##VIDEO ID:dmVUMYrBqJc## e e e e good evening thank you for coming I'd like to call the meetings to order can I get a roll call please Mr Chini here Mrs Deli here Mrs Mora is not here Mrs Simons here Mrs St here Mrs balone is not here Mrs wiy here Mrs we have a will you please join me in the flag seat I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all 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 provisions of the ACT the susex swage Regional School District bo bo whoa board of education has caused notice of the meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the school building and notice of said meeting sent to New Jersey Herold and the Star Ledger the susex SP Regional School District is a responsive caring child centered Community our mission is to educate each individual to become a confident competent lifelong learner and productive responsible citizen by providing challenging opportunities in a safe environment through a partnership of famili schools and communities thank you Mrs witty at this time we will move on to the report of the superintendent of schools thank you uh just report out on a couple of items wanted to update everyone on the Cel water quality lead test that came back you know you received notification they came back elevated we repeat those tests as a matter of course with our water uh control treatment company and they all the same areas came back within the threshold they came back fine uh so I haven't announced that the community yet I'm waiting to hear back from State we there the state see if they want us to do anything else repeat testing testing more frequently uh so once we ascertain what their Protocols are we'll put that out to the community I'm going to keep them on bottled water and just until I hear from the St um also didn't get a chance to talk to majority of Bo about this but I talk to M torella this was happening we had a uh sewage M under one of the bathrooms at Sussex Middle School break it was a you know like an old cast iron pipe that's under the under crawl space under the bathroom so we had to fix it very quickly so it's already been repaired um we do some additional remediation under there that's resolved and that's all I had I was under the impression student council may come and present tonight um not maybe we'll just uh do them next time thank you Mr PA at this time we'll move on to audience remarks uh members of the audience are invited to make brief comments about items on this agenda and matters of interest to the district are there any public comments seeing none uh we will now move on to the board secretary certification please pursuing to njac 6A 23-1 16.13 I certify that as of September 30th 2024 no l item account has incumbrances and expenditures which in total exceed the line item appropriation in violation of njac 6A 23-6 thank you Mrs rer at this time we do need to go into executive session approximate time would be about 10 minutes uh no action will be taken um can I get a resolution please whereas pursuant to njsa 10412 B the Sussex Wantage Regional Board of Education May exclude the public from that portion of public meeting at which the board discusses any of the matters described at njsa 1042 Fe items 1 through n now therefore be it resolved that the susage regional board of education shall enter into Clos session to discuss Personnel matters there therefore be further resolved by the c one Regional Board of Education and pursuing to njsa 10 413b the time when and the circumstances under which the discussion conducted in close session can be disposed to the public is when the need for confidentiality no longer exists thank you m rer can I get a motion to go to an executive session please thank you can I get a second I'll second all in favor say hi can no see you in about 10 minutes thank you 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 we are back in public session thank you for waiting at this time we will move on to the presentation of agenda items please thank you under person on the agenda I'd like to move items 1 through 11 can I get a motion I'll motion can I get a second I'll second any discussion call please Mrs yes Mrs fa yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs Deli yes Mrs Simmons yes Mrs witty yes Mrs torella yes motion carries the policy I we move it number one can I get a motion motion thank you can I get a second a second hear any discussion roll call please Mr Chini yes Mrs Simmons yes Mrs is Deli yes this space yes this Ry yes this yes this T yes motion Carri Finance are like 1 through 11 can I get a motion thank you can I get a second any discussion I just wanted to say I love number 11 the BMX show yeah so I to elaborate on that I we had that at the uh other District school and it was very cool they bring in like half pipes and they they jump over people and they do summera and then their message is like uh you know positive thinking and social emotional learning and anti- buing so it was very cool in in Lafayette they set up in you know if you never been there it's a massive gym so I'm hoping they set up either outside or or they work around a cafeteria but it should be very cool I think they said they would set up outside get the weather perit yeah the kids are love that yeah anybody wants to come check it out you want to get jumped over you let me know all right uh roll call please yes Mrs Simmons yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs space yes Mrs wiy yes Mrs L yes yes Car special services I items through can I a motion thank second oh second any discussion roll Mrs Del yes Mrs St yes Mr Chini yes m s yes M yes M yes yes motion Carri under curriculum I think Mo number one I a motion motion thank you can I a second second discussion call please Mrs yes Mrs Deli yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs Simmons yes Mrs space yes Mrs wiy yes Mrs cell yes motion referring to the addendum your personnel at Le move items can I get a motion please I'll motion thank you can I get a second I'll second any discussion roll call please Mrs a yes Mrs SP yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs Deli yes Mr Simmons yes this wiy yes M tordella yes motion carries and on under policy item 22 can I a motion please a motion can get a second I'll second thank you any discussion roll call please Mrs States yes Mrs S yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs Deli yes Mrs Wy yes Mrs lar yes Mrs Pella yes under Finance I items two can I get a motion please can I get a second I'll second thank you any discussion call please Mrs L yes Mrs Simons yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs Deli yes this B yes Mrs Wy yes this torella yes motion car other special services move it can I get a motion thank you can I get a second second any discussion please this Deli yes this yes Mrs Chini yes Mrs SP yes Mrs wiy yes Mrs yes yes curriculum on the agenda on the agenda might move it number one I a motion motion thank you can I get a second a second any discussion Mrs yes Mrs St yes Mr Chini yes Mrs Deli yes yes yes thank you at this time we will move on to unfinished business is there any unfinished business anybody would like to discuss if I could just sorry if I can just shift the attention too we uh have members of our s Middle School student council uh we're going to report out on what's happening in Cel six Middle School you girls all right with that great you want to come up to the podium introduce yourselves to the board yeah good evening Mr members of the Board of Education Mr schs and commun MERS my name is I am and I'm Alex vice president has had a great start to the school year and the clubs and sports have lots of great news to report susex School course has auditions had auditions at Jefferson Middle School Tuesday night for Sussex County junior honors course 14 students from Sussex Middle School had auditions and four of the 13 students from our very own School scored the top 10 for the county for their voice parts in The Voice par of soprano Nora Bradley placed first NIS Wilson placed Fifth and Mariana Sor placed seven in the count in the voice out a man play six Tuesday night some of our instrumental musician audition for ass and left fting the following students were accepted into theen the saxophone Abby Crawford the saxophone Miller the trumpet the literary magazine club is excited to announce its 25th anniversary magazine that will be published this year in honor of the 25th anniversary a staff section will be included they look forward to the submissions they receive and a beautiful magazine showcase the work ofs and staff in June 2025 the traps program is off to a terrific start they have 38 new members and 20 returning MERS their first Workshop was October 9th all students received their workbooks about the trucks process of the product students then engaged in Cy board CH they work together to develop a product they discussed what makes their product unique what ingredients made it special who would like who would be likely to buy it its name what the rapper would look like and what their commer they then created a new rapper for the chocolate bar and created and performed a commercial to sell the project everyone is looking forward to the next workshop and of course the anual me which will be held on November 20th they would like to send a special thanks to the board of education for the purchase of the t-shirts and Market Bowling Club is very popular we have an average of 30 students attending each of the first three Bowling Club outs students have enjoyed bowling socializing it's a no phone zone until we are 15 minutes away from the school and you can call and text your parent that they can pick you up in 15 minutes and of course EA it they have two or more week of SMS is undefeated for both Varity and JV soccer teams this season the last G is next Wednesday at student council will be sponsoring their activity night on Friday night the students are excited to be able to get together with their friends and hang out for a couple of hours thank you for allowing us to share you with you this evening some of the activities that have we been having thank you girl great job ask a question sure M Pani you had said something that um with trap said there were 38 new kids and 24 returning so does that mean like a total of 62 kids doing things or is that 24 part of the 38th do you know um okay no that's fine that's fine I bet you 24 is part of the 38 probably yeah yeah that's super long anyway wish the best any other questions for great job you want I just wanted to say thank you for really appreciate it you want to hang out for two minutes Mr go walk out sorry yeah so any with un business that they would like to discuss so in the past um a couple meetings ago I brought up the summer optional scores which is currently in place um I know curriculum talked about making it more like mandated which I think would not be a way to go about it anytime somebody here's mandated they you know kind of freak out so I feel like if we go around it in a different way like make it a um like a first marketing period grade or something I just I feel like there's a lot of things lacking academically um I can't speak for SMS because I don't know too much about that school particularly but I know for um Cal there's a lot of kids that are classified um I know homework is not graded um so I don't think a lot of people are doing it because there's no incentive some work same thing if it says right on it you know not required more than Happ these people are just throwing it out and I think come September is becoming an issue because half of the class is forgetting what was taught the whole previous year so the teacher is playing catchup with we'll say half the class and the other half of the class that was already ahead is kind of where they should be so I don't think it's fair to teachers and I don't think it's fair for any of the students involved um so through doing all the research I know there are several surrounding districts that do um not require but assign homework something manageable through the summer as like a first grade first marking period grade and I think that that's something that we should reconsider I don't think it's going to hurt the district academically um doing research out of 44 schools in Sussex County wanted is 35th academically which to me is low I don't think we should be that low I don't think it has to just do with homework and school work but I think we have to start somewhere um can I add to this sure am I allowed to yeah come up identify yourself Andrea um so there's a couple things and I agree with you 100% I think the first thing is that basic skills teachers should be hired full-time I don't think there's enough of them uh as a parent very active doing homework every night the last thing I want to do during summer is homework I'll be honest I don't like I don't want to do it I think that the school does offer summer school for kids that are low I'm not saying that if a child doesn't want to do it or if a parent says hey you know can I have a packet I want to keep my kid up to date on their skills I think that the school should provide that um I know that my son is in honors and he did get a packet that was graded for his first marketing period but he's also in seventh grade and he's 12 these kids are like you know little yeah um that's just my personal stand on it I think that you guys are going to laugh but smaller class sizes I think is a big thing you know maybe cut out on some other things or seriously take a look at these stores and see what really matters and I have heard a rumor that there was something about maybe having the kids have more recess um I will keep my opinion to myself as far as that goes but I think that we need to focus on academics I think we need to focus on social and emotional things in the classroom I think there's a lot that needs to be focused on and I 100% agree but I would say start with hiring some more basic skills teachers or the ones that you have make them full-time because they're not there in the morning so for example at Cal and at the Wantage School the kids get there they can get their at 825 and these teachers aren't coming in I believe until probably like 9 or or whatever so there's that M Gap that the kids are in their home room that they're not going to miss out on anything except for maybe writing in their planner maybe doing launch to maybe doing the flag salute where they can get there maybe 25 minutes three four times a week and maybe that will actually help catch them up and I've always been a firm believer too like I think we need to slow down Mr go already knows that but we can't because this is the state that we live in and we have to keep up with everyone but I know for a fact even being in the school that that teachers are doing the best that they can do with what they're given and I really think that you know the kids that need the help they do need the help and it is a big majority of your general education because the kids that are classified and that have IEPs and stuff like that they have to get what they have to get it's state rules and then the kids that are you know special ed and stuff they're getting you know what they need but then everybody else which is all these kids are just kind of floating by and some s slip through the cracks and others don't some make it some don't you know so I mean that's my two cents on all of it but I agree as far as like helping the kids more and stuff like that but as far as a summer cracket I mean nothing crazy that I mean that would not I wouldn't like I do it 80 you know 180 days out of the year the last thing I want to do is like have to do something I mean reading yes I read with my kids but like to sit there and actually have something greed I just think that like the Wantage school and c I think those kids are little like I think some of them do need a break from school but that's just my own personal so so you know over the past several years if you were on the border you weren't you may have heard me talk about like we were in a very challenging circumstance financially right so we made decisions in that context that may not necessarily have been like the the ideal things you would do during that time but they kept the operational flow and then we talked about how that set the tone for uh working withu and they changed their health benefit package and it got us out of what was anticipated to be like a $3.5 million Cut St it happened to so all Sussex County you saw neighboring school districts just cut you know significant numbers of employees so long story short like as you move into next year I'm not promising you know shangra lot but that this will be kind of like the first year where you can have an honest conversation and dialogue about what the goals are and where you want to go you know I think the conversations we've had like overall about whether it's homework or whatever it is even recess to some extent trying to improve student achievement and learning outcomes right so like how do you do that collectively there's going to be one there's going to be more than one thing to impact that mindfulness will impact that somewhat right uh teacher quality and teacher uh class sizes impact that right ratios and um you know getting parents on board in one way or another to help facilitate that one area we struggle in also that we saw success within the past um years years ago when I was a principal as chronic absenteeism so a significant number of kids exceeding eight days 18 days absent per school year and in theory not spending any money if you have whatever 20 days absent of school year you come to school for those 20 days in theory you're going to improve right because you're not going to have that Gap and all of that uh so I mean it's so critically important in my opinion aligned with mindfulness aligned with uh prek right maybe the board consider doing an ad hoc committee where we we take all of our sources and get opinions from everybody and elicit uh stakeholder engagement and you know you have experts around the district in a lot of different areas reading experts um and so forth so maybe get all those folks around a table and uh kind of spearhead that I don't know can I add something anybody else has any unfinished business I'm gonna kind of piggy off ofs is that okay okay um let me start this with a question lunch hour is how long not an hour it's not broken up it's 40 minutes broken up yeah so so a school like w school have a 40 minute Block they'll do half recess half lunch 2020 yeah laurren school's 30 minutes recess I think 20 minutes Lun I feel like and I was talking to my little cousin over the weekend who is now a freshman in high school in Long Valley but he was telling me something he thinks that would have benefited him like in Middle School is a solid hour where you have like lunch for 20 or 30 minutes and then the 30 minutes of free time or or the whole hour can be used to either eat or do miscellaneous activities but like there could be extra help for kids that want it you know you can you can play outside if you want it but like having that extra time I feel like could be beneficial I don't know how it work yeah no well so then that comes with like you have that original idea like let's say this committee we do this committee where every people get on board for it and then you got to try to execute it with you know there's going to be funding implications there's going to be scheduling implications the logistics of all of that even if you know we talked at some point about you know one of the other districts I'm associated with may do 40 minutes of recess time but in that regard teachers are directly responsible for having their kids outside so you look you you have to look to at your contractual obligations to the staff member and how that's all comes together so and if you're doing 40 minutes of reset then you're potentially taking away from kids that might need extra help you're taking away from that too all different Dynamics valid points right so like how do you come together on that stuff so I think what I'm looking at when I did the whole thing is right now how low like wage is Laurence wasn't in it because they're too little right but wage and the Middle School were and they were super low so I think in my head I'm thinking what we're doing right now is not working it's not like the greatest solution there has to be something else I do know being at the schools every day and talking to parents there's a lot of kids that have ADHD the best thing the best way to handle that is by not sitting as much right a lot of the 5044 plans are want them to stand up take a 10-minute break so I personally feel um recess is super important because you're not being Guided by teachers it's free play in a sense but it's conflict resolution like very mean things for kids preschool through we'll just say second grade just for Lawrence even through fifth sixth I mean all of that um clearly they're not spending the seven hours doing academics because we're falling with academics so I don't know what exactly is going on throughout the course of the day but I know I don't think the 30 minutes recess is sufficient enough um like if you look at for that age group they're super little like they their ratio of free play to to like academics is is much higher with free play but their success rates and AC are so I was trying to figure out a different way like if we have a lot of kids that can't sit still now you know my 8-year-old that doesn't have ADHD she can't sit silly there um that's just the kid being a kid so another solution would be to increase recess somehow I don't know how they do it I don't we used to have project Adventure when the kids went for that hike walk thing right I mean I know I'm dating myself but I remember eth going for like walks or whatever and it was like some Cub Scout whatever yeah and that was like I I think any way to get outside which is what I talked to you know Stephanie about they're not going out for a gym from what I'm being told which is an easy way to get outside you're running around like you can't run as freely in a gym as you can outside in a um you know out of all the research I did it it was the same things like they all um playing Outdoors creates a higher level of attention and well-being so I think you're going to find a better response to kids sitting there and actually learning yeah and maybe higher tendenc people look forward to like coming school because they have you know the nature walk or the that hike and one of our I just think we need to try something what we're doing is not the solution I I don't feel like I think we need to go a different route in a sense like let me add a little bit about the past I'm gonna I'm gonna wor this way previous to 2020 right so previous to 2020 I my last granddaughter was in fifth grade so that was the end of the wanted right um all my kids like before that and stuff at the end of the year they would get uh packets that they could take home right and uh it was optional but it was I mean they come home with a stack of papers and you know I'd make them do some of them but then you start playing and you forget about right so nothing was ever really great at I believe Mr G would remember also is that in the one at school they used to read um they were assigned a book to read everybody it was the same book it was a Magic Treehouse book and um uh they would have to read the book they'd have to answer some questions and stuff like that and they were supposed to bring it back you're going to have kids that are going to do that kids are not going to do that parents are going to be for it parents are not going to be for it so it wasn't said that it wasn't gr it but you know people kind of knew it wasn't creative but there were parents that wanted their kid to read the book so my kid read the book right so all throughout the war all throughout the laed school they'd read you know little um The Magic Tree House book whichever one it may have been time that year and when they went back to school they would use that book Ian some didn't read it some did read it so you could have a conversation and it was kind of like a welcoming conversation where the kids interacted with the teacher and those that didn't read the book the other kids were more or less telling them about it and some that may have intrigued them to use that book for their next book for it you know um I haven't had a child in the LA school for about six years now uh five years um but I think that there's a lot more that's done on CH books and I think that it gives them something to do if they're not on Chrome books and and writing and doing all that kind of good stuff and just interacting with each other so I think remember when we used to do the Magic Tree House you were probably principal then in waret school mag house at the war yeah every kid during the summer was assigned we had summer reading we had summer reading remember Magic Tree House um um something when Dixie was one of them right that was May in third grade and yeah you so yeah and how that was influenced instructionally the curriculum at the time was was a novel-based approach so like you were doing right but it's summer time no matter what the curriculum is if you can get them to all read like the same like I know with the Reading Writing Workshop they're allowed to read whatever books they want to read but how do they just innocent and so how do they join that together yeah so that that philosophy to reading was um it was built around a whole culture and books were aligned to reading levels so a kid had a find a just right book it was called where you could understand the content and then work a little bit higher right but have you have discussions with that really oh there's a lot of training that went into that right but I understand what you're saying but 20 different kids with 20 different I get you're saying so I'm not saying we have to you know reinvent the wheel hereo but like during the summer I I think like to stay away from Chrome books and and offline right that if they had a solid book during the summer and they read it even the kids like I said even the kids that don't do it right that it it gives them something to discuss like like me or discuss it so that you know the kids need to learn how to interact and discuss that could even be considered like school work like summer work though like right now I feel like when you're writing right on stuff optional I mean I asked parents it got thrown in the garbage right no we we it was never written optional back then we just kind of knew that you want didn't I me but but it joined the kids together and then everybody got a math packet to take home they they didn't get signed exls number one they got P pen and paper and a packet and I think a hot has changed since 2020 and I think that we need to remember and go back and try and bring out some of the stuff that we've put on the back shelf and said hey you know forgot about this we could do this the other thing is everyone's forgetting the standards are super high right like back when I was in kindergarten it wasn't what it is now so I feel find my shoes I was doing good right you like count called it a day but it's not that anymore and and part of that again like she's saying prior to a year 2020 you you had a whole different approach to what we were doing because it wasn't necessarily you know you're always focused on you know budget conscious and finance cons conscious and taxpayer burden and stuff like that but it wasn't as driven by would potentially be cut 3.5 million dire so for example at w School you had um teams of teachers working together we worked very hard with so two for example two fifth grade teachers would be paired up we'd give this teacher as much much professional development in language arts and reading as as possible language arts and social studies this other teacher we' give them as much make them experts in math and science and so we put the kids in those two classrooms and then the teacher would switch so you almost had kind of like subject specific specialization in those two areas and you were getting your highest level of right um The Wanted school was was the teachers only had to focus on two subjects ased before somebody had just asked me about that Rec yeah so so the budgetary switch for Middle School you learn to have different almost you know similar the budget implication to that was you had to have teams of two so you had to have um multiples of two so you needed to have two four six teachers at every grade level and once the finances became so constrained that you potentially you know we were having honest conversations about which school would we potentially close you had to reduce that number so you had to go down five right so you didn't have those multiples of teachers and you couldn't do really do that anymore um you know another philosophy that you know comes with pros and cons that we had had success with when I was a principal um back early on was in particular math not so much Ela the research didn't necessarily show it but in math we switched for Ability grouping so you had your highest level math performance on something like the njsa or park or njs time where a group of students were identified find it almost like your your Advanced proficient kids and they go into a higher level math class where at one point the third graders were using the fourth grade text the fourth grade text was used in the fifth grade text the fifth grade used in the sixth grade text and that came with pros and cons you know social emotionally there were there were some challenges with that uh you know a whole host of things but if you got in a room with a variety of people who've been here for a while they'll be able to weigh in on what they think works and you take the best ideas from everybody I think that if a child is in third grade and fourth grade method we should allow them to challenge themselves and Exel if they like to yeah part so no reason in the world to hold them so one of the challenges that that potentially came with that you generally speaking you perform very well but if you had had a third grader using a fourth grade math text they were still being tested by the state on a third grade material so you had to make sure that they were still prepared yeah which generally you're building on those Concepts and skill set but not this building yeah you had to remember that stuff which would in that sense bring us so I feel like the beginning of the year a lot of the times the spend like making up you could tell kind of I'm sure who read who who knew their math you know the other thing with the the summer work is if you're you know Albert Einstein then you should be able to Breeze through it and you should have no problem in September you already caught up to where you should be I think it's going to affect the kids that struggle because their parents are going to have to work through with them unless they had a tutor over the summer or something else but I think in a sense too that's helpful because a lot of times I think with life being busy parents don't know where their kids at are at academically so I think letting them see it would give them a better understanding on maybe how to help them throughout the year or maybe have to teach them a different way math um I don't know I don't think it's going to hurt the district I know a lot of people obviously want you know time away from school but at the same time like you know they're still doing sports throughout the summer so how much of a break are you really getting you're still going to sleep late and I mean I think I think a packet nothing C think a packet to go home is still a good idea I think what if it just be extra credit just aren going to worry about I the problem that like like I with my older sister who's in high school they do common core math now right so or right and JSA standards so it's totally different than like when I learned about when I was little though and like the work that she has to show I'm like well then how do they do their homework but that's what I'm saying though like when she needed help with her homework and we would try to help her she'd be like you're not you're not doing that right and I'm going to lose points for it or like you're not doing it helping me the way that I need to show my work or like whatever so I'm not talking about I'm talking about I like that's when they start slipping like as soon as it starts they fall behind and it's like a spiral that too is also an issue though because they are doing math all kinds of different but that's what I'm saying well well in the war school I know they are they got like six different ways of things I've never heard of that's what I'm saying like some parents sometimes parents can but then how do you help them with so like no homework either like how do you how say homework but I definely okay I think Boston has so you're going to have yeah you're going to have diverse perspectives on topics like this in my opinion what I've seen the most successful initiatives in in districts that I worked in is when you can get um folks behind you even if you have to compromise your perspective a little bit it has a much greater chance of being success long term after you're gone like that's what you want you want some initiative to continue you want mindfulness to continue after you're off the board right um and and those are the opportunities to do that in my opinion and to the board's credit the the single greatest thing that I have always seen would impact the district positively was the prek getting the prek funding because we we had had historical data going back 10 years when our first kids come into the district you know in this case reading sometimes two to three levels below where you would ideally want them so using those two prek years ideally three and four um which by the way New Jersey's vision for that curriculum creative curriculum is basically all play based right then when you get them to kindergarten hopefully you got them to the place where it's a Level Playing Field now and you can build on that but I've said even before you unfortunately won't see test score implications to that for like five years I just think there's something that you you really like listening to you you really want to impact the culture of you want to be successful in school and in life yeah I should given unless it's corrected well so the other it's not corrected that's exactly what I'm getting at though so I'm going to use for example second grade my daughter gets homework she gets maybe four four pages a week right you get out of Monday you have the whole week to decide what you do with it now she is productive in school so she gets time to do it so I've never I mean I see her packet and I look over it but she's never actually done it at home it makes no sense to me why you a teacher would assign homework and they do it in CL that does not that's the whole point not having homework if they do it in class why do they get I think it's showing them time management in a sense like you're teaching them skills when they're little and you don't really know it I mean teachers to teach them while they're in school and not to sit there and do their homework it's only if they finish something before they're supposed to so but that would go to the point of like not need homework if your daughter could do her homework in school then she would have the afternoon Supply right like that seems like an effective school day where they can learn what they need to learn right but what I'm saying time it's coming home and she wants you to review it to make sure you're I mean number one like your kids doing it right but you're involved in it I guess you can say I feel like being in the school I've had a lot of parents maybe five towards the end of the year be like I had no idea my kid was failing now I don't know how this happens but in a sense like I'm trying to like as parents get more involved throughout the year not just looking at like a grade like your report cards then I feel like there would be no excuse for that in a sense like if you're seeing what your kids are doing the parents that don't have the expertise yeah you can't so I think that's where I was going with the they don't but if your child is learning how to read and you don't necessarily Lear know how to teach them how to read right like that's always an easy feat for everyone I think it would need to be depending on the grade like kindergarten you or preschool you wouldn't get mandate or school work as a grade kindergarten I don't think you would either I think like first grade you're SOL reading yes I just think you run into the problem of some parents don't feel comfortable teaching their children things that they don't have the expertise like in today's society I don't right do you get what I'm saying are working they're like that's not I didn't go to that yeah parents don't have the time they don't have the expertise can't control a parent to oversee that you know we can control what they learn in school but did you you I always saying that parents don't have time I mean that's a lot of what being a parent is like if you how are you doing how are you doing sports like that's that's how kids fall behind but it's also things that parents parents feel that their kids need that will help them more beneficially than then focusing just on school because school is not for everybody yes I get what you're saying okay but some some kids like you said when they even when they're little they need to release that and instead of sitting down trying to so like I said I'm not I'm I think it's interesting that everybody's thinking they're going to be like doing school workk every single day over the summer I did not say that no even if you do like 10 math worksheets it's at least you're you're seeing where you're at I mean they would see what my kids would do they'd come home they do them right away the first well then guess what and they know what they're doing then they don't need the extra help right yeah but then they still got that two months where they didn't do any school workor and I don't know but maybe the incentive of okay you get an extra 10 points when you show up to school if you do this over the summer like would incentivize those kids who don't necessarily want to do it but know that they're going to get these bonus points in extra credit I just think that there's a reason why like some of these classes 50% of kids are being pulled out for math and reading I don't that is not okay with me I don't I want more for the district and I don't think giving more academics work and more recess is going to hurt that or harm that yeah like like if you're struggling with reading and math you probably need extra help with reading like if you have that 30 extra 30 minutes in the day to like seek out help for what you needed help with like you would be able to do that I don't know if a younger child is going to choose to go get help with math versus like going down first graders you know what I mean middle school I have a lot of age children like I tell you some of them are older than staff and um thanks yeah um some of are staff and some are still in high school and up until probably the last couple of recent years I will tell you that the parent in school I always always always heard when it came to reading that the best thing I can do for my kids is to read to them not try and teach them to read but to read to them and I tell you what I had no had the time for that and then I got grandkids and I didn't have the time for that you know I mean life goes fine yeah I tried to do it you know especially when we on vacation but so I didn't really over read to them all the time but I know parents and friends of mine and my son that is that AG he it's it's a it's a nightly Habit to that 7:30 they are reading for that kid he's only two right as my grandson yes but he's only two and I'm telling you he seems more advanced than the other kids that I know that's not just because he's my grandson right but there yes but the trick I think is not necessarily to teach your kids to read or I think I think I haven't heard in a while that you need to read to your kids reading to your kids is the best thing to you do and I think it shows them that first of all you're interested and they can understand if you're reading it they don't have to worry about sounding Out a word and this and that let them learn that in school because the professionals know how to do that right but just to Simply read to your kid and I'm not sure if I've heard this but how do you incentivize fer you know this idea when they're but even to the parents like how do you make you don't but instead of telling the parents they got to do homework with them you know just maybe continue to tell the oldfashioned ways you know just you know your phography the opportunity where you could have more parental support in the aspect of like having a parent night class or like a parent instruction class I was just on the same page like one of the things that you may not be aware of that teachers do a really good job of of what we've we've seen over the past dip in attendance they do these family math and reading nights um and we've seen that dip but that those nights are geared towards like you present math and like game activity type stuff but you're also trying to infuse with the parent like this is how you can help with this concept or that concept come to think of it like we haven't prek people were welcome but we haven't focused that on prek and that's probably an area where we can have an impact like this what he saying the most impressionable years with that reading to your child is when they're the youngest yes well I I have friends of mine that I know that the kids are in the laage school and every night and I can tell you that these kids are more advanced than most that's got to have something they say that oh like obviously I mean most people don't know that but you read from a young age every night like they are usually more F I'm have you I'm G have you two come talk to my kids because they think I'm a villain you know well I want to you know turn back time and kick myself in the bu not doing it you know but um and when you do these meeting reading in math nights I remember I don't know I haven't been to one in a while but when I used to go um I'm not going to say names because I'll forget who they were but you would have people that if the parent wanted to go out with the teacher into a classroom that that the teacher would work with the parents to help them especially with the math parental instruction night or something because I think you have some parents like that just don't not that they don't want to be involved but they don't know how to be properly with that child at that age level I believe the sheets have a bar code and if you scan the barod it helps but I think it would be better like come home and you're like what am I doing you the and it you if you haven't been exposed to it like if you don't work in the school district or you have a totally different line of work I think too how are the other schools doing it like so many other schools get homework like we but it's like you know it's like we can't necessarily compare because we don't know well no you have I mean I look at the top schools what are you doing right like you have Alpine no you have bym it's a very big district and they're top three right we always talk about these schools are so high because teachers there's 833 students well talking about teachers that's the other thing C student teacher ratio is lower than the average New Jersey state level it's 12 to1 and the average is 11.1 but look at the like educational levels of the parents like what are the so in two is higher and they're not you know they have poverty and all those other things I'm just saying like a lot of times people say we're lower because we're such a big District so I made sure to compare ourselves to bigger districts and we're still like here I think it just all comes down to parent involvement though and getting them engaged but how you get them involved you don't have them do things at home but that's what I'm saying like if you have a parental instruction night or like parent a parent training night per se right and you have these parents coming in and they're able to ask the teachers how do I teach my child this or what is the best situation for me to work on this with my child so that I can help them at home what happens if they don't I mean well you're going to have parents that don't follow through right that that's just kind of how it is you have that can't be like that don't want to be bothered with I think there's going be a lot that like you're working or I don't know I don't think it's I think you're going to have the parents though that really want to like the ones that are going to go to are right but I think you're still G to have some parents that really go to begin with are the ones be yeah and this is why like when we had the reading in that nights the families that are able to go those nights um we did have like a teacher that might have been one of them some with math I remember yeah I mean it's still they still go on that's what I'm saying there's been a decoin in attendance yeah well that that will come back to like tutoring service we can offer through the school where parents are able to like it's like a club after school for 30 minutes or whatever and if your child is struggling in a certain area that you can opt to keep them when teacher for extra help you'll have Title One funding programs that are on that say after I don't we used to have Aid that for on them but the kids struggling are usually the ones that their parents are just throwing it out if that makes sense like if you send this back home in the summer like what's going to make them do it in the summer if there's an incentive if you're just like throw it out in the garbage can and don't even worry about it who's going to do it you're saying you know what I mean like I'm not saying mandated because we don't like that word I don't know maybe out of the process you know I survey people all the time you can get we can glean from a survey you know what is enticing to you here's some options like how they did studies on you know it's a quarter that will trigger your brain to bring the shopping cart back to shop right's rack it's not a nickel it's not a dime it's a quarter will make people return right so I know so what our second right they're small District but they get mandated summer or first grade you know it's your first grade summer work and they get homework it's teaching them responsibility I'm not saying hours of homework I think that's insane I think the teachers would do a good job at determining what would be appropriate do you know what I mean like that's that's that's their levels like it wouldn't be anybody else determining that like the second grade teachers you know I think I find like you find too there's a lot of parents that complain that certain kids get like an hour of homework a night in second grade where some kids get none so is that fair really I think cons right that's what I'm saying though like there's there's certain parents that want their kids out of a certain class because they get a lot of homework this class doesn't get any homework so like it's the same grade there has to be a consistent level of homework across the board yeah I just I don't know can we work on policy my daughter had consistent first grade and second grade she had what she had consistent first grade and second grade what she got in first grade was exactly what she got in second grade and was it like overwhelming no not at all that's what I'm saying because when second grade came she was like oh this package I know what to do right I think it's going to be an issue for the kids that struggle but even the kids that you like my kids are all over the all over the place I wanted honors and you know like they're strung everywhere yeah and I'm there every night doing it every night night but you're not going to force you're not going to make parents do something that they don't want to do if they're not doing it now they're not going to do I also think though like given the kids who are struggling need more support so the parents aren't necessarily going to be able to help them as well as a teacher who right and if they've worked hard during the school day the last thing that they want to do come home and the parent but that's where I'm like the parent may not know how to support that child at home in their homework cuz there are already struggling with it and then the parent doesn't have the expertise to support them why out to the teacher who probably like a newsletter that I mean it's not you can Google everything it's like the teachers like this is like the teachers do give out these they're they're giving out like a welcome to say please contact me if you have any issues with your child they already that's I'm saying like if we provided something else to parents like a parental night to come and like you don't BR your kids and like whatever and you have that open opportunity of discussing with the teachers and like whatever like a parent training right essentially it might be helpful to them it might give not all of them but some of those parents that added support that they need to help their child at home engage wouldn't that be kind of considered like a parent teacher conference then yeah because I know I know what I have like with when I meet with the child with the child study te for my son's IEP I asked them how how CH what it's once a year so that I think need to be at least twice a year some but what I'm saying is when I have that meeting it's the one-on-one with the teacher and the parent what do you feel is working for my child what do you think is not working well with my child do you have any weight like it's a it's a conversation so I think like maybe something like that so the the teacher with the um what did I just say teacher and the parent have better communication on what's going on with their child because you can get you can get no parent at the end of the year who says I didn't my child that's what so that I don't think is so I don't know but did they reach out throughout the year like did they email the teacher were they like hey like how's Johnny doing or you know like oh I got this 75 on a math test like what happened here did everybody get the 75 because our are learning the teachers are teaching but I feel that our kids are not mastering the skills they're learning but they're not mastering it because they're on to the next thing like math it's like you're getting a new section every night you know chapter 7even you know 71 is Monday 72 you you know what's coming so I feel that they're learning it I don't know if they're necessarily mastering it and I think that some kids are learning it some ways and other kids are not learning it that way they need to learn it another way on the clip side though are the teachers reaching out to the parents if the child is struggling I'm try to I mean I I I mean I don't know all of them but I think that they're pretty accessible I think that the teachers are accessible I think that if there is a problem or they see something I do feel and I've had a couple of blimps I'm not going to you know but I feel at overall being the size of this district and being and the amount of kids that they're teaching like I I'm a substitute when I go in there I'm like I don't even know how these kids are learning in here they's so many of them there and I'm not saying like what they're learning or how it's there's so many of them and everybody learns different and you could say it like write your name on the paper but one kid might not understand it until you go over and like Point like write your name on the paper you know like they all learn different so I think class sizes is a big thing I think that's huge and I think getting more like you have your basic skills teachers like they need to be full-time and help these kids that need the help because there are kids that are legitly out there that need the help and they have the parents backing them and they still need help and they don't qualify for an IEP and they don't qualify for anything else or a 504 so then what do you do with those kids they fall in the crack so those are the numbers that you're probably seeing well this is that's a very good point because I feel like you can we like can control a class size we can control a Time basic skill teacher like we can't control and I get it like what Mr said about like obal involvement at the end of the day but like we can't force a parent to be involved so you don't have to for like it's not for saying it's you I mean you could opt to get extra credit for your kid or your kid could opt to have extra credit or get a zero for the first grade then the parents are involed are have do you know what I mean like we can control that we can give like you can give a packet and say you know what this is their summer work if they choose to do it they choose to do it if they don't they don't like I don't think that you can I don't think you can necessarily force a parent listen the parents that are going to do the packet they're going to do the packet like the kids that probably are getting A's or B's right and you know what maybe that's why they get A's and B's and you know what you're not going to be able to control all of it you can only give them the resources what they do with it is what they do read the summer like just read and answer these five six questions and for those that don't when they do come back you know it's going to be a discussion the other kids didn't have the opportunity to do it for whatever reason right well not to be a hiccup but I'm going to be a hiccup so I am not all kids like to read right so like my middle child just he hates reading but if you let him pick out a book that he wants to read total Game Changer so as far as like I to understand what you're saying as far as like picking a book and then having it be like a group discussion but I know it's C like they have reading books and they have stories they have story once a week they read it they discuss it they have their questions and they have their reading comprehension at the end of the you know at the end of the week and stuff like that like but as far as like I mean at least that's what I was always told and it works with my middle one that that you know you pick a book that you like what is something that you like to read about because if he doesn't like reading to begin with now you got to read whatever writing Workshop thing okay and that's great during the year and everything right but for summer let's say you've got 20 kids right um 10 are going to read a book what book did you read okay when you say what book did you read to a child that hasn't read the child's answer is going to be I didn't read a book and it's going to be pointed out that way right whereas if reading the same book during the summer just during the summer if one book is suggested to them to read then they can join in the conversation because when Johnny's saying about you know and when Peter went up into the tree the the magic ball fell out and then the boy that didn't read the book might say oh what happened to it so they they can just for summer you know they can join in without being segregated as to I didn't read a book I mean remember doing that stuff we had to read three books we had I went to private school but we had to read three books but I didn't do that until I was older this is The Wanted school it was great in The Wanted school it was great in the want school for can I make a suggestion create like a committee to yeah I mean it is good that we do have it is good that we do have this conversation openly within all the I think it's important like increase us a little I think there's a lot of things involved well in this process we both be but we we it's it's good to even when you have these committees is that maybe everybody out there doesn't understand but when we have these committees we're not all together so when we're having this conversation openly all together it's it's good because we get everybody's input you know what I mean so yeah we should maybe Focus you know Zone in and focus but we need have these conversations every now and then everybody yeah I I think the ad hoc committee you won't lose track you won't lose sight of trying to thect you make motion for no that's right I think we make a motion to create an committee if you're supportive to that I think you create bang the G Hado yeah when when we did I think Nick was just like [Laughter] okay student achievement yeah I would like to definitely on I would like to hang on I would like to make a motion to for a an committee the focus of enhancing student learning outcome achievement student achievement student achievement I often write make to get a suggestion on that and you're not going to like it but what I'm going to say is well I mean I'm not doing it on purpose but but what I'm saying is I believe you're still in curriculum that's why I said you're not like it right you're not oh okay good awesome I just I think it's more than are you on curricul oh yeah took my I don't know me you who else is on me and Danielle oh okay all right well what I was going to suggest is that whoever's on this new committee not be on the curriculum meeting because then you've got three different people talking about then the two come together at table here you know what I'm saying because I think that this does running with curriculum also no it does yeah right so that's a I made a motion anybody want a second a second to yes SP yes this yes Del yes Simmons yes yes anybody want to be the chair so I can coordinate some with you okay and I'll be on it who's going to get in between us right we don't need anybody in between us I think we're on the same page we just gota find a happy maybe you can elicit like their interest level and then put something out cool is that new was that old business it was but it branched into news yes is there any other new business I'm sorry no you want to go ahead uh Fox I mean this simac sent me pictures the fox has migrated from wanted school now he hangs out or one of them hang out more frequently at at Lauren school they were there's those picnic tables out front where teachers usually and it was just like laying under there and um and she went out sent me the pictures and it didn't really move and then the the math night I I attended and I left a little early maybe like 7 o'clock it was just the sun was just kind of going down I see him Dart one of them Dart across my car and I was like okay it's running away it's afraid and then I just stopped and like looked out the window and it was just like and then and then I got out of the car to see like how and then and then it dued behind the rock I was like okay it ran away and then came back out play with you yeah knew you were watching him so he wanted to watch probably uh so I I you know a lot of people have suggested to me that they're in some way desensitized to humans and not exhibiting their normal behavior running away which leads those people to believe somebody may be feeding I don't know yeah and you know staff I we we've we've modified we've gone through periods of modifying recess we put up some extra barriers around W so those things seem to be be effective recesses back to normal in those places um staff's feedback is basically like you know they're cute Mike so you know nobody seems to be like intimidated on but the principles do their diligence and security and just making sure nothing's out there before we go outside um that's where we're at any other new business this sakis was contemplating sorry changing the name of the mascot to a fox from a anybody else any business but the TPS is November 21st 20 20th 20th trap is a very they come up with all authentic ideas you know IDE like how did you come up with this like some of the things that they come up with are very creative and just teaching kids even at home because my own kids are doing it like the the the uh you know profit margins and like I got a bunch of trees in the backyard that we can slice up for free and you can spray paint little designs on them and you're going to make a killing we yeah no we stole that idea from Mrs [Laughter] sparts yeah any other new businesss I wanted to add to what we were talking about before I forgot um so another thing I'm hearing about Lawrence is like I was trying some of the teachers are saying it's not easy to go outside say they want to bring their first grade class outside to like read a book on a nice day I from what I'm hearing they have to um fill out paperwork at least two days prior it has to get approved and they have to make sure like a security guard can go out and be with them so I don't know if there's another way I don't know let me double check on that I think I don't think there's any paperwork ever associated with going outside of if you I was just told this restricting that because it's a complicated process I think I think in the so you had an evolution of things there when um you know long time ago staff would just bring kids outside and not alert the office and things like that so then became a more rigid mindset through some Personnel who are not necessarily no longer are no longer with us uh so that's evolved a little bit um and I think you know double check with Miss stacus tomorrow I think she's very re you also have dynamically I don't know somebody mentioned it behind Lauren School you had a Boy Scout actually Mrs I's son Trail uh yeah develop a whole Trail so like over time that hasn't been maintained and you know but there's there seating back there and all kinds of things that teachers used to take kids so you again your budget implications and somebody would have to go in there called will have to go in there look for Widow makers cut down brush you know a whole you know tick became an issue at one point point now you know you have a fox emergency what you do yeah um and so uh you know things like that maybe enhancing the playground over at Lawrence I think Mrs witty boarded up a year or two ago was like completely INF fencing the area making an enclosure just so it kind of takes the equation takes it out of the equation that a student could ELO potentially uh which would be helpful for whatever reason you know I wasn't involved with it um but the fencing that I've been involved with completely enclosed in the 3K areas so you don't have to be concerned a kid is opening a gate and getting out whereas it La over time they put in multiple fencing that's not really you know has many access points into the brush and stuff so that would probably be helpful but I don't think there's any restrictions on it has to be you have security guard has to be available to go the other thing is we have two now so one kind of always unless there's like an emergency or something but I do want security outside would be good likee construction that something like mindfulness involved in it maybe we put some sort of mindfulness Garden at each school yeah and again you're you're talking somewhat about bringing things back like there is a butterfly type Garden in the back there there was a talking about like putting out here like a garden type setting or something just some sort of like outside classroom yeah and also it would be more encouraging for teachers I don't know why they wouldn't want to go out on the nice day to read instead of in the classroom maybe it's been gone for so long that they just don't do it anymore but like I said I was told it was a process and I think there I think that whenever you talk to more who you were talking to in in in reflecting on prior issues yeah okay how are we doing with the new greenh yeah punch list items still coming through like some of those things we talked about I saw a gentleman out there working uh maybe two days ago so I don't I didn't get a report on Frank what that was he was doing but um even more involved with we had our another meeting with the parking lot over there so I'll double check on a greenhouse you know you're like 98% finished we can incorporate that with grades too because then they can go on the field trip from the law school over here Lear a lot about those things when little be nice to actually do like hands on like this is what a tree is I don't know in of looking I mean you know and and your s there's a tree over there yeah and and your site like there's very fancy terms for what you're talking about like multiple intelligence theory and stuff out of Harvard like those are it's all valid you're making I that's all just elaborate someone just brought up to me a couple weeks ago about like their um class list like in the summer they spent with two kids like 200 something dollars because they had to buy their second grader Maybe like eight extra large Elmer's glue sticks and like just like the amount of things seemed like absolutely ridiculous so I don't know really know much about where those come from who makes the list I've learned they had to buy like these name brands you know and very exp I would have to look at like what what they're refering to that it would cost that much they um no shortage of people s folders for a first so the teacher grade level the the grade levels get together and put out the supp list for teachers at that grade level seem like basic supplies so the only thing that I can think of possibly which I don't know how like legit this is maybe the teachers do they have enough in their budgets to pay for all those things I mean Hey listen like any teacher's going to say you want to give them more money give um you know I think in school there's always some dnamic of you know I know I provide for my own kids certain things like school supplies if the district wanted to take that on you budget for that you know so maybe too like they do extras in case people don't like because there's probably a handful of kids that don't bring it in oh yeah yeah so they would rather more well instead in a lot of GL scissors they use pencils volun you would like to volunte toate this stuff to our classroom here our class so we we and I have probably six book bags in central office of stuff that still hasn't been claimed like the schools have access to that if you need it for needy kids no doubt I dropped off six the other day at saying even just classroom supplies in general because everything's so expensive like some teachers might not be able to meet the needs of the classroom with their budget necessarily so if they sent home like what your child needs and then like classroom a classroom supplies list of if you feel you know the urge to donate this to our classroom orever yeah so do all of the teachers this is the question to go off of yours I don't know all the teachers for first grade you know second grade third grade all have about the same things on their list they all get together and make that first I believe if you go on a website it says you know first grade list or whatever what's the done Amazon that you can Amazon wish or no no no there's something where like when you you buy certain products and then like you get like one or two% to like your like organization or whatever and like if you made a page for like the different grade levels yeah like everyone bought their supplies through Amazon whatever then you would just getting all this money percentage back from everything then you can buy SCH stuff does each teacher get the same amount person per grade level to broke it down I remember the top of my head is you know you get real money for classroom um what I'm going to call bigger supplies reading materials your workbooks all those kinds of things and then like what I'm going to call miscellaneous suppli but each teacher gets the same uh at the grade level yeah so each grade level might have more like as you go I think for what I'm about for those miscellaneous supplies I think by school it's the same amount per teacher but that's not for them to buy pencils and stuff like that you know I mean that that's for them to buy um dividers for tax like yeah I would think that they would buy that money the money that they get right say I'm B Park and at $250 $300 a teacher that's kind of like their discretionary what do you need for your classroom that's not workbooks textbooks you big bigger things no um like a social sty to make it a special globe or something choose to buy something like that right right Co poster just to update you too as I'm thinking about it the parking lot meeting they they anticipate being mostly done by the end of the month line striping end of the month late uh late October early November or any bad weather how many parking spots uh I think it's approximately 20 maybe two dedicated to handicap just because you have to legally have a ratio in and that basically was what we could do time for you know zoning and setback from the road and cost and you know all those things a question with the handicap could they be joined over by our current handicap maybe yeah I mean we explored that and it just ended up being with the architect the engineer just keep it where they are there in the new parking yeah you know you yeah I mean them to where we are now they they had rationale for I forget what it was but also they designed the whole thing so that legally you're within the guidelines the sidewalk the ramps you know the whole thing and and we don't always fill those which is why we were potentially ask actually in the new parking lot looking at po not having to have them just so they open on more spaces for every because you you're often not filled uh but ratio wise legally wise you have to have them all right no more new business All Right audience remarks members of the audience are invited to make brief comments about items on this agenda matters of Interest District any more now all right seeing none we do not need Executive session so I will move on to adjournment can I get a motion for adjournment I'll motion thank you can I get a second I'll second all in favor say hi any know all right guys have a good night thank you e