received your thank you to all the people for Lucky in this District to have amazing teachers my kids have been blessed with amazing teachers administrators thank you sure all right so there's three topics I want to provide updates on tonight the first is preschool facility update we had some questions last month about bux maintenance update I want to share some information about that and then the board for the last several months um has been talking about Athletic Field expansion so I wanted to share where we are with that uh last Tuesday night we had a a pretty long work session and the two topics for our work session were preschool facilities and kind of next steps on where we're going and then the second one was Athletic Field expansion so I just wanted to kind of give an update on preschool um as I mentioned really the focus of the session on the 10th was to focus more on short and long-term facility options so one of the solutions we talked about is more of a short term solution was status quo for next year meaning that we would house two classes at the elementary school and three classes at West anwell um we then also discussed potential options still under consideration but they do require additional research collaboration and information so one of those options was a partnership with two local preschools the lamberville academy and happy time where we would house three preschool classes at the elementary school and then part with the two local Community Partners um and I have down there 2627 the reason being so at our work session we discussed that in the past lamberville Academy never had enough space to meet the state requirement of 950 square feet uh they did reach out to me about two weeks ago to say that they were in conversations with St Andrews to hopefully um perhaps take over an area of you may be familiar what was called the thrift store um and develop that space into a classroom space that would meet the state requirements of the 950 square feet so after our work session last week I did talk to the director of The Academy just to say kind of where are we with this what are next steps and she said that they're still working through it obviously there's some still some hurdles to go to jump you know to jump through or jump over but the plan would be hopefully have that room available for preschool in September of 2026 so not this fall but the fall after um so obviously we still want to have you know that as a consideration if that was the case then we would be looking at the possible sale of the West anwell school if we were no longer to use it the other thing that the board talked about is the possibility of a renovation of a small portion of the West hell school for all five preschool classes with State funding so we talked in our work session that last May the state came out and they offered $33 million to school districts throughout the state of New Jersey specifically focused on facility upgrades for preschool so the board you know had conversations last week that you know could that be a possible ability again would it happen we don't know right that's kind of TBD there's a lot of what if so you know the board did want to keep that as on the table as a potential option but obviously it would be contingent upon State funding and what that would look like I also just want to share there could be other options too right not just these two potential options that could emerge um there are some things that we need to do some more research on which we will and continue to provide updates but I just wanted to share right now kind of where things stand based on the board work session last Tuesday night all right um I wanted to follow up just about bus safety and Amanda Brown who is our uh transportation coordinator I asked her to be here tonight so you know if if you recall last month we did have some concerns that were voiced as far as our buses and not being safe to be on the road so we did dig into this pretty uh specifically and just wanted to kind of review the process so everyone is aware is that bosses are inspected every six months required by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission school bus inspection unit um they actually come here right to our site and inspect our buses they came out August and they're scheduled to come again after winter break if a bus fails for something significant it's taken off the road until it's fixed by the district then it has to be reinspected before it can be used again on the road with students we're also required to take our buses every three months for service so if we don't get service every three months there's the potential to be fine for each month that we have not had the service so after working with theand and really trying of digging into it um you know I just want to reiterate that at no time did we have any bust on the road that were not safe for our students there is a document here which I'll send out tomorrow to the community that literally has a link and it goes through every bus that we have and exactly the expection process what was found when it was reinspected and detail of bus by bus um so I just kind of want to reassure folks of that you know I think there were some concerns expressed in the meeting about a Personnel issue well I can't talk about in public I would do want to let everyone know that did address that you know as a district and as the board of education but again I just kind of want to reassure folks that all our buses follow strict protocols what we have to do as far as their inspections and you know being on the road safe for our students and I'm confident in everything that Amanda Brown is doing on a daily basis to ensure that our buses are maintained and safe for our students the one that's provide update on that and again I'll be sending this out along with J Ellen's Presentation tomorrow folks can dig into it a little further so this is a topic of conversation that really goes back three years because when we the board committed to the referendum the discussion was really around okay if this becomes a 512 campus what can we do to expand athletic opportunities as far as field space for our Middle scor with the goal in mind that hopefully to try to keep as many teams as we possibly can on site so if you're a parent of a middle schooler um you know that depending upon what the sport is whether it's in the fall or the spring there's a good possibility that your child each and every day at the end of the school day is getting on a bus and either going to hu park or going to lenen park in Flemington or different places because we do have a a crunch as far as field space so what the board started to investigate was what are our options what could we look at in reference to possible scenarios that would solve the problems so the two that we really looked at were specifically what if we cleared out an additional area behind the middle school that right now is wooded um and we look to develop additional Middle School Fields what would that look like what would that cost were the ramifications how long it would take and then we also started to have a conversation about what if turf was added to our existing football field what could that do on on a daily basis as far as expanding opportunities for first of all Equity among our Sports and also the hope that more practices could take place on school grounds rather than having to be busted off depending upon the season and the sport so I want to kind of just dig in on what we found out this involves some engineering work to really take a look at our sites working with vendors to get pricing and and try to compare where we would land so before we do that I do want to remind folks though as part of our middle school project we are getting a new middle or new Varsity Softball field right that is part of the Middle School construction right now it was part of the referendum so I know it might be a little bit tough to see um but you can kind of see from this diagram here here's where the school's being built and then this is where the field will be so home plate here here going out to the Outfield um the goal right now is for our contractor who's currently building the school to have the new Varsity Softball Field built by the end of February that would mean actual Field built back stop fencing would all be finished by the end of February at the November Board of Education meeting on our finance agenda the board approved the purchase and installation of sod for the new softball field obviously by building it in February we're not going to be able to grow grass in the outfield for where we need to grow grass in order to use it for the spring we recognized that our softball team has been off site so we wanted to do everything possible to make sure so they could get use out of the field this upcoming season so the board did approve the purchase and installation of the sod um we're hoping to install the sod and you can see on the diagram below basically where it's highlighting yellow that's where all the sod's going to go all right the remaining area will be normal clay that you would have on a softball infield so the goal would be hopefully weather dependent sometime in late March we would be able to install the sod um once we install the sod it needs about a month for it to take before we actually can start using it for practice and Gaines we have our facilities department has set up a system for watering the sod so when it goes down if you're familiar with sod obviously you need to keep it Ed um so it takes and then as part of the new field we also will have a new solar scoreboard that will be out in left field that will be installed for the season uh and then some other things as well um we will eventually have dugouts permanent dugouts we may use something more temporary for the upcoming season and then during summer when it's a little warmer when we're pouring concrete slabs and things along those lines for the dugouts um we'll do it during that time we also have electric runs so we can use the pitching uh machine and the batting cage for the softball that was run as part of the project so you know if all goes well and again it's really weather dependent hopefully by the end of April we'll be able to get on that field and use it for the remainder of the season so I did want to put that out there again this is separate from the rest of the conversation we're going to have because all this was fun fed through the referendum and there will be a new Varsity Softball field that that field is a replacement though right we always had a we always had one in a different location right all right so what's our current situation and for some folks in the room you know this better than I do so for Middle School sports right now girls and boys soccer are offsite at hu park for games and practices the Middle School field hockey team is on site and they typically will practice in the area more right field of our varsity baseball field in the springtime our baseball team is off site at leny Park in flamington and our Middle School softball is off site at hu Park so we got a lot of transportation and a lot of movement of as far as our students go each and every day to their various locations so we looked at what if we take so here's the new Middle School we have a huge area still that's wooded what if we took that area we cleared it and we developed a new softball field with dugouts on a scoreboard and then some type of multi-purpose field so if you can kind of get an idea the schools here all right this would be the new softball field all right with the fencing that would go around the temporary fencing and then what we have in here is we have like a multi-purpose field now the multi-purpose field would only be about 50 yards wide that's all we could fit and then 100 yards wide so or 100 yards long so with that you know we could use it for some practice areas but more than likely we wouldn't be able to use it for actual games especially for boys and girls soccer it's just not wide enough all right and there's some challenges here back in the wooded area there is if you kind of look along here the back lines this is Wetlands delineation so we really don't want to mess with that right with the wetlands we want to leave it as such so we do have a limited amount of space which we could develop we also know that we right now currently have our CrossCountry path back in that area so obviously the more trees that we take out that could potentially impact as that as well when we looked at cost estimates the board had questions about all right what if we did you know a um softball field in a multi-purpose what would it cost what if we just did a softball field without a multi-purpose so if we if we did both the estimated cost would be between $1.6 and $2 million we would need additional design pulse so all of our permits construction documents drawing bid documents oversight of the project would be an additional 9966403413 um depending upon where things come in once we went out the bid what if we just did a softball field so we estimated a softball field only would give us somewhere between about one to 1 million 1.1 million plus the additional design costs so you're looking at you know 1 million 196 640 just for softball so what how does that help us right so if we had softball multi-purpose behind the new middle school and we cleared out all the woods what it would mean is that the high school boys and girls soccer teams would more than likely probably split the soccer field um football practices would probably more than likely be on the football field keep in mind with the football field because it is grass it's not like we could have multiple teams on it and continuing practice and play games each and every day because obviously it takes a pounding and there could be repercussions with that Middle School boys or girls might be able to practice on the multi-purpose field but again they would be off site for games right so maybe the middle school girls are back there the boys would be off site for practice if the girls and the boys have games that field would not be big enough to play games on the Middle School field hockey practice would be on the allpurpose field as we call it which is really our right field of our baseball field and then the high school field hockey practice would be on the varsity field hockey field in the spring the new softball field that we would build behind the the Middle School obviously could be used for Middle School softball baseball would still be offsite maybe there was some days where Varsity was away so they could practice on their field we do plan on next year when we open it up to 58 building having a middle school track program so middle school and high school track would be on the track and then High School baseball would be on the varsity baseball field and high school softball on the Varsity Softball field if we just did a softball field and no multi-purpose to try to save money again looking at a fall season boys and girls would probably split the soccer field football practice would be on the football field Middle School boys and girls would have to go off site for practicing games because we would not have a multi-purpose and then Middle School field hockey would continue to use that area out and right field to the baseball field and High School field hockey would practice on the varsity field hockey field in the spring obviously Middle School field hockey would be on the or I'm sorry Middle School softball would be on the new Field behind the Middle School baseball will be off site maybe on site the days that Varsity was away track would be together middle school and high school on the track and then baseball and Varsity Softball on their fields so that's kind of the breakdown of what it would look like if we develop the land space you know clearing out all the trees and trying to develop additional Fields behind the new middle school then we look at Turf so what does Turf do if we added it to our existing football field right this is a rendering by a company called athletic field of America we basically work with two different contractors to look at what would the pricing be what would it entail um so what does this look like you'll notice Let Me point out something first off you may not have noticed it this would also have Beyond you know the football field we also have the diamond for softball for girls softball so you can do that on a turf field and I'll I'll get into that a little bit deeper we would have the lines for boys and girls soccer we also would have the lines for field hoing so everyone would get access to Turf in some capacity whether it with practices Gaines or whatever it may be so there's two different types of turf that we looked at the first type of turf is basically the infill turf so if you're familiar with Turf which you probably are because the majority of the schools in our conferences have it um you have the little rubber Pebbles right that are inside of it that's called infill it's in the turf typically if your child has a game and they come home they're probably going to have some of it on their legs or their socks or their cleaks all right so we looked at that version of the turf first basically with that you see a list of everything that would be included so keep in mind if we are going to do soft wall here right and we have track that's going around the track at the same time in the spring we would need to have netting built into the the construction So that obviously everyone's safe right if there sty balls or a balls hit it's not going to hit anyone who's running on the track or doing the high jump or whatever it may be right we need to take that all in consideration so this quote here that you see includes all that so you can kind of get an idea if you see here this is the type of netting that would be all along the first and the third BAS Bas lines there would be a portable back stop that we would use this type of turf also requires this item up here it's a sweeper so you got to sweep the turf that has the infill periodically and maintain it so that's something we would have to purchase obviously we would utilize within our maintenance department there's a lot of you know all the engineering the permits going through drcc like we did for some of our other projects that's all included in this price um along with all the portable things that we would need as far as the bases you know the netting that I mentioned the ground sweeper and the groomer um typically on a Turf like this you're looking at an eight-year warranty for the company but the expectation for life is usually 10 to 12 years and it would take somewhere between 8 to 10 weeks to complete right and be ready to go so in theory think about it right now our field has a crown on it they' be taking the crown out and literally making the field flat so it could be utilized for all different sports and not just football option two so there's a new type of turf and I actually have it right here it's called a pivot Turf and it has no infill all right so it's more spongier the thought process behind the technology with this is it safer for things like quick movement so if you're going to turn with ankles and knees and hips um compared to plays much more like grass and more of the turf that you may have seen before that your kids have played on so we wanted to get an idea of what is does that look like just because there's no maintenance with the infill quite honestly it's more environmentally friendly because there's not the rubber infill that's inside that you hear a lot about um so we wanted to get an idea of what that would look like so the price for that you can see here um which is more than the option one um it includes literally everything on the slide before all this would go into it The netting everything the only thing it doesn't include is the sweeper because we don't need it the only maintenance for the field is a back plack blower when there's leaves on it to really blow it off um other than that there's nothing else you need to do to maintain the field it does include an eight-year warranty as well but the life expectancy is longer so this Turf um lasts anywhere between 12 to 15 years and because of the fact that we don't have as many sports as some other schools we may even get more time out out than that the reality is when you really research Turf and look at it the one sport that has the biggest impact on the life expectancy of a Turf is lacrosse so just the cutting the different things of Lacrosse it really takes a toll and obviously it's not something we have um for options one and two as I mentioned before there's the crown they'll be taking that and flattening and taking dirt out so they're going to be removing 6,166 yards of soil and we actually are going to keep that and use it in a variety of different places on our campus here that we needed for leveling and things like that by doing that and keeping that inhouse it will save us $351,900 so if we weren't able to utilize that it would have been 351 831 on top of the prices that I shared for options one and two but we'll be using that our own maintenance crew is going to be renting trucks the contractors agreed to load up the trucks for us and then we'll relocate it to the areas that we need to spread it and do everything we need to do so we can keep it on site we were were working with two contractors throughout this process athletic fields of America then there's another company called helis but quite honestly helus pricing just did not come anywhere near where this vendor did they were a good three or $400,000 more so how does this help us right so this is just kind of an idea of of an average Practice Day in the fall season so let's say boys and girls soccer splits the turf right there's one on one half there's one on the other football can practice maybe behind the field are off site depending upon what their activities were for that day um Middle School boys and girls soccer could practice on the grass soccer field and take an end on each one of those Fields Middle School field hockey practice can stay where they are out in right field of the Outfield High School field hockey practice can be on their own Varsity Field it would mean that everyone would be done on site for late buses at 5:15 p.m. and I'll just share like just as far as competitive Equity South Hunter and beler are the only two schools out the 24 in our conference right now that don't have turf everyone else does so you know when you talk to our coaches you can look at that both ways right maybe it's an advantage for us because schools come here and play on grass and they're not used to playing on grass but for us when we go there obviously we're not necessarily used to playing on Turf because you don't practice on a daily basis so it will give us that Equity when we look at the spring season we would look at using the turf for Middle School softball obviously I just mentioned how we're going to be building a brand new you know uh Varsity Softball field as part of the 58 project so that would be our Varsity Softball field Middle School would go on the turf so they can stay on site baseball's still a challenge right we can't use the other end of the turf it's just not big enough for how far you hit a baseball so that's still going to be a challenge where we would have to go off site other than days where varsity's away middle school and high school track um varsity baseball field for you know for the spring season and then the Varsity softball field so you know baseball's still something that we have to take a look at and then irrigation so if you're not aware right now we have irrigation on every field except the field hockey field if you're a field hockey parent you know how bad that was this season because of the drought we got to the point where that field was almost deemed unplayable by the end of the season because it was so bad so what we would do is our maintenance staff would take the irrigation that's currently on the football field reroute it and run it to the field hockey field this summer which means that all of our grass fields the field hockey field the soccer field the outfields of the new softball field and then the right you know the Outfield of the baseball field all would have irrigation so no matter what we dealt with as far as droughts and things along those lines we would have a water source and hopefully never get into the situation where we were in this year where Not only was it a challenge to play on it but now the work that we have to do after the season to try to get ready for next year was pretty significant because it was in such bad shape so after much deliberation um and discussions about this the board has decided that it would like to move forward with installing Turf on the football field starting the day after graduation June 17th so it'll be ready for the 2025 fall Athletics season the quote that we have is on our finance agenda tonight for approval for the board recommend for approval we did decide to go with the option two with no infill for a lot of different reasons that I already shared before um the vendor that we're working with athletic field of America isn't a co-op so what that means is we don't need to go out to bid because a co-op is when a bunch of different districts come together and the goal of a co-op is to get the best pricing we possibly can so it all falls under what's called State contract so we're ensuring that we're getting the the best pricing the board would pay for this using our capital reserve account account and financing the project over a period of three years so um the goal would be obviously to start the day after graduation work through it and have it ready for when our fall athletic season was ready to start in late August the other thing that I want to mention we actually got this idea we stole from Del Val so delal if you're not aware just put in Turf about two years ago so some of the questions that have come up was okay you have turf and it lasts for 12 to 15 years how as a board do you plan for that So eventually financially when you have to replace the turf what is that going to look like now when you have to replace the turf it's not going to be the amount of money that we would be spending now because there's a lot of infrastructure that would uh we're doing now it's more of just taking the turve off and putting new Turf down so what Del Val did was they kind of launched this whole campaign of sponsorships and they had different levels of sponsorships whether it was if you go to Del you'll see I think it's St Luke's Hospital which is right which is on the turf which I think they got $25,000 for there signage around the perimeter of the football field inside the fencing local businesses advertised there's a lot of different levels so this is something the school and Community Committee of the board has you know dedicated time will be allocated to this over the coming months to talk about you know if we did this what it would look like how we launch it and then would that money could be kind of earmarked for a fund later on so 10 12 years down the road or 15 years down the road if we had to replace the turf we would be building up that funding through the sponsorship and be able to utilize that as part of our capital reserve account to replace the turf so we're not worrying about that we're burdening another Board of Ed down the road you know 15 years down the road I also want to mention to just quickly so and I know Jim has more of the history on it because this was before I was here but when they built the field out there with the track um it was built with the infrastructure to eventually have turf so all the underground drainage and the detention basins and all the things that went into that obviously will save us money now so when the contractor comes in the infrastructure is there it's more just running piping underneath the field and connecting into those basins that already exist so that was very helpful obviously the board at the time that was good planning for down the road the decision was ever made that we weren't starting from scratch and all those things were in place already question all the 15 years of that field with lining all the stuff for the the line that you have to line everything like that the grass cutting everything will be saved so that money can also be saved to help when Turing place and also the money that we saved from keeping everyone on here basically campus except for possibly bball which I believe SM for the year about 15 grand right now and I don't want to guess but I'm assuming if only buing one team that's going to be USV probably 10 grand out of 15 also period also that could be used are all yep things I also was very happy hearing that we could highlight other teams at night on lights um and perhaps bringing an admission cost for those teams as well as our that would help athletic you know being able to you know charge for a night game or something like that 5050 Back Shack things like that would help also offset cost the district for uniforms things like that they could go right back into the night and it creates that Sports again that's yeah I mean the theory be that you know you think about our football field is you know is maybe used seven times a year eight times a year right we typically have four home games maybe a playoff game if we're fortunate enough with football we typically will play maybe one or two soccer games as like a senior night and that's it really for and then the spring other than you know maybe some kids run around between the track and all but so now yeah it would probably be used six days a week you know fall and spring so I I think as an isolated project on its own there's a lot of very good merits on it um you know and I was initially like what we're GNA do what when we first talked about it um so there are a lot of good merits about it but in terms of context of where we are with lots of capital projects lately we we just talk a little bit about sort of turf on its own sounds great lots of savings equi Sports maybe if we could also talk to you just a little bit about like status quo and not doing it right now because I think you guys had said you looked into this pricing before and like this is a really good price right now for this and that talk a little bit about if we were to wait what no guarantees right we have a timeline here where you know if we don't move on this more than likely after January 1 the pricing will go up for a lot of different reasons um and if we were to wait another year I have no idea what there'll be at that point we did a lot to work with the vendor to get it to where where months right to get it to where it is and this contract right now would secure us this this price correct this correct any other questions okay thank you for the report um with that read um we now uh we will have a period of public comment so our bylaws as a as a board of education we have actually have bylaws the bylaws do uh allow us to have a period of public comment we we typically two one one at this time and then one later in the meeting after we had gone through our committee sessions um those are open for the public to say to come and uh talk about anything that you have concerns about um we ask that you address your comments to the board that you make your comments in the form of a statement it is not intended to be back and forth conversation but if you have a question and you ask it and that's something that can be easily answered tonight we will try to do so otherwise we will get back to you with an answer um I'm going to read this we have procedures and requirements that include standards of conduct that need to be followed by members of the public during public comments if a member of the public becomes disruptive during a public meeting including during any period for public comment the member of the board charged with running the public meeting shall warn the disruptive member of the public that continued disruption may result in being prevented from speaking during the public meeting or removed from the public meeting disruptive conduct includes sustained inappropriate behavior such as but not necessarily limited to shouting Interruption and the use of profanity or comments seen as abusive seen or defamatory uh no participant may speak more than once during each public comment session members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for maximum three minutes during this portion of the meeting um so we invite you to come up to the podium uh state your name and the municipality that your from and uh and then let us hear your thoughts and so that we do have a timer we'll keep track of your time at the end of the three minutes of buzzer is going to go off so with that public comment period is open is anybody uh have something they'd like to bring before the board Christopher bman uh West DL Township um Amanda has been great with busing a lot of questions that I've had with her uh she's obviously new so there's nothing that can be blamed on her um I just have uh just a couple quick statements like as for the inspection that is like a bare minimum safety inspection so like that only tells us so much about the buses obviously is one thing uh the other thing is uh still busing four schools we're busing three schools right now and uh we're making it my son is uh at school for 25 minutes after the bell rings and then you know I just don't understand that there's like no foresight in the busing before even Amanda got a hold of it um that's a big problem in my opinion like why is my son still there um we have we have it timed I've checked uh the other thing is like where's the accountability we talk about accountability for our students right about testing and everything else our accountability needs to be brought to a higher level especially when it comes for this uh Transportation since we're transporting all these kids all over the place we need to do better and we also need to figure out how we're going to do it and how many buses we're going to need and all that stuff I just don't see how we're going to be able to bust four schools all at once pretty much for the most part when we can barely do three um that's pretty much it um again Manda has been great I think she's a great um she's added like you know a friendliness about everything she knows her job well um I've worked with her and she has been great with everything that she does she needs uh support help from you guys for this to you know flourish and make sure that we're all safe uh she needs the help that's all all right thank you appreciate the comment happy holidays anybody else have anything i' like to bring you to the board good evening Aon bog Westell um question for Jane Allen so the um accelerate program looks really great think um one of my children would benefited from that program and they being in that 20% for various subjects um so sorry Speak she can hear you if you're speaking into the microphone but yeah you got all right so I I like the accelerate program what I what I don't see there as any mentioned and maybe um there's other programs that address this is any directed towards the kids that are getting material very easily and sort of overachieved right so is there a tier zero for 10 to 15% of kids right and two of my kids um benefited in such a program West am well I don't remember what we called it back then little or Mr par might remember but um two of my kids were in that and they flourished greatly under that program and so you have 80% of the kids kind of grouped into fully performing if you will there's got to be a percentage of that that can benefit from being challenged in other ways and so I don't know if there's any way to do that with that program or you have anything else in place to challenge those kids right you can't leave the 20% behind but you should challenge the 15 or 20% that would benefit from a push right to to think in different ways and um you know learn new skills so I don't know you can address that here tonight but that's one comment you have more than one question okay I have I won't put them in I won't put them in in three minutes but if you want to address that go ahead no no no ask another question we'll address that okay the the other question it's more of a comment about the sports field right I came here tonight ready to say ah what do we spending money on Turf FL okay it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that we're going to spend that much money on a district that I think is underperforming academically academics has to come first right I understand the facilities money the capital reserve it can't be spent on other things right you can't spend it on curriculum you can't spend it on computers other stuff like that so after seeing your presentation Tony I understand why you're considering it because of the cost to put in these fields Sports is part of the education and so you know I came in you're ready to say no to it but I think the plan you've put forward is a pretty good one I'm only concerned about capital reserve so you're going to pay it over 3 years what's the 5-year plan for the school for facilities do you have the money to cover unexpected costs in there what percentage of the capital reserve is going to be spent each of those three years on this ter good all right so you want to talk about for a couple minutes about the enrichment of the accelerate yeah just so people at home can hear so and I didn't get into too much of it but that accelerate block is exactly what we use for g&t so um our g&t teachers do pull the children during that accelerate block so any student that has been identified as a gifted and talented student previously known as enrichment does meet with the gifted and talented teacher during that time it is also um during that time where extension and enrichment activities can occur um and the teachers naturally do that within the own The Core Curriculum so all students needs are met um to extend and enrich not only to support and just Andrew will follow up because we're in the process of obtaining the financing for the turf and then we'll have a better answer as far as capital and how much will we left and all those different pieces or his second question if I could just chime in for one thing uh since you referenced an academically underperforming um one of the opportunities in in going with the turf is that we are going to get back instructional time so when we are not busing kids off site we actually have the ability to to keep them in the building and in class longer so they don't have to leave early whether it's five minutes or 10 minutes beforehand we keep them in instruction longer so there there's academic benefits to it as well does anyone else have a comment they'd like to bring the hi I'm chrisy with West dwell um I just wondered if anybody on the board had looked into the health hazard that Turf is because it's really very concerning to me there is it's full of um forever chemicals you're not going to get around that um there's endocrine disruptors you know it's carcinogen um neurotoxin it's all going to contain uh bacteria Turk is known to contain bacteria and it's it's got a higher risk of skin infections you're going to be spreading staff so I just hope that that's really I mean that's really a concern for I don't like my kid playing on Turf um so I hope that really just look into it you can do like a quick Google search and see the issues that a turf field causes um and also I just wanted to say I really hope you don't keep West dwell Elementary School open for any reason because you're going to have a very large group of ticked off citizens because we were told that school would be closed and we were told it could not be renovated and we voted on the referendum as such I don't know where all this money is going to be coming from we don't have it thank you thank you for your coming happy holidays does anyone else have comment did hi it's Denise bog from West anal Township um first I'd like to thank the board for actually Expediting like getting the softball team back on our turf and our Fields here so I know that they're very appreciative of it and we're looking forward to being back on our Fields so thank you very much um so following up with chrisy um so I also believe that West Hill school should be closed my kids went there I don't want to see it closed but we voted on this as a community that it should be closed and it was proposed by the board in February of 2021 it was a zoom meeting and I do have a a copy of the slide that was presented that a proposal was to sell West anal school it was estimated that the school could be sold for about one and a half to $1.6 million and those um monies could be used to offset the taxes the tax increase that we have as a result of building this new school this middle school so um I feel strongly that we should go with what was proposed uh previously um although it wasn't stated in the referendum the referendum read as such that we would be a three school system and furthermore um not mentioned tonight it's really really concerning I was at that meeting on Tuesday the working session we neglected to talk about the one for dioxane that was found in the water at West anal school um I know that the parts per million were not disclosed so I don't know like what the risk is I know that they immediately went to bottled water there still was probably some exposure to the children before you found out you know that there was contaminated water sources if you look it up on the CDC and the material safety data sheets you'll see that it's a known carcinogen um so you're taking care of the ingestion of it but you're not addressing the toxicity that you get through like the exposure through skin it's still in the water the handwashing Pediatric children you know Pediatrics have a larger body surface area to weight and the systemic exposure to anything is greatly enhanced and you're looking at putting our smallest kids I used to work at a hospital a children's hospital and they know the systemic exposure is so great so please consider that and don't delay it don't kick it down the road look at not using that school we have other options we can shift around you know the classrooms we can increase maybe class sizes in certain grades um there's a lot of options and you're only proposing one just push it down the road but you're going to have to address it at some point and why not do it now thank you this one thing I wanted to follow just a couple things about that just so everyone's aware um I did send out two Communications they're actually on our website under the latest news and within that it does show the findings of the results so the levels that you're looking for and everything else are right there that are available and we're working with d right d is kind of driving this and um we're following all the protocols that they put in place so I'll be communicating more about this after winter break um but just want to make people aware that those levels and all that information is available on our website T do we have an understanding of a timeline of like how long that it would have been there like we don't have any way of knowing that it was tested in July and then once again in October so because it just occurred to me the other day that while we communicated about here we're only with our current District families and I don't like should people know that it been like I don't I don't know I don't know if there's anything else we do could be as far as anyone else within the area residence wise the d fs they would be reaching out and contacting local residents other people well correct there is there is that's a part I think Jen maybe mean students who previously went through West like I kind of think about you knowon should we be managing any communication that way is there any risk or concern or would D kind of guide that tell us they haven't I'm just trying to think how we would do that are we talking like maybe students were there 10 12 years AG I I mean I just I can't speculate if it was there or wasn't because we test okay I just don't want to put out information I'm not accurate yeah okay we don't we don't know if anybody else was we we just know it was found at this time point in time correct any okay that's it for that so the public this is your time folks I'm sorry anyone else have a a comment that they'd like to bring to the board good evening Andrea little from West Stanwell Township last week uh I had the pleasure of joining and listening to your work session with the board uh it was nice that the board that the public was able to attend and listen to the superintendent's recommendation um as well as to hear really great dialogue between the board members um that was really insightful that you had the opportunity and for us to hear um your great questions based on that meeting um there was a lot of conversation of really asking for some actual data to be able to back up a lot of the expenditures that were part of last week's meeting um so there were a lot of questions from the board as well as the public wanting to have more details of understanding like the budget from bottom up to be able to understand the decisions that you're going to be choosing to make for the prek um potentially a fourth building even if it's just for kicking around for one year um Andor long-term choices um last week Martha had said oh is it status quo spending um because year four you know you've got that building going on now you're going to have it again uh for next year is it the same and the answer was Yes except for potentially $4,400 in utilities it's actually not status quo because and we didn't have an opportunity to really have a dialogue after that but we'll next year we'll have the fourth Building open the new school so that wasn't in this year's budget that's in next year's budg budget so we don't have a budget out there stating that we're going to have status quo this year versus next year so that's really something again that if we had more bottom up accounting to be to understand be able for you to make a vote of what um what does it mean to the public on our expenditure um responsibility so one thing that also came up was I had asked if there was anything having to do with the um document that said oh this is what preschool pays for it's all covered um so I did find that in March's um agenda from March 24 24 and it did not include any building repairs maintenance um busing for that school or cleaning of the outside custodial was like maybe you're going to afford one custodial there in that budget maybe you have parttime security um so all of that was not included in that so I just asked before you make a vote for preschool that you consider all those options because we can afford to have prek through four at the school um that was what it was designed to do and that's what we really should be doing for the community and having three schools and then just as for the um Turf I didn't learn that that Turf is made in the USA I know that was a big conversation of why you needed a brush for tonight thank you very much all right folks you're uh your time is there anyone else who has something I'd like to bring we have no one else in the audience at this time we have one at home um oh can I say something about the transportation um as a student I can't answer why the transportation there but I can say as a senior in high school I've been on bus for past six years I've rriv um the bus numerous times from Sports to home to school from but um so I can give a clear definition from I all years never um yeah so the super the superintendent pleas save it that the buses are check um each like regularly so um that are Sav On The Bus I as well and I feel like at seven grader like so worried about my surroundings we do have somebody from home yep J Andreoli from West manwell I'd like to request to hold on all non-essential spending until we have a final decision on the PRK issue this includes any field work which appears to have a potential cost as more than $3 million our community is being financially drained by the district are the dramatic increases in spending over the last several years Boe has fiary responsibility to the community and P time hold the line on any so there will be another I'm sorry I'm sorry I believe what Kevin said was that Mrs Ang commented that we should hold on any field spending of over $3 million uh the the uh the turf field that we discussed tonight is not going to cost $3 million going to cost something around $1.2 million um so I think he was just clarifying clarifying false information on state well in any case uh if that is the that will we will close this that's it for everybody for right now we'll close this first period of public comment we will have a second one later in the meeting thank you very much and with that we will move to our committee reports and we'll start Kevin with fling grounds Transportation finance and safety thank you have a wonderful evening and have a nice holiday a lot of talk obviously about the preschool and and basically fa Fields not really much else that approval of some just some spending some mure money for the referendum and stuff like that um so but mainly the full discussion was obviously on the preschool and the C which are in the high priority right now with our district um so with that being said I like to move a through H approval okay sorry so motion to approve a through K do I have a second please second second by Mr thank you any discussion on items a through C to clarify the contract Night board Turf that guarantees that we're doing the project or is that just to whole guarantees that we're locking in the price right we haven't signed as of yet so that's something you know once we get secure the financing and everything we will do but by the board approving this it locks in that price do we depending on financing for example is there a way for the board to not move forward the project I would hope penalty yeah I mean at this no uh not a penalty but I would hope that if the board does vote to approv it tonight the plan would be that we'd be moving forward un that's something un fored which I don't anticipate so just to clarify we are approving moving forward to secure finan correct so that it's a full approval correct full approv Does it include signing the contract tur company we will soon if the board approves it okay is tonight approving that yes so if the board approves it tonight this then you as the school district will have the authority to move forward correct for signing the contract with the ter correct okay any other questions on items a through K per field or anything else would note we do have the item I is this a memorandum of understanding it's an arrangement we have should there ever be an emergency uh we will be using the U uh the county fairgrounds at the end of West dwell as a as a pickup place if we ever have to evacuate the school kids will have you know we take kids there um and that would be a place where parents would be able to pick them up if there were some sort of an emergency that required that sort of thing so this is just a agreement with the county to do that allows us to do that um there we go any other any other questions comments okay then let's vote starting with Jennifer Bachelor I just have to point out and say that buildings of grounding Finance is a huge committee and we need to do better with our committee report I I just think it's unfair to say we talked about a lot of stuff and we're about to approve a ton of money well besides I need to reiterate everything about there my vote is no Martha Dennis yes Gina Pete yes rank kees yes Kevin kovaleski yeah Aron o yes Michael Strauss yes Ronnie Tod Marino yeah g yes let's see um on pages oh Personnel I'm sorry Personnel comme met on December 11 um at the meeting we uh discussed the Personnel agenda for this meeting um including reviewing the superintendent's recommendations for appointments presentations trans adjustments um in addition we reviewed recommendations for extracurricular statement appointments um superintendent advised the committee of current openings in the district which currently include kindergarten teacher from February 3rd to the end of the year um a fourth grade teacher from January 21st 25 through the end of the year and the learning disabilities teaching consultant May 2025 as well as second in addition the superintendent discussed process related toes of the year of the governor's educator of the year we need discuss the Personnel issue District Rec config duration and upcoming uh sha negotiations that you have anything to move yes I like to move actually that would be item A and B um so move do we have a second please second by Kevin thank you any discussion on it Z any discussion I would just note that uh the Miss snedden who is on here to be approved as kinderg K tonight is an alumna of South hunon so I always love to see when South hun people come back here and work and teach we have a lot of great ones um so let's go starting with Martha Dennis yes Dina Pete yes Brian Keys yes Kevin kovaleski yes Ken yes Michael stra Yes Jennifer Bachelor yes Ronnie Tod Marino yes Tim G yes curriculum and Technology Michael uh so this evening or the curriculum committee met on 1211 um for technology um informed us that the elementary is all complete now um so that all the projectors have now been installed um and he is moving on to the 58 building and doing regular walkthroughs to make sure that our wiring is all located in the right place um um a and security estimates are also coming in for that building um and he'll be working on setting up the network phones and clocks um one thing I do want to note is that he's conscious of the fact that we do have some existing items in both West D and the high school and we'll be using them as much as possible so that we don't have to Source new materials um and then also he discussed our theater microphones as we come into our um performances they are looking at the costs between renting and buying those so that we have them on on um Miss Lennon reported to us that the gifted anded parent focus group has started to meet and we have 17 parents who have stepped forward to that so thank you to everyone who has who has done that um we did go through the accelerate overview which you saw this evening um she also informed us that winter benchmarks are coming up and that we would be seeing that at our January meeting um that the school choice Lottery final stages were coming on and uh that we had mostly High School level uh applicants this year and we had no applicants in our largest of classes that would have been problematic um she also spoke about our ESL parent night um said it was very successful said our staff did a great job that evening and um that there was a lot of connection into the community we also are going to start looking at our science njsla prep um as everybody knows that is something that is on the radar and we will be reviewing testing and updating benchmarks for that we also will be beginning an algebra one pilot um again math is something that is on the radar for us and we have two teachers in place to teach that um our tutoring program will be rolling out for um f and sixth graders um who are on the cusp in ngsa and that will be starting in late January um and we ended with something that I was really happy to see um which was an example of a sixth grade class giving a Socratic seminar um it was really fantastic to be able to watch those kids actually in action seeing the curriculum that we all voted on being put in place and watching them discuss a teex with confidence um without a teacher involved it was really an amazing thing to to see move forward I don't have anything to put forward but just aort Michael what was the AL One Pilot uh we are going to be piloting two classrooms for algebra one with the new curriculum to to see where new curriculum for algra yeah Michael could you talk a little bit about what the um for the g&t doing I just wanted on the all ask yes absolutely um I just wanted to update we have yet to meet we'll meet in January for the focus group I sent out um the form um in the fall and then I just sent it out again so based on the PCG which was the Consultant Group we had last year um that came and did a program review of our enrichment program um one of their recommendations was to form a parent focus group and so we will meet um in January and we'll come together and then we will look at what are some of the suggestions and goals that PCG recommended to us um our criteria an assessment um identification process will something that we'll look at um but it will be a chance for families to share their experiences we'll review a lot of as I said the presentation that piece GG meant and then we'll make some plans moving forward so it's a way for the families as major stakeholders in this um to support their children and how we can look to see um what our GT can develop into K12 any other questions for curriculum discussion all right uh policy committee I know there's nothing to move but do we have anything Mar say so policy did not meet in December so there is nothing to bring forward on a first read uh for second read There are some additional questions on the policy and regulation on attendance uh which we'll be addressing over the next month and then we'll bring back in January so nothing to move thank you very good um routine information items we do have one uh one uh it item to vote on this is the uh harassment intimidation and bullying report we discussed this in an executive session after the meeting last month so tonight we'll be voting on the outcome of that um but with that I will ask uh for a motion to accept the harassment intimidation and bullying report by thank you can I have a second please second second obviously we can't discuss any of the details of the public it involve student and it's a so that is a confidental issue um but uh we will have a rooll call for this Voice vote a Voice vote for L um so let's do an let's do a do a sure okay um we'll start with Mr Pete yes Mr yes keski yes Aron no M Strauss no Jennifer bachor Yes Martha Dennis yes Ronnie to Marino yes Tim G yes all right to uh we did also as a district we did have fire drills safety drills with the various required times it's LED here in the agenda um just oh it's posted okay so our enrollment has been posted so it's available online for any interested see that report um with that we come to the second period of public comments um the same uh same rules apply uh anybody who has anything that you'd like to address the Bo on you're welcome to come up just give us your name and your municipality and try to you know make your statement to the board and and limit it to 3 minutes if you can with that second period of public comment as open anyone El something like to bring um Jessica hardigan West D I just I have like a comment slash question has there been any consideration for coming up with like a tenative plan for the pre and not just making like a snap decision I I say this in not saying that you're making a snap decision but with the grant money is there a possibility of moving them here or building on to the Middle School I just I encourage all of you to go see the Carline at the middle school home location watching the fifth and sixth graders put these kids in their cars hand their backpacks off I mean they hold on to these kids for dear life and it's teaching them a great deal of responsibility and Dave said that it happened organically the kids just picked up on it and did it on their own I mean seeing a lot of these kids struggle through covid and have like a lot of social issues watching them do these tasks and and interact with the kids so organically is wonderful and there's a lot of learning experiences and there's a lot of things that we could build into the curriculum to help the kids in the district and I wonder if they're better off with the older kids versus just more younger kids down at lamberville you know what I mean I I think they're more appreciated by the older kids and you know they Hudson comes home every day talking about the preschoolers like it's like the highlight of his day so I think that that should be more of a consideration like kind of allowing that relationship to flourish and putting them with the older kids but that's just my two s thank you thank you happy holidays does anyone else have a comment like have anyl more with that I'm going to close the second period of public comment um we do not have a need for an executive session this evening so with that I'm gonna seek a motion to add Michael with a motion and a second please second by Kevin any all in favor I do want to say before we go to all of you Merry Christmas our administrators teachers we are uh grateful for every one of you and um you members of the board this is an unusual year in that everybody that's on the board here in December will also be on the board in January so I'm looking forward to working with each of you in the New Year have a wonderful holiday everybody happy holidays hi bye Martha T happy