[Music] board member Elizabeth Callahan here board member Nubia dval Wilson here board member Regina eert here board member bill gford board member will Meyer here board member Shane aaka Gable here board president Coe tford here board member Arun VOD lamman board member Caitlyn Whit letter andent representes all right please t for the Pledge of Allegiance please take notice that the adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner that written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 10:58 a.m. on July 15 2024 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South orangen Township clerks in the editors of the new News Record Star Ledger The Village Green and tap into Soma all right the school board meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little audience or very little comment in many cases in unanimous vote before matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent if the superintendent uh is satisfied with the matter that the matter is ready to be presented to the Board of Education it is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to assure that the members fully understand the matter after the committee discusses the matter it is then shared with the other board members for consideration only then is it placed on the agenda for board discussion and action at the public meeting so today we have the uh Dr fergus's um reflection on the implementation of the district plan and update on year one progress of the district plan um should we do um hearing individuals first and then yeah so now we'll just do our hearings of individuals and delegations thank you for coming in person and dialing in by phone this evening South orang Maple Board of Education certainly respects that you've taken the time out of your busy day to address the board of education at tonight's meeting we value public involvement in our school district and we are eager to hear what you have to say the board does have TI limits by policy and will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening each individual will be given three minutes to speak please do your best to to stay within the time afforded to you the first public comment period is usually limited to 1 hour and the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes all input share with the board of education has taken very seriously and will inform future deliberations and work by the Board of Education and his committees and let me just check online actually I don't have my Internet connected yet so let me just check quickly all right we have no speaks no there's no sign up for inperson or virtual no okay so then we'll now move on to the presentations so the first would be the reflection on the implementation of the district plan all right good evening how's everyone doing happy summer I know this is uh never an easy Endeavor to have committee meetings and board uh uh public meetings going on during the summer especially when there's so many plans going on um so excited that there is an opportunity to really share out just some quick updates in terms of what's transpiring I won't take too long in terms of going through sort of where uh what the uh where we are in terms of um in relation to the report that we provided and as well as where the district is um and I'm but I'm going to do a little bit of an overview just to make sure that we uh kind of remind ourselves of sort of where we started in terms of why we needed to necessarily sort of have this endeavor going on uh but also most importantly the and you all have known this because you all have been versed in terms of the recommendations uh you know what's what's behind sort of these recommendations but more particularly the time that it's going to take to really sort of work on this these set of recommendations um I particularly I want to thank um the uh the district team that I got to work with this past school year uh it was the uh it was the first time that actually I was engaged by the district leadership team around the reports that I had generated over the last several years for South Orange Maplewood they earnestly sort of not only invited me in but I offered my time to meet with them monthly and they took it right and we met every month on a Friday for a couple of hours in this room to really walk through how they were delineating their plans in relation to the recommendations and um and I want to thank them for earnestly understanding that these recommendations are ones that are necessary for this school district to really not only sort of align with the um the set of agreements but there was also an Earnest understanding that there was also part of the moral compass that the South orange Maple one Community had also was making an investment around so I want to really applaud them for for this set of work uh and um with the the group I got to work with this past year and I look forward to the work that's going to transpire uh over the next several years to really bring the sufferation one of the things I I want to make sure that I remind us and um and in some ways as Schoolboard members that you all hold steadfast in terms of your role as board members is reconciling that there is an imp erative around the policy practice and procedures that are duly important for ensuring that all of the kids in the community of South Orange Maplewood are able to access and in particular those that are tied back to the long vestages of school desegregation and integration right we know that there is a long history of needing to desegregate schools right where uh and the desegregation was really around removing the set of barriers particularly the legal barriers and policies and so forth and now we're moving into and many communities have been moving towards reconciling that we have to move into a form of integration so what does it mean for us to sustain this endeavor of really understanding that our charge is um is not just merely about ensuring that the barriers don't come back but now that we are also adopting the a recognition that it is about sort of learning what it means for us to be a racially ethnically linguistically um gender uh diverse Community an able-bodied diverse Community is not something that's easy right um as Bel hook said many years ago we never had a national curriculum to know how to get along but a community like South Orange Maplewood through integration work can begin Paving the way of showing what does it look like in a community like this that has a a a moral discussion all the time about what it means to integrate so um so that charge really is one that um the as Robert Carter is one of the the lawyers for uh the ldf at the time of the board Brown versus Board made the case that it's not only just about desegregating but we've got to integrate ourselves right and that takes a lot of work particularly for communities that are now having to take this on and I'm so glad that you all at South Orange Maplewood are sitting here wanting to do this right and establishing uh a committee that is very much charged with doing this work work so uh the support that we've been providing um has taken the form us three different sets of reports as you all may be uh particularly aware of you may be most familiar with the most recent report which is the one that we shared out June uh we finished it in June 2023 uh we presented I believe it was September of 23 uh in which I was in this room for about two and a half hours presenting that report but I also want to highlight that that report is also in alignment with the other two reports that also told different um looked at other areas of educational practice within South Orange Maplewood that Bless you that's outlining those same sets of patterns right so I want to make sure that as we talk about this one particular report that we also sort of maintain the spirits of the other two that also help to support what we were able to arrive at with the June report in particular the June report that we submitted the report number three we obviously sort of paid particular attention to uh overall disparity patterns in special ed gifted AP and honors and discipline we also paid particular attention to math curriculum and as one uh area of curricula to understand what happens to kids in terms of the learning that they get exposed to and as well as the outcome that transpires the nature of the culture and climate that is available for um racial and ethnically diverse uh racially and ethnically underrepresented populations which here in South Orange Maplewood is your black and brown populations right um and then lastly looking at your intervention supports right your tiered supports in particularly um what's uh here in New Jersey is is called inrs Intervention and referral services right so we looked at those areas we did a lot of document reviews we did a lot of interviews um in particular um I think what has been and you all probably read in the report and may have seen it in the or the presentation from September that the students particularly your black students here in South Orange Maplewood spoke very pointedly about their set of experiences that I think really told um a textured understanding of it's one thing to teach math it's another thing to hear kids talk about what it means to be in those classes to feel undervalued to feel as if they have less of a cognitive ability and don't deserve to be in those courses so I always um I always want to annotate the amazing sort of Bravery that particularly the black students shared in the focus groups that we did with them and as well as with school staff who were Brave to um to share some of their own sort of experiences that they've been noticing uh um both staff of color and white faculty in your um in the school district so with that said you all are familiar with the dis disparity patterns that are existing in your community and I'm not going to spend too much time with this because I I really want to go to to the recommendations um and talk through sort of um what's most what I want to lift up around it and in particular um the areas to which um in this the the dialogue work that I've been doing with the district team um what is landing as sort of some of the areas of imperative that we need to pay particular attention to as you all are familiar um or you may be familiar you know part of the analysis that we did was we looked at one particular we used one particular disparity formula again this is a disparity formula that is used by the Department of Justice it's also used by the office of civil rights it's also used by the legal defense fund right so this is not as I I've heard many districts say oh we're using the the Fergus disparity formula it is not my formula I did not okay this actually comes out of epidemiology they use relative risk ratios to really determine patterns of risk around health concerns right uh so uh in that formula that calculation allows us to know the amount of risk and this is the this is the metric anything at 1.0 is equal risk anything above 1.0 is an elevated risk anything below 1.0 is a lowered risk uh so what we annotated was and as you all know um and you'll see here in these Graphics uh I'll show you a trend from between 2018 to 2019 2018 to 2022 the the patterns of special special education relative risk ratio you'll see each group as they come up that anything above the one one the uh the axis that's there you'll see the red arrow off to the left that anything above that 1.0 is an elevated risk anything below that is a lowered risk and you'll see as I put all of the uh racial ethnic groups here you will see that there is a particular pattern in which you'll see especially your black and latinx kids having the most elevated pattern uh as I noted in the report your Native American student population is very small it is actually below the um the cell count that we can actually sort of uh demon uh sort of stipulate that this is a significant pattern right so that's the that's the one caveat I want to make sure that people understand when they see this graphic that your Native American po student population is well is below 20 so it really is too small for us to really incur any sort of designation that this is a risk um that is trans iring but we know that there's enough of a count in your black and latinx student population relative to all others with where they have the highest risk of being um of ending up in special education I'll also add in as an addendum that uh one of the projects that I currently have is I work I have a contract with the State Education Department of New Jersey to work with every District that is cited for special ed over representation and um in that project it's uh it's based on a requirement from the federal government that every state cite school districts for over representation of kids um by race in special ed uh the threshold for being cited is 3.0 right meaning K that group has to be three times more likely now South Orange Maplewood is not has not reached that threshold I know that because I I I see the lists and you all are not on that list however you're still disproportionate that's one of the things I always remind school districts that may not meet reach the threshold for the state to send you a letter but anything above 1.0 is a elevated risk and should be of concern and so I appreciate the fact that you might you all may not be cited but you are taking this seriously in terms of reconciling this is a pattern of disparity uh the other area that we saw patterns of disparity were in terms of your gifted AP and honors particularly we honed in on honors and AP um there were some uh glitches in terms of the data on the S of Elementary side so we honed in really on the honors and AP uh and I have to uh make sure that I annotate for you all that one of the patterns and I mentioned this back in the fall that is clearly occurring is that your black and Latin next student populations is actually having an elevated pattern of risk meaning a positive risk in terms of ending up in honors courses right and as you all saw in the report um as some of the school staff shared out that some of that has to do with the moves that were being made by counselors and as well as teachers and school administrators to encourage students to move into honors classes right and I think that is a uh promising set of moves right uh that we see reflected in this pattern of data Over time however as I said in the fall and as I said in the report that honors appears to be a bit of a ceiling for where black and latinx kids are ending up when we looked specifically at um AT AP courses the distribution demonstrated that black and latinx students are underrepresented right in fact what we found is your white students had the highest risk or the highest um probability or likelihood of ending up in AP courses now this aligns with some of the testimony that the students shared the black students in particular finding themselves um in AP courses and quote unquote as um they as we highlighted in the report quote unquote this black students stating I did not feel welcomed I did not feel supported and so many of them were actually exiting the AP courses right and we got testimony as well from school staff who also substantiated that students were leaving because of not feeling welcomed in those particular environments right and so as we as I talk later about those recommendations right particular to that that it's not just a matter of getting them in but it's also how do we change the culture and climate of what's happening in those classes right then the last piece of data I'm going to point to is around the discipline now discipline you'll notice that it's only one particular juncture um of data because of the the the nature of the discipline data that was available right to be able to do a more longitudinal analysis so we just teased out looking at it relative Risk by Race by free reduced lunch status and by gender and what we what we noted was that um during the 2122 school year black students had um they were over they were five times more likely than anyone else in terms of being disciplined um and then uh the and the other pattern was around free and reduced lunch students as well and there's probably points of overlap between those two populations in terms of their relative risk relative to especially non-free and reduced lunch eligible students so overall we know that the patterns of disparity are very clear and prominent in South Orange Maplewood and I always say you're no different than any other District I think the only difference is that you all are taking this on to change it right to make sure how do we interrupt our systems so this these patterns aren't predictable right and that takes a lot of sort of heavy lift to do those sort of changes and that's where the recommendations really come in right um a key piece of this is not only sort of doing these practices and I think this is you know but it's it's a matter of building the policy to institutionalize this I think an element of your policy of institutionalizing is the fact that you have the committee you've established a committee that is going to work steadfast on this particular issue right you're going to um you're not going to lose sight of this in terms of sort of the importance of it and so I appreciate and applaud you all for taking that step forward right so that involves sort of looking very closely at each one of these set of recommendations that are very robust um in working with the district leadership team this past year um the curricular area is a significant lift that has to transpire much of what um and I know you all have seen elements of what they have built into uh I believe it's a five-year plan if I remember correctly or 3 to five year plan that stipulates particularly around the curriculum side a complete Redevelopment of how curriculum is adopted the ways in which professional development has to align to ensure that the set of individuals who are taking the lead around this work those who are in the classroom and as well as those who support those in the in the classroom that there is an intentional recognition that this development of this new curriculum is about ensuring that all of your kids are getting the cognitive exposures that has not been readily available to everyone as you all remember in the report um especially in the the math curriculum analysis that we did that we showcase and it was in the curriculum that students who were in the sixth grade math sequence had to take 10 days of learning how to be a good student while the students who were in sixth grade pre-algebra did not have to spend 10 days to learn how to be a good student and there's there's a layers of presumption as you all know about making that type of Distinction and and trust me I asked the question how did we know what are the presumptions that we were working with that that's the thing as to why there's a difference between grade six Math students and grade six pre-algebra students right and I could never get a real answer to that right and so it's those types of curricular shifts that needed to transpire right to build um to change those elements and as well as um another critical piece was changing the exposure of cognitive skills work um as you all saw in the report um the U the learning objectives that were outlined in grade six Math were at the lower rungs of what um of what's called Bloom's taxonomy in terms of higher order thinking skills so the thinking skills that were being prominently placed in grade six were all around recall right versus in pre-algebra kids were getting exposed to higher levels of cognitive skill work which is around analysis and evaluation and as you can imagine when you're constantly asked recall questions from year in to year out your brain gets adjusted to that type of questioning technique and answers but if you're accustomed to synthesis and evaluation level questions you're getting pushed in a different level of cognitive work right and so the work that the district team has been working working on this past year that I got to sit in and they were sharing back with me is what does it mean for us to now reconfigure the math curriculum in such a way as involving um all layers of cognitive work happening in the set of courses and that has involved making determinations as to one do we sustain the tracks that exists the great six Math track and the great six pre-algebra track and two what does it look like to reconfigure the curricula in such a way that kids are getting the um the the higher order sort of cognitive skill development over time and are not relegated to um the type of cognitive skills that they're presumed to only carry because they started off in a very specific track the other big curricular um sort of adjustment was around the the need to um to also enrich and accelerate kids um and I know the district team has been been defined as part of their development is so we have kids who are already in the pipeline who we did not expose them to higher order thinking work particularly around curriculum so what do we do to make those adjustments the next piece I'm going to talk briefly around is in terms of the um uh the intervention supports so and this touches on the last point that I made around enrichment opportunities to grow kids cogn exposure part of what's transpired um and this goes back to the first report that I did for South Orange Maplewood where I honed in on inrs to say look you have kids who need support and the only route for support that was available that had a level of consistency was special education and unfortunately that was predicated that that process was predicated on the assumption that any difference was a disability when in fact it could just merely be a difference right but we but there uh it was clear from the first report that we did to the third report that we did that um that there wasn't a level of fidelity to having teered intervention supports available for all of the kids who are needing it right so the big lift that the district team that I got to work with them this past year in terms of outlining is so what does it look like to not only sort of have the types of intervention available for kids to um uh to repair right the types of learning difficulties that they're having but also how do we deepen the capacity of staff so that we're not growing the number of kids who need intervention supports but rather we are able to address them within the uh the core instruction and The Core Curriculum and this is where we cut touch back on the curricular piece that um uh if we don't sort of uh needing to seed it into that set of work um uh or needing to align it between both the intervention supports and the curricular work so um I know that one of the pieces that the district team had been working on is the implementation process guide that had been in existence right for several years in a district but yet um each school had uh found their own ways of making sense of it and applying it and that doesn't necessarily work um at the onset because part of building that guide was what was necessary was to First Norm that we agree that this is what is needed so you know it's the what what we noticed in the document reviews that we got to do was that there was a process guide that was given out to all the schools but everybody created their own flavor of what it could look like in terms of implementation rather than starting with let's first implement it to the Fidelity of what we outline and then we can do adjustments over time right uh so the big lift that's needing to continue transpiring is really the um the tightening of the process actually being followed and then the last piece that I'll mention around recommendations the big piece was really around there was very specific areas of developing not only an equity lens that exists as part of the adult capacity but also that lives as part of the policy practice and procedural agenda of the district right you know as a community you all have been committed to having this moral compass around being an inclusive community right I I know that there is a lot of community sets of events that happened that are about integration and inclusion and I know the district has been committed to it um but it is it is also recognizing that um in doing that we also have to confront the manners in which at at times we can have biased sets of perspectives that have to be interrupted right and so part of what we annotated in the report were some of those patterns that were existing among the adults and as well as the practices that were transpiring so part of what we outlined here was the need for a the nature of sort of professional development that lends itself for developing uh an equity lens that is connected to the pedagogical mission of the district for example in the adoption of curricula there needs to be a a pedagogical frame and there existing pedagogical frames that um that contain a culturally responsive lens as to the manner in which the curriculum is outlined and the way it is taught now those Frameworks are ones that are not part of the landscape of how teachers have gone through teacher prep programs as somebody who is at a univers who I've been at universities for 20 years I've been three different universities and the the the ways in which we have trained teachers to be in the classroom has not involved ensuring that they develop a culture responsive lens I will be the first one to tell you that in every University I've been at I've been at NYU Temple and now at Ruckers that the the the need the the development of a culture responsive lens is always left to the the the diversity class and that um doesn't align with the type of research that's already existing regarding particularly around curricular Frameworks that have been developed to really uh ensure that a culture responsive lens is practice among the uh the Educators in working with the district team I shared with them some of those pedagogical frames right and they have um um they are taking them on as part of both the pro professional development sequence that I'm sure they have shared with you all for the next five years and as well as as part of the curricular work that needs to transpire over the next five years right um and but all of that connects back to sort of the need to ensure that uh if we're going to integrate the the adults also have to learn integration right um because they're also coming in with their own sort of lived experiences that may not necessarily carry exposure to what it looks like to do integration the last couple of things that I'll mention in terms of recommendations were you know there was a particular attention to and recognition that there is an absence of diversity in terms of the educator Force here in South orence Maplewood uh previous uh you know School boards here have or school board members have talked about the importance of it I I just wanted to lift it up because the kids brought it up they brought it up often and in particular they brought it up under the opes of we just don't know who to talk to so we go to these teachers who help us make sense of how do we deal with it right so in some ways these teachers were actually operating as safe havens for them to be able to manage for what some of the students were sharing out were H were patterns of microaggression right and then the last piece is around um the the building out the types of affinity spaces for particularly for students of color who um found those those safe spaces as refuge for themselves right um I had the privilege of meeting with a lot of the max Scholars and it was it was amazing to hear how they have valued so much that space where they can literally let their hair down in a way that they don't find they didn't find themselves having to translate who they are in a different way so others can feel comfortable with them so the last thing I want to mention that I'm going to pause is is there's a couple of key things I want to recommend as the implementation is moving forward because I've had an opportunity to work with this with the district team this past year um I I I I I can sit with the level of certainty in terms of some of these next key pieces as important one is I want to make sure that as you all are looking at these recommendations particularly as as a committee is that you're intentionally braiding them into um a district strategic plan right so that I understand that you want to make sure and you should make sure that you're staying in line with the agreements that are existing with the school district so and that can still exist and braiding it in as part of a core mission of your strategic plan work right and I say that only because having worked with many districts over time is school board me school boards shift over time and the concern is making sure that these set of changes are not ones that are for the moment but become institutionalized and part of the fabric of the district right I always remember one of my stats Professor saying to me early on you know um that sometimes you know we find ourselves reverting back to the mean and the worry is that if we don't institutionalize some of these elements there may be other touch points where it may revert back to the mean and we have to reconcile that we can't revert back to the mean so I one of my sort of recommendations around the implementation process of the recommendations is to look for ways in which to build it in as part of your District strategic plan you can still annotate it as like these come out of these reports right because you want to make sure that you're adhering to the agreements but making sure that they are also braided in as part of those strategic plan so they're not sitting as these outliers and separate and apart from other District Le initiatives uh the second big piece I want to sort of support is um oh and I also wanted to sort of make a notation around in terms of this first piece around raing the report three recommendations is to also to consider um changing the name of your committee from the Fergus committee right I you know I would recommend that you know because it's still it's harking it to to a report or a person but rather it needing to be just it is the the district you know um policy committee on Equity whatever it may whatever you may want to call it but um making sure that it's something you're adopting right because y'all ain't adoped me no you're adopting these set of recommendations that are that are part of your moral compass right so that's recommendation I wanted to make sure I put out there the second piece I want to sort of for you all to consider um as part of the implementation of these recommendations is the progress monitoring around the implementation right right I know that there are elements of progress monitoring that are part of the agreements right and those those uh those elements are going to continue but those shouldn't be the only places in which we are progress monitoring the implementation of what's happening it should also become part of the fabric of how that actually is happening as far as in terms of the district L work and as well as as Schoolboard members right and some of that means examining system implementation right so meaning looking at the outputs right one of the things I always as I work with school districts when I help them build out plans is how often do you expect to do that thing let's go back and measure did you do the thing as often as you said you were going to do it right um examining the impact of your implementation right again you know the in the agreements you know you're going to see my face as part of um you know ensuring that you know you're moving in the right direction around your outcomes right in terms of the impact of the these changes but that shouldn't be the only time it happens it should also be part of the fabric of what this committee does and as well as what the district Le team does and then lastly doing the exact same thing in terms of examining the culture and climate impact right you know um one of the things I'm I'm always mindful of and I've learned this in in all of the research work I've got to understand and get to do over the years is recognizing that um the nature of these systems changes should trickle down to the level of texture change for the kids the kids should be able to notice that there is a market change that is transpired and I would encourage you all to consider that part of your progress monitoring includes also um talking to kids in particularly the students who have ex disproportionately affected been affected by the patterns of the system your black students your male students um and students disabilities and as well as um communicating and interacting with parent communities around um the nature of the culture and climate impact that's transpired so with that I am going to pause here for questions thoughts maybe some answers that you all may have for me ber rer right Dr Fergus first thank you so much for uh showing up on a a late January evening to to chat with us here it's really helpful to have you here um I guess what I'm curious about is you know we're rounding the corner on one year since you gave your presentation to the board and uh just about one year from when our monitoring with Justice Wallace started now that monitoring is its own thing as far as getting us through the three-year time frame for compliance but your recommendations of course go beyond simply complying with a settlement and go to the actual substance of of making progress in the school system with your uh frequent VIs e ship was um doing their best to try to sort of stay focused on this um to the point where you know we got a chance to um they gave me an opportunity to look at their 3 to fiveyear plan and to give them a lot of feedback and feedback that from every from one meeting to the other they actually shifted as the result of what the feedback I gave and and and they know me I was not um I did not sugarcoat my feedback in terms of what they were outlining in some areas you know I I would ask hard questions how feasible do you e e e definitely um you know so for example I you know I think about the output of um there's a substantive level of professional development that is planned out right I love professional development I'm a big fan of recognizing that um that when teachers come into the field they're still will starve for more knowledge building and too often we don't give them enough right um and they're hungry for wanting to have that and so my uh the output that I'd be curious to see is to ensure that there is that we're meeting the the the outputs or the dosage targets that we have around what it takes to uh um for example around curriculum to know a curriculum to practice a curriculum to um to adapt curriculum that takes a level of adult learning habits that can only come through sort of patterns of professional development that include you know um uh professional development that is about knowledge building skill building behavioral work and coaching right and so I'd love to see the the nature of outputs that speak to those right being able to see when you when you look at the iterations of outputs how much knowledge building PD did we give staff how much skill building PD did we give staff how much coaching PD did we give staff to ascertain our staff at a good place in terms of their implementation so that's that's as an example and I hope that answers your question around how to look at sort of the outputs I had a question that pointment sure please um okay and we got cut off so apologies if this was already asked similarly by board member Meyer so wanted to um talk a little bit about math um in our fiveyear plan which it sounds like you looked at it talks about making the lower tiered math courses more rigorous um and as you mentioned in your presentation about reconfiguring our math curriculum I just wanted to know if you felt like what we currently have in our plan when it comes to making the lower tiered Math More rigorous is living out the vision that you had for how we can um support the needs of those students yes you know so part of what needs to it's um and I'm remembering sort of the the meetings that we had specifically around this math piece is that there's a twofold element there is that which we um that you build out as part of the middle school math curriculum the six 7th and eth that is um that scaffolds itself or additive right so that kids are getting um a uh a an aligned experience where they're getting to continuously grow their cognitive skills but it's has to be predicated on that which what we're offering at the elementary school so the question um and this is part of the um uh I remember the meetings that we had about this is um and we didn't get a chance to do it as part of of our report in terms of as a set of documents that we looked at very closely which is what's the nature of what's happening at the elementary school in terms of math skill development that sets kids up for their Readiness for this uh for this Redevelopment of math curriculum in middle school right like so both things have to happen at the same time um for the populations of kids that are going to be sort of walking through your middle school program math programming and that's so that would be that my uh so how I am in sort of what I'm hearing what I saw in terms of that three-year plan pays attention to those two elements that have to transpire for member e h Dr Fergus thanks again for um for again joining in the middle of the summer as you noted it's it's certainly challenging to get folks in a meeting room as you can see right now um I just a quick followup to that as you talked about um Middle School Readiness we just implemented a new K through five math curriculum and so what is that time frame in which you have to evaluate and analyze how that is actually preparing those students for middle school math because I'm thinking about you know the the plan that we have in place does that in your meetings with the district did you see that kind of appropriated in their plan right that's a great question you know so I think in terms of you're right there is um your math curriculum at the elementary level you know and if I remember correctly I think it's in the second year of adoption if I remember I'm trying to remember my my notes on it you know and that's still early in terms of the degree to which staff are um have readily absorb the Cadence or the the pacing that the curriculum is laying out for the development of kids right one of the things I'm always very mindful of at the elementary level is you know we certifi teachers at the elementary level to be able to to teach multiple subject areas right and so you're going to have some staff at the elementary level who are who have a better proclivity to social studies than language arts or more to math or you know and so the adoption of a new curriculum like math right means that we have to make sure that there is the right level of PD that's being made available so that staff are implementing one the curriculum but two that the kids are garnering the types of skills that we're expecting them to gain as a result of that curriculum now the other piece around and I and I I can't speak to this because I I I don't remember if I specifically um if if we uh talked about this in the district meetings that I was a part of is the degree to which what are the the new elementary math curriculum what are the types of cognitive skills practice that kids are getting exposed to that can align to that which we're looking at for the middle school right as to make sure that there's a good bridge between what's existing in elementary as you bridge into the middle school the second thing that I will also note is also aligning it to the the tiered intervention supports process that you're also needing to tighten right so for example math may be an area where if there are gaps that live between what exists in the new math curriculum at the elementary level and what you are looking at in terms of moving into at the middle school the intervention tier supports process may be a conduit to do some of the scaffolding for your kids right because whatever difference and gaps that kids May incur it may not be the result of their their doing but rather gaps in how the adults have absorbed well enough to be able to teach it well so that they understand that the kids are moving in the direction of adopting the types of cognitive math skills we're wanting them to do so I think there you know um there will need to be sort of a close attention of mapping the math skills the cognitive skills and um uh and also aligning it with intervention supports between the elementary and the Middle School you questions remember Callahan hi thank you again um there was a lot of really interesting content and overviews and I really appreciated you um talking a little bit about the months that you did get to spend with our district team and and the work that is done there because to your point I think um reading a report versus really like engaging together getting that active feedback those are different things and so it's been exciting to me to know that that's happening um and for our community to know that that's happening as well so thank you um I wanted to Pivot back a little bit to special education for a moment um the disparities that you noted there and the work that you do in disproportionality um in that realm so we we've looked at those patterns in our special education committee we're we've looked at them um one of my goals for next year is to really put some deeper progress monitoring on that so we have eyes on that in a on a more frequent basis um but I would love to hear a little bit from you knowing that we are kind of below that threshold and would love to stay there um thinking proactively about steps that would integrate to your point around not making inrs kind of a a segue to a CST referral but rather using it actively what are some of the proactive moves that you typically coach districts on that that could be helpful for us to kind of of have an eye on here it's a great question you know so what's um and some ways I'll I'll give you all insight to the to the work that I'm getting to do with um 43 other districts here in New Jersey around this issue of dis personality and special ed is that one is in terms of the tiered supports process uh one recognizing that inrs is geared towards supporting teachers to support students the legislation says it's about supporting teachers who support kids unfortunately what's happened in terms of the translation that has occurred since 2007 is that many districts have translated inrs to be let's fix the kid so let's send the kid to somebody and if the kid doesn't get fixed then it's a child study team's turn to do it so so on one hand there's an element of um there's a Mis understanding of inrs and as and as you can imagine just changing or reconciling that there is a process that needs to exist that is about building the support of staff to be able to support kids also going to require a culture change one of the things that I keep noting with a lot of the districts I work with is that staff are pushing back because it was like well that's not how we've always done it I was like well you know and and it's you know it it it takes a brave leadership to say we were wrong and and how we roll this out it's actually about supporting you to support kids right so one there has to be a reconfiguration and understanding of what inrs is two there has to be a concerted effort around building out tier two and tier three types of supports that are geared towards addressing the skill areas that are that kids are needing a a a different layer of support that go beyond the classroom context right what we what I find is a lot of districts end up with tier 2 and tier three types of interventions that are Global in nature but are not targeted to the skills that kids are struggling with right it's so for example they'll have a tier two or tier three intervention that is about reading globally but not targeted to is it a pheic awareness issue is it a phonics issue is it a fluency issue right and which uh which touches on sort of another area which is is that um the manner in which they have resourced intervention supports right um is uh has not met the needs of kids which means that for quite a few districts they're having to reallocate Dollars to actually appropriately resource that intervention supports right the other piece that um is the um uh that I also work with districts around is in terms of the evaluation process itself so there are particular you know the the field of special education um has shifted over the years in particular the attention around what are the types of discrepancy models that we use to determine does a child have a disability and or is it a disability that we developed as as Educators in the child right is meaning it's a is it an absence of us giving something thus the way in which we look at the discrepancy between a child's achievement and a battery of tests that our interpretation is the kids missing stuff but we don't contextualize whether or not they're missing it it's because we haven't given it to them right so it may be a curriculum based disability right and so um so an element of the work that I support districts around is to reexamined closely what is the discrepancy approach that they're using Within context of evaluation and so what I've seen a lot of districts do particularly the directors of special ed is that they have weighed in heavily on reviewing every case with a close scrutiny and at times have brought in other experts psychologists right to review these files right to almost do a panel review to ensure is this a true disability or is this a disability as a result of an absence of of quality instruction and intervention supports over time right so those are some of the pieces that I work directly with school districts in terms of identifying and I see consistently occurring right as to why there ends up being sort of these patterns of of of over repes over representation at special ed and in particular there is an element to which it's happening most concertedly with black and brown populations because there is also a nature of an undercurrent of understanding ings that also play a role in terms of the ways in which um supports are provided and or rationalized in terms of lack of skills that there are interpretations that are being made about black and brown populations that presume a lowered cognitive ability right um and you'd be surprised what people what what people tell me where they will say well you know and I've been in meetings where they say well the black students you they live in communities where they have a lot of power lines and so I'm I think that that's causing their disability and I'm like well none of us are Aaron Brockovich so I don't think we can make that case right like and we there are and that's because folks are bringing in their own understandings of where some of these cognitive gaps may exist for for groups particularly for racial ethnic minority populations right that it has to do with the group versus it having to do with the absence of actual sort of consistent tiered supports and quality instruction So yeah thank you for that question course secondy aable okay thank you Dr Fergus um so in the past you've spoken about how changes in a school district can Surface feelings that things are being taken away from certain groups of kids and then today you've also spoke to the need for the community to understand and be on board as much as possible um with changes to higher school system operates have there been any dis any recommendations from your discussions with the district about how to achieve this coherence so yes I we've had some conversations around you know um you know so one of the things I you know when thinking about implementation is I'm always asking the question of um what's the message that we're giving and who's giving the message right um and not only for the school Community but also for the broader Community right especially in community like South orence Maplewood right that I've had the experience of you know attending some meetings where I can I I hear the levels of sort of discomfort eort around how uh some parts of the community are interpreting uh some of this integration work right and so uh and so the conversations I've been having with the district is okay so what's the message that needs to come from the district and when I say the district not only sort of the the staff here right but also board members what's the message that we're that we're sharing out um and who's giving the message you know we are in a we exist in a racially ethnically um diverse population and society that is striving to learn about itself and how to interact with others and at times some of that also involves being able to know who can give the best messaging right particularly when we all each one of us exists with a level of affinity by right meaning we all gravitate towards people that are like us whatever that like us is I'm a big- Time Runner I've been a runner for 38 years now so I'm all about you're a runner we're talking we're hanging out I know what you're all about right because there's just a level to which I can I can connect but it also can blind me at times because I could I I can overly favor another Runner because oh I understand them because they're like me right and so as we are rolling out these messages I think we have we we're going to do some work here the work that needs to happen is is also giving an opportunity for folks to develop perspective taking skills so they can break out of their Affinity bias points right so that may involve having whether it's Community meetings about this that is multi-racial that is multi-ethic right to ensure that we're giving our community also an opportunity to practice to some of that perspective taking that is not only for the community but dare I say it's also modeling for the kids right because what I also got to hear from the kids um particularly the black students was you know um recognizing that there wasn't always they were they were not only sort of experiencing patterns of um of bias that may be coming from the adults but they were also experiencing with their peers and for me that is also a kids are demonstrating what they know based on what they see and in a community like South Orange Maplewood that has various facets of inclusion how do you become much more intentional about practicing perspective taking that involves breaking out of our Affinity bias touch points right um and that's going to be some of the work that I I would encourage you all not only is the I mean I know the district m members we've talked about it but I also want to encourage you all as Schoolboard members what's the messaging who's giving the messaging and what's your work in terms of also maintaining this moral compass around intentional integration I have another question um so we've been talking about implementation also looking at outputs and outcomes um and I think one of the major points is monitoring and um I know last fall you mentioned that it's very important for the district to get I guess adequate Data Systems up and running to really monitor um students progress um looking at their PD um for teachers what kind of what discussions have you have with the district about this and have they provided you with any sort of insight into what they're planning on doing with data with their Data Systems uh I'll be honest I don't recall that we got to talk about data infrastructure you know um what type of data systems are assisting um to to help feed themselves right what's going to be implemented you know so I'm I I can't sort of adequately answer that question um that may be something to ask of the district team Deval Wilson hey I just had it's more of a comment and and um it's midnight where I am so I'm hoping that I'm making sense um but um so I'm glad that um board member eard mentioned our new um math curriculum in elementary school in Dr Fergus to your point about evaluating Elementary School Math and how it leads to supporting middle schoolers I was looking at our most recent um Five-Year Plan and I don't see um that aspect in the action um section when it comes to looking at our math curriculum and so I would recommend if if I'm looking at the most upto-date version um that we integrate that into the action plan when it comes to looking at how our elementary school math is doing from that perspective to your point um I know that they're going to be looking at um how the math is going how the new curriculum is going in ele in the elementary school but currently in the action plan it doesn't talk about how that reflects with supporting um our middle schoolers and the various levels and Pathways that they'll be taking right thank you all right we'll have our second hearing of individuals in sorry second hearing of individuals and delegations um thank you you're all done yeah I I do want to Echo some of Dr fergus's sentiment especially um about the equity work about 50% of this Equity work is adult relationships it's you know and from a board perspective uh it's govern it's governance-based monitoring um it's also adopting policies practices and expectations um that at the base is equity and as a board those are the governance tools that are available to us um and if we utilize those tools effectively I think South Orange Maplewood school district will be in the National Spotlight for the work they've done around Equity all right so so there are no individuals no no no one that signed up thank you all right so I guess we can move on to new business anyone have any new business okay okay the Board of Education will meet in public session on Thursday July 25th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the district meeting room at 5:25 Academy Street in Maplewood New Jersey immediately following the opening a public session the board will move to go into a closed session in the superintendent's office at 525 Academy Street in M New Jersey as well as using an online video conference platform to discuss Personnel matters with the eternity client privilege legal negotiations and other matters that may arise and require discussion to be announced at a later date immediately following the closed session the Board of Education will meet in public session estimat to uh be at 7:30 p.m. in the district meeting room at 525 Academy Street in M New Jersey in person utilizing an online video conference platform which will include hearing of individuals the community can view the meeting by following the steps which will be listed on the agenda if there are members of the community who would like to attend the meeting in person please note that masks and social distancing are optional in accordance with the guidance receive from the local do and CDC action will be taken that like to make a motion to discern thank you second thank you Gable all in favor Paris unanimous all right we are Jing at 7:41 P.M