##VIDEO ID:2QmyZQscgpY## e e e e e e e e e e um Sparta Board of Education regular meeting is called to order at 7 p.m. Lee do you mind reading the meeting announcement for me please the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the sparta board of education has caused notice of the time and place of this meeting to be published in the New Jersey Herald The Star Ledger tap into spa.net and notice of the meeting has been posted on the sparta Township School District website thank you uh roll call please join Miss Kier here miss gagnan present Miss McMichael here Mr plushy here miss seander miss seraphino here Dr Sano Mr wood here Mr mors all right we don't have anything to go into close session for tonight so we're going to go right over to the pledge sorry I'm a little rusty I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible liy and jce for now we will go right into our presentations for the evening and I'm going to turn it over to Dr Beck good evening if you wanted to see a lot of presentations he came to the right place tonight there are um actually four presentations there's three on the agenda uh the fourth one is going to be the njsla uh test results we got a late uh broadcast from the doe that said that they had to be done by um pretty much two days after our October board meeting it had to be presented so we decided that we wanted to move it up now um to get it out as quickly as possible so there's actually four presentations this evening so hope everyone's comfortable uh we'll start with the uh with the referendum proposal presentation and I'll call up our architect Alan Barnett who has been working with us throughout this process um and we'll get started so first just going back uh there's going to be a lot of similarities between this presentation and the presentation uh from last winter uh because the premise is the same uh really what's going to change is uh a little bit of the design that you'll see and um more information as to timelines so um first of all for those following at home uh this presentation is on the website um it's under the uh District presentations under the Board of Education the only difference between what you're going to see at home and what's here is I did not include the floor plans on the website uh for security reasons so those aren't on the website but every other slide that you see without the floor plans is going to be on the website if you wanted to follow at home so just going back uh giving more background or giving a background like I did uh previously in a pres in this presentation the background surrounding the growth of Alpine elementary school so Alpine Elementary School is no secret um there's a lot of students and staff in there and uh we're we're running out of space and so um that was something that I faced when I came into the district it was one of the main problems one of the things that were brought up in interviews uh as I was interviewing for this position hey what would you propose for such for such an issue um how do we end up there is the is the real question there there's a couple ways that we ended up there the first way is uh through growth in population in Sparta Township which is great Sparta Township is growing there are more students there are more families moving in which is again which is great um that causes more students in our school system of course um then also what contributed to uh Alpine Elementary School specifically and the issue that we're facing over there is that years ago uh the kindergarten program was a part-time or a halfday kindergarten program so uh students came in for half the day and then another set of students came in for the other half of day um and then the Board of Education and administration at the time made the decision to make a full day kindergarten which is great educationally great decision um the problem is you are now looking at a double you're looking at the need for double the amount of classrooms because where two classes were sharing a classroom throughout the day now now those two classes have to be in separate classrooms because of full day so now you are doubling the need for kindergarten classrooms and the same thing went for prek at the time prek was half day and then went to full day and again you're doubling the amount of classrooms and all of a sudden you're starting to run out of space in Alpine elementary school so again it's something that that I was faced with as soon as I came into the district so um we tried to tackle this program I mean this this issue as an administrative team we spent hours upon hours roughly 25 administrators spending four to five hours at least talking about possible solutions for this and uh we came up with nine different options I believe at the time we just put everything on the table what if we did this what if we move this grade what if we rented property what if we every scenario that we came up with was either going to move a problem from one building to another or it was going to cause other issues or it was super disruptive to the district uh there were basically the pros outweigh the cons of any one of these scenarios so um we decided at that point you know what maybe really looking into a referendum is going to be the answer but what's that referendum going to look like do we want to build a new school or do we want to look at an addition to a school um perhaps we want to build a new school with our aging elementary schools perhaps we want to build a new school we spent a lot of time as a board of education and with the township collaboratively looking for properties that either the Board of Education owned or that the township owned where could we possibly build a school and everything was exhausted there was no place to build a school there was there was Township properties that were nestled in the back of a of a kisac of a development um there were some that were just not buildable there were some that were in terrible locations for Traffic all that all of that um was eventually ruled out so at that point we said plus the cost of such of building a a brand new building which would have been uh a pre- of 5 building would have been um the cost would have been quite high so what we decided to do was pursue a referendum where we would uh add on to Alpine Elementary School uh because that's where um the crowding is taking place and the crowding is taking place there mind you even with trailers on the property trailers that have been there for decades um temporary trailers that have been there for decades so it's also an issue on the Alpine campus so um we performed a demographic study um to confirm basically what we already knew and that demographic study is confirming growth throughout the district throughout our buildings but really what the demographic study shows is that it's going uh the biggest population growth is in the elementary schools which will eventually go into the other schools um the thing about the other schools like the middle school and the high school the capacity right now the capacity is above the enrollment so they can absorb a little more of uh of a of an increase in students whereas Alpine cannot where it's already um exceeding so we decided to look into building an addition that would appli to Alpine Elementary School in order to accommodate the growing population um specials as a result of the of the addition what what would happen specials would be housed in their own classrooms the modular will no longer be used as classrooms on that campus and it would provide necessary room for growth and small group uh group instruction spaces which again we'll talk about as we uh get into the actual designs also as part of the design uh we we decided to go ahead with an additional gymnasium in AES for increased use for during the school day but also increased use for the community after school hours everybody knows that in Alpine the uh the gymnasium is a multi-purpose room so it's an auditorium it's a cafeteria it's a gymnasium and um the more students that come in there the more sections that you need to teach of fiz Ed uh it becomes more difficult so getting a a gym in on another gym on that property to relieve some of that pressure and for uh Community use after hours was also something that we were looking to do that's there's two parts to the proposed referendum that's one part the addition to Alpine Elementary which we'll get into more detail about and the other part is facility upgrades to all the other buildings and these facility upgrades are as I as I stated in a letter as I stated before are necessary building upgrades you're talking about HVAC getting getting all the uh elementary schools air conditioning um Roofing doors windows that type of thing really necessary infrastructure that would be very difficult to chip away at out of a out of capital projects out of our capital reserve and of course um this whole time we have been collaborating with darara Rabino uh specifically Alan Barnett who has been our architect and um has been guiding us along the way when we talk about um designs and we talk about facility upgrades so let's get into what these actual designs oh so last time um that we presented there were a lot of different designs I believe there were eight or nine designs because Allen shop at the time was just to put everything on the table you could do this you could do this you could do this and then we narrowed it down as an administrative team as a board of education a board of ed um at came to me and said we need to narrow this down to about three or four designs so that's what we're doing we narrowed it down to three or four designs based on feedback that we've had internally Board of Ed feedback administrative feedback operational feedback what did we come up with and that's what we're about to show you am I good you're good thank you Dr Beck I think with that introduction I don't have a whole lot left to add I think he covered uh Dr Beck covered a lot of it I'm just going to kind of talk and explain graphically how we've gotten to the point from January 18th to today uh January 18th was the last time I was in front of uh the board uh in this manner and as Dr Beck said I think I presented eight or nine versions of an addition to Alpine Elementary School and over the past nine months we've weeded that down to Whitted that down to four options which I'll show you today programmatically all four options are the same layout wise is where you're going to see difference this differences some of them some differences are going to be subtle some differences are going to be a little bit more uh dramatic but programmatically we're looking at 10 kindergarten pre kindergarten size classrooms 10 academic um first or second grade size classrooms small group instruction spaces to support spaces toilets Bo um mechanical rooms IDF rooms for technology and the and the gym that's going to be in all four of the options that I'm going to show you from from an addition standpoint sitewise we're still we're still finessing the site we're going to be providing parking for 20 buses for pickup and the and the uh site circulation associated with that and we've we've added uh faculty parking to each of the options uh with the exception of the last one which I'll I'll get into at that point in time the gymnasium is sized for high school it's high school size court and it can be subdivided into two smaller courts this gives the the district the greatest amount of flexibility to use during the day for the elementary students and then nights and weekends that they can use for the for for the community so getting into the plan option one a now can everybody see the pointer no this pointer is not playing playing all right it's kind of faint all right I'm going to do my best because as an architect we like to talk we like to talk with our hands and the microphone is way too far away from the pre the board for me to do that so you have the Alpine Elementary School you have the the main you have the main building and then you have the two wings of the pods that have been added over time with the addition in the rear the option we're proposing here and and all subsequent options is we're adding the addition off to the back of the property which is what we'll call plan North which is up on the top part of the plan top part of the site plan we had a number of site constraints for the for the property uh you do have Wetlands off to the uh way to the far plan North but you have a Wetlands buffer and you can kind of see that that's outlined by this this line here we need to stay outside of that area with at uh with everything that we're doing so we're we're fitting in a rather large program the building is about 42,000 Square ft with and then you have the the bus parking and the The Faculty parking flanking either side of the building Edition with this option the bus parking will come up circulate through the site Park up park on the left of the plan we've created a plaza an entry Plaza for as the students get off the bus they can filter through the building they can filter into the new edition through to the kindergarten and first or second grade Wing up on the second floor and then they can make their way through the building through the existing through the existing building and we're actually connecting it's not showing very popping up very well we're actually connecting the the existing building to one of the wings of the pods so you can almost come full circle through the build through the new addition and the existing building inside as opposed to uh where it is where you have it right now we'll be providing new kindergarten and Elementary School Playgrounds as well as an exterior uh basketball court when you get into option one a program again similar you can kind of see all I did between the two is I kind of tweak a little bit the orientation of the wing in option 1A I like that a little bit better because it it open I can't see it because of the white it opens up the space between the existing building and the proposed building so where you can kind of see that move around a little bit it um option two option two takes the takes the plan and actually flips it okay flips it horizontally so the gymnasium now is on the right hand side as opposed to the left and the the kindergarten uh piece opens right up to the leftand side Bus Parking what's nice about this is it creates a bigger Plaza for the kids to be before and after school sort of holding area before they go off to the buses and also as they come off the bus it gives them more room to funnel into the buildings at the various entry points this one H by putting the gym on the right hand side it allows that to be closer to the faculty parking which works better for uh after school programs and weekend programs and each one of these options we've designed in such a way that that the buildings can be compartmentalized so that should you run a program on a Saturday or or a Thursday evening you can compartmentalize the building and control everybody in the gym control everybody in the academic Wing without giving access through the entire facility uh one thing I forgot to mention when you go to the existing building you can see it down in the lower right hand corner two areas in purple we'll be renovating a number of classrooms into a larger art and a larger music room so two separate rooms will be renovated out of out of four classrooms bringing those programs back into uh spaces that are adequate for elementary school option three takes the bus parking and puts the bus parking on the uh rightand side now this one we took out the employee parking because we're starting to really max out a lot of the area uh that's that's a lotted for us without getting into some of the wetlands buffers this creates more of an L uh layout of the of the arrangement of the gym the gym right off the bus parking you come down and it creates an L with the kindergarten and the academic Wing going east west the gym runs and north south still allows still allows a plaza as you come in off the buses smaller than option two but you start to make your way through and you can again you again again excuse me you can work your way through the new building and the existing building connecting this over here from the existing Wing to the existing pod Wing so we've kind of narrowed it down of those four options I'm going to go into next the facility improvements that are going to that that are going to be uh proposed throughout the district so at Alpine Elementary School along with the along with the building addition parking the site improvements we're going to have a roof replacement window replacement interior doors throughout boilers classroom HVAC upgrades and electrical service upgrades the electrical service upgrade is required to handle the the additional load from the HVAC you're going to see a lot of these infrastructure improvements they're going to be carried throughout all the buildings in the district Mohawk Avenue School exterior door replacement window replacement HVAC upgrades not just in the classrooms but in some of the common spaces as well and again the electrical service upgrade Helen Morgan School roof replacement windows boilers HVAC throughout and again the electrical service upgrade the Middle School HVAC upgrades throughout the building classrooms and some of the some of the common spaces the Sparta High School that needs a chiller replacement classroom hbac upgrades and with this one with the Sparta High School this is the one where we we we break away from the infrastructure and we'll be renovating eight science lab classrooms this I'm g go back to the design sure we just talk to the design a little more for the board where you want to start right there yeah that's fine so um just going back to the designs before we go on to the timeline just to uh make a couple more points um first of all we feel that in fact we know that the the staff parking is going to be essential um anybody that's been at Alpine at arrival or dismissal knows that additional staff parking will be essential because uh when the staff parking when when the staff cars get out of that lower lot that you see and they move to a different lot it allows more room for parents to park and allows more room for traffic flow so uh we view that as essential and as we were going through the different designs working with the admin team over there uh talking about operational measures uh we agreed that or we decided that um the bus parking on the left is really what is ideal because of the traffic flow and because those buses in the morning have to come in drop and leave they can do that all on the left side of the building um while parents are dropping off in front of the building if we were to have the bus parking on the right side uh those buses would be running into the parent traffic and then causing headaches for parents also causing delays for buses which we don't need um so um while Allan made this design option number three um we're in agreement that we just wanted to show that this that this could be done that there are other options you could flip the whole format but it wasn't really something that as an administrative team that we were interested in pursuing uh we were more interested in one onea and two and uh and specifically two is where the um administrative team again we're going to get feedback but that's where the administrative team landed for multiple reasons again you have the bus parking on the left you have the uh gymnasium on the right with the additional parking on the right right by the gymnasium for for the reasons that Allen stated before uh that's very advantageous and that big Plaza area um is going to serve a purpose operationally as well as he stated that more students can and can be out they're not they're not getting off the bus or on the bus coming right out of the building they're they need to um they have time to get organized before they get into their lines so for those reasons we were um leaning toward two but again we'll we'll discuss that when when the presentation's over okay some of the next steps as we move forward with with the uh pre-referendum phase you've you've seen four options tonight so as the board provides feedback and direction I can continue to work on refining and narrowing down if it's if if it's option two we'll continue to work on option two if there's if there's comments from from the board that you'd like me to look at something something in addition then we look at that and we come back um I I laid out the list of facility improvements uh we can we can again confirm that list and what is definitely going to be included now now what's required by the Department of Education is what's called a schematic submission so that's taking that's taking whatever plan we finalize on developing that to a schematic level so the state can analyze it and make sure that we've hit the standards that are required for school construction that takes about three months along with that we show what the facility Improvement portions are that's a packet of documents that you're going to get come January of 2025 so between now and January 2025 myself and and my team is going to work to continue develop that schematic submission January 2025 you pass a resolution allowing me to submit that on your behalf okay along in that packet is is the the drawings the what's called educ education specifications so that lays out the criteria and the size and the square footage the makeup the furniture makeup of every one of the educational spaces and we what's we call what's called proving it out to make sure that that what you put in the space actually works for the Department of Education we put we put in the plans that what the facility improvements are what the cost estimates are and so that goes to this you you'll pass that resolution and approve those plans those schematic submission as party your January board meeting along with that the plans go to the planning board we're required to submit to the planning board we'll have to uh present to them they will look at it as part of the submission as well they have to provide their comments to the Department of Ed so about that process will take about three or four months from from January to April April or May the Department of Education will provide the board with what's called a PEC letter right preliminary eligible cost letter they're going to look at the plan and say yep the plan meets the state guidelines they're going to look at the cost they're going to look at your longrange facility plan that's one thing I didn't put in here as part of this schematic submission I have to update your longrange facility plan I have to take the demographic report import that information so that the state can see yep you are in need to do these projects that determines and that helps determine what's your state aid that's the most critical piece that's the most critical piece in the PEC letter that determines how much debt service Aid you're going to get on the referendum okay we don't know we we'll have a rough idea of what that will be prior to the submission in January but the state ultimately decides that number uh along the way we'll keep the community informed on progress and provide information forums and then La last but not least September 2025 is the referendum vote referendum vote have not released the dates for for 2025 yet Department of Education has not released the final date or the actual date for that but it's typically the last Tuesday of the month okay so that's the next that's really the next year that's mapping out the next year for you guys and what you can expect there's a little there's some mate some minor Milestones along the way I just kind of kept it very high level and kept it to the major milestones and then do you want add anything to that no that's good so now we'd like to open it up to comments how do you want do from the board first from the I would say from the board first and then we can open it up okay yeah Craig right I don't have yeah I don't have any I was to say I was that's going y so I have a few actually um so knowing that we're probably and not just speak for everyone but given the logistics ruling out option three since that option doesn't provide any staff parking uh comparing options one a and 1B and two are there any radical cost differentials between those items that you would see no great no they're all rough sorry the microphone they're all roughly in the same square footage right this one two has a little bit larger square footage because of right now I can't see it the entry of the connecting of the gym to the existing wing and to the pods that square footage is a little bit more than than this option right option 1B so the square footage is a little bit more but as as we take the next three months that gets refined okay bus parking is the same size faculty parking is the same size those numbers don't change playgrounds don't change gym size doesn't change really what changes are the little the little connections right the microphone is just right in the right spot the the classrooms there the kindergarten classrooms they th Square F feet 10 of them the the uh uh uh academic classrooms they're 850 each those don't change between all the options they don't change it's all the little how the things get connected how the corridors go you know the difference between 1 a and 1B we flare out that little we flare out between the wings um the difference between between two and one and 1A is the little larger Plaza it's the the little nuances that will fluctuate the the overall budget but for the most part we're all right they're all right there awesome thank you so much um and then I had another question oh it's more of a clarification for the public so Dr Beck spoke to this but in all examples that were being shown the bus parking lot there's going to be dual option to come in and out for the buses so this is not a one way or it's not it's we discussed it being wide enough to house incoming and outgoing busing this drive will will handle a two-way traffic excellent right and all the way now there's a section that I want to still look at which is which is not shown here which is way plan South which is coming from that parking all the way to the street that's that's still I want to look at got it and and what would what we would be looking at what with what he just said was the driveway coming into Alpine again it's no secret the traffic flow is not good um so we would look to make three total Lanes in that uh driveway coming up so in the morning two lanes could be coming up and one lane going out and then vice versa in the afternoon so that we can uh help with traffic flow even more and one more thing I wanted to point out I alluded to it in my intro in all of these designs you still see the trailers the trailer um the trailer is going to stay there the trailer is going to stay there for um for office space for like child study team offices things like that and for storage so um the while the trailer stays there it is no longer going to be classroom instructional space but uh with the building there and a lot of money that we put into the building over over the years it's actually a pretty uh pretty nice building actually so to to just knock it down uh we're not we don't plan on doing that we plan on getting the classrooms out of there uh but keeping the building keeping the building there awesome and last one um you had mentioned it and I just wanted to maybe have you elaborate a little bit more for the public in terms of the PEC determining state aid any more information you can provide the public about that in terms of how that process works and any insight you might be able to offer in terms of our um standing or anticipation this is where it gets really boring even better facility Improvement projects so the the the roofs the windows the boilers the interior Renovations they typically will they'll typically be eligible for 40 up to 40% Debt Service State okay now it doesn't always work out the full 40 it's also based on your dap dap is District district oh shoot dap Joe blank uh again that's monitored by the state but that's typically around 40% right that's that's most districts are at about 40% Debt Service Aid or uh dap you get into some of the Abbott districts their percentage are a little higher that's for facility improvements okay facility improvements right off the bat that's what they get the addition the addition gets a little more complicated because the addition is based on unhoused students that's where that's where that demographic report that Dr Beck referenced that you guys upd the the Board of Ed updated in June of 2024 showed that you actually have unhoused students at the at the uh Elementary School level now when I say un house students that means that kids are not out outside okay they are actually in the building but the the state has knows the capacity of the building what the educational capacity of the building is if the two of those don't align with the the number of students in the building you have what's called unhoused students right that's when you get your larger class sizes that's when you get things uh your your your uh your pullouts right your your your uh small group instruction your your BSI your English as second language that's when you get those being pulled out of the room and they become more on various points throughout the building the stage of the multi-purpose room uh art on a card things like that because they have to do that to allow get kids in a classroom so the state takes that unhoused student number now this is where it gets really boring even more boring now the state also has a very Antiquated construction cost all right so the mathematic formula is the number of unhoused students times the Department of Education FES stand allowance that gives you to your total allowable square footage that you can build right that they're going to that they're going to say you can build you can build upwards of that they're only going to pay you for the total allowable square footage you take the total allowable square footage you times that by the allotted construction cost allotted construction cost when this formula was generated was $143 a square foot I will tell you School construction hasn't seen $143 a square foot I've been with the carabo for 16 years I have never seen it $143 a square foot okay you times that then you times that by your District's dap right typically 40% that gives you the amount of state aid that the district will give you for the addition that's typically in the 8 to n% range okay so you can see that that disparity right you you you get 40% for the facility Improvement projects and you're going to get about 8 to % Debt Service aid for the building addition that was perfect thank you so much if I may so what is the average square footage cost that you typically run in the projects you've seen sticker shock yes okay prepared since this project won't see bidding for close to two years right now we are in the 575 a square foot range since since we are projecting out two years from now before will start construction I'm estimating this to be at 625 a square foot okay I have to account for inflation I don't have a magic ball as to where construction cost is going to be in two years from now but one thing that the district and district is not able to do is spend a penny more than what the referendum is so if the if this building costs $30 million they can't spend and they ask the taxpayers for $30 million for this building they can't spend $30 million in one cent they can only spend $30 million so I have to be very careful and very cautious with my cost estimates because again I cannot predict where things will be we've seen air conditioning hbac costs in this past year alone jumped 30% just in this past year so we're asking I'm I'm going out on limb because I'm the one that sets the cost estimates for the district that I have to take into account any potential inflation that's why I'm using a that that square footage number all goes well it comes in less than that that's the you know the ultimate goal but I have to I have to protect protect the district with with uh costs because what happens you then follow question that that what happens if it goes over budget you have to cut scope so 10 classrooms becomes eight classrooms you don't do the roof you don't do you know there's there's other things to do to kind of look at how you can strategize a public bid we'll get into that in another another another time because that's even more boring than the little math equation I just read um does that answer your question yes thank you and my other question is just related to I think you you mentioned like behavioral support spaces like and bringing back our our special classrooms are we considering as we're I'm trying to think out of form thisly are we considering the spaces that we may need to incorporate keeping as many students as possible in District um with you know with our behavioral support maybe they're maybe they're two e students with Julie gift uh MH say it wrong to you know twice exceptional students like how are we incorporating that into the space because each of the options that I've presented have seven academic siiz classrooms okay out of those seven the district can choose to use however they they like to bring those those pullouts off the stage in the multi-purpose room to keep kids in District right that's the next as we develop these the option what are those classrooms become those classrooms typically don't require they're classrooms now they're going to be a pull out they're going to be an ESL or a small group instruction they don't typically require renovation so that they become what's called change in use that's a that's a a that's an input into the longrange facility plan a classroom becomes a small group instruction space that's that's that's the simple side of it okay but they don't require renovation to do that so as we talk about as we talk about what those program spaces become that's when that's when that the administration assists with that and those areas are as Allan pointed out those those two pink areas are the art and music room um getting refurbished and actually becoming actual spaces the um the rooms ad joining in that pod and the one above it are what you just said Lauren there'll be uh they are educational spaces that are not in ideal classrooms right now that would be an ideal classrooms and allow room for growth so as a final question regard uh regarding the room for growth are we correct me if I'm wrong I believe we have about 19 bus routes coming into Alpine now how much is the capacity of the building changing and do we have enough room if we if we need another bus route or two depending on growth of Sparta and I that may be beyond what we need you all you take the bus route I'll take the capacity yeah so the the bus routes um won't necessarily increase with the with the increased enrollment not necessarily uh but we don't know that until we find out where that increased population is coming from where do they live so that's almost impossible to to predict uh this evening but what Allan is doing and this has been um I'll say it been his biggest challenge uh this whole time was when I keep asking hey where are those drawings where are those drawings man I can I'm working on the Bus Parking uh that has been his biggest challenge because of where it is and the need to get uh 20 buses in there um that's been the biggest challenge but um we're anticipating the bus routes staying about the same you know if there's one or two more buses coming in then then so be it we would accommodate so another part of the demographic report as we said it states the unhoused students the state when you submit the project you can't go you can you can go above I take that back you can go above the number of unhoused students they're that's what they're going to use for the calculation so this takes into account the unhoused students because that anticipates growth over the next five years in Sparta anything beyond five years it can't show up on a demographic report it's just because that student is not born yet so the state won't accept a demographic report that goes beyond five years so this this plan takes into account what that projected growth is according to the demographic report that was done just this past J if everyone's good I have one more did anyone else want to talk first no okay uh it's for Dr Beck can you just explain a little bit to the public how we or how you uh came up with the improvements to the other buildings just so everyone understands how we reach those decisions yeah yes absolutely uh I can answer that Alan could probably answer that just as well because he was involved so um again when I first came into the district we were in the middle of a facility's audit it's not called an audit it was no called something else but uh basically what what um the Architecture Firm did was they came into all the buildings and walked around all the buildings and said you know in an Ideal World um what could be done to this building what needs to be done to this building and they would you know everything um and we have that report now some of that stuff uh is necessary but some of that stuff is more necessary than other things so what we did as an admin team with our buildings and ground supervisor as well is we looked at that large list and we said we're going to go out to referendum we're going to ask the taxpayers to uh to fund improvements let's let's keep it uh reasonable let's keep it responsible let's keep it to what we absolutely need and that's what we did um I don't think anybody would argue that um doors and windows are are needed in in uh the elementary schools um nobody would argue that uh HVAC upgrades air conditioning is needed in the elementary schools um things like that so we really we took a list of everything the district needed paired that down to um what do we really need and then paired that down again to what is absolutely essential that we want to include in this uh referendum awesome thank you so much anybody else have anything up here good thank you guys good job moving on to the next uh we'll do public during public comment do we have it separate I said it was going to be immed oh was it okay I didn't I didn't see the email yet okay it was not on the agenda but if it's up to the PO President we could do that during public that's up to you guys okay good we can do it we can do it now that's fine we can do it now I'm sorry I just assumed that we were going to do it right after while it was fresh I have a number of questions um some of them are just playing Devil's Advocate some of them are based on experience um first of all what is the cost that you're expecting on this well as Allan said uh the co the exact cost is going to I know you're not going to give me an exact I'm sorry to interrupt you I'm just saying what what are you estimating based on your per square footage and all all the other what we are estimating for just the addition part of things is in the 30 $30 million range $35 million range just the addition and the other costs roughly another 20 20 is there an expectation that you're going to leave this as a single question are you anticipating or con contemplating dividing it into multiple questions letting the voter have the opportunity to choose yeah we we discussed this but we've only brainstormed this because we are nowhere near that phase obviously as you know but um we have discussed um the possibility of doing what you just said splitting it out into multiple questions tiered questions okay so if this then this basically yeah yeah yeah that's the only way a multi-question referendum works yeah just clarifying you got to like one to go to two right exactly um currently how many students are in Alpine uh seven uh 7 to 750 in that range and how many do you consider to be according to your demographic study and according to the formulas unhoused by the time that uh by the time the demographic study which takes us out to 28 29 um they were looking at um a gain in Pre to 5 was the only way that they broke it out uh pre to 5 gain um from 23 24 to 2829 um 467 students pre- to 5 467 from prek to 5 that you would that the according to all the formulas would be considered unhoused oh no that's just additional students from where we at now that's not the unhoused number okay so that's the total yeah increase from current prek to five current increase in enrollment increase in enrollment and then what is the estimate of the unhoused students for your calculation had before I want to say it was like 175 on house yeah I think it was I know it's in the back 175 175 and that's anticipated that's prek five prek 5 that and that's again the anticipated for the 28 29 year projected yes projected okay based on all the formulas that they do and based on uh housing developments which they they cite one um housing Housing Development bringing us and and again the demographic report it can't project Housing Development I understand not more than five years right they can only pull what what is what has been uh applied for right what has been applied for with the planning board right the demograph the demographer contacts the planning board and kind of sees what's in the what's in the pipeline for Sparta they say that's when they can start with their their formula of how many students how many how many potential students come out of various categories right a one bedroom two bedroom three bedroom and that determines thats that so North Village as as everyone knows North Village brought us a lot brought us about 90 students at the time um the the projection that they're doing for the the only development that they that they can site the only development that they know about um is the 40 non-age restricted housing units in one development um projecting about 14 kids coming out of that that's the apartment's behind Burger King I believe so it didn't specify that but that's I think that's the that's on the books right now thank you um I'm sorry I do have a good number of questions I'm sorry Dana that I cut you off um how many so the how many classrooms you had 10 I understand you you noted 10 prek and kindergarten classrooms at 1,000 square foot per room and then how many one first and second grade I think you were referring so 10 of those as well so you mentioned a number of seven academic rooms do you know where that what that was relating to cting those two pods yeah cting they're existing in the two pods that will be used as um space gain for the district for for the pull out spaces for the um for those types of programs to bring back and also allow for even potential growth there if you're going to pull a grade level out you're pulling it out of again operationally it's still preliminary um but you would be pulling the gray level out of where you see the pink those two pods okay um and that grade level will be going into the upper addition there therefore uh thereby opening those rooms for what we talked about before so there's seven classrooms currently in a pod that are being used for instruction regular the pink area as well yes okay I'll just talk really loud this piece here is what you're talking about okay these are the seven oh okay so they'll be opened or essentially freed up for by adding that upper level freed up but not freed up right I understand right now they have programs on the stage I understand those programs go into one of these probably in the hall too right the art room and the music room become take two classrooms each because of the size that's required for those at the academic level what we're doing is we're grouping groups of 10 10 prek 10 first grade and just diagrammatically 10 second grade I skipped over sorry I skipped over kindergarten 10 kindergarten coming out of the trailer keeps the grad together okay okay that's how this is laid out and that new Wing that's one story or two stories two two have the first floor which you have kindergarten where they come in and go right in the classroom the second floor will be right now I'm showing it is second grade it can be first or second grade the size requirement for an academic class first or second grade is is the same so as we get into it we the the administration may say no I'd rather have second GR okay have first grade upstairs okay that's easy enough to do because the size requir going change thank you uh let's see the mods will uh temporary classrooms whatever you want to call them will they be connected in any of these schemes and or will it remain that you always have to leave one building to enter the other building talking about the modular yes yes uh yeah they would be they're still unconnected okay yes but um not they're not having classes of kids go out there so that was my next question yeah um I I Mis must have misunderstood that's going to be storage and offices not pull out not special services not correct small group constru correct and again just preliminarily we're looking at um those classrooms as half of them being storage and half of them being offices such as a child study team office which has its own little Trail right now which would go away okay the little shower would um and that's again a next question are we losing anything by doing this Fields um wow yeah by by the size of the building addition you are losing grass area Okay um we are coming back with a new play new playground and two new playgrounds one designated just for kindergarten and the other one for the the the U first and second gr okay we're coming back with a a asphalt uh exterior basketball court but yes the the there's a baseball field up on the upper upper right hand corner that would go away oh so you were losing okay that's and that's not in the it's not very not used very often right I think we used to play t- ball there it was not great um sorry so you you basically touched on the buses this is a scheme that we don't have in any building currently uh the only building right now where buses pull into spaces is the middle school if I'm understanding it correctly they pull in now at Alpine Elementary just in the back they pull in and they park at the end of the day they're waiting parked in the back so that parking lot is where basically where you see the addition right uh that's where the current parking lot is for those buses at the end of the day they do come in and park okay um again just uh throwing it out there because I anticipate there will be questions from the community as this goes out was there any consideration to putting a second story instead of a new addition I'm not proposing it I'm or a proponent of it I'm just advantage to this design before you answer the the Second Story thing I'm sorry Al is that uh while this is going on the disruption to the actual campus and actual classrooms is very minimal because we are not touching uh besides connecting to not touching um any of the current educational space so that we can continue on and not uh not do what we had to do at the high school I guess years ago with the with the boardwalk and the trailers and things like that education will go on as as as usual while we add on to the back which is a big advantage and which would not happen if you added a second story but I don't have to oh there you go okay okay so that he pays attention in meetings okay yeah so that's that's really what is uh it gets it gets expensive to add on okay okay a one story yeah I'm sorry to add up a one-story Edition isn't designed to handle the the floor load right a a roof load is much different than a floor load so you have to add a second floor over top of a roof well that needs columns right now you have to get the columns down through the building so where you're trying to go you would have to vacate out stair Towers elevators you have to vacate Out Below So you you're displacing all those students okay during construction as as Dr Beck said when you look at these four options they are they are added on away from the existing structure right we have to require we have to provide a distance between them for the especially the academic wings for uh light um so we're not going we're not smacking them right up against each other right where you have those connection points that happens that happens during different parts of the year when kids are not in the building right that's all that's the whole other side of it that's what we can get into uh September 27th or okay is I think is when the roughly the date would be when we start when we start getting into the meet and potatoes of this and start working about logistics okay that's the other side goes out to bid you let the contractors know you're back here from from 8:00 in the morning or 7:30 in the morning to to to 3:30 you're in the back right kids have to be kids have to be in the front now it's construction there's going to be disruptions right as Dr Beck said right now the par bus parking is in the back all the kids exit through the back well once once we get the opportunity to build this building that bus parking has to be dispersed somewhere that's the logistics how are we going to work with that for the next 18 to 24 months how are we going to how are we going to how are we going to make sure the kids are safe the construction materials the kids don't enter the construction site right that um uh the construction materials get delivered in a timely fashion is not to interrupt the the morning drop off and the and the afternoon pickup that's all the stuff that happens right you know a year and a half from now what do you anticipate so this leads to the yet another question what do you anticipate to be the timeline for construction itself when you scratch dirt to when you have kids in the room at 18 to 24 months do you um Dr Beck or um Allan do you anticipate um engaging a company to help promote the referendum yes we do we do anticipate that and we have talked about our options with that okay and and okay pretty much we wanted to get through this phase and and start I'm just asking the questions that are you know regarding a referendum so so you do anticipate getting a kind of a marketing company something okay thanks that's all my questions for now sorry Jenny I Dan I'm sorry one second just I forgot to mention this before I mean everybody knows who you are but if you don't mind just mention your name and address I I'm sorry I forgot to mention that before nobody knows who I am should thank you uh I'm Dana Galino um and I live at 26 Valley V Trail um so I do apologize if some of these are a little bit of repeats but I'm just trying to get my uh ducks in a row here so our current enrollment you said was around maybe 7 to 750 and that's children um how many staff at Alpine I'm just into 50 to 100 50 to 75 okay so um what is Alpine's current maximum capacity uh now I think I have that with you yeah I don't have it with me I do have it okay well okay that's an important question just because then I just want well okay that's fine what will it it's not under right now what it's not underc capacity I can tell you that yeah yes we know that what will it be after after the addition um staff and children the maximum capacity do you know with with the options you have others while I look what do you have others why I look sure okay so um given our rate of growth over the past years how well I wanted to really know what the two numbers were so basically how long is it going to take us to get to maximum capacity and I know the demographic report is only 5 years but I'm saying by looking at Trends and how Alpine has grown over the past 10 years we probably have a good sense of how many kids and staff we add and how many We'll add with this and I just want to know when will we be at capacity with 10 classrooms um because that's important for us to know if it's going to take five years to even get it up and running and built and then we're going to be at capacity in another five years that's $55 million that we just spent and then in five years we are now having more unhoused students I just don't think it's the it's worth our money well again that goes back to what the state will allow yeah I know but you can probably look at I'm not talking about the state I'm talking about if we take a look at how many kids have been in Alpine back from 2000 up through now there's probably a line that goes like this and that line probably continues and when you add 10 more classrooms you just add to it and so when will that line hit the maximum capacity of this new building is what I'm asking I can do it for you if you want to send me all the kids that have gone I just want to know what we're looking at like I all we can operate off of is the demographic study and the demographic study is showing the 175 on housee students with which this would uh more than accommodate and um which the doe would read The Help one I just want to know how long it's going to accommodate kids anyway that's there's really no way to tell okay I can I disagree but okay um we can only go off of the data that we are allowed to go off of got it okay so I think that Lauren you asked a question I don't really think they answered it and so if you don't mind I'm just going to expand on that so how much do we spend on out of uh District children do you know offhand Joan do you know how much we spend annually to send kids out a district like 600,000 I I don't know what it is okay as I I might be wrong but I don't think we send kids out of District because they don't have classrooms I'm under the impression that we don't have the services to offer them so I don't think those two purple rooms will bring any kids back into District that's art music well the two purple that's art and music that's not why we're sending kids out of District so if we're going to build more space don't we want to bring kids back into district and save that money at least maybe if we have that money coming back in and more kids being in our school then that's less on the taxpayer MH absolutely we have done that over the past two years have created programs that unfortunately we they have brought back uh or prevented some students from going out of District uh because of the size of the current spaces have we have not been able to bring in from outside the district District which why are we sending them out of the district what's the because we cannot accommodate them spacewise or servicewise servicewise correct okay so if we have the space can we put maybe the price of the services in the referendum too then no but what you can do is if you create a behavioral program that only accommodates two students right now because uh that's what we have space for you can now have that same behavioral program accommodate 57 a students all right so in the study that goes out I don't know if this is part of the referendum but could you put how much we'd be sending on that line item the outou of District so that then taxpayers can kind of say oh wait a second okay well we're saving here and we're spending there so it makes it a little bit more worth a while just a thought if we're able to you want us to project our students program needs yeah the on the ones that currently have that we don't have the ones that we're current Joan could you please send us or me the amount of money that we are spending for out a district placement or at least maybe publish it and then yeah I mean if we're able to bring some of those back and maybe save a couple hundred thousand a year that would be off of the Bill of the total referendum and every dollar counts um okay and then just one other thing I do appreciate the options although I feel like there may be just like visual differences it's like a parking lot here here and here maybe op options would be like okay so here's 10 classrooms this is an option um and then maybe another option would be a smaller gym and special services and maybe another option would be like a smaller gym and more classrooms like I just feel like our options are like a a pavement like pavement and it might be it might might cost a lot more money to bring kids back in District and it might cost a lot more money to add more classrooms but if we're going to be spending $55 million let's let's get as much as we can um and I just feel like I just don't feel like these options are really options as much as just different visuals of the same thing thank you yeah Cliff cernic six Cottonwood Trail can you speak to as far as financing what are the bond terms what are current interest rates things like that so we can get uh that's where your bond Council that's where the district's Bond Council and your generally how many years of repayment that's that's up to them what they sell the bonds for uh 20 I think they can run models 20 25 and 30 years okay what that would be the bond rate depends on what it is that time of sale do you know what it is now off top of my head no I do not okay uh we're getting ready to sell bonds for another referendum um I don't know what I know the bond rates are dipping down a little bit but I not that's why have to not project where they're going to be yeah no going to be 18 months from now you're they're going to need they're going to need to sell bonds if the referendum passes maybe 14 months from now and maybe they you know they maybe will break up their bond sale a little bit because they're going to need some upfront money to support the the me and and my Engineers the uh the testing the that kind of thing that has to occur right so they may able that out and and sell some shortterm notes but what the bonds are I I'm just trying to gather what the factor is to the on an annual basis how much are yeah yeah we knew that question we talk about not wanting to raise taxes and we know taxes are going to go up right and that's what that's when right there's a thing there's the tax impact right the tax impact on the average assessed home we won't know that until we find out what the P that one I said about the PC letter because that what the the referendum is going to be okay right they take that information they'll run three or four scenarios Bond Council and the financial advisor will run three or four different Bond scenarios again 20 25 30 years and see what what is the most economical for the district and what we feel or what they feel the the sparta Township will support m i mean that's ultimately and always remember tax impact the assessed value of your home it's not market value it's assessed value because based on what you gave us you said okay so 55 million you said you get about 40% for the repairs and maybe 8 to % for the new construction right so that probably bring us down to around 44 million beond our end I think Bond rates around l i saw right probably around 10% right now correct that again yeah I just looked so I mean you're talking about almost five million a year addition in taxes what I'm saying depends how far out you go yeah God I think you would go a lot God willing will come down yes I'm uh Tony mazarella 51 Spring Brook Trail uh my question was about the upgrades to the windows um I know it was discussed uh increasing Security on on the Windows um does that upgrade include the increase security they would have the film right they will have the film typically we only put the film on the first floor level we don't put it up on the second floors so anything high up typically do not get the film um you get into ballistics glass that gets that typically we do not see we'll see that in a vestibule sometimes I would probably say n 99.5% of the of the glass we inst is just with the film okay shatter resistant now let me clarify that we should be careful about how much we publicly about you need to be careful about how much we're divulging yeah okay it's okay we leave with that and not all of the schools were listed as having their Windows upgraded so is there any plan to increase the security at the on the windows that the school that was not listed yeah we were looking at our options we've been looking at our options and looking at it with outside vendors and getting some rough ideas of what that would cost and how we would be able to pay for that okay and I know uh the overhead plans are are great but are there any other drawings about what the school is going to look like not yet yeah I'm sure once we land on once we narrow it down and he'll spend more time and have more fun with his uh with his 3D program right right okay right once we start to to narrow down what option then then yes that that's when the that's when the buildings start to come out of the ground and we see what that we see that starts to look like and and the public can see too yeah right okay all right thank you very much yeah anyone else from the public Brad Mercer for Sav Shard Court uh couple other questions does this increase for Alpine what does the planning look like for Mohawk AV and Helen Morgan with this increased capacity like is there increase or is there capacity in Helen Morgan and M because you mentioned there is yeah so right now the capacity I don't have the exact numbers in front of me the capacity is higher than the enrollment and there's wiggle room there in those two buildings not a t enough room to carry the projected you know 28 29 kids into Helen Morgan then mwk AV yes okay um does the referendum put air conditioning in every classroom in Sparta I believe it would and where where it's not right where it's not when it's all said and done will there be air conditioning in every classroom some unit vents that were recently replaced they get more uh limited scope they get just the cooling coil added as opposed to a a whole a whole new unit vent okay you follow me on that I do but short answer is yes yeah it is the one of the goals of this is to uh make sure there's air conditioning in all of our classrooms and then my last is pretty technical but why is there a Chiller replacement at Sparta High School when we're still paying for the old Chiller on the referendum like that was pasted many years ago yeah because uh the chiller failed recently um and uh what we did was we repaired it instead of replacing it because the repair was tens of thousands as opposed to hundreds of thousands um so right now um it's working under a repair so it would be necessary to replace and would the equipment that's was specified for this the new schools and the ones that are we repairing would it at least last through the referendum one would hope yes yeah thank you all right I know we do have one additional question here yes um actually Dana piqued my interest with this when we're talking about classroom space um how does the prek expansion factor into this I know we talked about k a good question one to two that's a very good question question so right now we have prek classrooms in Alpine and Helen Morgan and Goddard School at this time right so we're prek expansion uh what is happening with prek expansion is that we are going to continue to expand prek uh but the way that we are going to expand prek because that's the way that the doe has designed this prek expansion funding is to partner with Community Partners um so uh we've already grown our prek program within our district as much as we can and pretty much as much as we'd want to under the this funding so we will continue to expand as we grow our to hit our prek universe we're going to do it outside of our walls with Partners as we've been doing that's where the expansion is going to happen thank you yeah okay thank you guys thank you now we're going to move on to our next presentation which is an update on the district strategic plan yes just got to change it thank you thank you all right the Strategic plan action plan uh what this is this evening is an update to uh the current strategic plan that we have been operating under and uh an update to the action plan so as a reminder uh couple years ago our district went under or went through the um strategic planning process and through that strategic planning process um the three broad based overarching um goals were came out of that um out of that process those strategic plan goals those broad-based overarching goals that came out of that are were still improve student achievement improve Communications and perception and improve finance and operations so when the strategic planning process um when the process initial process was complete these goals were handed to the board of education and then to also Administration and it was our job as administrators to figure out how we were going to meet these goals so what we did was as an Administration is we formed building based strategic plan action plan committees because when you look at these overarching goals for a K12 District what improving student achievement looks like and how you get there in the high school is going to be much different and look much different than how you what it uh what it looks like and how you get there in Alpine let's say um so there was no way that we could create plans as a district um that would be one siiz fits-all across all the buildings so what we decided to do was create building based teams and though led by the principles and what those teams were charged with was to how are you going to meet these goals in your building what steps are you going to take what does this look like in your building so back in um the spring late winter spring of 22 M Rossy and I presented at the time the iic plan action plan for those buildings um and that is actually still on our website oh by the way this one is on our website as well it is under um Board of Education presentations the long learn long-term strategic plan um this is this presentation is on there right now if you want to follow from home so back in 22 we uh we came out with the initial strategic plan action plan presented that and have been working on that ever since then and we have been tracking our progress with that uh through the Gant chart that was created at the time um over the summer and then into the school year uh we Revisited those plans and I asked each princible to go back to their building to go back to their teams and revisit the action plan and to make sure that the Gant chart was updated with the progress is it in progress is it complete have you revised those uh the Strategic plan action plan goals um and the principles did that with their teams and came up with an updated strategic plan action plan for their buildings and that's what I'm going to present tonight the ongoing action plan process as I spoke to building level building level teams have been meeting regularly building level action plan goals were continuously are continuously reviewed for progress and revision needs the Gan chart is updated regularly um that Gan chart is underlined because if you're following from home if you want to access this from home uh that's actually a hyperlink that'll take you to the Gant chart the way the Gant chart looks now now is that you'll see on the bottom tab you'll see each building and um central office and special services you can click on a building tab on the bottom and you can see what their updated plan looks like the one I'm presenting tonight and then there's a tab all the way to the right that shows um previous Gan charts and and the completion thereof that'll be hyperlink there so um that's why Gan chart is underlined there you can it's a it's a hyperlink the goals of the action planning process as I stated was to give building Administration and staff ownership to ensure that there was continuity between two building between buildings so while every building is different um the elementary schools as you'll see look very similar in their action plans and then the Middle School looks a little more different and the high school looks a little more different but uh as much continuity between buildings as possible which is what those overarching goals help us do and of course we want to meet the district's broad-based goals while meeting the needs of each individual building which I said so this is the updated plans this is Alpine Elementary School um you could see how we broke it down improving student achievement improving Communications and perception and improving finance and operation because again those were the overarching Strategic plan goals that we were that um we were handed and that's what this is how each building is going to meet those goals I'm not going to read all of these paragraphs to you but basically um not much has uh not a great amount has changed from the original strategic plan action plan but what you'll see is when you click on that Gant chart the actual action steps that lead up to these goals have been um that's where you see most of the revision because the buildings have been working toward these goals now for two years and addressing these goals and um the target has moved maybe they maybe they set the goal too high and they brought it back down or vice versa and how they are going to arrive at those goals that's what has really changed when you look at the Strategic plan the action plan the Gant chart um but it was broken down to student achievement Communications and perception and again the elementary schools are all quite similar they're focusing on um math uh fact fluency they're focusing on Steam and again they're focusing on literacy pheic uh awareness and so on uh the communications and perception um again and this coincides with the communications plan which I'll I'll talk about when we talk about the central office uh action plan but um the communications and perception that largely comes from the communications plan which was an original goal of the March 22 action plan that we completed the communications plan so now you'll see when we get to central office completing the communic ation plan is not uh is no longer a goal um implementing it is because it is complete so you'll see the different uh Communications um aspects and then you'll see finance and operation um I believe every building talked about improving um security um enhancing security again our schools are secure but you can always do more so that's what they're looking at and um a lot of buildings are looking at auditing schedules to be uh to optimize schedules as well so Mohawk uh very similar you'll see the student achievement ones are very similar if not the same um they were able to based on what they have done in the past they were able to actually set numerical goals um with theirs um so that was an advantage for Mohawk Avenue School U the communications a perception one is is about the same and uh the same thing for finance and operations and again um how we reach those goals is what has really been revised and you would see that in the Gant chart same thing with Helen Morgan school again the elementary schools are uh are largely aligned the Middle School um had set goals to enhance uh their academic support services and how they do that you can see the bullet points underneath um they took broad-based goals and they made more broad goals than than did the um than did the elementary schools so that's why I included uh more action steps underneath there enhancing student academic Support Services improving communication which we can always do with Community stakeholders and refining school safety procedures and operations the gist of it and then SP of high school um student achievement Communications and perception and again finance and operation reduce performance pressures and increase student engagement um improve the collection and application of data has been a big uh big push in all of our schools really um showcase the strengths of spart of high school and communication with all stakeholders and you can see how they want to do that and then enhance Recruitment and Retention practices to improve the overall operation of uh School environment for our staff and you can see how we would do that to improve our Recruitment and Retention practices central office um what you're going to see a lot the theme really in central office was when the original action plan came out it was to undergo a Communications audit and get a Communications plan undergo a technology audit and get a a technology plan so what you're going to see here is um the evolution of that from from getting the audit done and creating a plan to actually implementing those plans or completing those plans so for student achievement um identification and support of student achievement for a diverse population of Learners um positive and inclusive School climate and culture the climate and culture initiative you have heard many times from M Rossi and from uh the presenters and enhance um support of student achievement for diverse population so again the focus there being um making sure reach all children um improve communication and perception we went under the communications audit we we undertook that we CCH uh Communications plan so now it's all about implementing that plan from central office as I specifically stated there optimizing the website optimizing the district app various platforms of communication but that trickles down obviously into each building which you've seen from their goals and then finance and operations uh completed District technology plan um it is just about done we went under the techn we did the technology audit and from the technology audit we have been building uh the technology plan and that has been a joint effort between administrators and teachers it's really been a really a great and ongoing process but we're seeing the finish line of that we're hoping to present that this fall at some point and then of course the goal um I don't need to speak to it any further we already did for about an hour and that is to complete the steps necessary to uh present a proposed referendum to the community for September of 20125 vote how are we going to monitor progress I already spoke to that we have the Strategic plan action plan is a living document so as as the principles and their teams are and and everybody all the staff members really are implementing these plans we are going to see again that um there might be need for revision maybe we aim too high maybe we aim too low maybe we just aimed for the wrong support and we need to do this it's a living document uh and that's important that we don't um just operate in uh 180-day Cycles we need to be able to uh we need to be able to move when we need to and of course the progress charge of the Gant s which I spoke to and those will be uh continue to be updated regularly moving on to the mission statement um so as this whole process has been um going on with uh the goals and um we have had a strategic plan uh board committee that has actually formed and through that board committee we were talking about uh board goals we were talking about District goals we were talking about strategic plan goals and um all of that um all of that being revised and all that giving direction to our district um we felt it was time to revisit this revisit the school's mission statement the district's I'm sorry the district's mission statement and the current mission statement is combined with between the Board of Ed and the district statement and the uh and you can see what it is there um and it references New Jersey core content curriculum standards um so obviously there was a need to uh to update this right so that committee asked me to go back to the admin team and to come up with uh a mission statement for the district based on um based on the Strategic plan action plan and based on where we believe where we feel our district is going so what we did was we went into um into an administrative meeting and we focused on uh recreating Reinventing the uh District mission statement so um I asked everybody this question and they were able to type in uh pretty much just brainstorm some terms some phrases that we felt were important to the district and we felt that needed to go into the um into the revised mission statement um based on the word cloud and based on uh then we went into in-depth conversation as an administrative team and um we we agreed as an administrative team that the mission statement obviously needs to be what our district stands for that that that's a given but the mission statement um should not be too lengthy it needs to be something that we can remember at least a gist of it and words that we can live by so it needs to be um shorter than U what you would feel most miss most mission statements to be and then we said you know what speaking of short and being and words to live by maybe we should come up with a district motto based on the um the mission statement so we did the word cloud we had in-depth discussions um based on that I said all right I think I have enough what I'm going to do is I'm going to go out I'm going to go draft uh the possible mission statement and the admin team I made it a Google doc and the admin team just started chipping in on it um hey did you think about moving this word did you think about uh revising this word that sort of thing um which we did and came up with a proposed new District mission statement the mission of the sparta Township Public Schools is to empower every student every day to reach their full potential through a supportive Equitable and inclusive learning environment we are committed to fostering the growth and well-being of the whole child while focusing on each student's personal development through high quality learning experiences by promoting collaboration creativity critical thinking and resilience we will ensure our students are prepared to succeed in the future um and that is uh after much revision um and then based on the mission statement we currently have a district model I believe it's the official District model it's on the website under um the banner at the top where it says support of Township Public Schools and it says commitment to education and as an admin team of course we're committed to education but our why the reason we wake up every morning is to educate students so our commitment although it is to education um really is to the students so we decided to uh rephrase and refocus our new motto to be committed to every student every day very simple very simple words to live by um maybe you're not going to remember the mission statement um but you should surely remember the motto and when if you enter the doors every day as a as a teacher staff member and think of those words uh that that will accomplish the mission statement and that's the end thank you any questions from the board Dr Beck I'm just wondering if you can elaborate when we're looking at within the mission statement by the way I love the motto I think it's great to bring it all together um I'm wondering if you can elaborate because there there are a lot of Ed terms in the mission statement obviously being developed by a team of admins those of us that are more familiar with that could you break down what the highquality learning experiences mean and ises that because one Endeavor of the Board of Education obviously is to support the highest levels of student achievement I do think that this I do see that holistically my one concern I know that we've we've spoken a little bit about is just not actually mentioning that so could you speak to how that that does speak to that yeah so high quality learning experiences and that's why we we that's why we chose these these words and these phrases because it needs to be adapted to every student every day right so it needs to be flexible so what um what one student needs and what might look like high achievement for one student is not going to be the same for the next students so we wanted to make sure that we were um that we were addressing each student's personal development in fact when we went on the first run of this uh I actually use the word personalized development meaning uh every student is different and they need to have they all develop differently and we need to make sure that we are addressing personalized development um and then that was uh revised so it flowed back better to personal development so the high quality learning experience is exactly what it is it's a high quality learning experience but what exactly that looks like for each student um is what we need to that is our job as Educators is to figure that out and make sure that it happens are you okay if I jump in just for one minute on that just to also clarify that sometimes when you talk about student achievement like you're looking at things that are measurable and not everything that matters is measurable so it's not just like we have these over tested subjects of language arts and math like every year for a child's existence and while th those are important things there are other things that we have to pay attention to uh we have to make sure that our curriculum is aligned and cohesive we have to make sure that there's rigor that we hold the bar high for every student even in inclusive learning environments so that we're meeting kids where we are but we're working towards a high bar looking at like meaningful um meaningful uh technology uh infusion so that we have like purposeful um accomplishments for why why we're choosing to do things uh looking at multiple modes of presentation of content and also assessment of content so it really encompasses what we know about high quality instruction which is research driven and evidence space but that it's not just defined to like an area that's measurable um one of the things that we'll talk about in a minute is even looking at our um our elective courses and our our clubs that we offer like that we can engage kids and help them find their interest passion and strengths so that they are prepared to Excel and pursue those in the future and and sometimes that's not you know when you talk about when you use language like student achievement that felt like it didn't accomplish everything that we were looking to accomplish one additional question that would be uh you know prior to us all being here was the introduction of the um the core values of this part of Education Spa education as they were presented kind of as a rebranding of of who we were as a district um and I know we spoke about maybe there's too many maybe they're not as memorable um I might be the lone contrarian but I find a lot of that really inspiring um I think when you're walk into an elementary school and you see preparing students for careers that are not yet perceived shows just to what we're saying like innovation in education learning environment and believing that they can be something that we haven't even dreamed of to support technology who knows um is there I guess what I would like to see is when I'm hearing about the rigor and I do see the support there I just don't forgive me I just feel like I don't see the rigor as much articulated in this and I see it in our classrooms and I see the rigor that's promoted to all of our students regardless of their Ed level and that's the only part that I'm just I'm still struggling with a bit um I'd love to I would love to see if the admin team in correlation with the with committee work as a board if we could entertain potentially doing a mini retreat to look at those core values again where we could break this down and what that means and maybe if they're not as relevant could we consider what would be relevant and make that meaningful because we are for me this ties all into who we are as a district we're putting forth referendum plans but we really need to show the public like everything that we're who we are you know people are looking to this to see what is Sparta about what differentiates Sparta as a district that is different from anywhere else and I think that whole whole Child Focus that motto it's certainly it that's just it's just the when I think of a Sparta educ Sparta education I do think of the challenge and the rigor that it brings and as well as the support to it I just would love to see that that's just my personal thought I it just articulated a a little more as an aim from the community that we come here because we want our students to be challenged and support in that challenge and go on to the highest levels that they can in their future um so I'm just curious if we can entertain maybe those those core values to support this and go a little further into that so you're proposing the idea of um revising Reinventing um core values for the district is that yes yes I'd like to see if you can entertain that again it's something we can certainly look at uh what I would say is in in the spirit of the mission statement in the spirit of the motto is keeping it simple if we were to go down that road um simple you know three four word phrases as opposed to what currently exists which is like 15 different core values that are all a sentence each and you know if you have too many do you really have any type of thing um because if you're asking students hey what are our core values you're not going to expect them to memorize those 15 bullet points so if we were going to and I'm I'm open to it that's what the board wants to do if we were going to revisit those uh core values in general I would uh that would just be my overarching recommendation is to make sure that they're simple there's less of them and that they are simple that makes sense thank you just to weigh in on that on a few items um while I certainly think Retreat opportunities through Kelly and the njsba that's our field service rep are excellent ideas and I'm really grateful that the full board is now pursuing relying on our njsba field service reps to help help us and provide Insight in ways that maybe we weren't exploring in the past um I do I agree with Dr Beck for a number of reasons um number one at one of the njsba training events that I attended there was an excellent motivational speaker um who spoke mo mo mainly to the climate and culture of each district and the number one thing that he asked everyone in a room full of school board members was what is your District's motto what's your District District's mission statement and almost everyone you know there were a few that shouted out out real loud and obviously new theirs um and in an ideas committee meeting that followed um that I attended I asked that same question and almost everyone in our room couldn't really articulate what our mission is because of how convoluted those values truly are and I'm not saying that they're not valuable um I don't know any District that would read those and say that's not for us I mean they're kind of rooted in common sense when it comes to education applied but I think the issue is is we can't live by it if we don't know what it is and I think that this is an excellent excellent compromise when I hear every student every day I mean that sounds like so spartis Centric and so it's s it's it's it represents so much more than just achievement markers or test scores it's commitment to our education in a way that's beyond just testing and and I'm not saying that's what you're implying but I would also say to um you know it's been a while since our board has set goals it's been a while since we've really heard anything about this strategic plan I would say from a board end other than what the administration has been doing on a board level or excuse me on a building level you guys have been working so collaboratively to make sure that this strategic planning document in the Gant chart is a living document and I I worry that without Administration we wouldn't have that so to me the work that you guys did you gave gave us what over a week to weigh in on that uh motto and slogan or excuse me motto and mission statement uh I fully support it I think it's excellent I think it's a breath of fresh air for our district I believe that what Kelly said was this is perfect timing come September with the shiny new backpack um so I look forward to supporting this and I truly commend you guys for the work you guys did to make this happen for us so thank you just to jump in regarding the Strategic plan there is a lot of work goes behind the scenes obviously and we're so I am very grateful to the district um and the administrators going down to the building level for that I do think it's important to note that over Dr Beck's tenure we've had he's worked with 23 different board members and throughout the time he's actually been evaluated by a number of people maybe know him well or know don't know him on the uh achievement of the Strategic plan so while maybe there could be more reports you know the the board truly in our training it says like the board is is the what and the um and the administration is the how and so they're making that how happen um but it is a conjunction and I think I love how we ended that in our in the board goals which we'll see coming up that the com that the achievement of these elements of the Strategic plan while we're not going down and looking into whether fact fluency is appropriate not or not we're seeing how these are all um coming along how the Gant Char is living progress how that's that measure of accountability that we haven't necessarily had to always reported every meeting because it's a living document and it's there and we're evaluating the superintendent based on its completion so it is a joint effort and I'm it is important that we we see that work and celebrate the work that was done between the board uh in the administration despite a lot of turnover on the board and coming out of a pandemic so thank you for the great progress and I encourage people to look at the other tabs that show a lot of completion as well okay let's let's uh move on here if can if unless you had something else to add because we do have two more presentations um and a couple public comments if there is more discussion we can maybe do it during the good of the order so if anybody you know we're not holding any of the public up out here all right so Chad good timing Chad uh Chad wood is up to present the board goals all right well first I don't know how Dr Beck can stand there and not drink water for about two hours and talk so I think he deserves a congratulation for that uh thank you for being so patient especially you Jenny for the long awaited board goals and uh mission statement it's been a long time coming a lot of collaboration and I'm really excited to present it with you today to start off with our board goals uh and if you're stressing about looking at it or reading it there's going to be an overview slide at the end so you can look at it all concisely to start off the Board of Education will commit to achieving board certification through the njsba strengthening our ability to lead with knowledge integrity and a deeper understanding of its responsibilities our second goal will be the Board of Education will work toward successfully passing qac focusing on continuous Improvement and accountability across all categories while striving for strong performance in each area our third goal the Board of Education will promote and support the exploration of grant opportunities reinforcing a strong commitment to securing additional resources for the district uh in our fourth goal in effort in an effort to initiate a policy audit process the Board of Education will complete a thorough policy wellness check in collaboration uh with the njsba evaluating potential policy updates and prioritizing these updates to best align with our District's needs and goals and last but not least the Board of Education will actively support the Implement implementation and achievement of the district's goals including both current and anticipated strategic plan action items ensuring alignment with long-term objectives and providing strategic oversight to drive progress across all initiatives now to talk about how we formed these goals a little bit a lot of it was through um have you SE have you seen reference the njsba uh as a board of education we have access to a free representative her name is Kelly Mitchell for our board and she's been great uh oftentimes we'll present the barebones ideas of what we wanted to do as our board goal and she would let us know how to make it really achievable and how to stray away from things that we cannot achieve so for instance for CAC uh you you want to strive for about 80% in your categories however the Board of Education only really has control over the governance aspect so for us to really uh specify that we're going to achieve 80% in all these categories leaves a lot of room up that we don't really have control over so we wanted to keep it vague but also achievable now onto our district mission statement and I have it split up over three parts it's a little longer even though Dr B Dr beex SEC we should go short um but once again this is going to be a general overview so don't worry the mission of the sparta board of education is to ensure the alignment of fiscal resources policies governance and Leadership to provide every student with an exceptional educational experience the board will uphold a code of ethics Foster collaboration with the Administration staff uh and community and maintain compliance with New Jersey student learning standards by promoting policies that support the mental emotional and academic well-being of all students the board is committed to Preparing them for future success as well as well founded responsible citizens through exercising fiscal responsibility and setting clear goals the board will maximize the impact of investments in students and staff supporting a learning environment that encourages creativity critical thinking and lifelong learning and some of our general overview slides if you need a little picture or take a sec to take a look we're going to start off with the board goals and then I'll transition over to the mission statement and moving forward the Strategic action uh committee is going to be um reporting out to you and keeping you updated quarterly on how we're doing with these plans we're going to be pursuing action plans and we're going to follow through so I'm really excited to move forward as a board uh thank you very much for your time thanks Chen and I'll get that presentation up on our website tomorrow yeah all right one more presentation for tonight uh by Miss Rossi and it's going to be the I hope I got this right the njsla test score review I get the acronym right are small I might need my computer see okay good evening um so tonight one of the things we're tasked with every year is to report out on our njsla test results um so just to kind of go over the purpose of the njsla um these standardized assessments are in place to monitor State and set policy and monitor State funding um they're also used for local decision- making when we look at our performance towards grade level standards they're set through performance bands um so in grades 3 through nine students are tested in language arts and math um and at the high school level when math classes start to differentiate they're also assessed in Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 that's through a fivepoint scale so when we're looking at language arts and math we're looking at um level one is not meeting expectations level two and three is partial and approaching and level four and five are really what we're working towards which is meeting Andor exceeding the expectations in science it's a bit different um it's a four-point scale science is tested three times grades 58 and 11 using a four-point scale and proficiency is considered three or four um so what's really interesting about njsla right now is is is a lot of the data we're collecting is like what really are we supposed to do with it and use it for because it's changing drastically as our students are moving into the next phases of um their education and as people are trying to regroup and reset um from a pre-pandemic world to a post-pandemic which is comparing apples to oranges so what do we do about that and how do we make sense of the data right now njsla is not a graduation requirement and it's also no longer a graduation pathway so there was a point in time that it was one opportunity of a graduation pathway oh okay that's okay let me do that at the end so it is online but I guess it's not shared for everybody so I'll do that when I'm finished that's okay thank you um and so what does that mean then you know how far are we going to go with these changes and that's what we're going to find out I guess in the near future as information gets reported from the state um when we look at the state average we are above the state average either meeting or exceeding proficiency levels except for one area which I will speak to um and we are below State averages when it comes to not meeting or partial proficient percentiles which is what you want we want to be above where our students are meeting and exceeding and you want to be below the averages where they are not either meeting or partially meeting um we continue to look at quality data because there's a lot of information that we have access to but that doesn't mean it's all good information and that doesn't mean that every assessment that our kids take when we got back from um being out of school we took the start strong assessment which was a standardized testment through the state of New Jersey and just because it was such that didn't mean that it helped much it didn't give us quality feedback on how our kids were performing and it wasn't the first measure or the first experience that kids coming back from the pandemic should have encountered is standardized testing so we have to make decisions about we know that this information has value and matters but how much it matters and what kind of value we put on it is something that we're constantly discussing we never use it as one data point we never use any data point as one measure in isolation um because it's only part of a picture when we look at our assessments that that we do utilize um we are looking at growth versus proficiency so we use star which is our Universal screening tool and that really shows us growth over time which is the most important thing to be looking at is that our kids kids continue to make high levels of growth but when we look at our standardized assessment they're being tested on different content every year so you're not looking at growth anymore you're looking at how they're doing on a separate batch of information and content standards from year to year so those indicators combined help us understand students in some capacity and also help us understand our programming there's a lot of data on the following slides apparently this is online and yet not yet accessible so I will make sure the sharing features are changed when I sit back down so that you could look at this data I'm not going to read everything to you but I will point out important things to pay attention to so first of all this first slide is looking at a comparison from our our njsla assessment last year um to the state averages and so if you look at and this is how I'd recommend reading a lot of these data charts so our grade levels are listed at the at the column to the left and if you look at level one that's what I spoke to before the state averages are between 10 and 20% these are all percentages where our level ones don't hit 10% so that's where we're below so our kids are all performing much higher than that when you look at four and five that's where you want to see where did they hit proficiency and so you can see the state average all the way to the right so for example in grade three if you read that line all the way across the state average is 43% where our grade three students last year performed at 51% and so you can see that throughout the column where we're performing right now in language arts is in like the high 5050 60 70th percentile which is starting to recoup some of the loss that we experienc it's happening slowly and that's what we're seeing across the state is that there were anticipations that students were going to move faster and those anticipations have not been an accurate assumption on this slide what you're going to see is a comparison of just our own District data so you can see the different colors represent different years again if you look at those early left columns those are um percentages of students that are either a level one or two so not meeting or partially meeting and when you move over to the right columns you see those are levels four and five which represent students meeting or exceeding standards it's important to note that when you're looking at this some comparisons are challenging because you're looking at different cohorts every year so when you're seeing something going up or down which is what that very last column shows you a plus five a minus three a plus4 a minus one you're looking at different cohorts of kids and what we know is our cohorts are substantially different depending on where they've been impacted and where um interrupted learning has taken place for them our language arts data continues to be solid our math data is representative of what we're seeing across the state which is the harder area to catch up on as math relies on building blocks of learning so again this looks at data compared to State averages um if you look at the left you see that we have less students who are not meeting proficiency and if you look at to the right you see that we have mostly more students across the board that are meeting the state average in grade six you'll notice there's a red box we're below the state average in grade six so of course there was a lot of time looking into like what causes such a thing and grade six is where we start leveling for math so we really have to take a close look at what assessment kids are taken how we're leveling students how fast we're moving them through especially as they've experienced some levels of interruption um and we're also looking at our curriculum there are some standards that we've noticed when you look at evidence statements that we teach later in the school year after testing and so it's it's a challenge to decide what to teach after State Testing when all of those things are assessed so we'll continue to unpack that um these scores have not driven anything that we've done yet so far as we've entered the school year we're getting to know kids we're building relationships we're making sure they're comfortable in our spaces we're starting to get into our curriculum and as we Implement our first Universal screening period which is which is this month it's about a 3-week window once that screening data is collected um we'll be looking at all of it cumulatively with our staff um you can also see strange things happening in Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 so just to speak to some of those things like for example um oh nope that's the next slide so again this is not looking at State average this is looking at our own comparison of our own internal data so when you look at Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 you can see differences from like 23 to 24 so like what causes a 15o deficit those are things obviously we question one of the things we've learned is that um because the graduation requirements were changing so in 2022 there was no graduation requirement kids just had to take the NJ GPA as a field test they literally had to sit and participate in it in 2023 the njsla was one pathway that if students passed counted as a graduation requirement and so all students took that assessment in 2024 um that was not the case so we had less students oh no I reversed that I apologize we had we had only students who needed a graduation pathway taking the njsla in Geometry for example in 2024 so not so all students took it in 2023 and only those kids that needed a graduation pathway took it in 2024 and so again there are reasons why you see strange numbers happening which is what we all have to make sense of um interestingly enough we were talking about data from 2019 which was before the pandemic and we were talking about how different the data looks um yet strangely enough is what we keep finding there's outliers in what we look at and So currently our Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 scores 56% 61% and 79% far exceed how we were performing in 2019 before the pandemic mic so there's so much to try to make sense of when you're looking at this data to ensure that you're making adequate decisions and informed decisions based on judgment and that numbers don't tell a whole story but unpacking those numbers which is what we continue to do and comparing them to other data sets help us to understand more about what it is we're looking at we have our science data um science is tested in grades 58 and 11 you can see the state averages all the way to the right which are appalling quite frankly this is a test that has been taking place prior to covid and those were state averages at that point in time so you know we're really looking forward to like what the state is going to do about these assessment mechanisms because when you're a teacher and you present a test to a class of students and the average is 27% it gives you feedback that that's not a highly reliable assessment measure and you have to start questioning the tool and the instrument so we see that with the standards uh with the science assessments because this is not related to co data this is related to poor data collection even prior to um what we've experienced in the years post pandemic you can see growth and Improvement it's minimal it's not something that reflects again we we just had I know Dr Beck will speak to it um one of our administrators our school has been named our high school Project Lead the Way school for two years Project Lead the Way is an immense organization in high quality rigorous science standards um that have research proving Student Success um we have an administrator Dr Wilson M Wilson who received the um honor of being named project Le the way administrator one of the Project Lead the Way administrators this year so again when you look at different sets of information you're getting a lot of different pieces of feedback that have to be carefully analyzed and made sense of this looks at our um subgroup populations what's interesting if you look at our multilingual Learners because it's been reported on differently this year so so you can see that where they were proficiently uh proficiency based in 22 23 and 24 in 2024 um you have our current language Learners in language arts and math 0% of them were proficient compared to kids who were exited from the program last year following their data to see that if they were exited that means that their language proficiencies had increased to a rate that no longer requires that service and there you can see 62% were proficient compared to 54% in math so again these numbers are numbers that we have to unpack and understand so that we don't make drastic knee-jerk reactions to responding to students and to changing programming so some last noteworthy comments is the story that we're being told right now when we look at data is there's a lot of conflicting information and so we have to be careful again I know I've said this multiple times now but what we do based on that data um our star assess assment screener it comes from a company that has um a lot of experience and very high quality assessments and and performance supports um one thing that they're they've recently done because that's what you do with high quality assessments is you adjust the Norms from year to year so they have psychometricians looking at what a a norm exists or how the Norms exist right now um in a pre-o or postco worlds compared to a pre-co so no longer one we utilize our star assessment are we comparing students to data from 2019 just like we wouldn't compare our students to data from 1972 And so it's interesting to watch highquality companies move forward with how they're implementing and and constructing assessments as compared to our our state assessments that have not yet changed even though the needs the performance and the experiences of our students have changed drastically so our our star school are showing higher performance because that bell curve is different and the Norms have been adjusted um njsla again is showing a very slow recovery Across the Nation including in our school district um njsla checks the progress of students annually but now it it is not any type of graduation assessment so what we continue to do with that is a is a question that we are posing to ourselves and even though we're recovering slow and this is where the conflicting data comes in our Middle School and High School were named um best schools by US News and World reports based on the data from last year which is very similar to the data from this year so while that's counterintuitive because you're looking at wanting scores to increase faster um you have to compare that to the norm across the country and also what these what these assessments are providing in terms of quality feedback we also have our NJ GPA which is a standardized test that does have value it is our first graduation pathway I presented on that um probably in August when we got the scores in um that's based on grade 10 Ela standards and also our Algebra 1 and geometry standards it's interesting to look at if you followed that cohort when they were in grade 11 last year and we had 94.1% of students graduation ready in ela and 70.5 graduation ready in math if you rewound two years prior when they were in grade nine taking njsla specifically in language arts only 59% met exceeded the standard as compared to 2 years later when 94% are graduation ready as a valuable measurement tool so again making sense of why that is I'm sure kids have made growth that's obviously what our hope and goal is but you also have different tests with different measures and different cut scores and trying to accumulate that again to make decisions continues to be challenging in this space of time so we're going to continue doing the things that we know are research driven and evidence-based we know are important because um it it's it's been documented and stands the test of time we're looking at our high quality curriculum and assessments in all of these different ways we received our high impact tutoring Grant last year and just because of that because we were a participant in that we will receive another round of that this year which we really utilize for math-based interventions I think it's important to know parir deck tutor which is something that everyone had access to last year in grades 6 through 12 they also have access to this year in grades 6 through 12 so that support continues but we're also looking at student engagement and motivation because that plays a tremendous role students Readiness to learn their accessibility and availability they have to be in school they have to be ready to focus and and attentive they have to have their basic needs met first so that they can be ready for Learning and so there's a variety of things we're doing to respond to our students not just our content and that's the balance I think we strike when we are committed to every student every day those are our test scores and that is our last presentation thank you thank you [Applause] dear uh moving on to the student Representatives report um before I pass it off I am going to Dr Beck wants to say a couple words I would like to properly introduce our uh new student Representatives uh we have two student Representatives once again they are are uh Devon dobs who was here and uh Marin burn uh who could not make it this evening and uh based on what Craig said that it's been two hours of presentations Deon might not want to make it to the next one um but uh this is the third year now that um our Board of educ that all Boards of Education have had student Representatives um and it has been great it has been successful um you can see uh Mr wood there just slid he loved it so much he just slid one chair down and wanted to come on for a couple more more years um but because he was part of the first cohort he was uh one of the he was he was the first along with another with another student but this is the third year now that we have had student representatives and the experience from my perspective and I can speak from M Rossy uh we meet with the student Representatives once a month leading up to the board meeting um we really value those meetings we really value the conversations just the informal conversations we have we talk about the upcoming board meeting we talk about things that uh they're doing in school um we got to know the new representatives and we got to learn um what they do in the school and where they're applying for college and what they want to go to college for and it's just amazing and it's great it's a great opportunity for M Rossy and I to meet with these students every every month um so welcome to Devin dobs and Marin burn I will properly introduce them Devin is the president of student council she is uh the vice president of the peer development program captain of the ski team and she's active in Key Club HOSA ecology Club Russian Honor Society and science Honor Society and she had so much free time left over she wanted to join the board as well so um quite an impressive uh quite an impressive student so welcome Devin and then uh yes and Marin who I said uh could not make it this evening she is the vice president of student council she um she is on the field hockey team she's active in Key Club HOSA academic ball ecology Club National Honor Society and science National Honor Society uh two very bright kids two very active kids and I look forward Miss Rossy looks forward I'm sure the board looks forward to to working with them throughout the school year so welcome and now the student representative report thank you Dr Beck um so what I want to start off with was our spirit week that's going on this week it started on Monday started with a little America Monday everyone interesting red white and blue and tomorrow we are doing student like class colors our pep rally is tomorrow as well starting I believe at 7:00 um all these student council recognition at the game uh they will be displayed up on the I don't know what you call that video Bo video board yeah we'll go with that um as well as our social media um our homecoming dance will be on Saturday from 6 or yeah 600 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. it'll be a $10 at the door admission um detection the cell phone policy really quickly so far General consensus very positive um helps with focus a lot of the kids within like the 4th week haven't even noticed it you just put your phone in the Box it's whatever um that's pretty much all we're doing right now still September um we're very excited to celebrate our fall sports team during our pep rally our marching band and our SP Spirit Chad Devon thanks U moving on to the approval of minutes can I have a motion please motion thank you K second second thank you any discussion roll call please Joan Miss Kier yes Miss gagon yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi uh obain I was not able to make last month's meeting oh I should have abstained as well sorry Mr sarino yes Mr wood yes thank you Dr Beck back to you again with a little voice voice yeah um so I introduced the student Representatives um also as as we near the end of the fourth week of school already uh nearing the end of the fourth week of school and the close of September I would i' would like to thank all the parents students staff and administration for a great opening to the school year this is the fourth year I have served as superintendent for the opening of our schools and I can honestly say that the opening this opening was the smoothest I have seen yet uh everyone's collaboration and cooperation is greatly appreciated and I look forward to carrying that momentum throughout the school year retirements although it is only our first board meeting of the school year I do have two retirements I would like to acknowledge the first is Pamela conin who is a speech language specialist um who will be retiring and has served our district for 24 years and of course uh Miss Black who has been our business administrator for two and a half years I just want to take a moment to personally thank Miss Black for all she has done for our district and central office coming into a new district with a $80 million budget is not an easy task in over the past two and a half years Miss Black has worked very closely with me and the administrative team to ensure that our practices and protocols met all requirements and business administrators are difficult to replace and Miss Black will be no different um but then I'll talk about how we're going to replace her so her position has been posted and we plan on interviewing candidates next week already with the goal of recommending a candidate for the October board meeting this would allow that c candidate to give their 60 days notice to their current District assuming it is a 60 days notice and be able to start with us January 1st um of course Miss Black and I will ensure that the transition will be smooth so that the new ba can hit the ground running in the new calendar year M Rossy already alluded to this uh congratulations to our supervisor of Science and temporary 6 to2 math supervisor Dr Marissa Wilson who was named by Project Lead the Way as an outstanding Project Lead the Way administrator on their national awards press release our teachers and program have already received National accolades from this organization and now our deserving leader of this program has also been recognized so congratulations again to Dr Wilson and lastly and I thank uh Devin for speaking to it uh from the student perspective as well the cell phone policy update we discussed in last month's meeting when we passed the revised cell phone policy that I would periodically provide the board with updates on the polici implementation um doing so publicly now but I think I've done it weekly uh in a Friday update provided the board with updates I'm happy to report that both the high school and middle school middle school administration have had nothing but positive experiences with the new policy teachers are seeing a higher level of Engagement in their classrooms and some students have even expressed the positive impact they have experienced with the new policy while the first month's report is positive we know that one key component to this policy is consistency and continued implementation and we will continue to enforce the policy and listen to teacher and student feedback as we have in the first four weeks and that is my report thank you Dr Beck moving on to approval of the Hib report can I have a motion please motion thank you second second thank you uh discussion can I have a roll call please Jo Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss Michael yes Mr pesi yes Miss saraphina yes Mr wood yes Jan any Communications this month there are none no we're good thank you uh delegate liaison reports do we have any for this month I don't know if I would not speak to it quickly um the Town Council delegate liaison I'm we're hoping to get a meeting within the next month as soon as possible uh so that we'll have an update next month but we do have quite a few initiatives that we wanted to discuss with our Town Council that were um hopeful and looking forward to in terms of collaboration so hopefully more to report out on for the October meeting thank you anyone else real quick just a shout out from finance that uh the solar project is actually complete we are just waiting for an inspection which is huge we hope the sun will still shine when jcpnl comes but um that'll be a very nice start for us to be able to bring down energy costs and um the finance committee also wishes to express our thanks to Transportation who made over 200 student stop adjustments since the beginning of the year to uh give a very smooth start to the year and to ensure students uh get safely from home to school um last but not least maybe it's for good the order but as Finance you are a unicorn of a of a ba Joanne and your pleasure to work with will be greatly missed so we will value every meeting a moment until you uh go on to your well-deserved retirement thank thank you anyone else I had something for um personnel and policy uh I think I could speak for the board to say that we're proud to support the 31 staff members as they advance in their degrees through continuing education I think it's one of the best investments we make as a district and specifically congratulations to Jack bushy Brienne calucho and Gloria zurlo on obtaining their master's degrees all right thank you moving on to public comment number one public comments are invited on matters pertaining only to action items at this time please State the action item number as well as your name municipality and group affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will receive three minutes to speak once you have once you have had your allotted three minutes to speak you will not be permitted to speak again until public comment number two all statements should be directed to me as the presiding office officer the board or Administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of the public participation nope motion to close public comment number one motion second second all in favor I any oppose okay moving on to personnel and policy can I have a motion to pass 15 1 through 1536 please motion thank you second second thank you in discussion roll call please Jo in Miss Kier yes Miss gagman yes Miss mcel yes Mr plushy yes Miss sarafino yes Mr wood yes thank you moving on to curriculum can I have a motion to pass 16.1 through 16 .14 motion thank Emily second second thank you any discussion roll call please Jo in Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr peshy yes Miss seraphino yes Mr wood yes moving on to section 17 Finance can I have a motion to pass 17.1 through 17 11 motion thank you second second thank you any discussion comments roll call please jman miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss sarafino yes Mr wood yes all right moving on to operations can I have a motion to pass 18.1 motion motion thank you second thank you thank you any discussion roll call please join Miss Kier yes Miss gagman yes M McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss sarapo yes Mr wood yes okay is anybody have any old business I don't know if it's old or new but in ter just a question for Mark in terms of the board goals and the mission statement and everything like that um I was under the impression that we had would we adopt those is there a motion that we should make to adopt those so they can go up on the website it's coming yeah that's um we were going to handle that under new business but the board should consider adopting the mission statement and motto presented by Dr Beck as well as the um the goals and mission statement presented by Mr wood excellent thank you so much he anything else for old business all right new business I have four resolutions um the first one uh will be for passing [Applause] the think um the first one's going to be to vote on the district mission statement um presented by Dr Beck resolve that the board adopts the new mission statement for the sparta School District as presented during this evening's public session can I have a motion please motion thank you Kaitlyn second second thank you Chad any discussion no roll call please join Miss Kier yes Miss gagan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss sarafino yes Mr wood yes okay second second resolution um is to adopt the district motto that was also presented by Dr Beck resolve that the board adopts the District motto was presented during this evening's public session can I have a motion please motion okay thank you second second thank you Lauren there was Lauren any discussion can roll call please join Miss Kier yes Miss gagan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr plushy yes Miss sarfino yes Mr wood yes okay the third resolution is to vote on the board goals as presented by Chad uh resolve that the board adopts the board goals for the 2425 school year as presented during this evening's public session can I have a motion please motion thank you second second second CH thank you any discussion no roll call please join Miss K here yes Miss Gatman yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes m sarfino yes Mr wood yes all right the final resolution is to vote on the uh new board mission statement uh resolve that the board adopts the board mission statement as presented during this evening's public session can I have a motion please motion thank you second second thank you uh discussion roll call please join Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss sarafino yes Mr wood yes thank you everyone uh moving on to public comment number two the board uses the second public comment period to invite comments on all matters pertaining to the school district please state your name municipality and group affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will receive 3 minutes to speak once you have had your allowed 3 minutes to speak you will not be permitted to speak again all statement should be directed to me as the presiding officer the board or Administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of public participation hey everybody Walter nap spart New Jersey uh quite a fire hose of information tonight uh so uh I just have a brief statement I'm wondering if the board can offer a public response to an ethics concern regarding a sitting board member violating District policy and I I'll leave these pictures up here and I'll be happy to pass them out that board member Caitlyn gagnan was seen in a widely shared video uh photo on Facebook proudly consuming alcohol on the fields right outside this building Board of Education property Miss gagnan violated policy 74 435 she's taken an oath to uphold all all all board policies and there's a growing number of Sparta residents concerned that this board has done nothing to reprimand Miss gagnan and are concerned these photos will turn into a state ethics board violation this could lead to another unwanted taxpayer funded legal uh fee debacle which would go against her stop raising taxes slogan from last year and that's same slogan for the current slate of candidates she supports this year what is this current board going to do to uphold their Co their code of ethics are there steps for censure that can be taken to maintain confidence in this board if a staff member violated this policy wouldn't there be disciplinary action for them if a student did it wouldn't there be disciplinary action for them if they were drinking on campus the board can't cherry-pick which policies they uphold when violated I look forward to hearing how the board has handled this because the public deserves an answer do anybody want a copy um since this applies directly to me Mark I don't know if I'm allowed to comment yeah you could certainly comment but let's do the public participation first to close it and then you can respond however you see fit perfect thank you so much I I'll wait for the response at home s already signed thank you for your patience your three minutes started already no I'm just kidding it always does I know it's just like riding a bike right corre yep okay all right good evening my name is Angela Delia and I am the very proud president of the sparta Education Association and Sussex County Education Association we have almost completed our first month of school and this marathon is on Pace for record-breaking year there are many exciting events in the works and we look forward to sharing those with with you next month including the unveiling of an amazing reading resource for the entire community and an Innovative partnership that will most certainly build relationships among our members and the community after a month of school the sea is very pleased with the successful implementation of the new cell phone policy Educators at the middle and high school have found this new clear protocol to be beneficial in so many ways we have all seen the movie Foot Loose and we know that nothing good ever comes from complete bands whether it's dancing or cellphones complete banss for high school students can lead to many issues responsible use of a personal device is a life skill that will help our students for a future beyond the walls of Sparta High School the students understand when it's time to focus on academics they do and when they have free time they have the autonomy they need to become responsible digital citizens we are very grateful to have been able to offer input that created this policy through building level meetings and the ideas committee every single member in the sea has given their all to the students of this District to ensure that they have outstanding instruction unwavering support and excellent resources to begin their school year this is especially evident in the US News and World Report best schools recognition for both Sparta High School and Sparta Middle School we are excited to continue to grow and succeed together in partnership with the administration the board and the community thank you thank you anyone else hey Daniel am Ali 45 Davis Road Sparta I have a quick question for Dr Beck and this is so I have a son who is a he has an IEP right and we came here in the second grade he's a sophomore in high school now okay so when we first came into town we had one casew worker for his IEP right now over the course of eight years we've had eight different case workers I wanted to see if there's a way to have the caseworker follow them through the district CU that would probably be the best course of action because every year I mean I know that you we've had people leave the district and stuff like that but there's four different schools so you're going end up four different case workers doing it four different ways and this school is only one grade right so that's another year lost he reads at about a fourth grade reading level and he's a sophomore in high school so is there any way that could happen or no like I I I don't know if anybody's even suggested this to you guys before no it's never been a suggestion there there has been um research and and practice and I'm not sure if there's ever been practiced here in Sparta schools but uh about teacher looping which you're speaking of kind of like a looping type of thing and there's research to support that I'm not sure to research would say when it comes to uh case management and you know transferring uh those staff members and things like that there would be a lot that goes into it but it's certainly worth a discussion in our administrative meeting yeah because each year like I said it was Miss Jackson I think works I don't know if she's still in the district or not she's at the middle school she was at the middle school at least that lady was awesome she had this huge you know in-depth plan for him and it ended up by the time he got to the high school they made their changes and then whatever she had was garbage you know what I mean to put it nicely or any other way but is there a way that that could happen or no I mean I I think it's crazy that nobody ever suggested that in the last however many years yeah yeah certainly something we can discuss and look at okay I'll follow up with you on all right thanks sure motion to [Music] close so close so close Jenny Derek tap into Sparta um I appreciate the um updated District goals mission statement um it's been 16 years since the mission state was was written and I know because I wrote the last one so I appreciate the update um but in in all of that discussion I didn't hear anything about attendance Miss Rossy you did touch on it in your explanation of uh testing but where does that since we're we're under some type of a state scrutiny where does that live in terms of guidance guidelines something hard to look at um is it um different different topic um High Point Solutions I may have brought this to your attention in the past might be someone to talk to when you're especially when you're looking to develop the new school but also an IT plan and all of the work that you're looking to do for the I know the it plan is almost done but um in terms of implementing it they are a local resource and they are an internationally recognized company that partners with school districts especially on development projects where they can actually help to bring additional resources to the school for example years ago they helped Vernon get a turf field in competition for their um IT contract um so just something to put out there also the township has a grant writer and so maybe in part of your conversation there could be discussion about access to that person and then I just had a um a quick sort of quick maybe not quick um question about the test score um presentation it seems throughout and I understand that there is going to be some change from test from Benchmark to Benchmark and so on but it seems like um you are looking to move the bar and maybe I misunderstood understand it but you were talking about star that adjusts the norms and it's more relevant versus the um other tests that the state runs are the state tests based on curriculum standards what's the difference why are is the state not aligned with their State Testing not aligned with their own curriculum standards or does star do it better when you're looking at these test results are you benchmarking us against other high achieving districts and if so who are they um and has that changed at all thank you thank you motion to close public comment number two second second thank you all in favor I any opposed uh moving on to the good of the order if you don't mind I just wanted to make a response to that just because I was named specifically um so if I can help save the sparta taxpayer a dollar I would love to um I will tread lightly considering the discussion that has already taken place uh so quick synopsis uh two board members basically over the summer received a picture more or less called for my prosecution in an email regarding a uh event game a softball game um that took place on a Wednesday night at 8:00 I think over the summer um and in the picture because there is a can being held it was alleged that I was consuming alcohol on school property it was only presented to Dr Beck he followed the chain of command notified the police um and I had a great conversation with Chief mccarrick on my vacation as a result of it Chief mccarrick confirmed that unfortunately a picture does not prove anything no one can prove if I was recycling that can in that image there's no context um so by all means if someone feels that it's important to pursue something I I that's fine and I would encourage that the only thing that I think really came from that discussion that was super important is that we also can't only apply the policy to me alone so we have an entire softball league that would be implicated we have a mushball league that we we would would be implicated we also in accordance with that policy there's a beer tent that's set up outside of every parade at this school uh just outside of it those people that are innocent people going to the July 4th and Memorial Day parades with be implicated in some capacity and even more concerning we realized the policy actually mentions any school sponsored event so anyone who's had a beverage at a Tricky Tray is all of a sudden implicated so I think it's a very good time for us to maybe revisit that policy in the spirit of our policy audit and the last thing I'll say to it I find it kind of ironic that wal dap is talking to me about ethics violations perhaps you should worry about the one pending against him and I will respond to uh one of Miss Derrick's points I'm sure miss Rossy will respond to the other but the uh the corrective action I'm sorry the attendance where does that live the uh there was a whole corrective action plan just for attendants last week so last month I'm sorry so that's that's where that lives that's a whole um that's obviously a whole District initiative as well I'll just add to that um one of the things with regard to attendance so we have something set up called Data team meetings so after each Universal screening period we right away look at what the data is showing for our student population and we take a look at student growth student achievement on those screening tools um but we also look at the reliability and validity of the interventions that have been put in place attendance plays a role in that um not only in the interventions but in student performance so right now we have a new platform form called edge of climber and uh it's a much more efficient way to look at student information and student data um so you could put Flags or you can Mark students or you could set thresholds for like when a student hits a certain attendance marker so that it notifies us and there are different steps and different tiers as Dr Beck spoke to in the um chronic absenteeism presentation so you know you have your typical um response which is a letter sent home through Genesis and then that can move to tier 2 or tier three responses which could be development of intervention planning specifically for supporting students to get them to school um and so we do all that when we look at student data collectively in those data team meetings which um to follow up with the some of the questions you asked about the standardized assessments or just the assessment data in general so obviously a lot of things have changed as we've been assessing students and so how do we look at what the target should be like what should our students be doing if we're a aning that they're they're not moving forward or like recovering or bouncing back as fast as we thought they would which again that's a hard thing to say uh who's making these estimations and I think our kids have bounced back in a lot of really important ways when we see them connecting and talking to one another and being involved again and Performing um the NJ GPA a few years back those cut scores were adjusted so you have psychometricians looking at these assessment tools as they should be and so one tool that was adjusted or one assessment that was adjusted two years ago was our NJ GPA cut scores so the threshold for what makes a student um graduation Ready or Not graduation ready star has followed suit so that's our um screening mechanism that's our screening assessment tool and so they've reviewed their Norms because that's a common practice that you do with assessments to see again like what is the target we're shooting for um the only assessment that hasn't done that yet is the njsla assessment so we're waiting to see as it seems like in terms of value as it's no longer a graduation requirement it's no longer even a pathway for students to reach towards graduation what is going to be the response from the state in terms of the njsla assessment will that change it it sounds like their um contract is up with Pearson and so will we see some changes in terms of how we're assessing students and what our expectations are as we know that their performance and their experiences in school have been impacted and so that's where it becomes difficult to look at those you know the diverse range of data that we have because we have some assessments that are moving forward and recognizing the change in our students and some assessments that aren't but that are still considered a high stakes measure um and so it's trying to process all of that and and we're in just you know a real transitional period I think as it relates to specifically standardized test data but data at large and and again what that Target is and ensuring that it's not a moving Target because how are we supposed to continue to hit it when we're getting different feedback for what what matters and what qualifies as being valid and uh and at Benchmark and then um your question about working with other districts yeah we have several groups and our all of our administrators have different groups that they belong to um when we look at the new Ela and math standards um there are supervisory groups that are looking at the implementation of those the change is um I have a group that I work with Dr Beck goes to round T so there's constant conversation about like priority topics as it relates to student performance and across the board one of the challenges is looking at this convergence of data that's that's different and varied and what we do with it um but we are sharing out a lot of different ideas and one of the best ideas we've gotten from a district that we partner with is is really how we target individual student needs when we're looking at F you know filling gaps that were not being General and Broad but that we have tools that are focused and measurable so that we can make sure that the support we're providing is is really you know specific to the area of deficit and that we can carry that over one of our challenges in Sparta is how many times kids transition to different schools grades two three and four are are three major transitions so making sure some of those supports are um in line aligned across the district and that kids are getting the same thing regardless of what building they're in or um who's leading that work so I hope that answers your questions good thanks um now we can move on to the good of the order don't kill me but I have something it's not long I'll go fast um so a few things earlier in the month Mr Lopez invited us to attend the Spartan showcase there were nine bands in attendance including the marching Spartans and the performances were all outstanding so kudos to all involved for H hosting such a wonderful event the marching Spartans also have invited the US Navy jazz band to join our district on Saturday November 2nd at 7 p.m. in the High School auditorium the event is free to the public and tickets will go very quickly I'm sure um assuming that any are still available so I encourage everyone to check out the latest tap into two article that I think provided a link to reserve your tickets um my boys can't wait so thank you to Mr Lopez and all the marching band supporters for making events like these possible for our district also yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Align openhouse event at the Sparta High School it was another incredible event it was amazing to see and chat with students and professionals alike to discuss our District's efforts surrounding mental wellness and emotional learning I want to thank Dr Esposito and Dr Loren for hosting this event as well um also the professionals who uh support the initiative success uh we look forward to doing all we can as a board to continue that and also just want to commemorate year six of the Align wellness program in Sparta uh lastly I do I also want to wish Joanne black all the best in her retirement um and I'd also like to once again thank the board and administration for setting board goals um and a mission statement and District goals measurable items that we can all be proud of uh many months of time and effort have gone into this a lot of collective efforts and um committee minutes and the finished product I think is something that we can all be very proud of so thank you just a a few quick updates from the SCF the first annual SCF readathon is underway it is not too late to sign up I have three kids in District I took a little longer to set up their pictures on Campa but you can do it quickly um they are looking they didn't have this but they're looking if they if every student in the district could get $50 from donations of friends and family they can meet their their goal um so that's open to all students in every grade there's a building level competition you can find out details on their website that ends October 4th the 18th Annual crows Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning um I hope he'll be running this year his registration is open and prices increase after the 30th of September so get it in there uh for the discount and if you're unable to participate in events the SCF always accepts donations to their website as well um they are looking to grow their current board so if you are interested in becoming a trustee please contact via website thank you you will find me in my usual standing spot um I I'll I'll be quick too but I do want to Echo um what Dr Beck said earlier and congratulate and thank um the administration teachers and staff for for a great start of the year um it did seem to go off without of hitch so um congratulations that was great um also Joanne congratulations we're going to miss you you did a great job we appreciate it any else just to add another highlight to the Align event that was Wednesday uh just to start off with a shout out for Miss Delia for letting her Library be used for this event I know personally having so many kids touch all your stuff everywhere all the time is so hard um but she signed up for that so she's ready uh it was an amazing event at first it was a little slow but then by the second half of lunch there were so many students ranging from freshman to seniors and even Caitlyn got me on my knees coloring uh which usually I think I'm too cool to color but um seeing some high school students do do it made me want to do it and I think uh the event is super cool I was talking to miss Barker and she mentions how much it helps the students when you break up the school days and find Pockets where you can throw an event here and an event there and it goes a long way toward the students and um I just think it was done really well and even hearing about how many people are involved I knew the Align program uh was around when I was in school but hearing that there are now more students involved and they have I think about 11 interns across the building um they're doing a lot and there's a lot of spog graph who are coming back to do some of their further education work in our schools through the Align program so I think it's all really playing full circle and it's very valuable anything else all right motion to adjourn motion second second all in favor I I any opposed e