##VIDEO ID:3yAi9Xln5EA## e e e e e e e e this special or this Board of Education meeting for tonight October the 14th is now open please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America tonight we are having one of our board members join us via Zoom so that is the reason for that bit of um lag in the Pledge of Allegiance uh the New Jersey I'm sorry roll call Yolanda Lopez present jald truart Jean Buie pres Edie Daniels Lane present Austin Edwards present Denise Johnson present Sasa man Jeanie weam present Larry trailer present we have a quarum the New Jersey Sunshine Law the New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to 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 on the rules of this act the Trenton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting by publicizing the date time and place therefore posted on the web page the times and the Star Ledger formal action will take place at this meeting our mission statement all students will graduate with a vision for their future motivated to learn continually and prepared to succeed in their choice of college or career I am going to ask now for a motion to approve the agenda with the following um addendums one for finance concerning staff travel a resolution to approve a disertation and resolution to approve the partnership between the Trenton Board of Education and anchor house we also have a revision from the October 2024 agenda in and as far as the resolution to approve the emergency security for the years 2024 25 for the nth grade academy and the buildings and grounds complex also we have an addendum in our Personnel agenda for new hires appointments salary adjustments and uh s and appointments may I have that motion second Austin Edwards roll call you yes Gerald truart Jean Buie yes Denise Johnson Austin Edwards yes Genie wum yes Addie Daniels Lane yes Sasa man yes Barry trailer yes motion passed and we'll have our superintendent with his remarks and presenting Miss Sun for her presentation good good good evening and welcome uh on this soon to be brisk fall day uh it's good to have everyone here uh Get your coats and sweaters and boots and all that stuff at least for one day so it's pre precursor for the next uh few months that we're all accustomed to so uh just want to welcome everyone to our meeting tonight uh just want to make a few comments regarding last board meeting uh during the last board meeting on the 23rd of September there were several concerns raised uh from the community regarding HIV in our schools and standard operating procedures outlined in accordance with uh 18a uh colon 37-15 B1 um we spent some time making sure that we we always listen to the concerns investigate uh and today uh my office is not aware of any outstanding HIV concerns uh which have not been investigated however what we did do was just to make sure that uh all of the information on our website and those places uh is um better and updated and things that should be taken down taken down so uh we have updated everything and will we had our last meeting today to confirm all of our information and updated to updates to policies and those things that will go up uh shortly so um we are also confirming that all staff is being trained on reporting issues uh we have not had that issue our staff members do report bullying and we are well versed in the information about how to proceed through the 10day process of either confirming a founded or unfounded hit so uh and we're working with our anti-bullying specialist to make sure that the 10day timeline is met today we're not aware of any that hasn't been or any request to add information after the 10 days which can be done by code um so we are working diligently to make sure that all uh HIV harassment intimidation and bullying uh reports are investigated and uh have findings and that we work with young people on uh making sure that there are no repeat offenders uh We've also updated our website and most areas to meet the requirements of code 18a and we'll continue to update our schools and District websites with the most up-to-date changes from the state uh and HIV standard operating procedures not everything that was mentioned at that board meeting we found had to be uh posted but we are posting the things that are required and some other things that we think are beneficial to the community we serve um I want to thank thank those individuals last week who shared con or last month who shared concerns around bullying let them know that uh in this District we take that seriously for any of you who can raise your hand who've been um a victim of bullying you understand it's a serious issue uh we don't want any student to feel unsafe uh in our care and we will do all that we can under my leadership to make sure that that's not happening here in Trenton so I ask you to join me as we uh come together at board meetings at um Community functions to make sure that we're teaching uh behaviors that we want to see from young people because they do mimic what they see they don't learn how to bully from the day they're born unless it's a talked uh situation so I want to make that clear we need everyone's help uh to add to that I am also meeting with uh the antisocial focus group that had a Pres ation several weeks ago um with we Shar concerns around data but what we did agree to is that we are going to put some things in action in the community we're counting on everyone to be a part of what we do in schools and I see a member here from our street teams from our security groups to our street teams to teachers to students to parents to community organizations we need us all involved to make sure we're not hurting each other and certainly not demonstrating that in front of children so that they repeat it so I want to thank you all for your support thank you all for joining us tonight uh this evening we do have our annual mandatory presentation uh related to njsls data uh I have Mrs sun and Mr Gutierrez who will also present DM data District learning map data uh just to share an NJ GPA just share with you how our students are doing I always want to say when we're presenting data um there's always information in that either looks good or doesn't look so good uh we do focus on our conditions we don't dismiss the fact that we serve a population of young people and families no different than mine who have challenges and we recognize that so we don't cheat that process we tell the truth we tell the facts and we go right back to work the next day and that's the ex uh the expectation in this District it will continue to be the expectation we have teachers doing amazing work administrators doing amazing work and we have to stay with that Focus so as we present data and we see how well we are either doing or not it's just one of those things we have to do and I want you to know board members that we're excited about our work and we'll continue to do it at a high level so that being said I want to invite Mrs Sun uh and Mr gutier whenever you're ready to present up to share information about njsls no press it one more time you got to press and make it click hear me okay good evening everyone so as Mr Earl has introduced um the presentation I'm here tonight um to provide to you our mandatory assessment results every year New Jersey state um Department of Education requires each district to share aggregated and disaggregated data per programming per demographics and per subject so I will be doing the first part of sharing njsla as you know that is um an acronym for New Jersey student learning assessment and NJ GPA which is New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment tonight and then Mr Gutierrez will follow with Dynamic learning map which is otherwise known as DM so what I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of go through the slides as we have done with access for L's um our data for the most part have not changed drastically over the last you know few years um we know that pandemic still has its toll on our students and the the development as well as their learning and we are working really hard on our end to kind of close that Gap or bridge the gap as much as we can we are very appreciative of the administrative support and the teachers who are working really hard and diligently to ensure that curriculum programming and initiatives are being launched and being delivered on a daily basis so what you see in front of you is the spring assessment results for language arts the one on top is 23 24 school year and then 22 23 school year is below so one of the things that I will walk you through particularly on this year's model um and this is just the demographics of students so number of students who took the assessment this is a closer look of the spring assessment results one of the question that we ask in the teaching and learning community often when we are when we have these scores is okay so first did it go up did it go down that's like the big question right and if it's mainly stagnant like why what took place what must have took place what changes did we make in order to bring about the difference that we hope to see so first I know you've heard this many times but it truly is the case um change takes time right and and even though we're seeing really good prac is being had on a daily basis it may not be reflecting in the numbers yet right the other piece that we've um we've been talking a lot about and I'll talk more about this as we get into instructional intervention is that a lot of the curricular changes that we brought on really didn't set in terms of like going into the classroom and expectations being set to be taught every single day didn't really take place until probably our third year the tail end of second and third so that means it took us that long to pre-assess and be able to visit every classroom talk to the teachers talk to the administrators to really identify what are the research based um programs and resources that we know could work um with our student demographics so having said that we have a new reading program we definitely have a new writing curriculum that really focuses on the process of writing and empowering students and their voice and their creativ so this is sort of like a a broad um um a general kind of U overview of how our students perform in the right side you see the changes in levels four to five the state versus changes level four to five our district so there are there other charts that actually indicate changes in levels one to two as well four to five remember are the meing and exceeding expect right so there are some components that we feel like are noteworthy right for example if you see here thank you Dennis for showing me this laser that's included here so you see here our district grew 3.5% between the previous year in the last year in the ELA assessment while the state average was negative 1.8% in the meeting and exceeding expectation so that's huge for our district right sure we don't see it at every single grade level and goal is Absol absolutely get there but we are seeing growth and one of the things that uh in grade six one of the things that we've been talking about is the districts are measured absolutely by the way we perform there's an aspect of that in qac right but we'll also measure by the the the the amount right the um the the amount of growth that District show right so in case of this example that's growth um another example here is you have 2.9% growth whereas the state average was 4.4 so we are seeing some growth in Pockets we are seeing some um some backwards back steps and the others and that's sort of like the nature of the Beast of what we see what you see in front of you is sampling of evidence statements so the evidence statements are usually released after the initial scores are released from the state each year they're released between July and August this year to be the end of August so we haven't had much time to really get into it usually we have the summer at least a month to get into the data we are getting in it right now as we speak and we're kind of at the tail end of an analyzing one of the things that I do want to note here is the green the green dots are our district versus the blue is the state so an example of something that is to note here is here okay so this is a standard that students were and this is for grade three okay an example is here's the state average and here's our students so while it's not again every single standard that we see it is something that we want to highlight and celebrate because some of these standards don't have such a big gap right even here there is on par a little bit better grade six got this happening and then you've got I know this is really light green eight You' got one two three up here so there are some Pockets that were're seeing students success and the performance reflecting or the results reflecting that we're going on to math um again this is 23 24 school year the bottom you'll see 22 23 school year I apologize the different scales of the pictures it was kind of hard to reframe them I'm not really like super skilled at trying to scale down the pictures themselves but um you can see the numbers that are reflected again these are the student participation the difference of so you can see that about um a thousand students um participated in the mathematics and here's a closer look of how our students performed in math 23 24 school year okay so when you see it I know that it's glaring that you see a lot of Reds right but also seeing are the greens starting to come up and that would be the meeting the expectations okay looking at it again these are the meeting and the exceeding and looking at our average per grade level and again something to note here you've got plus 6.3 that means that's how much we grew in algebra Middle School where the state saw okay the other piece here we grew 1.2% and that's grade six and 0.3 oh I apologize one and two are here as well I should probably note here okay so one and two are partially meeting and not meeting okay um another point of note here is if you were to take a look we're pretty much on par in terms of 4.5 4.3 going from level one to two so that's pretty steady growth so when we look at data we look at all aspects of data we look at the overall performance we look at the growth we look at the dips and the dips are the ones that has us questioning like what can we do better what are we doing what's actually happening what is the current expectation understanding of that expectation um I apologize jumped ahead there's one more slide um this is evidence statement similar to what you saw in the language arts section so there are some changes that we're seeing in the greens whereas we used to see the greens that were pretty much predominantly in the lower end pretty much in a straight line we're starting to see movements down here even though they may still be below the state average the important thing again is the growth that we're seeing in our students as well as our teaching um staff again we have some some areas where we're meeting the states as well as well above in the case of eth grade okay science number of students so we have um less data on Science assessment than we do for language arts and math um year after year we try to kind of investigate the meaning of the assessment performance results I can tell you that across the State um all students struggle with the assessment the Science assessment um the performance of um mainly because there's a new set of Standards even though they're not really new they're kind of still new they're called Next Generation science standards and it really asks teachers to teach science and expose students even at an early age in a whole different way so they needed to be a whole different approach to professional development securing of resources and delivery and use of that resource okay so in terms of the growth we're pretty much on par with the exception of eighth grade having higher students who went from one to two than the statewise pretty much consistent I apologize this is the mandatory um aggregated data student um student performance Ela by subgroups that's demographics versus gender mathematics demographics versus gender science demographics versus gender Ela um vers uh program math program Ela is on top math is on the bottom and then science just because it's an odd number out got its own slide it is um programmatic performance okay so this is where I usually spend a lot of time just kind of explaining and running through what I'm going to share with you is a slide that I shared with all leadership administrators in the district and it's also available on the slides um in terms of District goals right so we're charged with student achievement goal had a lot of different indicators this year we're prioritizing these three areas which isn't a huge change it's more of an involvement and growth from the past three years that I have been here in this District that is there is an exposure to Pro um Project based learning so now that we have set the foundational resource and delivery methods and consistency of professional development um we are now moving on to the next step which is how do we bring real world scenarios into our classrooms and provide students with resources that are of 21st century so that they can be the author of solution right second goal is really focusing on high quality instruction exclusively using District approved core resource so again I I stand before you each time I come here and we talk about instruction and I always say consistency is the key right so so we can't control how our students arrive to our school but we do have this condition that is set for our students right what we can control is establish consistent learning environment what we can control is provide um high level clear set of expectations what we can control is provide our teachers and administrators with high quality professional learning opportunities that are consistent right so one of the things that we really are focusing on making is making sure that the core resources that have been adopted to be able to deliver and execute what I just shared is in place right and if there are um less than or if there are lacking our job is to make sure we identify and we secure more resources and um and think about the plans of kind of replenishing the third goal or Focus area that we talk about is small grouping so since I've been here we've been talking a lot administratively and with teachers is about intervention so how are we intervening with our students so I will say that we needed to secure the foundational knowledge that is what is student learning standards and what are they asking of our students and teachers right and administrators how can we support and how can we secure the um structure of foundations for them to be able to learn right the other kind of example of foundation um that we were able to set is just looking at the consistent and regular kind of opportunities to talk about instuction and also the challenges identifying those and using time that have been allotted to be able to kind of work out the details like analyzing data and informing instruction planning for instruction based on what you see and what you heard right so we're really talking about at this stage so what do you do with that information right earlier on you heard me say like informing instructions so now that you have secure link it for example and now that we know that everybody can access data what do we then do about that data right so that data has to inform instruction what I do on a daily basis right so what does that look like in the world in the eyes of a third grade language arts versus ninth grade English class when we say small group do they all look exactly the same or can they differ what does that look like in a computer science class versus uh a a a math class or a social study Civic class for example right so those are conversations that we are engaging with the teachers this year this slide you really have seen many times and I swear I did not copy and paste but each time I come here I list the same kind of um items or bullets here because we are still on track and we are continuing and maintaining in that path in terms of establishing and expecting consistency in programming the delivery and the expectations we have not wavered from that because we have identified them to be the priority based on our visitations our conversations and also us going out there and bringing research back right because it's good to have conversations but if what you're bringing is nothing to do with has nothing to do with research it's sort of like okay how are we vetting that process right so we haven't wavered and we haven't stepped aside from from the goal what we have done is every year when we see the growth and when we see the change we have been evolving the goals and the priority areas with the teachers and with the administrators and with our students um we're really looking at differentiation in terms of um assisting teachers and supporting our administrators right what that means is that you may not get the same set of professional development over and over again maybe the first few years in its adoption but now we're kind of parsing off versus if you're a brand new teacher you're going to get a certain set of PDs to get on boarded but if you've been doing the same program for the three past three years your individualized consultation session may not look like the one that your brand new colleague is receiving right so there's a real differentiation component to it and I can say that the supervisors have been going into classrooms all across the district um and grade level spans demonstrating and modeling lessons and really debriefing and and asking teachers to say hey what well what didn't go so well and what didn't go so well let's talk about it and how could you inform your practice based on the mistake that I have made as a demonstrator or maybe the perhaps the opportunities that were Miss in that room because at the end of the day no instruction is perfect right there's always room for growth and we continue to kind of engage our um Educators in these conversations should I pause for questions about njsla before going to NJ GPA yeah okay I'll pause can I go first okay cuz I got four oh you got four okay yeah I'm sorry so so overall I noticed that there was in the graphs that there was some growth which is always a good thing especially when you look at the challenge is that we've been historically faced with yeah I would say that pretty much we're flat yep you're over year right just generally speaking yes generally speaking right so so I did know that some of the some of the aggregate data shows that on certain learning standard y our district significantly outperform the state yep so what is it about those standards yeah that can't be replicated across other standard I I know you probably can't answer it because it's just a data point now but somewhere like really significant right yeah we think we have an answer for it it might not be the there might be multiple answers but one of the explanation is so what we know that our children really excel in right okay are those computation skills and skills that really asks them to use concrete examples to answer right whether that be in reading or math where we see the struggle or the challenges is when students are given open-ended opportunity so I'll give you an example long constructed response that's open-ended right where they now have to synthesize sources from multiple you know medium right or evidence from multiple sources and be able to pull them together into one piece of writing or when they have to engage in multistep problems that are you know wory or have different application or operations that is you know requiring of them to solve and then explain because we know that njsla not only just asks them to solve they have to validate their data or J right so that's those are the components that are a little bit more difficult because there's no textbook or a workbook that teaches kids that right we ourselves have to model that every single day and when we're in an environment where that may have not been the norm on a daily basis that is a learning curve that we have to really engage in um whether that be from the leader end or administrators end or teachers end or students and parents end okay and then there so there's two more kind of related to that um the first one is you mentioned Project based learning yes so so when we think about Project based learning it's leveraging problem solving and teamwork do you see that um they learn better from their peers so if the team is has different levels of skill that should also drive up yeah how we perform moving forward is that accurate yeah so in essence yes it is um in essence when we talk about Project based learning we're not just talking about all project we're talking about an assessment right so we have to re Envision how we assess our students yes there's definitely a place for students to be able to memorize important dates and figures and people right and events but this kind of assessment really calls for students to be able to bring in the big ideas from the lesson so far collaborate with one another and bring on their expertise honor and respect that and be able to Output a pro a product whether that be a solution presentation or artical or physical it's something that we are kind of engaging our teachers and students in the process of what you've seen are some simple simple examples from summer school and summer programming but um if we were to really think about Project based learning as the way for us to assess student learning which we are and we're really looking we embed that in our curricula because that's really talking about all curricula what does that look like and have we prepared um are we prepared to kind of lift that are the questions that we're engaging in them okay and then the very last one is when I was in school I didn't test well I didn't start testing well myself I didn't start testing well till I was 50 years old right when I went back to school and so how do we Leverage that testing environment as we go day to day so that when our children have to go on stage because it's it's where the stakes are high right that they are more comfortable in that environment without going to the people who are writing these tests and putting these crazy items in that have no relation to the cultural world that our children live in that's a whole another I'm sorry I'm I'm sorry superintendent I just had to get that off my chest but but but framing the environment so that they aren't uncomfortable when it's time to test how do we replicate that environment to increase their opportunities to be successful that's so I think that is you know I talked about that a year ago that the the testing environment we're learning is probably key and so when a student feels connected to the instructor building those strong relationships we think that makes all the difference because you make them think that every day is like a Super Bowl we all know that synonymous with the final you know if you prepare your children they trust you so building those relationships and we're seeing that I mean we're starting to see that more and I don't know that we didn't see it to start with but as I go out I see those trusting relationships we actually one of the things that's key in that that maybe Joanne didn't um uh highlight as much as participation on assessments and I know uh Mr Gutierrez talked about that we saw more students participate that means more are taking the test we want 100% uh but to see numbers go up mean relationships are building they feel confident and comfortable and so that's the start of it that's that's the part we do have to master at some point how do we make that environment so comfortable that you'll come in and give your best uh and not be afraid but that's also having examples of that environment throughout the year and for 12 years when you think about it have to be comfortable every testing cycle if it's third grade eighth grade 11th grade whatever those grades are that we are going to uh be uh Superstars during that process so takes that much work we're we're getting there thank you it's okay no no I have a couple um how are these scores being disseminated to the parents and are they being explained in layman terms of where their kids stand yeah so when the state releases these performance assessment results usually in the summer they provide each district um usually the person in charge on behalf of the superintendent they send um letters and also notification along with paper copies of results our the district level is then to provide an introductory letter just explaining what this is combine it with the paper results and send it home um the parent Community also has access to New Jersey Doe's website that has a lot of resources I believe in different languages so they have the ability to gather that information okay um you know one of my concerns with kids learning is that they Master yeah the subjects and when they don't Master we still move them on and there's nothing there and at the new level to help them with what they missed so they're going to continue to miss at the next level how can we you know it's never going to get better if you just keep building on the problem if they're not getting the basics down how do we address that so the way New Jersey student learning standards have have been written and a new rendition of it in certain subjects like language arts and math so there's always a set of standards that are expected for students to master and then there are a lot of substandards that are anticipated for students to be exposed to and then they move on with the grade level so there's one component what the doe is telling us in other words you know you test them on 10 standards that we have but not all 10 standards are expected for you to master for you to move on because the expectation is the level is going to take those five standards from 10 from last year and they're going to re review and revisit and then go further with it the other piece to this is C currently the teaching and learning um Department we've identified a specific need for what we call spiral curriculum so what that is you know like a spiral in a notebook they kind of go in circles right so there are standards that are very specifically designated for each grade level and then there standards that need to be spiral throughout the and into the next grade so that the goals or um the lessons or skill sets or what we call as you speak like transferable they can be transferred from one unit to another one lesson to another and then big picture things like one year to another so we do the best we can to support and assist in terms of helping teachers and helping students learn from um the previous years but you know summer slide is a real thing right like when students number months of school they miss skills and they come into schools perhaps not prepared fully to get on to the next grade level um and there are students that you know that sit in our classrooms that need a little bit of that reinforcement or revisit and that's where the third goal of like really focusing on formative assessments which means like assessing students often instead of like this official quiz or test in front of them to gauge their progress right so I'm not waiting until the end of the to decide whether you know this student in front of me needs to move on or has to be re like you know like U intervene their constant assessment and conversation and those are the conversations that we're engaging in classrooms yeah but if a kid a child doesn't have has a reading skills on a third grade level as a sophomore in high school how can that child be expected to be successful if he's not getting that help to bring him up the reading levels and it's happening we're graduating them and we're putting kids on the street that aren't prepared for Life yeah I mean that is the reality and often times when we are in the secondary world and we are receiving students who are below grade levels and unfortunately our reality is that we do have a lot of students who may fit in that right um we try our best to be able to provide the the the adequate and the approprate instruction the best we can right we do have graduation performance um U proficiency assessments and we also have different requirements that are from the state that each educator and each School administrators are working on okay thank you I I have a couple questions so Joan just to peeky back off of what Janine mentioned so if you have a student who is below grade level and they are taking these assessments how how does a school district address the fact that they may not be able to fully understand what they're reading like is are there interventions you put in place to help them no no so this is the reason when if you recall for many of you who are here when we started when I started it was absolutely imperative that we expose our students regardless of their programming and their abilities or disabilities to the grade level expectation right so so if we don't even expose our students because they are reading it let's say third grade level in ninth grade of the ninth grade materials they don't even have a shot right because we know at the end of the day unless a special provision is made for them to take DM which is the excuse and only small percentage of our students are taking that test so that means 90 somewhat percent of our students are mandated to take njsla we do not get unless we were in the pandemic that was the only time that I'm aware of right but we're not excused from that every district is mandated to take that assessment and unfortunately for us the numbers don't reflect positively all the time but I am here to tell you that even though the numbers not may not reflect positively in the short time that we have been here working right we are seeing progress and we are seeing really good stuff happening but the problem is really good stuff has to happen consistently on everyday basis throughout the district all the time in order for that number to move a dial right and that's exactly what we've been working on and we are again appreciative of the effort that's been made by all stakeholders right um because you can't you can't even like think about moving this dial this kind of a heavy dial with just one voice or one of Direction okay and I have a question about the change I believe in population for ELA can you go back to that chart it's the blue chart and it talks about the change right for ELA yeah I don't know I don't know what page it is yeah is that it yeah so just explain to me because I think I got lost what what do positives and negatives what what's the significance of the so for example you see let's third 20233 students total3 I'm sorry I'm sorry Joan I'm I was looking at the wrong chart can you is that yeah she's talking about the score assessment where you show the change where we outperform the pluses and the minuses with the state that one is that y I didn't that one is that it there yeah that's that's one of that's one of them yeah that's Ela that's so we're talking about just the difference so uh quick question um how many assessments um I know you was talking about formative assessments that you know the district have been trying to put in place how many assessments do students have to take per Academic Year that varies between subject areas across the subject areas grade levels and um contest specific so I would not be able to answer that question okay with u with a number okay and um but I will say I'm sorry Mr trailer um that there is a general like benchmark assessments that are required so for example all of our students in the district are required to take three benchmark assessments um the fall the winter the spring and that's what we have link it and then depending on the grade level they have additional assessments um and then they have formative assessments that are like on a daily basis so an example is as a as a teacher I would I would tell you if you were to ask me that question I would say I assess my students all day long and it doesn't have any paperwork it's a conversation I'm constantly evaluating whether I'm on point or not right okay thank you and um especially in comparing our benchmark assessments and our internal assessments of where our students at in the district versus the NJ SLA could you talk about some of the differences between the two like are internal assessments showing students growth stronger than the state scores yep and that is the case um for the past two and a half years we have been looking at the link it assessment which is our internal assessment that we put in place and we are seeing growth in students um performance now um it doesn't always align with the state assessment um and that's where we really start talking about the condition that we provide our students right the condition that we create our for our students to take these assessments have to be mirroring or reflective of the state assessment that is like the practice that we engage in um but for whatever reason I think it may the of njsla has like weight to it right like I remember even as a teacher giving NJ ASK at the time like there's like like a like heavy weight to that like like you know we all had meetings as faculty and then we were all told to cover our walls so there's nothing on the walls and it's all blank and they come in and we're supposed to write down the time on the board and you walk down up and down the hall like up and down the aisle and you look at the students it's just the way we do so you know the conditions may be that you know during internal measures they come in it's a little bit more welcoming you got different references so that's something that we are working on to kind of calibrate um each year we try to calibrate or we calibrate rather absolutely thank you and especially as a student who took the NJ ASK I understand those days are hard thank you superintendent if you could address yeah I just wanted to say I know we talked about about um students there when we get to the graduation process uh and um the student doesn't meet the requirement through njsla we have the portfolio process which allows students to be uh assessed in a very different way it should be normal but it's not so students who go through that process get access to uh different instruction they have it's not sitting on our test for you know hours all at one time and I may be simplifying it but when they complete that process they have proven that they are ready uh for graduation they don't get a diploma until they uh complete that process so everyone who leaves has completed a process it's either they scored well enough on njsla or they went through the port portfolio process which means they're they're ready to be out in the world uh at grad uation access Jobs go to school and many of them do so I just wanted to make that as a clarification y absolutely and we have various routes that students can take as part of the portfolio making or graduation proficiency assessment are you able to tell us um a ballpark figure or percentage on how many of our students graduate through the portfolio I don't have that information with me right now but I can yeah I can certainly get that and I can to you our graduation proficiency assessment results if that's okay with the board okay so when the district outperformed the state it's on that chart that you just showed what does that negative from the state mean where we're positive and they were significantly negative said minus whatever so what is that what is that telling us about our students and how they compare so negative um and this is my interpretation is that students have declined in the scores right so when we see positive for us and let's say negative for the state generally speaking let's say in that grade level let's say third grade ELA students went down in this specific standard but we went up so chart the plus and minus is really speaking about the growth lack thereof or the decline of that growth um just just just just for a few minutes just wanted to kind of the elephant that's in the room that I kind of see is you know our families I I understand the scores and the scores are not that great but we do celebrate growth in certain areas absolutely of for our students and our families um but you know our families are hurting our communities and adverse childhood experiences and the life within our communities um and how our students come come to school whether they be hungry whether they be in poverty whether they have to go to work there's so many different circumstances and factors that contribute um to our students and our student growth I know we're addressing those concerns but for me until we can until we can really dig deeper into the challenges that our our students are facing outside of the classroom we're going to continue to perpetuate not us directly but I guess we is directly we're going to continue our community is going to continue to perpetuate what we're seeing now I see people in in the audience right now Street teams I see Community activists who are here as a community to to address that concern and address those challenges that our families are facing but that's what I see as you know the elephant in the room and one of the things I think is important is that you know around school climate environment got people like Dr Conway and Dr Mr artiz around student support great to see Mr RT back in the district um you know hope Grant I see a lot of stuff coming out around professional development and helping helping our teachers and pushing things out for parents so it's it's it takes all of us to make that happen vill um and I and I see growth I'm not saying there's no growth I see the growth I see this I want to celebrate our success in our grow in that growth but I want to kind of help us to understand I know we all do to continue to press towards the mark for the high calling and that is really supporting our families because they they are truly hurting in our district yeah it truly is like a wraparound right so I can't continue to just focus on curriculum and instruction without recognizing the trauma recognizing the social and emotional support that has to be there in order for a student to feel secure and safe right and that's nothing to do with we've done it's what what their background perhaps or what they have brought to the table so that's something that we definitely do think about and the collaboration amongst the team is great um between the trauma inform the leader and me and also the restorative practice there's a there's a there's a support that we're building but we're in the beginning stages of that right so we're almost like expecting to see this huge hike because we've made these changes but we're moving not just 10 students we're moving thousand students collectively as a district as a unit may I proceed with no I well I just kind of wanted to pick you back off of Gerald um while it is always disappointing that we are not meeting State averages it is gratifying to know that there is growth and I think that's what our um parents and our stakeholders need to understand and make the difference between you know being at the level where everyone else is but right now we are still growing we we just haven't reached the same levels but there is growth and that's what we do want to celebrate and we want to thank our teachers and and our administrators for the work that they are doing in making sure that the daily practices really do work for them and that we begin to to see that reflected in the numbers as as you stated before so again it's not what we want to hear totally but we do understand that where we were at to where we are now it has shown that there has been a good effort put forward and that our students are being motivated to learn and we also have to consider all the other things that that work against them but in spite of that they're still growth so thank you absolutely okay so the last piece is graduation um proficiency assessment um so what you see are um is basically similar to what you've seen with njsla and um um access for else in the past so basically what you're looking at is 2024 s cohort can you tell us what graduation proficiency assessment is so that yes just for Contex so I apologize so there um so it's divided into Ela and math assessment um students have to reach a certain level of a score to show their proficiency or their Readiness for graduation if they do not meet the standards then they have an opportunity to retake it over the summer and or provide um or get into another pathway rather that's in L term but really be in another Pathway to collect portfolio answer questions or take other sets of Assessments to prove their um their Readiness so what you see in front of you is the 2024 graduation grade 11 they take it in grade 11 and then grade 12 right so it can be either or here we go so you have 2024 grade 11 Ela math graduation not ready so then they take it again in grade 12 you've got Ela not yet met graduation okay so overall we have Ela 33 30.3% students who are graduation ready versus 69.7 and then math 7.2 versus 92.8 now what you are going to be looking at are two different worth the comparison that we've seen prior to right so graduation um sorry graduation ready in 23 24 school year versus uh 23 school year versus 24 Administration in the springtime and you got Ela 36.3% increased to 38.6% not ready it has gone from 7% to 61.4% so again we're not seeing dramatic difference but we are seeing that more students are showing that they're ready through the proficiency assessment route and we're seeing less students who are not ready which is the direction that we want to see right um and math we have 9.7 9.4 90.3 versus 90.6 so we know this specific data set math is an area that we need to address right in terms of one of the things that we did talk about is students take Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 by the time they are taking graduation proficiency assessment they are either taking Algebra 2 or have moved on what we're learning is many of the assessment questions have to do with geometry so when you're really looking at an algebra one so when you're looking at really a year of Omission in terms of the content that's where we have to address the spiral curriculum so that we're constantly revisiting those important skills and I apologize this was grade 11 students only on the bottom okay you have spring NJ GPA results Ela math all results summary then you have administrations of US versus the state where we are Ela and Ma instructional intervention so instructional intervention hasn't changed right just because we're talking about different assessment doesn't mean our methods haven't changed our method continues to be consistent to what we've been doing for the past four years which is securing good foundation making sure the structures in place the resources are available and accessible students materials are accessible in multiple languages and making sure that we're streamlining programs for the targeted kind of um targeted languages and also targeted goals instructional goals and and doing that all across K to 12 for the last four years the last three years have really been our major task making sure that every classroom is equipped with the same consistent re set of resources every teacher understands the expectations of their delivery and the use of those resources making sure the curriculum reflects the understanding by Design which is the backward design model that's talking about what are the transferable goals and what are the big ideas that drive the instruction unpacking standards and making sure that all of our teachers are aware that we have new set of Standards when we do and educating them on it so these are just a few examples of the work that we have engaged in to provide interventions where necessary for instruction any questions go on and on about instruction y yeah absolutely just I got one thing to say the administration and teachers and so forth stay consistent please stay consistent and um this is the most um consistent I've seen in the last 10 years um the last three years we've been consistently under our new superintendent no not new anymore he's a he's a veteran in our district now but um with yourself um and others on the team Mr Earl let just people let stay consistent I'm encouraging each and every one of you to hang in there stay in the district focus on our students focus on our teachers you know let's come together and make this work um we've seen progress um we have a lot more work to do and so we have to stay on stay on the field can't come off the field if you get a little injury here and there you got to stay on the field let's let's get this work done and so I want just a word of encouragement to everyone on your team Mr and the teachers as well I have one so so I'm I've been talking about of growth and focusing on growth and not being caught up into aggregate test results because the nature of what we do is different so I am pleased to see growth we just have to figure out how to turn that thing up and find that spot where it clicks for everyone especially to children so growth is always a good thing right absolutely yes um I recognize the growth but there's one slide on um page um I think it's 25 that I had a question about and it was looking at the graduation ready for the assessment for uh grade 11 and grade 12 yes and especially for the ELA I wanted to see could you explain how um because because it seems like there's a staunch difference between the graduation Readiness of uh Ela and grade 11 and then there's a there's a decrease in grade 12 could you explain to me how some what factors contribute to the impact of that so there are three Windows of graduation assessment um there's the spring assessment there's a summer optional and then there's a fall block right so um I haven't done like a theanalysis of the student numbers to be honest with you in terms of the graduation um from the spring to the fall but the students who have taken 11th grade and have passed the graduation proficiency assessment are not the same group of students who are taking the 12th grade right you're retaking these assessments if you have not met the proficiency test or if you are absent from that or if you were not in the district for that purpose okay thank you for the clarity absolutely are there any other questions or comments in that case thank you very much thank you very much good evening I feel like from the introduction to the presentation to your questions not to jinx myself but I think I my job was made a lot easier because a lot was explained a lot of good questions coming from the assessment data that was presented oh this is a new clicker I like it so I'm here today to present the results from the dynamic learning Maps uh what is dynamic dynamic learning Maps it's really the alternative assessment for our students were there were the most severe intellectually disabilities so students that have intellectual disabilities is a form of a classification they're in certain programs throughout the school district in special education programs and these students are eligible to take this alternate test so we're basically a subgroup Within the subgroup So within the data that you was presented before you saw your multilinguals you saw all your general education you also saw all our special education students in the data this data is a subgroup within that data and these are the more cognitively severe students in our distory this is for ELA in math from grades three to 8th and 11th grade and also science in fifth 8th and 11th grade so we'll go over those data results next what I want to highlight is also what part of dynamic learning Maps is sometimes the students that are like eligible for extended school year to reduce the the summer slide in order to reduce regression data and regression numbers and what dynamic learning Maps is not is a generalization of that all students in autism programs are eligible to take dynamic learning Maps or all students in our life skills track or our idml intellectual disabilities courses throughout the district is eligible for this these are students that have to be tested assessed and also discussed at the IEP meetings that be eligible for dynamic learning Maps what we wanted to highlight here is that this is a modification so in regards to having alternative to the state assessment the modification how we our specialized teachers are modifying what the New Jersey learning standards are and modifying to reach the student where they are but still exposing them to grade level content and also modifying it even more depending on the skill and the subgroups of the test so just a question like this is just a sample question in ela in regards to language arts this is what a sample question would look like like at the I think it's fifth grade level I have to double check but at the fifth grade level but what's nice about this and you could say it professionally I could say it personally these are one of the federally and state mandated State assessments because of funding and everything else that is appropriate for our kids it's getting there it's not all the way there but it's getting close to it and how do they do that they modify what they're testing for our students so some sample questions is an abbreviation it's a modification of the standard so we were talking about earlier in regards to all the standards that they have to learn these are picking out the essential elements in that standard so if one standard had 13 in order to move forward they may need to know nine in the gened but in regards to dlm these are the six that are vital for for our students to move forward they have very variation of variety of questions and picture formats I think one thing I need to highlight next year is one of the things that I will seeing here about the teacher preparation our art special education teachers that Proctor and give out the dlm they also go through additional training of modules in order to administer this test so through the office of counseling and uh student accountability for State assessments they actually go through a few more modules a few hours during their ins services and their plc's in order to administer this test during certain windows always like to point out that in regards to certain grade levels on the left is exactly what the standards how it stands out this is in regards to solving real world problems and mathematical problems and classifying two dimensional figures into categories based on their properties there's a lot that we're asking of our kids is we stepped up the curriculum across the board in on as a state on the right side is where the essential element it's the one strand how it applies to that for the kids to be able to be assessed at the appropriate grade level in regards to the disability everybody loves a little geometry I thought it would be nice to include this for this is a fifth grade example of geometry on the New Jersey SLA this is what a a child student in our current fifth grad is being assessed at and how do you put those terms in regards to the rationale in regards to the mathematical formula problems for our dlm students it's even looked different but it's still age appropriate again for life science uh one of the things that big change as Miss s has pointed out is that it's different at every grade level so what we're testing at the fifth grade is not necessarily what we're testing at the 8th grade is not necessarily what we're teaching at the 11th grade but these are the standards and then this is how we pull those Essential Elements those modified pieces of the curriculum in order to get our students assessed to see where they are this just another example for eth grade DM is the results are calculated using all these formulas in regards to where they are in regards to New Jersey standards and how the abbreviation the modifications of those Essential Elements compared to those they're they're really grouped in four areas the four areas is the emerging approaching the target at Target or Advance uh what I like to do when we disaggregate the data and when we disaggregate it by grade level is to show you at the at Target at Advance combined because you want to see how the kids are progressing from me as a fifth grader last year here and how my scores compared to when I was in third grade taking dlm this is just a quick snapshot of How It's reported to us it's in PDF format uh I can't wait to get it in a different format so I could we could drop the data and that could be a data nerd into link uh linked it to kind of play around with it a little bit more and compare it to other data and benchmarks we have throughout the district I'll I'll report more in the next couple slides here's the one from 23 and then we have the also data from 2022 in your packets so what is the data saying to us so if this test is a little bit more appropriate for our students that has more cognitive delays that the intellectual disabilities are more severe than the average special ed student in an lldd program or learning language disability program they may be in different classrooms either an Autism program or a multiple disabilities program or a cognitively mild program program those students composition of those classes range from either 12 10 six kids in the autism third grade class 6 to8 to 10 to 12 kids in a MD multiple disabilities program to 16 kids in a learning language disabilities program so it's modified it's a smaller setting it's more a targeted approach and this is what they work on all year in order to get to the dlm dynamic learning Maps so what is this the data saying so participation is a big thing because our past practices was that oh my God our kids are so low we can't we can't have them in front of a computer we can't test them over three or four days and in front of the iPad and doing this they're going to have meltdowns and my answer is s but true yes we have to do this yes it's unfortunate however in life when they become in they were going to be in other programs as they go through progress through all our grades uh they have to be exposed to this and what's great about this is that everyone's responding there's no opt out anymore uh we have to our goal is 100% participation and there is the numbers have in been increasing every year the students are eligible in regards through the IEP it jumped up from 131 to 142 to 157 students that were eligible to take the test I mean that took the test for the 23 24 school year and there was an 11% increase in regards to that so if they're eligible have them take the assessment so and they expose them to the materials expose them to the curriculum it's all great pieces to kind of capture where they are at that time in regards to State assessments with other students uh by gender it it's it's split in regards to males and females in regards to 6070 5050 depending on the grade levels ethnicity as well even though there's been a increase in special ed for Dynam for dynamic learning Maps eligibility uh we also have multi uh 10% increase in multi language Learners in special education as well the data pieces I was going to say I want to look at this a little differently there's a this was the one from last year I have another one that was from for this year U so I'm gonna I'm G to ask Dennis to pull up the one from for this year I think this was the one from last year I just want to make sure that we had the right presentation up thank you I appreciate that so what I try to include as well is that the data what we're trying to show is where our kids are in regards to cohorts of students so if you look the progression throughout the years uh a fifth grader last year in the 22 23 compared to the third grader in 20 2021 it's the same student and what we're looking at is what's at Target where our students are there's two there's four categories but we're looking at the top two categories in regards to at Target or proficient or advanc I should say they always use different terms in regards to different assessments and what we're looking for is something that we want to make sure that we're 30% or above in regards to what we're looking for and then seeing if the students are maintaining that so if you're looking at it there's always a dip because the curriculum does get a little more challenging as the grade levels progress and we're looking at from the same group of students going from 38 coming back down to 29% for the most part the same kind of kids the same kids and it goes up to 55% when they're getting into fifth grade so we're hoping that we can see these this progression as the students progress through the from our Elementary settings to our intermediate settings to our now middle school and high school and high school is only in 11th grade they're looking at to assess them a couple different ways of just showing data if you like bar graphs if you like different colors but in regards to this just basically putting in into a visual representation with the numbers to the left for ELA math for for our targeted groups at at at Target or Advance is the same thing what we're looking at to see can at least a third of our students continue to show progression at this level throughout their cohorts same thing with math Ela and math is the same way when we're looking at the comparison this is across 5 eth and 11th grades so the data in your packets is specific to those grades uh just to show you the snapshots in regards to their progression from elementary to Middle to high school wanted to highlight the pieces that we were talking about we say differentiated instruction when we talk about accommodations when we're accommodating we're accommodating the student to be able to have the opportunity to learn the modification comes from from our special education teachers in the classroom where they're looking at what's supposed to be taught in fifth grade and how do they delineate how do they modify how did they bring it down to to meet the students where they are but still assess them at the grade level according to what's delineated what is the Strand in regards to that grain level to in order to address the student to instruct the student at that level in fifth grade this is an definition of accommodations and then of course what uh Jo Miss has emphasized in regards to how we're differentiating our instruction to meet our students where they are across all grad fans in all different settings again there is more examples on how it looks from a classroom perspective from testing because when you're testing a student we prep our students every day in special education classrooms we're looking at these are the 13 standards we're going to assess them at this nine and then eventually maybe five for the dlm but we're going to expose them to all of it and sometimes the test reflects that you may give different tests for different kids sometimes you modify the questions on the test sometimes just less questions on the test depending on the ability of the student according to the IP and in a nutshell because everyone did such a great job presenting asking questions into the intro um available for questions and comments I have one and I think you covered it but forgive me is there a map to help the and teachers modify make those modifications that you described I mean I saw the the examples but is there something that they go through that helps them ensure that the content aligns with that particular standard I hope I said that right no you you said it just right regard to we have the New Jersey learning standards and then our teachers have access to what's called to the Essential Elements this is something that was nationally adopted and modifi for each state uh in regards to what are the standards at each grade level and then what they have access to um I always say that if you could kind of visually if you could visualize here's New Jersey learning standards here's the students with DM everywhere in the middle our our teachers are trained in regards to how do they modify and then also the stand is also talking about how it differentiates and that strand that we were talking about U whether we call it a DNA strand or what is the common theme there's always those adaptations and those specifics in the Common Core I mean not the Common Core I'm dating myself now just like NJ ASK so then the part two to that is so where we saw the the growth over time except for 11th grade it's because the teachers are mastering that piece yeah they they're master ing they're they're modifying they're they're looking at other auxiliary sources we have supplemental materials more access to that so there's a there's a host of things that they look at uh they're very resourceful so when it comes down to the IEP meeting uh when you see the modifications to the New Jersey learning standards is really specific and very individualized for the student okay good kudos to those teachers yeah Kudos definitely I thank you very much for your time appreciate it moving on to uh our board committee chairs and their reports I'll start on my right hand side with Austin uh good evening board members and members of the public uh again with the HR committee we met this past week uh just to go over the uh various uh positions that are available ones that we're hiring for um and I do want to make note uh especially of uh as we're hiring in right and I I put this in uh uh various social media platforms right that this is a great place to be able to come in uh have a great career here story career here and uh be able to help out our kids in the district uh some of them at uh levels that say it's every time really wonder sometimes why I went to law school cuz some of these salaries are just like pretty pretty competitive is to to say the least of it but uh definitely great uh place to come in to uh really help our children and also specifically I did want to highlight uh I know it continues on throughout the year we have various um specific section is it there are student interns that are coming in um from various uh schools in our local District right so some come from TCNJ I think most of them this time um some from Ryder some from other uh universities that are you know nearby uh it's also a great opportunity for those who are interested in education to be able to get firsthand education of what education is going to be right so uh if uh you guys know anybody if the public knows anybody as a whole I think that's also an amazing program uh to help us uh so yeah that's pretty much it for the committee report today yeah yes thank you so much our committee of family community engagement nor the policy meet uh prior to our board meeting uh faces meeting tomorrow at 8: a.m. on the 15th our policies meeting Thursday I move the meeting to Thursday of October 31st because our conference is next week in Atlantic City and next week it was scheduled so I rescheduled that for October 31st but in terms of family community engagement I know that uh we continue to the department continues to reach out to families and continue to have a sessions around sessions around parent involvement and supporting the parents where they are uh so that work continues I guess got an email uh the other day about an event a parent event for tomorrow some training tomorrow for for parents so that information is getting out to our parents to engage with them to be involved with our community and be involved with our district to support our students and our families uh one of the things I think the superintendent certainly hit it on his comments around the policy that was mentioned at the last board meeting and that is a hi anti-bullying policy in the build of Rights and that initiative initiatives there and he hit it right on the head U we're working on making sure that everything is updated and one of the things that we are required as a policy committee as a board is to update and to review our H policy every single year um and so we're on track now to to review that policy that policy was updated in our 2223 school year and we're planning to update that now in our 2425 school year or at least to look at that look at if there's any revisions that may need to be required of our policy 5512 uh so I want to make sure note of that as well as you look on the agenda our teacher and learning agenda there's three items on the agenda that directly address anti-bullying initiatives in our district that is the m at Parker item M on T tnl agenda uh some ACT initiatives at Parker V initiatives at M and GG initiatives at Monument and those letters are the actual numbers on the agenda that relate to those anti-bullying initiatives at parkam and Monument uh that are on our agenda tonight for for approval I did have interaction in the community uh was at uh Tren Democratic committee meeting uh this past month and certain certainly uh questions and concerns that were uh brought up to us Denise and I were there as uh board members around anti-bullying and what what are we doing about bullying what are we doing about supporting our students what are we doing about supporting our families and our responsiveness to that effort and so I know the superintendent made his uh remarks earlier in our meeting um he's addressing addressing those conc concerns with our parents and our families and are working to make sure that um the information is out there but again we need to make sure that we embra embrace our families um and continue continue to embrace our families and continue to support them and where meet them where they are so that those are those are my comments my report I have more to report out next month once we have our our meeting tomorrow and our policy meeting later on this month thank you good evening uh the facilities committee met last Tuesday um here's an update of capital maintenance projects going on uh the junior 1 demolition is still on hold um waste management company has placed a contractor's account on hold uh to determine review U what demolition uh materials are bringing into the dump and the contaminated contained within so until that's straightened out we can't move any of the debris um as far as the YMCA purchase goes the owner is still reviewing the contract that was sent by to the district and the district is currently working with the uh Department of Education to get that approved to be used for the school um the zagler Warehouse building the project has gone out to bid this week and shall be received and awarded in November um and that's pretty much uh the dis as far as Security Services go the district is Contracting um Security Services uh to certain areas because uh recent activity um damaged to buses and things being taken at the ninth grade academy and the maintenance complex and we're currently working on uh mold REM mediation at M school to address the issues that have been identified there and that's all for tonight thanks so Genie I'm sorry so the um security concerns were within the transportation with the buses right Transportation okay and the mold over at um mod it was hidden in the wall that we just thank you Addie okay so um good evening um I'm reporting on the curriculum committee and uh it in fact met last Tuesday also October the 8th and at that time we met to review agenda items um we talked about um English language learning programming and also um special needs programming uh we began with a discussion of how um English language Learners are addressed in terms of instruction in the district so that we could all have a better understanding of how that takes place excuse me of of how that takes place um we talked about uh whether or not those particular uh programming services are available at um at every at every school and we also talked about the fact that there are Staffing shortages um in the areas that we need to address in terms of English language learning and how that is um being um shall we say addressed or made up for uh in terms of the agenda we um noted several programs of interest on the agenda some of the highlights there are a number of college connections being made at the uh Middle School level that there is social emotional learning programming in place there is um Arts programming there's support for teachers in terms of learning conversational um Spanish there's also professional development opportunities for staff in multiple areas inclusive of technology and um Innovation and there was also a wide um array of student trips at various schools which of course is always important in terms of that exposure um and in terms of special um special education uh we talked about the fact that there are um most of our students have been place however the district is continuing to process uh incoming referrals and also we talked about there are some minor Staffing shortages to be addressed and one of those areas specifically is in terms of um speech uh therapy and so that is an area that we have to address um two outstanding or excuse me three outstanding issues that are ongoing that we're addressing over time or discussing over time one is the um program evaluation process how are these various programs that we are approving in the district how are they being evaluated um is there a uh field trip um listing so that we can be assured that all students are being offered um Equitable opportunities to go outside of um the school setting and also again continuing uh updates in terms of the English language learning programming and how that is being addressed so that we get a better understanding of what's taking place um at the various schools and that was the report for the curriculum committee very good so the operations committee met on Tuesday morning at n9ine o'clock also uh we reviewed the secretary's report treasurer's report um transfers and the bill list um it was good to find out that the money all the extra money that we received dur through covid was spent on our children so Kudos and um during the bill list uh for September 30th we uh actually paid 17,450 th000 in our bills and and now we're um just to review the donations Mercer Street friends uh via send hunger packing program $100,000 Trenton Board of Education uh that is that spe particular donation is to supply weeken food packages for students Sustainable New Jersey $10,000 to Tanga Catholic Charities 500 umbrella 500 Tamela umbrellas 9,595 to family and Community engagement Eng agement Girl Scouts $500 in books family and Community engagement women who move Mercer a nonp perishable Food donation $300 to family and Community engagement shine and Inspire tallet trees and miscellaneous items $500 family and Community engagement and then Horizon gift cards $500 to family and Community engagement and we thank those folks for their generous contri tions to our students thank you that will now take us or bring us to Old business uh we will be going over the concerns from public participation comments made during the board member on um board meeting on September the 23rd first person um who brought us a concern was Deborah Marshall about students being penalized for not wearing school uniforms and the response from ad is that they met with the grandmother about her concerns with the students being penalized um and we also gave her a few uniforms the student did participate in a fun day because it was a commencing activity for our pbsis expectation roll out and the student was not excluded from the rowing program at the Princeton University um as this program is only for sixth graders moving forward grandmother would like us to contact her if there are any issues or concerns with her grandaughter order which will be done we also had similar concerns brought To Us by wemar Rono laa MAA jarisa rang and Jose Rodriguez concerning bullying going on in the schools and not being reported by the district uh Karim Grooms also stated that the district um had failed to update the policy on the district's website as was mandated in 2022 and that the anti- Willing Specialists are not listed for every school on the web page she also stated that parents and students have not been provided with the anti-bullying policy as mandated in accordance with njsa 188 colon 37-15 she went on um she also went over the steps for HIV complaints and the investigation process um almost all these concerns have been addressed um by our superintendent during his coming this evening but we would also add that training is provided yearly for All District staff on the process for reporting and addressing any concerns around bullying and our number one priority is to ensure that students do feel safe and secure in schools um also the Administration has heard the con the concerns and are still addressing them as needed um we also had Miss T Duncan present concerns about the Dual Lang dual language instruction and the bilingual program and in response um teaching and learning the teaching and learning team did meet with the Union to discuss their concerns with the program and there will be um ongoing conversations throughout the year God willing which now brings us to public participation and before going into public participation I would like to read our advisory for all the Trenton Public School District welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings this public comment period is your time to be heard on any school or School District issue that a member of the public may feel is of concern to the residents of the school district each person who signed up to comment will have five minutes you will notified when your five minutes are up you will be told ahead um at the 4 minute Mark you cannot yield your time to another person when it is your turn to speak please address all of your comments to the board precedents we ask that you please conduct yourself in a respectful and courteous manner for anyone whose comments or actions either harass intimidate or threaten the safety of any person we will provide you with a warning or immediately and your common time also if you curse use vulgar language or make personal attacks we will provide you with a warning or again end your comment time comments that do adhere to these guidelines will not be interrupted if you have any questions we ask that you please ask them during your five minute period comments or five minute comment period after the public comment period is closed the board superintendent or design will address your questions to the extents provided by the law we also ask that members of the public not interrupt the speaker during their public comment time um the first person we have signed up is Miss Janice Gillard Janice Gillard next uh Christa Gargano and I hope I pronounced that correctly okay uh good evening thank you so much for your time um thank you for just giving me the opportunity to speak uh on behalf of the issues we're facing in our district in regards to um the Dual language immersion and bilingual program um again my name is Christa Gargano and I work at Washington Elementary school I'm writing to express my concerns regarding the current challenges facing our ESL DLI and bilingual Department as a dedicated educator I've witnessed firsthand the impact of these issues on both students and teachers and I believe it is crucial to address them for the benefit of our Learning Community I'm not here today to demean the program or Administration my intention is solely to bring to light some of the pressures and the ongoing work that we are expected to accomplish regularly please hear me when I say that I new value bilingual education as I myself am bil literate however this profession has been all consuming and has caused me to reink this position in the near future as a bilingual teacher I would like to show you these sets of workbooks given to my students um can you guess what grade I teach I teach kindergarten I wanted to show you some of the workload that is put not only on us teachers but on our students um as you can see here there's actually uh six Math books here that um three are in English and three are in Spanish um and so I just wanted to show you all of these wonderful workbooks that I give to my five and sixy olds uh we often have the most number of students in our classrooms in comparison to the general education classes uh currently at Washington we have two other kindergarten uh classes and they have up to 10 to 12 students I have 2 two students in mine and Counting um I was also told that I was going to get 25 students uh according to the New Jersey state code here uh uh njaa 32 8.3 and approved kindergarten maximum class size is 21 students per teacher in abbid school districts or districts that are considered at least 40% of the students are are considered high risk uh I no longer have any cubby space actually don't have Cubbies I had to purchase some hanging um clips for my students and now using command strips and hooks in order for my children to be able to hang up their things uh when it comes to assessments I must conduct them in English and in Spanish when I do dras I have to do a total of so I have 22 students I have to double that so it's 44 and that's if they're all testing at the same level if they're testing above that level that can go up to 50 um the number increases anytime I get another student in my class our students don't get the attention support as some of the general education classes do because there are so many children in our in our classroom um as I mentioned before there's some general classes that have 12 students so they get more one-on-one attention um and we know that build relationships is really important for our students um but trying to build those relationships with 22 students while also trying to navigate lesson planning in English and in Spanish on top of managing this um is a lot um so there's more teaching more lesson planning more creative projects can be successfully done in those lower classroom sizes as opposed to our bilingual classes that are packed um we have to test our students in their letter sounds in English and in Spanish we also have to test them in their numbers in English and in Spanish and that's just at kindergarten I'm sure in the other grade levels there's other testing that's going on so there's constant assessing and again it's 22 students that we're assessing we are oftentimes asked to translate for parent teacher conferences meetings between administrators and parents or at functions and events um I have done that myself at my school and that's because I love our community all our families but it is a lot and it can take away from my time with my students um just really quick because I'm not going to be able to make time and I see the four minutes but um according to New Jersey requirements um some of the priorities here title three increase the English language proficiency of English Learners by providing effective language instruction and educational programs that meet the needs of Els and increase English language Proficiency in student academic achievement so the goal here is as as much as I love and value what the bilingual department is trying to do we do not have enough Staffing to support it right now as a as a bilingual teacher I'm the only kindergarten bilingual teacher in Washington and there is a third grade bilingual teacher so my students are learning English and Spanish so that when they go to first grade they only will be with a englishspeaking teacher and then in second grade with an only English speaking teacher to then be possibly thrown back into a third grade bilingual um it's disjointed and um and I currently um am debating on resending my bilingual shirt because it's just been a lot for me thank you thank you [Applause] next ranette Bram um thank you for having me good afternoon superintendent um president um I'm here to speak about the challenges and inequities of the Dual langu language instru instruction framework as well um as an English teacher in second grade I teach two groups of students 25 and 26 students that's 51 students that I'm responsible for before half of the day with one group the other half of the with the other group however the reality is that the entire structure is designed to ensure that all students get that Spanish speaking teacher with little regard for the English side of it uh the English I would say the English teacher um due to the lack of bilingual teachers educ education teachers like me are being sacrificed to make the model work this is both unfair and inequitable many of my students do not speak English or fully understand English for half the for half the day these students are in my classroom dis get engaged because they don't comprehend the language they have no clue what I'm saying they know they'll see the English Spanish speaking teacher later so they often tune out during my lessons uh that puts them at disadvantage and makes my job much more difficult the pro the program is supposed to serve the students but it's not doing that when half of their day has been struggling to understand or simply not engaging with their teacher my role as it currently stands is more that of an ESL teacher than a general ed teacher and I've been asked to manage two classrooms of students who don't fully grasp what I'm saying then there's an issue of class each day I'm responsible one students 26 in one class 25 in the other the workload is overwhelming especially compared to other teachers I look across the hall people have 15 students 20 students and um probably 20 at the most I doubt there's 20 uh we all are receiving the same prep work um same prep time but the demands are far greater this dispar this disparity isn't just about uh the workload it's about fairness our general education teachers being asked to shoulder this burden when their entire framework is focused on Spanish instruction shouldn't we be finding a better way to meet all our students needs without sacrificing teachers and shortcoming their education um yeah because I five minutes I need somebody else five on our topid this transitioning between the classrooms um takes valuable time away from core instruction we're changing classrooms get your stuff get your computers get your iPads get whatever you need pack up and then we get in the hallway disturbing other classes and go to the next class um and even u in small group I'm supposed to work and reinforce what we're learning and um I'm spending that time in ESL I have to have those extra pictures and everything just so they can comprehend what I'm saying ignoring the uh academic needs so they go un um they just don't have the time or the resources for it the root of the problem is we're not we don't have enough bilingual teachers that um if the district truly wants to make this dual program work more teachers are needed at least two additional teachers in each grade um will make give us a fighting chance otherwise you're just placing an unreasonable burden on the general education teachers and students alike on all the teachers I say that um I didn't sign up for this uh I didn't I was placed as a uh shelter teacher I did that one class um many of us um we can't engage our students the material um because we don't they don't speak English the structure is not only unfair Crea an environment that would eventually Drive teachers out of of the profession the added stress larger classes lack of support makes it unsustainable um teachers will burn out and many of us are already reconsidering whether we can continue whether we can continue the career under these conditions um then compensation last year we I was told my school we were told we would get extra pay for an hour of planning with our counterparts we did the work never got paid um this is just another example how the system takes advantage of teachers expecting us to give more and more without Fair conversation um not to mention I don't I don't want the extra pay I don't want the extra work not saying I can't use the extra pay but I don't want the extra work um so and then even with our reading program we changed our reading program from a perfectly gr reading program that um I could assign level readers in English and Spanish no matter what grade they were in I can access it and assign it to my students can't do that now we don't even have LEL readers none with this curriculum that's another whole other story I'm sorry you're five minutes WR [Applause] okay next uh Amanda Eli sorry about that Amanda sorry breaking your good evening superintendent Earl members of the board fellow Educators and Community stakeholders my name is Amanda elely and I'm a third grade teacher at CAD Walder school this is my 10th year teaching for TR Public Schools I'm here tonight to advocate for teachers across our district we are not just Educators we are mentors counselors and the first line of support for our students yet we seem to be in a position where the demands on us are continuously increasing and the support we've receed seems to be diminishing let me tell you how this year started for teachers at an elementary level we were given three hours make our classrooms presentable we went to PD with barely any parking available and then once we made our way to the room our PD was in we were lucky if there was a chair we could sit in we were given zero iPad charger to charge student devices we could not get into Dr online portal we still had to Dr every student we had to give the link form a test for ELA and math with no charge devices in our rooms we got emails that walkthroughs were beginning from downtown on the 10th day of school somehow with zero help from from downtown your teachers once again pulled it off and welcomed the students into our classrooms speaking of PD district teachers should be able to give input into what type of professional development we receive last Wednesday K to3 teachers were sent to all different schools in the district to learn about cost's level of questioning respectfully while I appreciate the information this could have been an email does the district realize the students entering third grade on average from my 10 years of experience are two whole grel behind in reading and math some are still trying to learn how to write their last name and most are still trying to fluently add and subtract single digit numbers yes single digit the first rule of giving adults professional development is to know your audience do the supervisors or whoever chooses these PD topics know Their audience is there going to be an opportunity for py at some point this year that is more relevant to what we're doing on a daily basis maybe what the district doesn't realize is that District desperately want PD but relevant useful PD that we can actually apply to our daily practice next I want to address the decision at the end of last year to abolish the learning loss positions in K3 buildings we are a title on district and now we have taken away the one intervention available to students do we replace learning loss with something else to benefit students no we did not the expectation once again is that classroom teachers will do it all downtown has seen the dat link it Dr njsa njsla tonight for Miss song everyone in this district is aware of how far behind our students are in reading and math in my grade third grade you can't blame covid anymore for a gap in achievement how do other school districts next to us have a title one programs for reading and math where students are given support the second they fall behind not two years behind like in this District where is our Title One money going if not directly to our students the district has also said the teachers are referring way too many students to inette and for child study evaluations with the immense workload already on our shoulders does downtown really think teachers are referring students who do not need help and support now this year instead of just referring a student to the NRS process we have filled out a pre-referral form today I filled out 10 then we have to have a hul team meeting with the family once the team meeting takes place then we can fill out the inrs packet to then hold an inrs meeting to develop an action plan to help support a student are these new pre-referral forms State mandate State mandated or is it a district decision to implement this maybe the district wouldn't have so many referrals if we had opportunities for intervention at the K3 level lastly our district is focused right now on trauma informed care teachers in the classroom every day day building genuine relationship sh with students and going far above and beyond their job responsibilities you would think this same trauma informed care and compassionate curiosity would be extended to district teachers not just students when supervisors and administration from downtown come for walkthroughs it would be nice to hear a greeting upon entry to our classroom our place with our students maybe a compliment and a followup email encouragement or recognition for the good we are doing instead of only critiques on what we are not doing well enough superintendent Earl when you visit the schools I ask that you take the time to talk to the teachers in each build building get our feedback come to a staff meeting use our feedback to make change we are waiting to be heard from the last thing I'll say is about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People your teachers are in the schools each day teaching these leader and me lessons we are teaching our students to be proactive begin with the end in mind and put for first things first these are the first three habits the ones we teach that start with each individual person success in this District starts at the very top this District needs to make a change in the way we treat our teachers and in the way we treat our students you had parents at the last meeting begging for a change in this District's approach to bullying you had teachers and students in June begging you to hear their cries for help from building they are being traumatized in and we're sent back to work in this year coming here tonight will probably help nothing the continues but for once someone in this District could decide to start to be proactive and put first things first maybe then our kids could have a chance than thank you thank you next Lori sney all right good evening my name is Lorie sarne I'm the FED teacher at cadwalder elementary also the co-head of the safety team at our school and safety patrol for our students the district as missil said has adopted the leader of me model and is teaching our students The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People today i' would like to talk about two of them habit number three is put first things first my highest priority is the safety of students and staff in recent years we've witnessed a troubling rise and school shootings violence Across America Etc these tragic events whether it be at the elementary middle or High School level have opened our eyes to see what is most important our safety we as a district must recognize that having enough security presence is essential for overall learning for our students if students know that officers are dedicated to protecting them it can reduce anxiety and allow students to focus on their education rather than their fears I just want to give you guys a typical day at our school um and why not having enough security guards is a detriment and honestly just flat out wrong we have two City security guards in our building they're awesome shout out to officer Victor and officer Mike all right so one officer comes in at 8 a.m. the next one comes in at 10 a.m. so right off the bat for the first two hours of school we only have one security guard maning the entire building at cadwalder the students also have a unique situation of eating lunch in the trailers outside now since you have one security guard at each lunch in the trailer that's 80 minutes with again only one security guard in the building and of course security guards have to eat lunch which is half hour for each of them so now we're up to four and a half hours of our school day with only one guard protecting the entire School how anyone on the board or Administration thinks this is okay is deeply unsettling let me take you through a scenario if there's one security guard the desk and a situation happens on the second floor now we have no one Manning the front door what happens if a student opens up for a stranger who ends up hurting us what will the district's answer be now I've met with Jesse Urban Jesse Henderson and Dr Conway about multiple issues regarding security we showed them all the issues of our schools doors have broken locks doors that need handles to close doors that don't have black shades no vestibule and of course not enough security Presence at our school we've submitted work order forms for the broken locks and door hand handles that are um still needed over a year ago how are these issues still not solved we had a company to start putting black shades on our doors over a year ago never finished a job and never came back so we practice lockdown drills but if the door doesn't close lock or have a black shade how are we supposed to feel safe or more importantly make our students feel safe why are veses essential for all our school buildings now during our safety meeting in which we express all these concerns with Jesse Jesse and Dr Conway it was stated that we can't afford more guards because then it would take away funds from other things that are important also can't afford a vesu because too much of a major project are these answers the district wants to stand on in talking about the safety and livelihood of our students and staff money and inconvenience the second leader in me Habit that I want to talk to you about is habit number one being proactive I'm standing before you being proactive obviously I'm a little nervous I didn't think I was going to be this nervous but I'm trying to be proactive and I don't want to the district to wait for a tragedy to happen because I feel like this District tends to be reactive why do we have to wait for something to happen in order to make a change if these were your kids and your kids went to school with one unarmed security guard how would you respond would you feel safe sending your kid to school every day now we had a teacher last year get assaulted by an angry parent the security guard on duty never responded the teacher that got assaulted who's my friend and was my colleague was out for the rest of the year due to head trauma that teacher then transferred to another school because she felt unsafe because the district was not proactive Ive in the training of our guards how did the district respond well after she was assaulted and taken out on a stretcher they told us well we were never in danger of being hurt and that same security guard stayed at our school for the remainder of the year and started this year when our coworker had to transfer hold on one second now it it wasn't being proactive or reactive for me keeping that security guard at our school that was disrespectful to teacher that gave 30 plus years to this district and you guys sent us a very clear message that safety is not your number one priority but still to my point why do we have to wait for a teacher to have trauma both physical and mental for you to point point Dr Conway as head of Safety and Security so you can appear to take it seriously as a district this was a clear example again of you being reactive I'm asking the district to please give an answer of why there's not enough money in our budget to protect the lives of students and staffs we are on the front line we are the ones affected and we deserve an answer in closing again the district adopted the leader and me Seven Habits of Highly Effective People you want us to teach kids these habits and we do I'm asking the board and administration to practice what we preach be proactive begin with the end of mind and put first things first if you truly believe in our mission statement that children come first it's time to prove it thank you have a good night thank you Dr ginden I can't follow up either one of them those were great speeches um I'm here to talk um first of all good evening everyone I'm here to talk about um a couple of our members concerns about the DOI program and I'm just going to read what they uh wrote to the board members I am writing to express my concerns regarding the Dual language immersion program currently implemented at the district I have noticed several significant issues that need to be addressed to ensure its success and the well-being of the students involved the DI program has been extremely stressful and has taken extra time away from my regular school schedule as we need time to coordinate lessons with the teacher who works in the English World while I teach in the Spanish world one of the biggest issues we face is the lack of materials and resources in Spanish it falls on us the Spanish World teachers to spend extra time at home creating and finding necessary materials to teach in Spanish on top of that we're doing double work with two classes daily and without the proper materials one of my main questions is why I have to work with two classes on all subjects such as math Ela science and social studies from only going to grade ELA for these two classes our kindergarten students are the most affected by this program because we expose them to a low level of learning they come to school new without knowing the routine and system introducing them into a second language has not been easy it takes time setting up the classroom to ensure both the English and Spanish worlds are equal is also not easy because all classrooms are are the same and do not have the same accommodations we are being asked too much and we are not being provided with the necessary resources to teach properly Additionally the supervisors do not respond to the needs and often do not res reply to our emails that's the testimony of one of our members um second member greetings the D program is too much work without reasonable time for Preparation and collaboration with the partner teacher I do double the work I see and work daily with 40 to 50 students there must be more explicit directives about my responsibilities with one or two home rooms this school year I'm teaching Spanish the translations from English to Spanish do not match I think we found that out with a letter that actually went to my school um one time before about a corpse in my school um and there is a lack of components so the Spanish World cannot mirror the English world as the DI program demands in addition there are no Spanish resources for the social study programs but Spanish teachers must comply with the program teaching this subject work with the class on projects and put grades in the link moreover the emails to program supervisors are ignored there is no response how can I do my job without the appropriate programs resources and time to collaborate with partner and grade level teams with 40 to 50 students daily please explain and one final testimony I am writing to express my concerns and exhaustion about the DLI program there are several components that I feel are unfair to the teachers and extremely frustrating we are not provided with additional time to plan and prepare to see all 50 40 to 50 students daily we see 40 to 50 students daily on all seven core subjects phonics reading workshop writing Workshop Math Science Social Studies and nowal uh leader in me there's no time to collaborate with Partners or D great level members testing and Link it data for all 50 students 40 to 50 students in addition to the grades not being able to communicate with parents properly due to language barriers and no one to help translate not to mention the modifications and differentiation instruction that are needed for all for the needs of all the 40 to 50 first graders my translator is terrible and I'm having and I'm having to have to use my personal cell phone for Google Translate to hook up to my phone to help teach and communicate with student excuse me with st students the basic resources of our curriculum are not easily available for both Spanish and English the translation from English to Spanish does not match these are just to name a few and thank you yes thank you Katherine grath good evening superintendent Earl board members fellow colleagues and our community um I to am reading a statement from one of our teachers in regards to the DLI program she is a proud veteran a 20 years veteran in this District her concern concerns about the program are very similar to everything you've heard we have been presented with the theory of this program many times in several different professional development sessions we do not argue the theory of the program and its angle of biliteracy those of us who have worked in bilingual classes for years and years know the value of biliteracy and of course we want that for our students however there is a disconnect between the etherious of this program and how it makes and how it's to happen every single day we have been asking over and over and over again about the day-to-day implementation of this program questions have been how will we have time when do we plan where in our schedule is there adequate time for Preparation and planning how will grading work what support is in place for communicating with families how will the parent parent teacher conferences look like how will it work all important questions and mostly ignored we email no response we ask questions in professional developments and are told to put them in the parking lot we leave comments on the Google forms and Google Docs and they still go unanswered the fact of the matter that is that this program allows Trent public schools to service two times the number of students in a bilingual program with with half the the staff we have an average of 45 to 50 students we see them all every single day we are doing twice the amount of work as our colleagues who are not teaching the model and we are not being compensated and certainly not being given adequate time in our little work day when we assess students we are not assessing 15 to 22 students we are assessing 45 to 50 students this past literacy assessment cycle we were asked to collect nine data points per student and enter those into link it for those of us that's in the DLI program that is approximately 450 data points that must be collected and entered to do this and many many other tasks for no extra compensation we are expected to fully Implement A literacy program that is being built as we te Teach it Mentor texts are delivered to our classroom sometimes two weeks after a unit has started when Consultants from schoolwide visit our buildings many times we are told they can't really answer questions about Spanish units as they are new teachers are then told to ask District leadership so to implement the program we are ordering books on Amazon creating materials printing lessons and and resources and building our own teachers guides as we are working through each unit we are expected to use the inquiry model design and social studies our current core program has no resources available in Spanish if we are to use the resources we are told to translate things and to make them your own another example of a task that requires us to spend a large amount of time outside of our teaching day in order to meet the expectations of the district all these examples and many more cannot be addressed in a short period of time um these are examples of tasks that take a toll on our mental and physical status we are trying hard to meet a set of expectations within an impossible time frame we feel overwhelmed discouraged stressed anxious and rapidly become burnt out mind you it's only October during summer professional professional development sessions we are told that by October our 10 hours per month stiens would be in place it is October 14th today and there is nopen in place I want to be clear that 10 hours a month represents a fraction of the amount of time extra time they are working this teacher has been keeping track of her extra time and that counts to additional 15 hours per week working outside of their teaching day work I'm expected to do but for which I'm not being compensated think about it 10 hours per month that's only about half an hour per day to address all these responsibilities we are highly skilled professionals doing a very complex job we are asking to be treated that way we are asking to be heard with professional responses we're asking to be seen we're asking to be realistically compensated for expertise thank you thank you [Applause] missia Duncan good evening and so the reason why am up here and the reason why the teachers are here is because as you stated I spoke about the concerns regarding DLI and I did meet with the department and at that meeting we were told that the staff would be surveyed because as I told our members we can get up here and talk until we're blue in the face but they have to see you they have to hear it from you because honestly sometimes I think that they think that we're making this up so as we did our building walkthroughs last week we saw several teachers near teers teachers who don't want to retire but are going to retire because they are FR frustrated so then I said hey you were supposed to get a survey did the survey come out and in our meeting with the Department I offered to make up the survey to create the survey to send to the members and we could all share we collaborate lers on it but that was declined so once I realized that the teachers were not given a survey I asked them to sign up to come and speak at the board meeting because nothing had happened additionally you'll see tonight yes there is money on the agenda for the DLI program but also in our meeting that we had had with the Department I said it should have been done over the summer because we knew these were the complaints last year number one and number two if you look on the agenda it does not start until November 1st when every time we approve something with money it can start the next day if you vote on it tonight it can start tomorrow why are we now waiting 17 extra days to give these people compensation and or relief the presentations that started initially um because you know I'll be having my speech and everything ready and then I see these presentations and what I fa to hear until jeie me mentioned it is you can show all the data you can talk about pying the teachers to death training the teachers to death but if you don't make the parent student Community Connection you're not going to see the growth that you expect to see I am ABD I have three out of five chapters of a dissertation I I did my research on parent and Community involvement as it relates to increasing student achievement and or test scores if you continue to listen to presentations that talk about how teachers can do better and teachers can be trained better and you don't address the other part the community issues the parental issues it's a waste of time and and we shouldn't have to sit through it to listen because it is not always always always the teacher's fault yes we can all improve we can all do better but it is not solely on the teachers now I'll get to my testimonials because unfortunately some of our teachers are afraid to sign up to speak at the board meetings for fear of Retribution I'm sure I'm going to go over a little bit so I'm going to try to speed read so pay attention as I was a DI DLI teacher all last years I found my concerns to District administration unheard my co-workers and I got blanket responses or just never answered I didn't give a single report card grade just comments as I was told the district never corrected the power school to align with the DLI for report cards I did the job of two teachers as I had 50 students everything I do in my classroom is double everything is copied double do you know what my end results were my kids only got half a school day for me half a school year for me I had to come to terms with the fact that they only made half the growth and comparison to the Gen Ed classes this model Works in Princeton or these other schools that the data shows that are not Title One schools schools that actually have 50% native speakers and 50% English speakers in the classrooms parents that support and choose this for their children no one asked these parents which I stated last meeting but that was denied as well but teachers are saying they had to inform parents on back to school night describe what their children in a day they did not know and of course they will not speak out because most of the parents here if they are if they speak out they're afraid that will bring attention to themselves and they are just trying to do the best that they can you will not hear from your teachers directly unless you ask them face to face as we hear about teachers being ridic ridiculed and embarrassed by our own District administration and by the consultants in front of our own students and in front of our colleagues at staff meetings we keep our heads down and we try to do what is best for our students and do the best job that we can now the best job that we can do requires us to work outside of contracted hours not no easily 10 hours more a month I know of colleagues myself who show up before and stay after hours on our contract daily let's say we only give an extra hour a day which we are definitely giving more but for the sake of it that's five more hours a week 20 more hours a month and with a 10-month contract about 200 more hours per year we could argue holidays and weekends however I guarantee you as I am my colleagues bring home our work consistently this is at at least the minimum amount of non-contractual time we are putting into our school year how is the district going to take care of us so we don't consider leaving as many of us are because we are tired burnt out and overwhelmed I did have two more testimonials I will send them to you um when I get home this evening thank you for allowing me the time thank [Applause] you and next we have down Freedom green thank you good evening super attendent Earl board president board members Community behind me and those listening in Darren Freedom Green in your hands is a ree a flyer for resource Fair uh we're doing at Trenton Housing Authority uh Wednesday he's El and uh on the 23rd one of the things that we struggle with in this community and I thought Mr truart made an ex excellent point about the elephant in the room is we don't address the issues concerns and the social constraints of the families we serve in public housing we deal with the dynamic of helping the families that are on our properties and the babies who uh live with them one of the issues is again in 1971 President Nixon injected the warn drugs and it left black black communities which what what it was a war on black communities with addictions and convictions and at our resource Fair we always have expungements and also the truck from Motor Vehicles is there to help deal with those barrier issues and the issues that keep our families running in place so again I would ask that you share that in in your department to share that in your media Outlet so that again we can connect and become a good partner The Immortal James Baldwin said simply there are people for Who coming along is a Perpetual process people who seem to never arrive we don't arrive in this district for a number of reasons but one of them I think is we have a lot of Partners who like to perform but they're not focused on impact impact is doing the small daily detail work of showing up to these meetings I was at the meeting with Mr truart and Mr Johnson and people who asked those questions aren't here tonight so you're going to just keep talking and performing at political Outlets but you're not going to come down here with work is so again I just think when we get to doing this work in the community it has has to be every day it has to be every week and it has to be us doing the work supporting the board and the district and amazing teachers who work here my last point is I want to salute you for what happened on Saturday I thought homecoming was amazing I definitely think we did a great job you guys as a leadership team changing and and and naming the uh space after Mrs Brady one of our great soldiers again AL be 55 if I live next year she served for 52 years that is absolutely amazing but I do want to leave a request we need a new sound system again I'm there you know I do all of the announcing uh the young lady I want to apologize publicly to uh princess Bellamy she was trying to sing the national anthem when you have the Hardline where I'm in the booth it works fine but when you do the cordless on the field it breaks up and I just want you to think about how she felt she probably invited her family and friends and her voice is amazing and for her to stand there and to try to sing and the system we had failed her that was embarrassing and a number of us went back up and talked to her and tried to encourage her but that was her time to shine and we have to say to ourselves what message are we sending when we have state-of-the-art lights state-of-the-art Schoolboard state- of-the art field and when we have our sound system it is ratchet archaic and old it is time for us to send a message that Trenton is the best and we're the capital city and we're going to move in such a way so our babies feel good about that because if you think now how that was in in that moment how many other babies are going to have courage to volunteer to step up and then when we do another affair or function and you have the courtess on the field I don't want my superintendent out there talking and his mouth is moving no sound coming out that is embarrassing let's stop being trifling and comfortable with that and let's get Back Being triumphant we are the capital city but until we embrace the ideology and then begin to act the actions that follow that we won't move like that and if we're not moving like that our babies won't either God bless you thank thank you at this time the table is open for any board member comments are there any comments yeah so I have I have I have one my two things my notes oh this is on the consent agenda right that the consent right this is just regular okay right for examp tonight we will be I can say that tonight we are we have on the agenda the siphons will be approved okay so I have uh if folks notice I take a lot of notes and I take those notes so that I could understand and then ask um additional questions at appropriate time um thank you for your service to all of those teachers who actually are carrying this burden for to uh language it is critical that this work happens because it's what our environment requires in order for a children to be successful um two things that stood out to me really three um the first is process there appears to be some process gaps just my observation um the second is um and when I say process I I make little dots I have my own code for right and so I made I made uh a bunch of dots and communication is one of those dots that I heard six times so I just make these little dots right and and so I think that we should be mindful of each other the work is just hard and sometimes it's stressful but communication is key tied to that communication is emotional intelligence um there are YouTubes talk about emotional intelligence and so being sensitive to each other if we're going to be collaborative it's important that's the first one process was the second one and then uh the the very last point I thought this was a very helpful um the feedback that we reive is very helpful and and we do listen did y'all hear what I said to you we do listen and we have candy conversations about things that are said that's why we've implmented a process where you get feedback so so so lastly um I my pet peeve is when people don't um return emails I just I heard that five or six times and so I would ask that you be patient because clearly the volume of work is such that that gets in the way but you know maybe what we should do is think about slas which is an agreement simply that I will respond to you in next amount of time even if it's to say I heard and so so those are my four points um this was very helpful the data was very helpful and by no means do I believe brother Jean believes that the performance of our students as it relates to the standardized test is any direct reflection on any teacher in the district did y'all hear what I just said to any administrator in this District because some of those items I'm I'm trying not to go on my uh some of those items some of those items that they expect our children to perform on it is unfair to me and I attended a meeting where I said so so so there's a bunch of things that affect our performance and if I was going to prioritize them the teachers would be at the very bottom so that everybody's clear all right because you did you hear what I said all right so everybody's clear now we all have a responsibility not to do necessarily what we think are right is right right we need to do what's right we need to do what's right by each other by our parents and especially by our children and that takes emotional intelligence and critical thinking and everybody going to hear what I said I don't mean to preach but but you know I ran out of paper tonight okay so I usually have three pages but but but I ran out of paper so so I you know we have made tons of progress don't get me wrong we've got a long way to go and and and I for one as a board member who's been at this Wednesday it'll be eight years for me sitting on this school board right it's been an honor and I've seen us come a long way did y'all hear what I said CU we used to have a my time I'm in the old house and I've seen us come a long way I think the the greatest thing for me is that people are at least attempting to work together for the good of the children and so we can overcome the the tense you know because it's stressful right it's stressful there's not enough time sometimes there's not enough money there's not enough resources but if we get in the room these complex problems s can be worked out there is no problem too complex that good people can't get in a room and do good things okay I'm finished I'm sorry I didn't mean to preach tonight thank you very much I think you um explained or expressed everything that we all here at the board feel and know to be true so we are we are grateful that you did come and express your concerns because this is what we work with and we we hope to make things better in the future in the near future so Yolanda just another comment um so if you listen for um the excuse me if you listen to the curriculum committee um report one of the questions that the board had is how do we address English language Learners um within the district instructionally and otherwise and so um that topic is definitely on our radar in terms of uh getting a better understanding I think that it was not a concern when most of us were in school right but it is a concern now and so until it hits home and you get a full understanding of what is being done and what needs to be done and how it is that we need to do it then it's difficult to address it so I want to thank those folks that uh shared tonight uh the Dual language um immersion program is something that's new to me I know about uh most of the other programs because they were in effect when I was um actually the principal at well dun middle school and um Trent High West when we had those programs but the Dual language immersion program was not at that particular time so we're getting an understanding of how that program works and I think it's important to first understand what it is before you can address what needs to happen and what shouldn't happen and how can we balance the needs of the staff as opposed to the needs of the learner so there has to be some kind of balance so I just needed to say that because it is on our radar in terms of figuring out what's what and who's who and how that needs to happen happen and to for us to better understand that I also want to say something about you know State Testing and State Testing has always been a a concern right uh some of the same concerns that uh brother Jean expressed are concerns that I have I was not a good test taker uh historically but I was one of the best students here in the district right and not to to brag I graduated magnet LA from seen Hall University but was not a test taker so I say that to say that that is is not the the the ultimate measure of someone's intelligence and their ability to learn and their ability to perform in any environment and so again multiple measures of assessment are important right and I I know that the state looks at Us and other folks look at us based on standardized testing and that's not the true measure of who we are uh and so I just had to say that because that that just kind of irks my skin um to put a label on our students because we don't historically test well and a lot of it has to do with the test construction uh if there were a different kind of tests that tested in a different manner in a different in a different manner we would in fact more than likely Excel and knock the sze off of it but because of the way that it's you know the test is constructed and the conditions on which it happens it presents a different challenge so I'm going to get off my soap box but I had to say that yes so one just just one quickly thing you know I I come from a family of of Educators and my mother's educator my aunt and Tru heart's educator my uncle Leroy truart was in our in our district as a custodian so I come from a family of Educators not only that but I work in a a neighboring District over in Lawrence as an assistant business administrator and I want to first of all thank the teachers for your great your courage to come I know it's sometimes challenging and difficult to come and speak to a to a forum Forum like this whether it be a board me or any other form to speak publicly so so I applaud you um I thank you I want to encourage you to continue uh to come and share and speak speak to us um as a board there's a multitude of questions there's a multitude of concerns a multitude of statements and solutions that were presented um tonight tonight in your in your speeches and your in your words um and so we're taking those those statements those questions those concerns to Heart uh responsiveness is one thing that I heard that we have to improve on not only did I hear it here tonight but I I hear in other forums about the district's responsiveness at every level of our district so it's something that I know we have to have to improve on and to work on but also that could also a Capac question uh responsiveness not only capacity issue in terms of responsiveness but a capacity issue in terms of how we deal with the challenges that you all face in your classrooms and so one of the questions that I always ask myself as as Jean presents uh his questions and concerns is a process and so what is the process for solving the solution solving the problems and concerns and questions and statements that we received tonight what's the process for that I think that will go a long way in addressing that those concerns whether it be a response that we want to hear or a May response that we do not want to hear but also each of those processes whether it be a question the statement or concern maybe a different method of how we address that that question so we have have to we have to work through superintendent um processes in terms of how we solve problems within our district I know there's many different forms forms where we solve these those problems whether be do language immersion whether Bing education whether whether it be capacity issue with not having enough bothering with teachers in the pipot line it terms of human resource uh question or concern there's a multitude of things that that go into everything that you said tonight um and of course this is not the for where we deal with answering those questions but certainly uh we receive those questions to heart I want you to recognize and know that we receive those questions to heart we work with with our superintendent he works with his team uh to address those concerns and questions and statements and also solutions that you may have uh to solve these challenges that we have in our district and so I'll I'll just leave it on that note um and just I thank you for your time and thank you hope pray that uh you appreciate the time that I've given you um and also my responses to my my uh my comments as a board member so thank you so much okay if there are other comments then I ask that um we discuss the consent agenda if there are any questions to be asked or any comments to be made just just one I'm sorry superintendent I'm sorry go ahead so just what on the um on the agendum on under the revision for the security is that just to add the two schools yes okay to add the two schools right modify already support at the add support at the bus depot for damage okay beef up some security that's that's a good positive thing good good all right any other questions I have a motion to so move second roll call Yolanda Lopez Jo truart Jean buoy yes yes Austin Edwards absent Genie W yes yes s yes Larry trailer yes motion passed njsa paragraph 10 colon 4-6 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting under certain circumstances and whereas the trend in board of education is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist indicated as follows any material considered confidential by the the federal law state statute or Court rule any pending or anticipating litigation or contract negotiations to which the board is or may become a party to and any matter falling within the attorney client privilege to the extent that confidentiality is required to preserve the attorney client relationship and allow the attorney to exercise his and and her ethical duties as a lawyer under the matters captioned as one potential litigation negotiations update and three approval approval letter for wford ortis now therefore be a resolve that the Trenton Board of Education County of Mercer state of New Jersey that an executive session will be held on October 14 2024 for the statutorily permissible purposes indicated in this resolution be it further resolved that action may be taken by the board when it reconvenes an open session be it finally resolved that the minutes of the executive session with regard to the above subject matter shall be disposal to the public at a later date at a later date and to the extent that the same is not prejudicial to the interests of the parties involved no longer adverse to public interest or does not endanger any individual's right to privacy may I please have a motion to adjourn session roll call Yolanda Lopez Joe truart Jean buoy yes Denise Johnson Austin Edwards yes jeie weam Edie Daniel Lane yes Sasa man I'll just say that she's she's she's no longer here because um when we're doing a zoom meeting we cannot go into executive session okay they just public needs to know why she's left Larry Traer motion passed Jour to Executive session 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 so I have this front and Board of Education reconvenes may I please have a motion in as far as potential litigation I move that we accept uh France Law Group um as our councel in the litigation matter second call Yolanda Lopez yes Gerald truart Jean buoy yes Denise Johnson yes Austin Edwards yes Genie yes s absent Larry trailer yes motion passed may I please have a motion to approve the interim assistant superintendence contract Austin Edward some moved second okay roll call Elijah Lopez yes Joe truart G buy yes deise Johnson yes Austin Edwards yes Genie W Edie Daniels Lane yes Sasa man absent Larry trer yes motion passed may I have a motion to close this meeting all in favor [Applause]