##VIDEO ID:jWVPnC_F5LA## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening welcome to the transon Board of Education public meeting are we good okay would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands Nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call Yolanda Lopez present Gerald truart absent Jean buoy present Addie Daniels Lane present Austin Edwards present Denise Johnson present Sasa an absent Larry trailer present Jeanie weam 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 advanc notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted on 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 our mission State a formal formal action will take place during this meeting 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 may I please have a motion to uh approve the agenda so moved second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Gerald truart president [Laughter] yes Jean buoy yes Edie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson yes Sasa Manana absent Larry trailer yes Jeanie weam yes motion passed and this time we will have our superintendent with his remarks and with his presentation good afternoon and welcome on this uh nice brickk evening as you get ready for the holidays um so just wanted to um make a few announcements so we're excited this evening to have Harvard Protection Services here with us um we learned that they are doing some outstanding work by recognizing some of our uh employees some of their employees who work with Us in District and we're excited about that they recognize two EMP employees a month for their diligence and service servicing the students of Trenton Public Schools uh the security officers that were selected at the uh and the board uh the president of Harvard Protection Services Dave Alo uh are here tonight so I'd ask you to just please wave or stand if you will those of you who were selected we very proud of you [Applause] we we talk often about the work that everyone in our organization has to do to keep our kids safe to educate them to uh help them feel mentally comfortable uh and so we certainly want to recognize the outstanding work that security does in our building to keep our students safe and not only that they build relationships uh so when there's good to share we ser certainly want to do that and thank you for your work uh also want to uh recognize the Trenton uh Board of Education uh for those of you who don't know they were recognized on uh or uh honored on November 18th at the Mercer County Board of Education meeting uh for their outstanding work uh Trenton Public School is proud to announce that the Trenton Board of Education has satisfied all requirements to receive the Carol El L Larson Master board certification through the New Jersey school board Academy um the Carol e l Larson uh Master board certification is awarded in recognition of high performing boards the board must provide evidence to demonstrate an emphasis on student achievement in their board actions to earn the Carol El Larson Master board certific ation a currently certified board within the first two years of earning its certification must also complete at least 10 additional hours of training for a total of 26 board credits uh that's hours that they spent with me um that I wasn't able to opt out of and so but uh we had as I said at the the Mercer County Board of Education meeting it was a real treat to listen to the sacrifice and then the board understanding the larger perspective not that they didn't know but it's hard work and they volunteer to do this work but understanding what the real mission is around student achievement student safety staff safety staff wellness and everything that goes uh into a successful uh school board and educational system so uh just want to take this opportunity to recognize them by name brother Jean Buie just wave your hand if you will brother Buie Addie Daniels Lane Denise Johnson Jeanie weam Austin Edwards Sasa oesi Montano Larry trailer board vice president President Gerald truart and board president Yolanda Moro L Lopez on becoming Master board certified congratulations all of you just as I read down I realized that I have names that I wrote down and I was so excited to have security here with us but if you're here with us this evening I do not want to miss an opportunity to say your name so if you're here please stand for September Shaquana Morton you're here thank [Applause] you shuana is at at Grant Intermediate School uh Mr Fernando savit if I spell that or say it wrong I do apologize Mr saaty is at Holland Middle School and for the month of October Jordan sergic or S sergic is Jordan here Jordan is at Trenton Central High School and Tamara Muse is at is at Harrison Elementary School so thank you for joining us sorry I missed you on the front in but we did want to recognize you and thank you for joining us this evening and for the work that you're doing uh just another quick note uh on the board agenda is an executive director of uh um special programs and school support so just as for clarity I want to make make it clear that we are not adding a position I know that that can be in question sometimes we are looking to transition that position from an assistant superintendent to an executive director uh all of the duties in our district are currently covered it gives us an opportunity to look at our candidates in a different way uh it does not change the certification uh the job would be uh prepared to C uh supervise uh administrators uh in its capacity capacity uh however it would not have the typical um uh County board of education requirements that uh an assistant superintendent would so this is not an additional position it is in uh substitute of one so I wanted to let you know that and we had that discussion with a few board members here just checking to make sure uh special programs we have so many in District and they're so difficult to manage uh and so we thought maybe bringing uh a person uh with us takes some of that from the work that we do in the schools coordinates it so that we can facilitate it much better than we have in the past so we're very excited about the position uh we will look at to see what candidates are out there it may very well mean that we stay with the uh assistant superintendent for school support in the long run but just wanted to put that out there so that the public knew we were not adding positions uh that is not my goal my goal is to hopefully uh do high quality work with um the right number of people I won't say less people we we will get the people that we need to do the work um and then my last message is for those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving uh please do so in a happy healthy way uh I hope you spend time with your families and enjoy this time together uh family is very important and blood doesn't always mean family but uh wherever you celebrate please be safe always uh in this District because I try to make sure I focus on those who need our services potentially need our support uh and just need us uh on this Podium those of you in the uh audience always think about those who are in need during this time uh and invite someone that you haven't invited into your circle so I want to wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season uh be safe if you travel thank you okay is this Jordan Jordan please stand and be [Applause] recognized Jordan is stationed at Trenton Central High School we appreciate his work and thank you for coming this evening right all right at this time I will yes superintendent will be going down so he can make his presentation to the board in as far as the progress made on our goals for this year all right thank you again uh this evening we are going to just share just a little bit of information about our progress uh uh goals um we have the Strategic goals and from those goals uh I know the board and I work together this summer or several times on uh developing goals and I want to take you through that process just to make sure everyone has an idea of how we develop these goals and then just talk about a little bit of the progress that we've made to this point and it's early November so sometimes implementation is just that we're implementing and as a colleague said to me once progress is a stampede of turtles and if you put that analogy in your head it just takes steady long progress and quite often what you will see for the public in many of our goals is we repeat them each year and I always tell I sell the analogy someone said of swimming of a sports analogy about training athletes we typically train on the same high level skills to be successful and that that's what we do here we won't repeat the goals I mean we won't establish or develop new goals all the time sometimes is just go back in in the second year do that better go deeper more research uh more listening more collaboration and those types of things so as we go through this I'll share a good bit about how we got here and then about some of the progress and then I'll take questions from uh the board on any uh thing that you have and you wanted to discuss so uh just as a point of note I want to thank our Tech Team and all of you for the new technology so we're trying this we don't need a clicker anymore if you can use your computer and able to toggle from space to space uh slide to slide so you can do it right here from the comfort of your own computer if it works and we have monitors for the board to see and we tried to upgrade uh for the audience to see so I want to thank our tech department Mrs Reyes and our whole team for getting this stum Miss Howard and those everyone who was involved uh our buildings and grounds team uh from everyone who set this up new seating so we're trying to uh it doesn't mean that Master board certification gets you this it just be I know that was said a few minutes ago but um no uh this was because we needed this for our public and people to step into a space uh that resemble the high quality work that we want to do across the district um so just a brief introduction you know that we have the Strategic plan uh which outlines five goals uh it was initiated or started my first year here in 2021 uh and it goes through 2026 so we're in our fourth year of the Strategic plan uh and it'll end next year which means we probably need to start thinking about what this looks like moving forward what education looks like in the new landscape so we certainly need to have those conversations uh goal one uh these are the goals outlined in the Strategic plan student achievement uh is goal one Community engagement and Partnerships go to developing the whole child uh staff development and well-being uh and this one should be facilities infrastructure and finance we have added that so I missed the word but these are the goals that were established uh by the board uh when I walked in the door and I was told I can come but you have to implement this so I've tried to do my best to live into this document uh finding people who sorry finding people who uh believe in our plan who want to come and work in Trenton uh to do the work long term so these goals are very vital to us and quite often you'll hear what are we doing here and we may not answer or may not engage but there is a plan uh and sometimes we are not successful at that plan but you grow from failure and so that's the goal to implement and do something about our circumstances here for the children we serve and for the families we serve so just a quick note if you want to find the board goals and haven't had a chance because I'm going to give you a high level overview but there's a very detailed document it has more pages than I'll have here this evening so if you want to get more information about the go go to the district website uh hover over about us uh you will scroll down to strategic plan and select 24 25 uh board goals uh that's the current the most current document this is go progress uh and so when you go there you'll see this and I'm going to try this and see if I can be successful you're going to see this document and you can see that this document is expansive it goes 26 pages and there's a lot of depth we did shave this document from 26 because there's so much to think about doing in District and we want to do so much and this year just so you know this happens every year uh that we get with the board we take our data we take a look we hear from our constituents and we say here's what we think we can accomplish in a year but you can see if I toggle to page 12 developing the whole child it's bookmarked see I can go to it maybe it's not going to do it here let me move so you can go through each goal technology and Innovation so you're going to see a little bit of this but the detail they're probably four more pages to this goal but writing a lot doesn't mean you accomplish a lot uh and so this is the uh plan that you see when you go on the board website so I just wanted to give the public an idea that this is what we work on all the time every discussion is around does this meet the requirement around the goals we set as a team with the board through the data that we use to make decisions and I was trying to go to goal three so let me let me go there developing the whole child you can see the depth of information in go three which is uh facilitated by Dr Conway uh we have assistant superintendent or executive directors that facilitate each goal area so you can see the depth of information this is what you access when you go to our district website so uh as I put up a few minutes ago you can get there by following those steps if you want to take a picture I will post this presentation shortly after I'll add some more information because I don't want it to be so light in information uh and post it but I'll put that guide to how you can access the document if necessary uh but this gives you an idea of the depth of information that you can access around what we do in our goal workor so we'll go back to uh presentation mode and so student achievement so we actually spent some time thinking about what do we want to do in student achievement so students will improve learning for all students through exposure to high quality instruction including project-based and Collaborative Learning by equipping them with fundamental academic skills and 21st century skills across all disciplines lot of stuff but it says high quality instruction project-based learning we know that using project-based learning or an experience connects learning so we want to always expose our children to opportunities in the classroom however this has been a around for a long time in Trenton and as I get to the presentation about where we are now you'll understand this is not new we're just as I talked about that Sports analogy training deeper collaborating around language and approach so that we want 100% of our students to access this not 50 not 30 not 12 we want a 100% of our students to have high level project-based and Collaborative Learning opportunities that equip them with 21st century skills Community engagement and Partnerships we've done tremendous work around this looking at different ways to pull our community in understanding who we serve trying to figure out when they're available but this goal is uh Trenton Public Schools will ensure that effective Community engagement leads to strong relationships among stakeholders increasing participation and shared vision mission and goals number three developing the whole child probably have done some of our most critical work because we know if we don't provide the safe welcoming nurturing environment students can't learn so this goal has been near and dear to all of us and we focus we stay in that work because at the end of the day if if a student cannot connect to the instruction yet but they're safe they will they will so we stay there TPS will provide a safe welcoming nurturing learning environment that Fosters a sense of belonging and empathy for their communities so all students are equipped to learn empathy for their communities critical in that work staff development wellbe TPS will expose all staff to professional development opportunities to include professional academic personal physical mental health and wellness providing them with the tools they need to ensure student success if we don't take care of the people rowing the boat the boat won't go so we have to continue to do that and we missed on that sometimes because we're so focused on our children but we come back to adults we have Wellness opportuni many other opportunities that I work with the associations to create and we continue to do that work facilities finance and infrastructure where they live what we fund uh technology infrastructure all of that critically important to the work that we do so Trenton Public Schools will ensure a budget that it that's aligned when we budget we talk about is this uh connected to our priorities so very important when we're doing that work instructional priorities uh connected to our District's Mission Vision and goals so how did we get here we had strategic goals established in 2122 uh my first year here uh led by myself with um uh the priorities are um uh created in collaboration with the board uh with the input from Key stakeholders uh we use data as I talked about different sets of data to make those decisions um Benchmark data formative assessments sum uh summative assessments and we've agreed that we will share uh quarterly reports so you can see the monthly dates on the board so we are having our first one in November we will have another one in late January the turn of the semester another one in April and then one last one in June and we will be talking about the same work uh and so it's important to understand we're going to come and talk about this work until we're blueing the in the face to make sure that we get it this is what has to be done and if we need to Pivot we certainly will do that so student achievement goal one is where we put uh lots of time in uh professional development uh technology and Innovation um common language common approach uh so you can see here are the three areas and as I put that large document up a few minutes ago had I gone the student achievement it would have had these three goals um and these I think would uh rival in any District because we want our students to be exposed to project-based learning or experiences in the building have we done so far we've exposed but this wasn't new so we're creating uh it's been around for a while we're build building common language and common approach and that's important remember we want to see this approach in 100% of our spaces we want the experience of learning it connects learning students remember you might not remember when you made a hundred on a paper but you remember a project that you made a 100 on a paper it makes a difference when you collaborate with your team when you're connected to something and you present as a team it increases presentation skills it provides students confidence so this is not anything new been around we've saw great work walking into Trenton and we continue to see great work and we want to see that throughout every school on a regular basis it's also integrated in the curriculum as we write we want more uh um uh Project based learning opportunities included uh so that young people have an opportunity every day or most every day to engage with their peers to do research and to use that technology we talked about a few minutes ago uh by June of 2025 our classrooms will show evidence of delivery of high quality instruction I talked about that a few minutes ago uh exclusively using District approved re resources so we want to purchase or fund what's important and we want to see that being used we also want to support it uh we think that's important sometimes we miss on that but not on purpose we don't miss on purpose we're excited about uh a resource and we bring that forward and we want to make sure we're always cognizant that people need support when implementing new stuff sometimes they can do it on their own sometimes they need support sometimes we need to learn more about the resource so you can see some of the high quality instruction uh instructional shall include concise and intentional teacher-led instruction we check for intent what's my intent to stand here is to deliver our progress to you we want to know that there's intention we see that high quality around District we want to see it more more often and again maybe ey in the sky but 100% of our spaces uh that's what we're shooting for and we we're realistic about that also um our PE our professional development opportunities are centered around those strategies to deliver that we have instructional look fors when we go into buildings um model lessons and debriefing the sessions to reinforce priority goals talking with staff talking with administrators with teachers with everyone in this trying to make sure that we again common approach common language and then uh goal three um uh Trenton Public Schools will ensure K3 teacher exposure to formative assessments to drive small group assignment uh and instruction by providing consistent professional learning opportunities which will include and you can see those there that are also written um but we have a standardized internal assessment process through linol formative formative data analysis to inform instruction we look at all of our uh data sets njsla and NJ GPA we go down that list and we talk about where are the gaps um what learning standards seem to give our students the most struggle and so our staff that's been around also but we're being more intentional we're not assuming anything we're we're just actually being intentional about making sure these things are happening and then PLC involvement to promotes datadriven instruction we're seeing some amazing things from our staff uh that probably existed when we got here but we also want to enhance those who are maybe not as quite as ready to engage in those conversations because data can be frightening we know sometimes we see our data and we take a step back and go oh it's a lot to absorb but we believe that's a great opportunity to dive back in and do the work and we're seeing that in the professional Learning Community uh setting from our teachers technology and Innovation uh by the end of June 2025 80% of teachers across the district will begin applying the sear uh model it's uh substitution augmentation modification redefin you can see that in some schools where students are taking the curriculum and the standard and they're using the technology to uh share it back out with teachers even their families I've been to family nights where students are doing amazing work um and that comes from great teaching giving students the space to succeed the space to take risk uh and we're seeing that from great teaching and we're saying that if we can get 80% of our staff to get there because it's a scary proposition you get this device you don't have very little time very little training and we're going to train you along the way but you have to implement this we we know this won't happen overnight but we're excited about the journey that we're on to get there um we've had we have a new K2 curriculum that we just adopted in the B last agenda we'll be rolling out we'll take our time doing that with with our staff teachers wrote the curriculum some modified so we're excited that they're on board with that in the K2 setting and we'll be working through the 39 setting uh curriculum and then ultimately at some point through uh K uh 912 um Innovation lab Furniture we believe we we're turning our spaces into Innovation creation spaces uh you can see that K3 we're are 90% completed we have Furnitures installed are on the way or or it's here we want our young people to have first class environments when they go in to explore and to learn the curriculum to put it to work so you learn this great information take it into a space and create uh it m it connects the learning uh and we are working to get robotics materials we're not all the way there yet but we have Sparrow Legos Dash robots Indie robots and iMac stations uh and those are all be in those spaces for students to come in and to innovate uh innovation is key in this process we had uh five uh five three-day sessions this summer for iPad Basics Mac Basics uh Equitable across with IP access with iPads uh and the Avid uh digital notebooks so we spent some time this summer for teachers who wanted to come in and just learn that uh and we had pretty good participation around that um by June of 2025 Tren Public Schools will transform former computer classes in the fully equipped technology and Innovation Labs kind of the same Theory and thinking sear is different but the Innovation labs when you walk into spaces and we're creating some really neat spaces that I'd love to take the board uh on a journey to see uh when you see some of the spaces where our kids are learning we're painting them new furniture appropriate Furniture exciting uh uh things in the uh works uh goal two Community engagement and Partnerships um you can see we want to expand Community Schools uh we're working with I'm in a tri group partnership with ying and Hamilton where we're talking about how to uh go out and solicit funding large scale to bring communities this community school model more into our district we have three schools that are partners with um Mercer Street friends that are true Community Schools when you know the model you know the work it takes and does the uh partner have the bandwidth to Service uh a school community so we're doing that kind of work now to really invest what is a community school what does it mean what do you you know are you going to offer space and partner with the uh the P person in Partnership to make sure you give them access to families and children so we have a partnership ship with Henry J Austin who works directly with our health service department to provide Health Services to students through the district and then um you can see we have Partnerships with Mercer Street friends the YMCA uh Mercer County Community College and the dual enrollment TCNJ ch um Children's Home Society the Trenton literacy movement the partners goes on and on and on but to build those Partnerships and become a true community school is the work that I'm doing I'm also partnered with about 30 to 40 40 Partners you can see on the bottom we talk about how to be a partner in District what it means to be fingerprinted uh if you want to partner with us what we're expecting from you what are the expectations from the district if you're going to be a partner so we're doing that work we're developing an application process so anyone who wants to be a partner with us can apply and we have a process by which we'll follow to give you feedback uh as to whether you can be a partner or not uh so it's been critical and we've been meeting for we're in our second year of this work and it's really nice to see the people continue to come out and that was an area that Dr Rodriguez was facilitating so when he left I got many calls to say are we still meeting so we have tons of Partners who wants to who want to be in our space um we've expanded our Parent Connect series uh we work closely with Catholic Charities and child win uh there are many Parent Connect type uh activities that I hope to bring in the next session to share with you here some of the things I know we were just talking recently about helping parents understand how to help their children in some of these really difficult spaces that they end up in and we've had several sessions this year in our schools around those topics uh we have monthly face committee meetings with our school leadership team uh and talking with the Board of Education and partners out in the community about how we connect better with the uh community and we also have some um implemented this year uh this is our third year but the First full year for all 25 schools the New Jersey Sky parent survey uh those will those results are are available uh we've worked uh they're late fall so they're here schools have them we will be sharing some of that information uh we interviewed or surveyed parents students and staff uh regarding how they feel about their environments and feedback from those surveys shared with principles and the staff and the team gives them some opportunity to work on anything that might uh be plaguing their culture that might be interrupting learning uh so we learned a lot through that process but very excited to continue that and so we're hoping each school will select two or three things that they'll work on throughout the year but it gives them an opportunity to hear what parents have to say what staff have to say about their environment and what students have to say communication we are in the process of redesigning the logo we were trying to do that last year we're going to work with a vendor who will take us through a process probably getting input from people in this audience along with board members about what we want to see in a logo we have a district logo but we need a primary source logo and I can explain that to you if you want to stop me and I can share it with you so that it's easier to transfer and to use in different platforms uh but exciting we may come up with the same thing but we have to take some of the layovers off the logo but we're going to go through a process looking at similar to that logo right behind your heads do we want any parts of the city logo on the district logo and so I I was able to see that at uh New Jersey school boards a year ago and found that they went through our process for about a year so we're really excited and we're beginning now working with the vendor so you'll start to see that soon um uh we've always and will continue to work with uh our staff around on how to communicate through the website and social media uh we want to promote the district regularly and I know the board is always coming to me about let's get this out there let's get this so we have a really robust plan and we're looking at some we believe that writing all the time may not always get the attention of people so we're looking at doing some videos so you're going to see one from yours truly soon so if you've seen me enough don't watch it but if if you want an opportunity to hear some of what we're doing you'll likely see a number of us that's including staff and students who can share their experiences on video so uh that people in the community can see us implemented Communications student internship we started that last year had mild success very mild success and I just shared with our director of communications or our Communications officer not to give up on that we have very bright young people we have TV studios and both Loc ations we need to tap into that resource so we will continue that process uh and so we're in the middle of doing that too developing the whole child you saw the long list I shared with you a few minutes ago but I've talked about New Jersey Sky which is in the middle around gold three we administered that survey and have the results uh we want you can see that uh what's impressive about this is 100% uh so is that lofty you bet uh is it expected you bet when you read them 100% of Trent Public Schools will continue to build teacher capacity in trauma informed practices we're in the fourth year of that work we don't plan to stop it just is a goal uh we have to understand where our young people are coming from which also helps us focus on adults because we need to know where they're coming from in this work too so we will continue to do that work that hasn't change from the first day I walked in 100% of Trent Public Schools will extend trauma informed care practice to to include families of schools to provide evening parent workshops I talked about that a few minutes ago we're already in that working with parents helping them understand trauma that they may face but really understanding their child when they present something um uh an issue at home how they might be able to manage it uh we've done the survey and then we are going to develop hope teams healthy outcomes for positive experiences so securement of Hope teams in every school uh that's already happening so many of these things are underway uh we will evaluate them and be sharing a bit more detail as we get on the other side but the detail about some of this dates and times and what's happening is uh well included in the large document on the website staff development and well-being feel like we' made great strides here and great strides to go uh we want to continue to uh align our PD to the Strategic goals which we do we want to continue to collaborate with our associations and our staff I just heard from someone two weekends ago that the PD is not connected to what I need and I simp she I think she thought I was going to push back and I said I need to meet with you I just need to know what that means because as we plan the the professional developments not for me and so I want to make sure that we're lisening but that we're listening to goals but then listening to the needs of our staff whoever they are counselor teacher custodian whoever they represent in our district we want to make sure that we are listening to the needs around professional development um continuation of monthly PD offerings we're already in that process and to date we've um we've received 659 responses to District PD opportuni so districtwide PD so that gives us data and we learn a lot about what we're doing we learn what's not working what is working so uh those responses and we hope that number goes uh way up over time as we continue to work together um increase in uh professional development sessions led by District staff members um that means call all for presenters uh Mrs Grant leads this effort she started that work last year reaching out to say does anyone and we we receive a number of Staff members uh of all different positions who want to present uh something in their area which has been a real treat and their colleagues join and we've been able I was able to do woodworking one day and I don't know if that was in there but I'm a woodw worker by Nature so if you want to get my attention bring a saw a drill and wood in the building and I'm good to go so uh it's really neat to see some of the amazing offerings coming through that process of asking our staff uh by June of 2025 NJ well is a program where we want we want everyone to get well you see some of our people who uh weightwise seem to be getting well but if you enter this program we have an opportunity for uh compensation or Awards if we get enough people in but not only that the individual does but the the real benefit is that you get healthy uh so this program and I can go deeper about this I think there's a lot more information about it uh you can share you can uh get well but you can also get some benefit through points and you know compensation so uh and then there's lot some competition around this around the district through this process where teams are saying we're going to achieve or accomplish something so it builds a sense of community too so that's very exciting um and we will hold care teams chronic chronically absent response and engagement team meetings uh for all students identified as chronically absent that's been just a staple of our work it's just like trauma informed care it will be around long after I leave um we are seeing uh some progress in that area some we're proud of because students are coming but it's because we're connecting the whole family that's when you reach out to say so talk to me about why he or she or child are not getting to school what's going on and we've shared some of the data around kindergarten being the highest number of absent students and we know that kindergarteners don't drive uh they don't wake themselves up uh they don't do any of that so how do we start working with families to get our young people to school and uh if you've heard Miss Grant say come to school can you repeat that Mrs Grant every day on time every day on time that's our tagline we need students at school um so doing amazing work around that and we got a pretty robust team I would say that Rivals anyone in the state we put the um we fund what matters are are that's a priority so we fund it with eight attendance officers three attendance managers who knock on doors who call and pull people into this process so we can get data about why you really not coming to school it's not always Transportation which we thought it would be in this District it wasn't number one um there were many and transportation is a factor there were many other factors in a family as we probably should have known Finance facilities and I'm sorry and infrastructure uh the office of the business administrator buildings and grounds and Human Resources um so districtwide interior uh lighting upgrades uh completed task November 2024 that's complete we'll complete 15% uh from July um to October uh in progress currently 50% of our schools are completed not completed yet at uh I said completed earlier uh and we'll have the remaining 33% of our schools completed by June of 20125 so really exciting and when you come into a a lighted space it wakes the room up it's exciting to be in this space I know this space has light has new wall new technology it looks different and it gives it a different feel and we think that'll be beneficial to staff and students uh installation of air conditioning um uh and in all large Gathering and auxiliary spaces um the equipment is ordered we're waiting for shipment to arrive in progress currently 25% of our schools are completed we're completing four schools each year for large spaces large Gathering and auxiliary spaces uh our schools have air conditioning we do have some work to do to make sure that it works on the hot days uh so we're working on that and that's uh um that's defeating when you put all this into it and it doesn't work so we're staying on top of that to make sure that when the hot days come back around we're in cool spaces um approved certifications of the fire inspectors 95% of uh the administration building will be completed by 2025 but 100% of the schools are done improving maintenance and grooming of grounds that's ongoing and uh I also am a grounds Keeper at my own house so uh I noticed the grounds and that's one of the areas where I've worked with the team to place emphasis and if we need more staff to get our schools up to date make sure we we don't have weeds and it looks like it's open and I know that I get calls and emails from many of you so uh and so I appreciate that demolition of the existing Ziggler building uh Warehouse building uh in progress November 20 the project is out to bid the award date will be on the December agenda so we're hoping to get that done very soon Finance uh ensure that the budget is aligned to instructional priorities as well as support for school needs student specific needs and adequately supports District Mission Vision and goals uh in progress conversations on non-negotiables we've already started that process what are the things that we will absolutely do and not negotiate and then what are the negotiating points in a budget uh we've done this for many years the pro the process started in October with conversations we have another big meeting in December um by March we will know we meet with every school to talk about priorities they include their school leadership teams and what they need so it's a very engaging and collaborative process and we'll continue to do so obtain an increased rate by the Bank of America uh we are looking forward to that by December 2024 so um go business office uh we want to set up parameters to have the ability um uh to automate charter school and preschool checks uh that's authorization to be placed on the November 18th uh agenda that's on tonight and test payment to charter schools on December 9th so we're already there so some of the things that we have put in place like in other areas they're underway uh we're excited to see what midy year looks like in some of these areas Human Resources there's so many areas to tackle in Human Resources um but we want to improve the workman's compensation uh claim experience and you can see some of the areas uh applicable PD offerings relevant staff coordinate the nj6 to provide PD and secure procedure for nurses there's so many things connected to that because when somebody's out with a workman's comp issue we want the experience to be seamless and that hasn't always been the case but we're working to get there want the districtwide uh 1094 C and 1095c dependent verification and dependent accuracy and Human Resources system and edgm uh we've sent the email out independent verification we've received 10 uh sorry 195 uh responses from uh employees to date so uh we're moving in that direction well um and you can see I think this is a repeat I'm sorry oh of the charter schools I have that in the wrong place and the preschool provider so I missed that uh that should have been an NJ smart that's a a human no that is human resources uh around NJ smart and smid so I I'm I missed and I think I moved it over to the wrong slide uh but expand Human Resources recruiting efforts we've had many hiring events from August to November and then uh professional development for 58 attending uh professional uh professionals on 1023 24 so a lot of stuff happening you might have a million questions uh and I have people here that can go deeper than I can and um this was a 51 page document that I thought I could get done in 20 minutes but uh I don't know how successful that was but a lot of information the goal here is uh just to say that uh we believe in continuing to make progress and we understand we learn from the areas we don't do well in uh our job is to do better building relationships that's my number one goal build relationships here so that we can get teams of people to move initiatives in this District so I'll continue to do that work and I'll work with our team to do so any questions yes I have a state oh I'm sorry good young man let's do something I'm sorry all right so we'll start from here and we'll go down okay okay I appreciate that um thank you superintendent really helpful um presentation a lot of great stuff in it um I just got one question it was around the internships and I wanted to and you know you was talking about the mile successes and I was just trying to figure out like in what areas are are the room for improvement is it more collaboration with Community Partners is it like trying to connect kids with direct job opportunities that could be internships um so we were talking about um internships with we're offering in uh Communications internships with our Communications officer okay we have young people who are in our buildings who want to be in Communications they're actually in TV studios they make news reports uh they're going to be Communications people and we're saying work with us and we did have some to create some of the stories and some of the information you received in your newsletters came from students they wrote those articles they were able to get some of those images and share so we want to create that pipeline of young people who want to go in communication so uh we didn't get as many when I say mild success we got some and we were able to get some writing but they have a life right and so we're trying to figure out better ways to engage them maybe around big events instead of more often but we gave them kind of the floor so we're pivoting to see how we can do that better thank you yes sir uh thanks for the presentation super um my questions generally revolve and I'll try to keep it brief um especially since we brought you in and uh you know pretty much told you how high to jump with our strategic goals right as they existed um moving forward because we'll be in the process of you know formulating new strategic goals yeah are there any areas that you know either we're currently doing or that uh you would recommend that we start implementing uh and just you know any recommendations for our next round of strategic goals uh I would make recommendation I think some of the work we are doing is tremendous um um what I found is the more we collaborate with each other and engage more people in this process which I know we're going to do we'll come up with those things um what I did was took something that was already done as the leader and said how do we implement this with the team here and people out in our schools and how do we do this and do it well so working from behind I I have the unique opportunity to come at it having done it seeing the things that worked potentially didn't work and say to the team of people in this the 3,000 team members what do you want to see what does a board want to see what do we want for the children in Trenton so I think that what you'll find is much of what you see here the high quality stuff we're going to continue to do it's not changing and then some of those things that we question if we've had those um times where we had conflict over an implementation let's look at that and see if it's the right direction is it the right direction for staff sometimes I want to move in a direction and I'm not I don't want to negotiate that so it'll be an opportunity for me to listen to our teams to say so this might be an easier path to get things done at the end of all of this is the student we are here to make sure that students have the best experience in our spaces wherever they are and so if we keep that in mind when we reach consensus which means we don't get everything we want and I I'll be the first to admit that I know that I as we plan this we have to reach consensus on how we move but I think it's better communicated from the whole instead of the part and so I would wait and if you'll give me time I'll be able to come back and say Here's what came from the district all right um and kind of going along with that last part you know I guess serving the district and you know some of the work that we're going to be doing are there any challenges that you would expect to see in the upcoming uh Trump Administration right any anything that will affect uh the doe so so um not speaking politically um what I would do is say that we'll always stay focused on our children um we know that uh before the election there were some decisions made in the state of New Jersey one around the FAFSA uh process and we are very concerned about what that means for our young people in this new Arena and without being political because that's not my work or my goal I'm not smart enough to be a politician um I want to make sure that I can speak to the needs of those young people who have to complete the faps of process and what that means if they don't we don't want Targets on our young people's back we want them to know it's safe to come to school because we're hearing that young people might be afraid because they've watched too much television about what's going on and rightly so so I'm not sure what an Administration will do I'm not sure you know I know the comments out there but what we are doing and you've been with me a few times and we'll be so we didn't start this ation tonight I've been in probably 20 to 30 meetings months prior to this thinking about the what if and we've had multiple meetings about what if scenarios if this happens how do we pivot how do we protect our young people how do we make sure this is a safe space and we're concerned because as we make this pitch around Community engagement and Partnerships will our families continue to join us or is there something that may make them fearful about coming into our space so we have to be critically uh aware of the the individuals that we serve the families we serve and make decisions around that so without speaking about politics everything we do focuses on the students their families our staff US first uh so we're going to do that and we're going to talk about what it means to be legally safe because as things come our way uh we can't break the law and we can't break policy around some of these things so we have no idea it's hard to gauge but it's better to have awareness about the ifin scenarios because there's a document that you can either read or get information on about potential changes and so we've been there about potential changes because if if some of the changes happen and enrollment goes down that means funding goes down that means follow that line of thinking if if enrollment dips funding dips what does that mean for all of these the programming the the Personnel Resources we put in to support kids I talked about that great uh attendance structure what does it mean for some of those things what does it mean for me you know we have to think like that and be critically aware as we we move out of a year or through a year how do we make sure that we're kind of ready you know teetering on if this decision is made we're ready to Pivot So yeah thank you for addressing that like you've highlighted uh we've been in some of these rooms and I know you know you've knocked out the park uh talking about some of those wh if situations um and as you highlighted you know just completely apolitical just the things that have been put out there the messages that have been put out there just thinking through through what these policy decisions administrative decisions will mean for us specifically as a district so thank you we are doing that work already so so I'm not sure we if we actually had Envision this moment four years ago when we started our strategic plan but I am so pleased that we are at this point now um I just love to hear how how you communicate and share our District's strategic plan and implementation of that plan uh in our being our fourth year and I'm I'm I'm I'm just I'm delighted I'm happy that we are at this point now and the reason why is because uh earlier this year in our strategic planning with our board we decided as a community board as a as a board as as part of our community to have four presentations a year that came out of that strategic strategic conversation yes um and so one of the things that I I glean from this conversation today is that this is not going to be the last time that we're going to have an opportunity for us and our community to come together and so what I would suggest and recommend is that we all take notes we all read the document we all take notes from that document jot down questions that you might have there's a lot of information that we have to digest and unpack um you've done a wonderful job of that tonight and so I commend you for for all the work that you're doing in our district uh in your presentation tonight but my my message not only to myself and to my colleagues but through the community is to digest digest the data digest the information jot down questions put a posted note on your on on your on the presentation so you'll be able to come back and and be able to ask in questions to um your leadership team and yourself and potentially as you mentioned a community conversation we're going to have sometime this fall an opportunity for folks to really engage with us around this great work to dig deeper into the work so they can have a better understanding of where we're going where we've been um and where we're going so I want to give you I want I just really thank you so much for thank you that work appreciate work that you're doing thank you thank you I I didn't have any uh any specific questions um but I know that in our family community engagement uh committee meetings we we've had conversations about this presentation coming sing off of the Strategic initiative that the board had with four conversations a year and again I'm so delighted and happy that we're at this point now and I'm looking forward to the three additional presentations you're going to have throughout this year to share with our community and share with us and I've invited a half a dozen folks or a dozen folks to come out and hear your presentation so I don't see if them here tonight but I'm going to continue to press and continue to invite folks to come out and hear about the great work that we're doing and to have conversation around that work and to ask questions that may be difficult sometimes but we need to be able to answer those questions and engage with our community so thank you so much thank you just want to make sure I'm clear um you know I talk about this is and I know you know this but uh the people who sit behind me on both sides they do the work so I'm just the person standing there working with them I dig in where I need to uh but we got a tremendous group people in this District who've always been here e e e e e we now have the Spanish translation for like this meeting one two will this be also linked in Spanish yes okay great so we can have at least our Spanish speaking parents and proll I would assume okay great Genie no no no my turn my turn um I have a question sure uh under the technology and Innovation you state that uh robotics materials Fiero Legos stash robots and Indie robots IMX have been delivered to each Innovation computer it's on uh yes it is computer classroom um is this in what grade levels are these in and are they in all the schools so I don't know that they're in all schools the intent though is for them to be in all schools they're ordered and in some cases with the implementation some may have been delivered and some may not I learned from one school today that they may not have theirs but over when we come back in the second one we'll have demonstrations as Yanda talked about but the goal is to have all of this in every school and training teachers to operate it and implement the programs well students will likely and teachers will do a really good job of training but I learned from kids the five-year-old that showed me how to bring up the legend on the screen that day so and I was lost um but yeah the goal is to have all of those things in every school okay and my next question goes to uh the trauma program yep um we all know about trauma we all know about recognizing trauma are we doing anything to release that trauma bringing in programs that teach people how to get rid of it because if you don't get rid of it it's still in you as a physical thing yeah I don't know that I think a part of that work is when you recognize at the very least and as a young person you know of trauma myself I think I held on to all of it until I learned that it was something that I needed to address and so we're teaching young people now and I think the next phase of this and maybe Dr Conway can go deeper about this but releasing that trauma is the next phase of work we're just in understanding the trauma when they get there so you can at least ask the question what happened to you why are you in that space even to adults talk to me share with with me and then the work happens after that maybe counseling maybe therapy that's when some of those and we have caling corners and all of our buildings are reset spaces in every building that's some of the release you know you figure out what triggers you you go to a space you take the appropriate amount of time and you've released at some and what you're teaching yourself is at 10 years old that you'll be managing this at 20 and those are things that we've uh learned from research and that we're implementing in school so it's not always a thing it's those things it's identifying at first but also having spaces where students have an outlet and with a family you're working with multiple people because you got to get everyone to uh I guess identify what it is that's creating uh gaps in moving forward and try to see what you can do to address that because everyone's is a little little different and so managing that is the most it's probably threading the needle so how do you make sure that a young person understands their trauma or a person my age and then how do you treat them to release it that is the most difficult part of this work and we're four years in that'll take 40 more likely so as long as it takes you to get there sometimes okay thank you okay MH no I don't have a um I don't have a question just a a comment uh certainly appreciate um sharing with the public in terms of um where we are uh relative to our progress around these goals because we have these discussions amongst the board so again I just want to uh applaud you and say uh thank you for sharing out so the public is aware that this actually takes place and then letting them hear where we you know where we are in terms of moving forward around those goals and where we um look to go and and why do the goals stay basically the same they stay basically the same because we have to continue working and going deeper as you said so just want to make that comment thank you yeah and I have I think I have two I um you you mentioned about the establishment of the Strategic plan um being in place when you got here so I think that um when you get to where we are now and the feedback from all of that work because the community and the administrators and teachers is also part of that work to see progress is a really good thing when you think about how long you've been here so that I'm I'm grateful kind of like Geral is that you see it materializing and and then um this is a I I think um what what pains me sometime is to hear how people put down parents and and um that they should know and when you have young people having babies at a young age how can they know unless they're being taught and so the um I just commend the work around the parenting um and the support of the parenting those different activities that help parents to be better parents right because you only know what you know how many um parents were surveyed you mentioned at some point that there were yeah we have that number and without the data I have that data that I can send you okay that we have the exact number of parents the exact number of students and the exact number of Staff members okay um by percentage and I think if I'm not mistaken uh 202 schools were able to hit our 25% Mark oh okay we had good numbers and got really good feedback uh I don't know if I'm close on that so you want nice yeah nice nice nice very nice so and and we had some kind of some contest not real contest but we called some spaces out and some principal did some and their teams their teachers and their staff and counselors did some really good work to get in first so uh who was first Dr comy Jefferson School was first uh who was second the top three dun school and third Robin school so okay so they did tremendous work getting pants to give feedback and it's not just a quick survey either so takes a but it worked that's what I thought and then um um there was two more that just came to me I knew I was going to forget I I remember them all if I would have went first but old age day right last so so the um the uh yeah so so as we were thinking about student achievement what it looked like on the screen is the work appears the work You' talked about of creating the environments by which our students perform better on assessments right and so so that formative assessment thing is so when they go through the experience they're already ready do do those technology spaces that you're creating help that because you know is it does it help with creating a testing environment so that the children when it comes time to take these standardized tests feel more comfortable because our children are bright I always froze up as a child when it was time to take those tests and knew the stuff but it's just like my brain froze up and so does that help like those so I believe because I think it enhances the critical uh the critical I don't know when they're when they're working together and you have to so we're saying take that technology and bring that content to life right that's very different than having the content where you get it from the instructor you work closely together and even if you get an A on it and the teacher is terrific it is different when you take it and you spend time with two of your peers and you say here's an issue and I remember in the summer so you may have to correct me our kids drew I walked into space where they were drawing maps to their homes right sounds simple right but you think you'll remember how to get your home if you draw a map or if you look at it here or if you never have a chance to do that and just talk about Maps right so they drew a map and there were some things we put on a table over here that are clear examples of pbl the Project based learning opportunity technology included I don't believe in all that technology I believe in it when it makes you learn okay and I tell you who all uses it all of you and every adult back here so why turn it off for the people now screen time can be dangerous so we have to think about that too right but the young people need those opportunities I absolutely believe it enhances learning and it and it makes it stick sometimes because you can go places with a device that you can't necessarily go in a class sometimes and we need to do that appropriate because AI is fa you know right in our faces we want to make sure our students have accurate and factual information and all those things so yeah I think there's spaces for it and their times were just hardcore down to earth teaching and working with kids getting on the floor where we see many of our people do and getting on boards and writing and talking and collaborating that's just as good too yeah because I'm not a fan of um um standardized test is only one you know just measure I'm the r and so anyway we any anything that's done to help the stickiness for the children okay thank you I think just the the last thing to add is just you know when we think about I came in in 21 22 I don't it seems like forever ago but but when I walked in here I would charge everyone who is in our organization to just look at when you started and who we serve now uh it's different the challenge is different and we need to respond to it sometimes that's difficult to respond to because we're humans we want to do what we've always done and I'm just saying we cannot do that we can't stay where we were we must move we have to move and for the young people and for the people in our district thank you so all right thank you thank you superintendent Earl um I also want to thank again uh your Administration the administrators building administrators and the teachers because we know that this work cannot be done without their collaboration so thank you and thank you to everyone else that is here tonight that has helped to bring this together um before we go on you said let's get this out there right a little while ago get what whatever it was that you were talking about but right now I just wanted to remind you um will you be speaking to us about um the Citizens Academy um and just for just to let people know one of the trainings that we had uh I think it was late June or July centered on communicating with our stakeholders about transparency and I think that ever since I came on board that was one of the major problems that we were having and I would like to think that we've improved but I know that there's much room for more Improvement and so um while we were talking well during that that training we kind of brainstormed and thought about citizens acmy so I'm going to let superintendent take it from there all right so the Citizens Academy is an opportunity for those who want to learn about board operations District Operations goal setting and those things because I think we we want to make sure that our um Community they don't think we operate in a vacuum um I think that comes across sometimes because we have to make uh quick decisions and decisions from the top uh but we want to give uh anyone interested community members staff members an opportunity to be a part of the Citizens Academy and what do we do we talk about and teach about and we go through the structure of budgeting we go through the structure of why and how and how we use data to select a curricul particular resource we want to take you to through the and not those two particular but those two come to mind but why we do the work that we do for chronic absenteeism uh so anyone interested in learning about the work that's done at the board level or even at the district level would be invited to several sessions about different things able to be a partner because you do the work that we do and learn but we would share information maybe have guest speakers and experts around areas that might be of interest to you but we wanted to make sure that we build the capacity of everyone in our district to be able to share about what we're doing in the district for families and for children and for adults too so just s and FYI um when we speak about Citizens Academy normally they are programs that are offered by local municipalities and or their police departments I know the state police also offers them and the goals for having a citizen a Citizens Academy is one to create better and in informed and engaged stakeholders we want to be able to increase communication between the sitting officials in this case it would be the sitting board and superintendent with our stakeholders with the goal of building A Better Community involvement and interaction um we want to familiarize the public with the roles with the services and the um operations that comprise the Trenton Board of Education so as superintendent was saying we're looking forward to educating the public on how we create the budget um when we talk about special education what are the statutes out there what what are our responsibilities um just so many things uh the other thing is that normally they take about three months the the Citizens Academy is a three-month program and it's three hours per week so we are hoping to roll this out by end of January beginning of February sometime and then one of the last goals that we have for our Citizens Academy is that maybe just maybe some of our stakeholders will be inspired to run for school board once they understand how it is that a school board works and they see the work that needs to be done um we would love to have some of the candidates or some of the graduates of the academy run for for the board of um in the future and the other thing is that you know the main purp one of the main purposes is that they become ambassadors of Goodwill um helping Bridge the relationships that the board ought to have with the stakeholders with stakeholders and you know with the citizen the the parents and vice versa so I'm really excited I can't wait to have you present the curriculum um and I hope that everyone here will be open to um attending the academy we are hoping to do by invite for the first cohort of groups and um let's see what goes um what comes of it okay so moving on WE yes wa no I not yet yeah yeah a questions on the agenda oh okay if you could ask any question right now then yeah uh so who would manage the activities of this group like who oversees who has the authority over the group our super superintendent yeah he's that's what I'm saying he's um we kind of brainstormed it from that training but um he's remember he's we tell him the what and he does the who right let's see we tell him the what and he'll do the how Okay so and so would we receive information about how this yes how this training will be rolled out before the actual Co cohort comes in okay yeah all right all right thank you okay thank you okay so as I was say moving on we will now hear from our board committee chairs and this time I'll begin with our bran buoy you know I wasn't ready for that right okay so we met uh we met this Tuesday I hope everyone could hear me um we reviewed the uh transfer secretary's report Treasures report staff travel and the list of bills 68 m882 um for $115 10:31 and 11:15 we also um discussed the grants and we reviewed on the agenda if you've taken a look AA which is um and these both um are concerned real estate um the resolution to approve an action with the old YWCA and BB um the property the district owned property on Warren Street that will be used for mat maternal health school and uh and then we spent some time um the superintendent touched on it light slightly but when you have a half a billion dollar budget um it is a process to that budget and so for for this and preparing for the next school year um the calendar was produced in October um the the guidance was distributed to the leadership team this month um we have to work on coming December uh development of enrollment projections um we also have our annual budget which will be coming up in December and then the Public Presentation of that audit from from last school year will happen in December and and in December there will be uh purchasing freeze for General funds uh Janu in January um um we will distribute instructional guidance to principles and February is when the action really picks up school leaders um their budgets are due by February 7th the superintendent and Leadership teams will meet with uh principles to present their budget um the 10th through the 14th but budget revisions will happen um the 17th through the uh 21st and uh the preliminary budget will be uh presented to us the board at the end of that the budget submission will occur in March there'll be a public hearing where we'll present the budget to the public in April um and so as you could see it is a it's a long and arduous process um and I just want to amend one of the questions that I had during um the conversations um was um will the school principls have access to financial analyst and and the accountants will be working with them on building these budgets because they're very very complex and if we do it right then we have less transfers um during the course of the year and then uh the very very last thing is and probably the nicest part about the work that that our committee does is talking about the donations so um we like to thank folks in advance we have shine in Inspire Thanksgiving baskets um $1,500 uh for family and Community engagement Horizon non-p perishable food for Thanksgiving baskets $500 to family and Community engagement arm in arm 25 grocery bags valued $250 family and Community engagement Jack and Jill 425 shoppr gift cards valuated at $1,000 family and Community engagement Fidelis Care $1,000 check to family and Community engagement JFC canned goods vegetable oil and rice valued at $350 to family and Community engagement uh child wind laundy detergent and toilet Tree items a value of $1,200 to family and Community engagement um Evelyn WellPoint $1,000 check family and Community engagement and then oh Affinity Federal Credit Union um Electrolux 4.4 cubic feet stack washing sheet an electric dryer laundry tower for $1,798 to Trenton uh Central High School and uh we really uh really appreciate the uh the sacrifice that folks make for our children thank you so um good evening the um curriculum committee um actually met on uh Tuesday November the 19th to um review um proposals resolutions and uh travel requests um and those particular items were discussed by the board at that time uh some of the items of note that were looked at uh continuation of the um seal of biliteracy um initiatives um support for advanced placement courses um textbook updates for social studies um including financial literacy uh continued support for the Arts and uh a pilot of social studies cor curriculum materials uh we noted also continued support for um building gifted and talented uh programming uh inclusive of training for teachers we also noted an um effort to do um podcast by the students at Grant school and opportunities to support um high school students so that they can gain um uh a black seal um license uh that they can use for um employment later on we also had some updates from the special education department and those updates involved uh Thanksgiving celebrations that were being held um highlights from Child study team meetings um breakfast celebrations for um parents and Community um we also talked about the pre K disabled uh classroom visitation and some highlights uh we also talked about um some challenges that are being had in terms of uh Staffing and the efforts and the plans to address um those challenges related to um Services being provided to our special need students um that is a summary of what was discussed at the curriculum um committee meeting thank you uh the facilities committee did not meet this month due to uh illness yes so the parent Community engagement committee did not meet um this month but over the last several months uh start at beginning of this year the presentation tonight was one of the main topics that we discussed around our strategic plan and getting things out to our community and to our board uh looking also looking forward to going out into the community and sharing this work uh with our community members and getting their input on implementation of our strategic plan with the superintendent and his team U around that work that's being done it is a deep dive into the information and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of questions and comments from our community about the work that's being done and maybe even some recommendations for us to do to either do better or make make some considerations for for us as a district one of the things also we talked about is our Parent Connect Series so if anyone wants to connect with our parents which is so very important please visit our website also our uh social media channels to get information on our Parent Connect series we had one coming up I believe on December the 5th and a couple of schools all around helping supporting parents one of the workshops is on power uh parent empowerment Series has overview one of them is On Healing Heart series building your child's emotional backpack workshop and educates parents on how stress impacts the brain body body and Child Development so some really good information that our parents need to connect with and this is an ongoing effort throughout of the uh winter and into the spring season so I encourage everyone to participate in those series one of things I wanted to share is that our we have two holiday drives one for Thanksgiving one for Christmas and so there's opportunities for our community to give to those who are less fortunate as well as our board members so I encourage you to reach out to family commun engagement Department about information around how you can give for two holiday drives one for Thanksgiving one uh one for Christmas then I also was able to attend the third annual men's night in dinner in partnership with the trit alumni chap of C Alpha SL attorney Incorporated at Dr Crosby Copeland Jr Elementary School some great speaker Staters they're a third year they've done this uh Austin networks was with me on that particular evening and we had a great time with parents with with the students and with the Community Partners who were there so I would encourage uh everyone to continue to participate in our school district and really work hard to support our parents support our students as well as our teachers and our administrators so thank you so much much on policy we have policies on the board agenda tonight for the board to review as a first reading uh second reading will be in December and I want to alert the board to look forward to additional policies throughout this year we have a lot of work to be done or continue to be done over the course of this year so you'll have policies every single board meeting to review for a second reading so we'll go through probably about three or see two four probably about three cycles of board policy and updates over the next into the uh next year into starting in January but we'll have tonight we'll have on the first reading tonight December second reading then January first reading and so forth and so on to get our policy continue to be updated so thank you you you need to say the truth and say that the policy is something continuous we will never stop never stop we will never catch up every time we think we have caught up with the updates new updates can come in so that is a lot of work on the policy committee um for the HR committee um pretty much the okay yeah pretty much the only update was um uh specifically the executive director position um but I believe the uh superintendent um highlighted uh the executive director position and the expectations uh that will come with it um everything else from in the uh HR committee it was about the same I know we met this past Wednesday to discuss um the uh Personnel thank you okay and response to public participation from our last board meeting on October 14 2024 um we had Christa Gargano Ronette brunham Dr John gam Katherine graph tiia Duncan all addresses the board with concerns in reference to the Dual language instruction framework in response to them and to those concerns the superintendent has and will continue to meet with with teachers and the union regarding their concerns with the program and also Administration is presently working to collaborate and find more ways to provide support we also had Lori sarney address the board with concerns about Safety and Security she said that the district must have more security presence as it can relieve some of the students stress which will allow them to focus more on their studies she did mention that staff and students do not feel safe she said work orders were submitted for broken locks and door handles however they have not been processed she asked that the district answer why there are no funds to protect student and teachers the response uh Administration is currently meeting with all schools to address safy and security concerns and moving on to public comments today the Trenton Public School District welcomes the attendance and comment 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 will have five minutes for commenting you will be notified when your five minutes are up you cannot yield your time to another person when it is your turn to speak please address all of your comments to the board press incident we ask that you please conduct yourself in 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 end your Comon time also if you curse use vulgar language or make personal attacks we will provide you with a warning or and your common time comments that adhere to these guidelines will not be interrupted if you have any questions please ask your questions during your F minute comment period after after the public comment period is closed the board superintendent or designate will address your questions to the extent provided by the law we also ask that members of the public not interrupt the speaker during their public comment time first up if we may have K KRA Melvin come up KRA Melvin Shaga Bazil Shaga Bazil Sandra Marine I'm sorry can you hold on one took yeah um there's all right good thank you good so on September 19 his 101 showed up which made me very happy because it was sooner than what happened the previous year in October 4th after 11 days of his 101 being there I lost the 101 due to the fact that his IP had been Rewritten according to um last year's evaluation and we had changed it to a one to3 or or less to give him more space to be more individual I've been calling regarding his 101 since that day and his class is a class that has 2 seven students which I just learned today that Dro to 25th eight of those students are special ed he's in an inclusion classroom I have sent many emails to Teisha Avent I spoke with the principal Miss Santiago who has also sent many emails and I have seen them myself because she showed me from her computer um I spoke with his previous case worker Miss Tammy hubs who gave me the information prop his current IP as well as is telling me that the new case worker is Elizabeth fouy I left multiple messages for her but I'm still waiting for their answer um this morning I was surprised with a phone call from Dr Conway who I thank thank you very much for your call um and he told me that someone was going to get back with me before 12:00 today so I did receive that phone call from Abdel Gutierrez and he um he asked me to give him a few days so that he can figure out if he can get a share Aid after reviewing my son's I I have found that a share Aid is not enough the failure to provide the services outlined by his iip are violation to his IEP my son comes home frustrated many days and sometimes as all I have to do is look at his face and he starts crying I was very pleased with the teacher because she called called me last week and told me hey guess what your son was talking to his iPad yesterday and I said talking to the iPad he's like yeah he was for straight in the classroom he couldn't figure out how to do something so he called the tutor during class because now there's apparently a new app that's provided in the iPads that give them access to a tutor I was very happy that he found the way to get to that tutor but it was not the proper time for him to do it so since I have a few minutes I'm going to read some of his iip modifications that were outlined he has preferential seating closer to the classroom due to the fact that he has a vision impairment he needs repeated directions he needs allow extended time for his assignments he have information or text directions read to him due to the fact that he has issues seeing he needs to be provided reduced modified assignments and assessment text to speech provide highlighted material for emphasis use of manipulatives and number lines extra time for when sharing out loud or verbal support he needs AUD your books help with no taken and his personal aid must assure his safety as well as help him with his not taken due to his vision impairment last year I had an excellent one 101 that arrived December 6th and I am here because just like last year quarter 1 I was here in front of all of you because his IP was not being fulfilled so last year IED his IP on December 6th I'm hoping that maybe this year his iip person will show up for Christmas thank you very much thank you next Amanda Eli El I'm sorry also I did speak last time and there was no response to my comments last time so um I'm sorry um oh right I can't respond okay all right good evening hear good evening superintendent Earl board members fellow educators and Community stakeholders my name is Amanda elely and I have been a teacher for 10 years in the district and I currently teach third grade at cadwalder I'm here tonight to talk about my students who need to be screened for dyslexia the law in New Jersey since the 2014 2015 school year says that students who show indicators of Dyslexia should be screened by the first semester of second grade I want to take a minute to outline the difficulties I've had while trying to find out information for my students and parents regarding disle of screening since October 24th I have reached out to numerous supervisors for help to find out more information on who is in charge of screening for the district and what steps I need to take initially I reached out to miss aaeny and then miss shaanan I heard back from Miss shaanan on October 31st and she forwarded my email for guidance to miss Coons Dr MOA and Miss aaeny after not hearing back I also emailed Mr gueras for help the fifth email I sent was to miss aaeny Mr goodier Dr MOA and Miss seeking support Miss aaeny answered my email on November 21st and told me the dyslexia law was a general education initiative and she was deferring to the ELA supervisor World Language K to 6 and the teaching and learning Department regarding the district procedure then today Miss sent me an email this afternoon to set a date and time to meet and discuss concerns and student reading behaviors as you can tell I've been trying for a month to get any sort of guidance that will help my students and still I have no information I have sent five emails over the course of this month and why is it acceptable that in all that time I've only received two responses but still have no useful information to help my students I have not been rude I have not been disrespectful I'm just simply inquiring in my emails about the process so I can help support my students and it's interesting how there's been zero communication pretty much for a month until the day of the board meeting when I get a response today as did my students's parent I have heard heard more than once that there are kids to screen students for the Lexia somewhere downtown so I'm asking will someone please help me help my students or someone who knows how to do the screener teach me so I can screen my own students I heard today that Dr is our Universal screener for the district I would urge the district to look at the updated 2024 dyslexia handbook for the guidelines when choosing a universal screener while the Dr assesses some criteria I don't think that this can be used as a stand oneone screening tool because it does not assess specific phological processing skills but if the district is saying that that is the universal screener then I ask you when has this information been relate to teachers what is the teacher Next Step supposed to be if they notice indicators while administering the Dr to student to a student the lack of communication via email is coming across like our district does not have a procedure I'm very happy to meet with Miss Coons next week but does every teacher who has concerns about indicators of Dyslexia have a meeting with Miss Coons the supervisor of ela not all students with dyslexia need a referral to child study so I ask what are the steps that we have in place the district has already taken away learning loss this year the one and only intervention outside the classroom that was available in K3 buildings the only interventions a student can now receive are from their own classroom teacher I thought District was concerned about the massive number of referrals if that is the case should we have not kept the learning loss teachers shouldn't we be screen training for dyslexia early so that with an ear early diagnosis we can meet the needs of struggling readers and reduce the number of our students falling behind the research shows that if a student gets a poor start in Reading they often never catch up shouldn't we focus our efforts on our K3 population to help these students be as successful as possible what is very frustr to me is everyone in this District preaches about building genuine relationships but they forget that when you genuinely care about and love your students you have no choice but to advocate for them like they are your own so unanswered emails lack of support and guidance becomes very frustrating when I care very much about my students having people act like I have not given my best effort or implying to my students parents today that I have somehow not done all that I can do is highly insulting because all I've ever done is way more than my job responsibilities entail if advocating for the needs of my students labels me as a problem in this District then so be it the students we serve are the only reason we have jobs to begin with so here are my questions tonight I am also willing to email this so that I can get answers to all my questions one who is in charge of screening our students for dyslexia two what is our Universal screener in K3 schools three why are students not being screened by the first semester of second grade four can the district provide more training for their teachers five are there dyslexia kids downtown and if so can they be located six can I be trained to use the kit and seven how long should it be appropriate to get an email response from a supervisor thank you thank you okay next is Michael Jones good evening even well uh I'm hear in regards of my daughter Lexis I mean uh LC funderberg earlier today I also got a phone call from Mr Conway yet almost two weeks when we was reaching out trying to figure out who to talk to we wasn't getting no responses I been noticed something with my daughter writing her letters and her numbers backwards but I also know the D's and the be's they could get confused the threes and the eights and the sixes and the nines so I didn't really pay no attention plus they be on Tik Tock and all that stuff so I figured it was something that the kids just was doing because it wasn't just her doing so when I went to the teacher parents uh meeting last week Miss Elliot was like uh lyric is on the same level with all the kids with all of the stuff it just when she does her writing she writes her letters backwards and then when I ask her why she doesn't have a reason so she said that's when she reached out and somebody told her that was a form of Dyslexia and from pre every kid don't go to preschool so we can't just use all the kids but once you go to kindergarten before you get the first grade you should be able to know how to add subtract read and know your ABCs and at least be able to count to 100 with that being said my daughter can do all of that except for she has a tendency to turn letters around that don't mean she not as educated as the rest of the kids because I could give my daughter a plain piece of paper and tell her to draw you and you'll look at it and it'll it be a cartoon figure but you'll see your features in the picture and she's only 8 years old so me I'm a Hands-On parent like I'm part of the PTO all of that so and it just don't deal with my kids I was taking my kid to school one day and seeing a parent there cursing out the teachers I literally stood there because it was no male figures around in case he wanted to try something now whatever the results would have been I I still would have stepped in because why would you be doing that so just like earlier when Mr Conway was telling me like he just showed me that Miss Ellie got two responses but her responses weren't from the proper people so it's like not getting a response then the lady I don't I know know her last name Brown she work in this building I was on the phone with her for 30 minutes when she told me in order for me to get my daughter tested I had to write a letter so while she was talking I was writing a letter and when we hung up the phone I was in your parking lot to be told by the security that I couldn't talk to nobody till 2:30 because they was on lunch and it was 12:45 who gets a lunch that long I don't know but she could have easily just picked up the phone and called upstairs and told the lady to come downstairs but she also wouldn't take the letter because she didn't want to be responsible so my thing is if the kids are supposed to be tested it should be a state y test that's automatically given like a SAT test so the kids don't think they're being singled out because they have learning disabilities make it look like it's School participation for everybody and then when y'all got the people who supposed to check it to know what's what then you pull them out and separate them and distinguish it like that dude sat up here for I don't Mr early you sat up here for almost an hour and a half and whatever you was talking about it had nothing to do with what got to do with my daughter cuz last year they was taking tablets home for school this year because some people didn't bring their tablets back it was exed out how much sense does that make if you let my child use a tablet for a whole year and then the next year tell them they got to use pens and paper it don't make no sense why not in the beginning of the school year put a contract together had a parent sign it and if the tablet's not returned they they responsible to pay for the tablet don't take and neglect another child from being able to learn you know what I mean my thing is at the end of the day y'all this my first time y'all seeing my face but it won't be the last if my daughter don't get what she's supposed to get cuz my family work down at City Hall and I try to keep them out of it and let people do what they supposed to do because that's why they got their jobs that's it thank you and last Reverend Jose Rodriguez evening board I just wanted to bring to your attention some concerns within our community the Latino um and specifically the Latino immigrant Community um I know that Governor Murphy passed the law earlier this year requiring students 11th and 12th grade to fill out the fasta some of the concerns within our community and I must admit I'm not well versed in the law I I did uh pull up the the Hessa uh application that needs to be filed and I was reading it some of the concerns is that the upcoming Administration has been um threatening to deport a lot of uh a lot of the people that are here either through through illegal means or through the through their residency they might not have their residency and so some of the uh concerns are will this Administration manipulate the law to use uh the information that these students are filing to uh perhaps Deport some of these parents again I'm not well-versed uh in this uh with this particular matter but it is a concern I thought it was a concern that should be brought up to the board um perhaps the law could be amended to uh to to not make it mandatory but to uh as an option for those that want to seek a career as a college career so that's the concern that I I have I'm hoping that um we're able to uh work with with the administration that's coming hopefully that won not be the case when we wanted to be proactive with it so that's just the concern that I wanted to bring to the board thank you thank you whereas the open public meetings act codified as njsa paragraph 10 col 4-6 oh before I ask for a motion to go into executive session I would like a motion actually I would like to open the table for any questions any discussion on the consent agenda this is the time to to ask your questions or to make your comments if there are no questions if there are no comments may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes jald truart yes Jean buoy yes Eddie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson yes s man absent Larry trailer yes Genie we yes motion passed whereas the open public meetings act codified as njsa paragraph 10 col 4-6 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting under certain circumstances and whereas the Trenton Board of Education is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist indicated as follows any material considered confidential by federal law state statute or Court rule any pending or anticipated 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 the confidentiality is required to preserve the attorney client relationship and allow the attorney to exercise his her ethical duties as a lawyer with matters caption as follow invoices sidebar agreement with Trenton per professional Association and ccbt versus TBE now there be it disolved by the Trenton Board of Education County of Mercer state of New Jersey that an executive session will be held on November 25th 2024 for the statutorily permissible purposes indicated in this resolution be it further resolve that any 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 disclosed to the public 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 the public interest or does not endanger any individual's right to privacy may I have a motion to move into executive session so moved second roll call Yanda Lopez yes Joe truart Jean Buie yes Edie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson yes Sasa man absent Larry trailer yes jeie weand yes adjourn to Executive session thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e