e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon one two even we welcome to the May 23rd meeting Wendy 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 interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the sparta board of education has caused notice of this 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 no take thank you we roll call Miss Kier here miss gagman present miss mcel here Mr pesi here miss seander here miss sarafino here Dr Serrano Mr wood here Mr Morris here you all rise for pledge of allegiance flag United States of America indivisible andice for all okay this time we're going to convene into close session where we are going to discuss uh superintendent evaluation Personnel matters legal and a hi appeal motion to go into close session thank you Craig second Wendy all in favor I was e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e again sorry for the delay Joanne roll call please miss Kier here miss gagnan present Miss McMichael here Mr pesy here miss cander here miss s AO here Dr Serano Mr wood here Mr Morris here okay we're going to start with the student representative reports okay so we are still selling the sparta blankets online you can reach out to the high school for Mrs Delia and she will get you a blanket our new student council officers have been selected and they will be attending the June meeting we also have the upcoming Senior Walk on June 11th this is going to be and then it's going to be followed by a field day and that's just to give the seniors something special to make up for all that we missed out with e8th grade due to co now getting on to some recent Sports accomplishments first off the Sparta High School boys lacrosse has recently won the Hun in Warren Sussex County lacrosse tournament with a nine to4 win over Pope John in the championship game and has also received the number two seed in the group two North States bracket and the girls having received the number three seed in the group two North States bracket both teams have won their first game or and and are advancing to the next round an exciting shout out to CLA Center who actually just got a hole in one on a par three at Lake MOA Country Club yesterday for the golf team oh [Applause] nice is that all you have for us that is all okay very informative I get a motion to approve the minutes thank you second second thank all in favor I I sir yep and I would like to begin by actually just adding to Parker's report uh Parker we are fortunate enough to have Parker who is the brick wall goalie of that boy lacrosse team so congratulations to Parker at the table here on Friday April 26th a group of seventh grade students from Sparta Middle School traveled to the sparta Glenn to participate in an Arbor Day event hosted by Sparta environmental commission and the walkill river watershed management group students participated in several Hands-On activities throughout the day including the planting of 75 trees along the riverbank we extend a sincere thank you to these County organizations for putting together such a meaningful and fun experience for our student students on this evening's agenda you will see a recommendation for the board to approve a contract with apig after much research and collaboration with our it department and our and a board committee we have decided to move to a new platform for our district website and Communications we are excited to work with apig in the process of creating a new website which offers a new design and many new options for district Communications including a new District app the goal is to have the website and all components up and running for the start of the 2425 school year on Tuesday evening I along with a group of board members and administrators had the honor of attending the annual academic Excellence dinner at the Lafayette House at the evening's event our top 10 graduating students from the senior class were honored along with a teacher they selected who was made who has made a great impact during their time in Sparta schools I want to take a moment to recognize these students and thank the Board of Education and administration for the great event the students in alphabetical order are Ian bellish Charles Keno Ashley crane Dana Dunbar Kye mongon Cassidy pry Michaela Ricki cica sverage Dean stas and Anna yev congratulations again to these students and it's hard to believe that in less than a month we will be seeing them walk across the graduation stage with the rest of the Sparta High School class of 2024 in the beginning of the school year at a Board of Education meeting Mr Benson presented our ssds and Hib report card scores from the 2223 school year that we would submit at the time to the Department of Education the Department of Education has since approved and confirmed the scores for each school and the final grades are now posted on our website the Sparta Middle School robotics Club sent team 153d the chosen ones to compete in the prestigious VEX IQ World Championships in Dallas Texas from May 1st to May 3rd the students proudly represented Sparta Middle School and competed among the best middle school teams from 50 countries around the world thanks to the support and generosity of Club parents community members bubo's burritos Jersey miks the sparta benevolence society and and Thor Labs the booster club was able to fully fund student and Coach travel and attendance at this contest lastly I would like to wish all of our parents students and staff a very happy and strong finish to the 23 24 school year thank you all for your support throughout the year and for making this another successful school year and I will pass it off to Miss Rossi good evening everybody um I wanted to first start by just drawing your attention to some items on the agenda tonight you'll see that we're adopting and approving a new language arts program for grades K through five um there will be the adoption of amplify skills for phonics development in grades K through one and a comprehensive language arts program for students in grades 2 through five also connecting those diverse and different schools where students transition um in a very short period of time so I want to thank the people who participated and collaborated on that committee um that included teachers and administrators it was a very positive experience and we were actually very fortunate in our work with the um New Jersey tiered system of support early reading Grant along with Ruckers to actually be highlighted in our last session for this work there are 12 other districts working in that cohort and um they acknowledged us for our our high- performing practices which include ample research data analysis classroom Pilots School visitations and targeted focus groups I also want to thank Mrs paresi our prek through 5 Ela supervisor for leading this important initiative also on the agenda you'll see the adoption and approval of a new data platform being adopted um it's called Edge climber we feel that data analysis is a critical component of making decisions for students and for programming it's also a complex process so we need something that is feasible um effective and also efficient to help make that work as um you know relevant and specific and meaningful as it can be so I want to thank the teachers who participated teachers and administrators on that committee as well um when we looked at multiple other platforms to make sure that this move was the most meaningful and helpful move for the district along those lines I just wanted to provide some clarifying information regarding public comment from last meeting where it was noted that our PSAT scores are lower than a neighboring School District while I have a lot of information on our school performance I haven't analyzed other districts to the extent um as I know our own obviously we look and make decisions and try to see what we can learn from Partnerships but after further exploration and research on that public data set that's available on the school performance reports it's important that we consider all aspects of what creates that data and so when we look at that neighboring School District we can see like great variation in participation rates so at the state level the state average for participation rates in in PSAT assessments is 78% in the neighboring District District that is performing 12 points ahead of us on the PSATs 32% of their students participate in the PSAT assessment and in Sparta 95% of students participate in that um assessment and evaluation so obviously that notes different complexities and analyzing and comparing school districts we know that data isn't black and white it paints a picture with many different perspectives and those perspectives are important to consider um we do that we look at our data in all kinds of different ways in compar not only to the quantitative data that is measurable but also the qualitative observations that we see that determine student proficiency and progress so we're going to continue the good work that's happening we're confident and we're seeing growth in our students in all kinds of ways and we think some of these adoptions that you'll see on the agenda tonight will continue to help us move in that direction thank you thank you Tera um I just want to touch on the uh what Dr Beck said with the top 10 dinner I I would is present there um obviously yes it's an academic achievement for these kids and they're there cuz they they work hard but I think more importantly that night is what what's taken is the staff members that they choose to represent them and the ones that you know I've been there a few years now and seeing the same staff members year in and year out and just it speaks a lot for them to you know they're they're motivating and really there for the kids so I just want to recognize the staff members that were there as well as the students I have one little comment since we're talking about that briefly um I've been there a couple times now and you know there are staff members who are repeats and staff members who are new and staff members who may never get invited but um the speeches that you hear I really wish that more of the district could hear because these teachers care incredibly about all of the students and the top 10 students and it's really an amazing event to be able to witness and to see these teachers talk about these students and these students talk about these teachers so again it was a great event and I'm really glad that it's a tradition here in Sparta thanks you okay can I get a motion to move the Hib report motion thank you Craig second second thank you Joan Miss cier yes Miss gagman yes Miss McMichael yes Mr plushy yes Miss cander yes Miss sarino yes Mr wood yes Mr moris yes delegate liaison reports I would love to touch upon the strategic planning committee that we were able to get started we met on uh May 6th when we were looking to update things like our board mission statement and other things like that with measurable objectives and fortunately we were able to piggy back on our existing strategic plan goals uh Dr Becca also mentioned how building it uh we're going to utilize building and admin teams that were already existing and DRC is spear hitting that part of the the plan and we have some tentative goals to present at the August board meeting so coming into the new school year we're going to come with new goals and we're going to be refreshed and ready to go for our new students and new school year thank you Chad thank you um we had the township uh board the aison meeting um continuing to bounce ideas off of us and them and vice versa uh there's nothing concrete to report on right now but some things possibly in the works to report on shortly as Dr Beck mentioned we are moving forward with putting on the agenda the APG uh contract for the new website and the communications committee met um and had a very thorough demo um with the team we were very impressed with what they could offer The District in terms of taking on some of the heavy lifting um as you know being budget conscious we don't hire anybody to do communication specifically and we rely on um the great news that is shared in our district through our administrators and teachers um students and staff and as well as in the community so we're looking to um we're looking forward to that website and really being able to tell the story of the district and we think this will be an important piece to communicate out with our community um with the upcoming referendum we have on the horizon to really showcase everything we're doing in our schools as well as to Foster um exceptional School Home Connection through our website so we're looking forward to that um I did want to draw everybody's attention to the um what New Jersey school board sent out as a recap for the delegate assembly I did attend virtually um one resolution uh that was very interesting that was brought forward did require did involve the inclusion of hi of intent um in Hip cases and so I would encourage everybody to take a look at that resolution 13 as it was um as it was listed it was amended to be referred to a committee for them to look at further um but it's something that school boards face everywhere where it's it's hard because it only takes into account um one side and there were many resolutions a lot of healthy debate so um those are available to you to review and they sent an email on that um as far as um Finance um you'll note there is a lengthy agenda most of this is related just to um making sure that we can have an operational business office for the next uh for upcoming uh school year I did want to draw attention to subject 19.34% their marked is insured and covered thank you thank you I just want to chy in on two things um number one I wanted to apologize both Emily and I were unable to attend the cpag meeting this month um but we both look forward to attending next um so I just wanted to thank them for sending over the information that we were able to um obtain and make sure that we're still staying up to date even though we weren't able to make it um and then also uh just to touch on the district Roundtable and what Chad spoke to about our um new ad hoc committee I really want to recognize the collaboration that's taking place with the board and uh the district and administration I think we're making really good strides I think um there's a really nice shift in positive culture which is uh appreciated I think by all and I especially look forward to setting some concrete board goals uh over the summer so thank you to Chad for leading that and I'm sure Angela will have a better report on the district Round Table than I could so can I just add on to that um while I wasn't able to attend the CPAC meeting um they had a transition night they did send me the information and I went through it and it it was really really I think beneficial to students and families about transitioning from public school into higher education and accommodations that follow you and how to really advocate for yourself as a student higher education so I really just like applaud the presentation itself and the information that was provided thank you anybody else okay 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 or group affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will be giving three years to speak three years extended that try three years try it three minutes to speak once you have once you have your lotted 3 minutes to speak you'll not be permitted to speak again till public comment number two all statements will be directed to me as a residing officer the board or the administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of participation okay motion to Jenny Derek's tap into Sparta I'll sign in in a minute um thank you for covering that are you going to be giving a more robust presentation of the um whole report card um that wasn't on the agenda but since you mentioned it I wanted to appreciate thank you um 17.4 preschool providers do we have a list of people who were providing do we have an idea of how many slots will be open that were not open this current school year when will parents be notified 171 cops Grant what will that be used for um and then the the edeline data analysis for students that was mentioned um is that to um analyze the uh student data the the outcomes the of the various um assessments that we do and how will that be reported out to the parents thank you thank you motion to close thank you second second all in favor I I okay um I can speak to the to the prek um the prek community provider uh we are in the process of prek expansion as everybody knows uh we are adding one more classroom over at Helen Morgan and then we have one Community partner lined up for next year and that Community partner will be gdd school with one classroom I can answer the other two questions um so school report cards aren't there's not a requirement to present on them at board meetings but to inform the community that they are available released right now so the 20 what are we in 23 24 the 2223 data is available on the New Jersey school report card website most of what's on there gets reported at different points of in time so our um standardized test scores we do have to report on and there is a lot of information built around that including our demographics um that's also on the school report card um Trends in chronic absenteeism um School data in terms of population enrollment so on and so forth is all available on that report card but it's not a presentation that is made typically um we do continue to report data uh so you talked about I think Edge climber is the data assessment tool that we're using for next year educ climber is a facet of renaissance renaissance is a um platform we've been using for some time now that's our we use star reading and star math as our Universal screening tool to look at students in different ways multiple times a year this year recently was the first time we were able to get that data available to All Families so as we continue utilizing that screening tool parents can see those populated scores on the Genesis Parent Portal um we also use that data to we use multiple measures so in addition to the Star product and the screening data um the standardized test scores will be brought in there so we'll be able to look at and and we are able to do that on our current platform just not in an effective efficient manner sometimes the data is inaccurate and that's actually the number one problem is that while we're filtering data to look at multiple measures to design programming and supports for students it's obviously essential that data is correct that gets brought into that platform and that it's also userfriendly for staff to look at in addition to administrators so there's a wide range of things we do to look at student data um as I said making determinations about student supports programming um monitoring those student supports so that we can make sure that adequate progress is being made um and looking at different populations to ensure that all of our students are being served in the most appropriate fashion so um we're looking forward to moving into that and last the cops Grant is being written requesting funding for an upgrade of the PA system at the high school it's being written the cops Grant is being written to request funding for the upgrade of the PA system at the high school I I believe there was also a question about parents being notified of the dates in the for the preschool so the parents in case I was misunderstanding the question but regarding preschool the parents have already been notified if they've been placed in the program and we do have a waiting list that's available I wasn't sure if the question was regarding this year or the expansion to next year's okay okay thank you moving on to personnel and policy before motion yeah uh two revisions for personal own policy I would like to table the security portion of 15.19% [Music] 15.37 totally um the original slepen is correct and it was already split between two staff members there was no need to split it once again so uh we're striking that one okay can I get a motion to move 151 to 1536 removing and the one item in 15.1 KN motion thank you great second second Joan Miss Kier yes Miss gagman yes has amended Miss McMichael yes yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Miss sarafino yes ex accept item 15.4 obene Mr wood yes Mr Mars [Music] yes okay get a motion to move uh curriculum 161 to 1611 a motion thank you Chad second second thanks Emily Joan discussion Joan Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss seander yes Miss sarfino yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes motion for finance 171 to 17.18 motion thank you second second thank you Craig discussion Joanne Miss khier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss mcel yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Miss seraphino yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes operations 18 181 to 1814 a motion motion thank you second second discussion Miss khier yes Miss gagman yes Miss MCM yes Mr pesi yes Miss seander yes Miss sarafino yes Mr wood yes Mr moris yes item 19 ruls get a motion for 191 to 1945 motion thank you second second thank you discussion Miss Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss MCM yes Mr pesy yes Miss cander yes Miss sarapin yes Mr wood yes Mr Mar moris yes does anybody have anything for old business I do not I'd actually like to bring up our um honoring student achievement policy particularly the regulation I think um I'd like to see if we could put it uh if we could if the board could consider officially commemorating uh the top 10 dinner the academic Excellence dinner within regulation um I know we had adjusted that policy in regulation not too long ago we've had some adjustments over time but um I think we've all come to see what a what a beautiful night it is for our students and and staff and I really would like to see that it is a tradition that's continued and I think it's important that we continue that we mention it within the regulation so it's something that's always continued with ins Sparta tradition yeah I'll put that on the discussion for the next committee meeting so just to confirm that would be a policy discussion then correct yeah policy regulation right okay making sure okay moving on the public comment new that was oh yeah new business okay that's where she was this is going to be the item of new business resolved that the board of Education affirms the finding of Hib in case number SMS 01312 4001 heard during this evening's executive session and be it further resolved that the family shall be provided with a written decision along with information on their right of appeal I get a motion to Move resol Motion than you second thank you Joanne Miss kie yes Miss gagman yes Miss McMichael yes Mr plushie yes Miss cander yes Miss sarafino yes Mr wood yes Mr moris no okay now moving to public comment number two the board uses second public comment period to invite comments on all matters pertaining to the school district please state your name and discip pality and group affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will receive three minutes to speak once you have made the lotted 3 minutes to speak you will not be permitted to speak again all statements should be directed to me as presiding officer the board administr the board Administration May or not respond to any questions comments after the conclusion of public participation I already signed in just so you know good evening my name is Angela Delia and I am the very proud president of the sparta Education Association as we approach the end of the school year I'm very excited to once again share some good news this evening the Sussex County Education Association honored Educators who have served 25 years in New Jersey public education from across the county from Sparta we celebrated Rusty Brown Kathy cayen Pam Conlin Dave D cenzi Amy Dolan Lil Farrell Christine Fleming Mark Miola Ari reinstein and Sue Soy little clap there come on 25 years each month excuse me each month I say this but I'll say it again the dedication of our members is second to none a career in education is truly a calling and these honores have answered that call the sccea also sponsors an essay contest each year my hero works at school we receive hundreds of entries in four categories this year's winners included two Sparta students and their Heroes Anthony wallets from Helen Morgan school who wrote about his hero security guard Rob Kelly right there and Raina santor from Sparta High School who wrote about her hero paraprofessional Diana Rodriguez the winners and their Heroes will be honored on the field at the Sussex County Miners game on June 1st the sparta Education Association would like to thank the board of education for expanding the lines of communication with us the ideas committee Innovative discussions empowering ideas and solutions is a giant step to proactive solutions that will infinitely improve our district Additionally the sea is very grateful that the board also views supporting our members in a time of Crisis as a priority while I hope we never have to utilize the emergency help Bank its presence is invaluable to say the month of May is busy in our district is an understatement concerts AP testing Athletics and events are buzzing in every single building every single day on behalf of all of our members we are proud of our students and we are proud of the work we do each day thank you [Applause] hello good evening my name is Tara James uh I'm a mom here in Sparta so I'm here tonight to bring to your attention an incident that occurred in Sparta High School on January 2nd 2024 my daughter a senior in the high school was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend who is also a senior the situation escalated after school and unfortunately she was assaulted again the school was only made aware after the Township Police Department contacted them this is concerning concerning because the situation involving my daughter and this other student went on for over 20 minutes school shootings happen in under 6 minutes my daughter was unaccounted for in your school building for 20 minutes this is alarming as there are sro's security officers and teachers with whom I instill my trust in to ensure that my daughter is safe nobody intervened nobody was aware her teacher didn't think to question why she wasn't in class her teacher didn't think to question why she showed up to class crying with a bloody mouth this happened in the middle of the hallway where was everyone why is it when I had a meeting with Administration following the incident the principal wasn't present is this beneath him why is it that a male student can insult assault a female student and the situation is still handled as if it's two males or two females how is a student allowed to continue to attend Sparta High School I agree with the fact that he's entitled to an education however I can not agree with the fact that my daughter has to show up to school and face the individual that assaulted her every single day I respectfully ask all the women that are sitting up on this board how would you feel if you were a victim of domestic violence and you had to face the man that laid hands on you every single day are you aware that this student has two pending assault charges against him are you aware that he is facing a permanent criminal background on April 29th I submitted an Oprah request as well as a common law request requesting the camera footage of the incident on the seventh business day I received receiv a denial a very short and vague denial it was stated that they could not provide the camera footage due to security measures and indicated that miners were present in the video it should be noted you cannot deny an OP request for lack of a redaction software meaning the Min Miner faces could have been blurred out furthermore in my response my common law request was never addressed it should be noted I completed the state standardized o request form page three of this form allows a requestor to request records utilizing common law a common law request outweighs the reasonable expectation of privacy on my request I indicated my common interest I am the Minor's mother and we are going to trial I want to make you all aware that I too fulfill Oprah requests for a living approximately 2,000 of them every single year I tried contacting the business administrator's office twice following my denial after leaving two voicemails I spoke with a secretary who indicated both the ba and her assistant were in the office the last two days this seems to be the trend you hide the principal was not present in the meeting and now the Ba's office was not non responsive I then received a call from the superintendent I asked him are you aware of the incident he mentioned he was but not in the detail that I provided I also asked if he was able to review the camera footage Dr Beck ended the conversation by asking if I have an attorney what a disgrace as a mom I want answers I want to know why my daughter was unaccounted for Miss thank you three minutes is up what are you guys going to do to ensure that this never happens again thank you Jenny DK's tap into Sparta do you have an update on the referendum the Strategic plan is that something that you're building on from previous strategic plans or are you creating a new strategic plan is there plans as it has been in the past to have represent representatives from the community parents and residents give input to the Strategic plan there's new facial recognition software at the schools who I didn't hear any discussion of that at the board table at any meeting I first I want to thank Paula at the high school for her unending patience every time I go there there's a line of parents who need help getting through that process it seems to be very wonky um what is the vendor doing with the data even at TSA they don't collect they don't do facial recognition screenings unless you're going International what do you what is the protections being given to the parents of the district and and other residents for that data for the facial recognition software uh images collected thank you thank you uh if I could just start quickly to touch on your questions um uh yes we are building off the old strategic plan and the community will be involved um sarting yeah just regarding that the goals uh the goals will remain the same when we when we created a strategic plan it was a 5-year strategic plan so the goals will remain the same those goals were already based on community input um what we're doing now is what we've been doing and that is going into the buildings with our building based strategic planning teams and uh asking them to revisit and revise their uh building based goals based on the uh broad-based District goals that were formed with the strategic planning process which included um Community input an update on the referendum is that uh the referendum the um initial stages are still moving forward um we hit a bit of a um pause in the timeline let's say because we were trying to um possibly work something else out that did not come to fruition so um it is now back on track I just met with the uh architect next last week who will come up with a revised timeline of moving forward and um I sit here in front of my laptop looking at um updates for the demographic study a few questions from uh Dr grip who was doing our demographic study that of course we'll address and the facial recognition software uh that is uh we had a new system replace our um old Lobby guard system Lobby guard was bought out by Raptor the Raptor system was not functioning properly and did not have um was not being supported properly with the with the software that we had so uh we moved to a new platform and uh we actually have some information on the uh facial recognition software that I can provide to you I just want to piggyback too off of what Chad said it's really important to note that one of the main purposes is also to set board goals um so beyond the district goals that Dr Beck spoke to were really trying to hone in on having measurable goals for the board itself because uh that's something that hasn't been done for a minute and we want to make sure that we're prioritizing that and not just prioritizing the goals themselves but communicating them to the public so the public is aware of the goals that the board has set um so just to clarify that's an important element of what we discussed at length that day okay motion to close public comments motion thank Craig second thank you all in favor moving on to the good of the order um again just want to touch on uh the lacrosse success for both boys and girls um when's your next dat game I think it's going to be next Wednesday against Warren Hills at I want to say 4:30 30 home not 100% but most like the next three games will be at home okay good luck to the girls whoever's watching good luck it's all I have um I actually called Miss Lucha Angela so I apologized when I was first talking about the district Roundtable and I also called the District Roundtable the district Roundtable in set of ideas so for both I apologize how are those shirts coming nice okay if no one has anything else I'll take a motion to adjourn motion thank you second second second all in favor I I thanks for coming e