##VIDEO ID:CqVCp2HC8N4## call good okay calling the meeting to order pursuant to the open public meetings ACT public notice of this meeting has been given by the board secretary in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the Vorhees Township Public Schools administrative building on July 8th 2024 sending written notice to The Courier Post on July 8th 2024 filing written notice with the clerk of Vorhees Township on July 8th 2024 and posting on the Vorhees Township website on July 8th 2024 please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so welcome everyone um sorry I wanted to get right down to business obviously so thank you all for being here um I we have a couple of special presentations this evening so we're going to get through this agenda as quickly as possible so we can get to the good stuff um roll call Mr Bryce here Miss K over here Mr Rosen here Mr Rosner here Mrs Rudder here Mrs Stewart here Mrs stuper here miss verie Mrs Watson here can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the August 26 2024 regular board meeting so moved second online voting is open oh why is I think I'm sorry can we back up a second yeah sorry we did not have executive session so that's why I had confused everybody I I should have said that publicly we have no executive session um so we're not returning to public session and I clicked on the wrong thing all good so we're gonna have to revote yeah sorry about that so I'll put in the same motions I guess because I Mr Rosner Mr Bryce for the first and second and now I open online apologize it was Mr was was Rosen was the second oh a second I have two extensions from Mr Bryce and Mrs stuper and one two and six yeses motion passes um I will keep my comments brief um I from what I understand I obviously attended two back to school nights that were fantastic incredibly well-run one at VMS for the sixth graders and the one at Signal Hill yesterday um they were I'm so incredibly proud of all of our teachers for running such wonderful back to school nights and keeping the parents informed I've heard wonderful things from the other schools in the district about their back to school nights running equally as well and seamless and the parents just having a really nice night meeting the teachers and meeting the other students parents in the classroom so thank you to all of the teachers I know that's double duty for many people and they spent really long nights so thank you thank you thank you um the other wonderful news that we have is as you all may have seen an announcement we had um a couple of weeks ago um when there is a um an event in our district that is unfortunate whether it's vandalism whether there's a weapon that we find out about um we are very limited in our ability to discuss those items and we have asked Chief bardy to partner with us to speak to the district at our next board meeting on October 30th to explain the process explain why we can't say anything how it does compromise investigations and what that means for the district um we know that that's really aggravating for a lot of parents but we wanted to address that and and let you know kind of what the process is so that people are a little bit more informed um so we invite everybody to come out to the October 30th meeting so that you can hear Chief B and hear the explanation um and we hope that that gives you guys some um additional information so that you understand our process a little bit better okay moving right along fire drills and safety drills are on the attachments as well as the harassment intimidation and bullying report and the suspension report um we have one Oprah request that is currently closed um board secretary report thank you I'm just giving an update on our early childhood development center on Monday we had our bi-weekly construction meeting over at the site um on that same day our um the framing was inspected and it passed the day after the uh under slab Plumbing was inspected and passed so because of those two things passing then the the pipe trenches can be filled in so today they're being filled in with dirt and also concrete will go on them and the um the sheet sheetrock will go up next on the framed walls site work has begun outside of the building at the playground and duct work installation has already begun uh as well as the installation of Electric electrical conduits and boxes so it's pretty exciting um when we when we meet there Mr matys goes there every single day uh but Dr hack and I go there every two weeks for the meeting and each time we go it looks so different so I know it'll look completely different when we go in two weeks because this time there were still like dirt piles everywhere because they didn't fill the trenches in but Mr MAA sends me pictures every day and it really is remarkable so I know when we go in two weeks it'll look like a different place so it's pretty exciting and it is moving forward so we're we're happy about that thank you okay superintendent report okay thank you good evening everyone and my report is lengthy this evening because there are a few presentations I want to First say that um during our board meetings I'm excited this year because we will showcase a presentation or performance from each of our schools this evening I'm proud to say that we have Miss Morris here from Crescent Miss Morris you want to come on up and give her a round of applause and she has a presentation prepared title Crescent safety patrol where character leads the way thank you I I like getting Applause before I good evening Mrs Watson Dr Hackett board members and community members um it's a pleasure to be here tonight along with Mrs Andrew who is our press and reading Specialists safety patrol advisor many other titles tonight she will be here as our safety patrol adviser and also as you can see we have a select group of five of our safety uh fifth grade safety patrol members they these are really the presenters this evening um as much as I do you know do enjoy the round of applause and the um it's these guys who are really important in letting you know the importance that we place really uh overall on character education at our school and in all of our schools but um the belief we share in also with the leadership of our safeties and how important their role is with all the students in cresen and how they look forward to becoming safeties when they are in fifth grade and generally the role that they play so I'm going to invite Mrs Andrew to come to the podium to tell you a little bit about our safety patrol some of the things that they do and then we'll hear from the students good evening everyone uh I've been the Crescent school safety patrol advisor for the last 15 years at least I tried to backtrack and counted all but it's been a long time anyway I love what I do I love working with the kids um at Crescent we believe that student leadership is an essential part of behavior management which is why we have a safety patrol we think it's important for the students to have a voice and um we do that in many different ways we encourage all of our fifth grade students to participate in our safety patrol where they're given the opportunity to be role models for younger students they're also called upon to help teachers when we have various things happening maybe they help to control the hallways or whatever is happening in the school we definitely reach out for their services we do have an application process which also includes teacher recommendations uh all students are encouraged to participate and the students you see here tonight I'll introduce them in a second and parents thank you for allowing them to come this evening uh the students will be safeties for the first and third marking period and because we have so many students that sign up to be safeties at our school we switch off for the second and fourth marking periods so everyone gets a chance uh just like everything else in school I feel that elementary school is that time where we practice doing the right thing and sometimes we make mistakes and so everyone gets a clean slate and by fifth grade it doesn't matter what kindergarten first second third fourth look like we want you to be a safety and each of these guys says definitely represented our school well and they'll be up to speak with you in just a second our safeties help our kindergarten through second grade students pack up at the end of the day so some of them go into the classrooms to support the teachers they monitor the hallways during dismissal they assist students with their bikes and their helmets uh they guide and remind students on buses of bus safety measures no one is ever tattling that's a big deal as you can imagine um no one is ever tattling on anyone else they remind students hey please walk in the hallway please wear your seat Bel if something's an issue we have conversations each month and the safeties are encouraged just come to me or one of the other uh helpers with our safeties and then we have a conversation with those students but the safety patrol is definitely essential in keeping our Behavior exactly where we want it to be in a very positive way at Crescent School uh we also have safeties that assist our car riders to prepare for parent pickup at our monthly safety meetings we discuss our successes and our challenges as they pertain to safety patrol so sometimes you know these guys speak kid talk so sometimes what we need to hear as adults how is it that we get the point across to the rest of the student body and that's part of the conversation that we'll have at our monthly meetings uh sometimes their ideas are just what we need to keep everyone safe just yesterday we coordinated a poster activity with our current character education program which is Crescent Pride The Pride standing for positivity respect inclusion determination and empathy was that fun and then they decorated the hallways they did a great job uh tonight I have the pleasure of introducing a few of our safety patrol members who will share their why statements why they want it to be a safety uh so we have when I call your name would you just stand up we have stff goldra Iris noack Darren Lance Grayson Kesler and Marley goldenstein I joined the safety patrol because I'm a leader I would make sure younger grades are safe and not running in hallways and that they're in straight bus lines I'd also make sure that they have seat belts on when Seated on the bus before I was in fifth grade safeties have always helped me and my friends so I always look forward to doing the same I will demonstrate being calm and respectful I will guide little kids to their classroom or destination and help kids put their seat bels on also I will be a good role model but doing the right thing I joined the I joined the safety patrol because I am kind and I am good role model for to all the boys and girls at cresen I want to make a positive impact at school I'm excited to help others thank [Applause] you the reason I applied for safety patrol this year is that I wanted to be kind and help other students who may be lost I will also try to be a a role model every day and follow directions as well as school rules I look for forward to helping Crescent elementary [Applause] school as a safety patrol member I can help the younger students safy safely get to their spots at the end of the day if a student is lost or confused I could direct them where they need to be I can make sure they can feel comfortable by being friendly and kind I will also make sure students don't run in the hallways or yell inappropriately for these reasons I would be a great Safety Patrol member [Applause] in addition to our safety patrol and thank you very much did great job in addition to our safety patrol we would also like to share with you one of our most important endof year grade five Awards our school resource officers dear to my heart I certainly could not run busing I right now we have Officer Jim and do we love Officer Jim I mean there's not a child in the school that Officer Jim doesn't know and prior to Officer Jim we had officer Scott Davis again dear to my heart um and officer Scott Davis came to me one day and I I say how important are school resource officers are because they're family to us and um they're also role models and they play a huge role in why we have a safety patrol um the yes there's our coin so uh officer Scott Davis came to me one day and he had an idea he said Barb I'd like to create a challenge coin and he had a coin that was given to him and he shared it with me and I had never even heard of it and I thought it was such a cool idea so he said could we partner with the Vorhees police department and the Vorhees school system and create a coin a a challenge coin for our students and if you look at the coin we selfishly took the k r s o n that matched at the time our character traits that we were focusing on at Cresent school and we together created the character coin of Excellence uh so by the at the end of the school year we look very very carefully throughout the year and throughout all of your years at cresen for that student sometimes more than one student but believe it or not it's it's such a prestigious award at our school that it's not easy to win so um we look at the students who definitely demonstrate the epitome of kindness responsibility selflessness empathy self-awareness optimism and nobility and at the end of the year we award the coin of character um officer Davis before his passing he asked that this be the one thing that we continue I can't believe I'm getting choked up over this but I do believe it he asked that we make sure that we always do this we love this award we we get every teacher involved in making decisions about this award and I hope it's something that as you open it it's in front of you I hope you realize how important it may be to the students who who win this award so it's something that's that kind of brings us and our school resource officer together at the end of the year uh just to continue that that push for leadership at the elementary level so thank you very much we just have a small token of appreciation for our safety patrol miss Andrew thank you for your 15 years of dedication to that program thank you for [Applause] we are not going to keep you guys here please feel free to leave congratulations to all the families thank you so much for coming we're great okay I'm gonna move into my report so good evening everyone I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated staff for their incredible efforts during the successful first few weeks of school your commitment to our students and Community has has been truly inspiring I also want to extend a special thank you to our supportive parents for their patience their kindness and just their overall collaboration with the school district we have faced a few Transportation challenges as we started the school year and I just want to thank the parents for their patients and please rest assured that our transportation coordinator is actively working to address and resolve all issues as quickly as possible together we are creating a positive and enriching environment for our students and I am so appre itive of everyone at our last board meeting in August uh there was a lot of discussion regarding the new sewer line that we'd like to put here at the board office just to give a little background we currently have a septic tank here and we want to put in a sewer line and so there were a couple of questions asked at the board meeting that I'd like to respond to the first question was um why was the architect's quote for the sewer line underestimated so just a little bit of background uh we budgeted $250,000 for the sewer line the uh uh quote from the vendor came in at $613,000 which was 363,000 over what we budgeted so the question was why was this U budget why was this estimate so um why was the actual number so much greater than our estimate so the district reviewed the um called the our architect our architect uses an engineer to look at the system and determine what a good estimate would be so we then called the engineering firm to ask why was the estimate so much um greater or so much lower I'm sorry so the engineer gave us four reasons the first he said the engineer said was complexity the project that uh we're you that he used to compare us to is not as complex as the project we have here at the board office so when the engineer came up with the estimate of $250,000 he was using projects that that he thought were similar but our project does have some complexity because of the depth the utility conflicts the location the highway um so that made the estimating very difficult he actually over exaggerated estimated price and it still came um so much um lower reason number two is that there's a Fear Factor in production rate is extremely difficult to quantify and put a monetary value on the Fear Factor of a project like this as well as try to guess what a contractor thinks the production rate will be for projects as complicated as this a contractor will apply a higher multiplier in the price to make sure they are protected in the event of slowdowns or unforeseen conditions he did give an example he said if an engineer thinks a contractor can install 150 feet of sewer main a day for this project but the contractor believes that only 50 feet can be installed this will increase the cost three times as much the third reason was because of the um there's anticipation of how the work will be completed the engineer May believe that the work can be completed one way but then the contractor looks at it and says no we can't do that so that would also increase the costs finally the fourth reason was because there were a lot of additional requests from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Camden County Utility Authority and Vorhees Township uh they asked for a lot of um additional things that doubled in linear feed into the project and more importantly the added length of a pipe was in a very complex area in the front of the school and had a much bigger compounding effect than the engineer estimated so the engineer um truly believes that he provided an estimate to the best of his ability based on previous projects but those four reasons that I cited above are made the made the estimate difficult and of course we were under what the actual cost is okay during the August meeting there was a Community member who asked some questions about the sewer line I did respond to that Community member in an email um I'm not sure if the Community member received it I did not get a response back but I do want to answer the question now the first question was why was the sewer line project not completed in the previous three years because we've had this um in our budget for three years to do and so the response to that is it was challenging to move the project forward due to the need for extensive coordination between our professionals and various agencies we appointed a new architect in January of 23 who prioritize advancing the project out of the significant concern that the septic system was nearing the end end of its life cycle another question asked by that Community member is why do we need the sewer line response is the board office was built in 1957 making the septic system 67 years old the average life expectancy of a septic system is 40 years and I believe we've gained an additional 27 years because during this time the building transitioned from a school to an administrative office which reduced the number of flushes that the septic system had to handle the next question was if the sep system was failing why was the superintendent's private bathroom installed so first I just want to be very clear that there was not an installation of a large bathroom there was a toilet and vanity and a wall built in a space that was designed as a kitchenet so there was already a kitchenet in that superintendent Suite that had existing Plumbing a toilet and vanity were installed in the context of a septic tank the primary concern is the volume of waste water produced which is related to the number of flushes rather than the number of toilets each flush adds to the overall volume of waste in the tank so if the septic system is nearing the end of its life or already overloaded yes a new toilet can incipy intensify the problem if it leads to significantly more flushes and I can say that as now with the additional toilet there are no additional flushes being made to the toilet so I did have now answered the questions from the um about the sewer and I hope that if there are any other questions you can please feel free to email me there were a few other questions uh not related to the Sewer at the meeting um what's the direction for AI for our staff um artificial intelligence AI is a big thing right now in education and I can tell you that I'm so proud of Mr Tay and his in compl his technology team we are working toward training our teachers by the end of the year all of our teachers would have had four hours of training on um Ai and some of the tools that we'll be using so we are mindful that AI can have a positive impact in the classroom but we're also mindful that it has to be used appropriately so we are planning for that training and then there was another question what's the status of the Middle School principal position and um we conducted a second round of interviews on August 28th and Miss Alicia inch who is present this evening was identified as the top candidate and her name appears on the agenda this evening another question how will Preschool teachers be placed until the school opens that was a great question are Preschool teachers are now partnered with our existing preschool staffs so our Vorhees Early Childhood preschool teachers are matched up with our existing preschool staff and they are working to learn the curriculum we pull them out we're going to pull them out once a week to receive training so when that building opens they will be ready to go so they are partnered with our existing teachers now and what um there was another question about the impact of the cell phone policy or will there be a cell phone policy and I believe that's a matter that's going to be um introduced in upcoming policy meeting and that ends those questions um we have a parent workshop on October 15th at 7 o'clock and I hope all of our parents can attend it's our annual harassment intimidation and bullying uh Workshop but this year there will be a slight difference in it we're going to really focus on the difference between bullying and conflict and really provide a lot of information in that area so I hope that our parents can attend on the website is a list of all of our parent virtual workshops for the year with the links to join so I hope that you're able to join us on October 15th and I also like to share some initiatives we are implementing as proactive measures to ensure a safe and secure learning environment in our district as a data driven District we utilize various data sets to make informed decisions and identify trends that guide our efforts a recent data point is the profile survey that we sent out for the next Middle School assistant principal in which parents and teachers together 63.2% indicated that behavior is the most pressing issue facing the middle school so that's a large percentage so we want to look at that data point as well as other data points and begin to make sure that we have a proactive measure to address any concerns that our parents and teachers have over the past two years we've seen an increase in our suspensions among male students students uh districtwide and particularly the African-American and Hispanic subgroups in our middle school so we have to address that issue as well so in addition to the existing programs of the middle school that focus on climate and culture I've been working with Miss in and we meet once a week uh to come up with some other U more proactive initiatives to support our students and she's worked with her administrative team and I see Mr went said is here this evening welcome the first um idea we came up was an empowerment guest speaker series where we bring bring in guest speakers to speak to our students uh regarding uh kindness um the value of their self-worth reflection respect so we are looking to get our first speaker in and then after the speaker finishes we'll have subgroups where people will come in and bring kids out into smaller groups and speak with them and talk to them and then we'll have our next speaker and then we'll have subgroups and these speakers will be a various um ethnic backgrounds so it's the same message but we'll get it from different ways next we looking at a teacher mentorship program where we're going to offer our teachers a stien to serve as mentors for some of our students in that role we ask the teachers to meet with the students in the morning and meet with them at the end of the day if you see them in a hallway how's their day going if they were unfortunately not to follow our code of conduct we expect that teacher to meet with them and talk to them or the teacher will introduce him or herself to the families and let them know I'm the mentor for your child this year it's just a way to connect and so that students know that there's someone in the school who they can connect connect to so we're looking at bringing that program as teacher mentorship program we're also looking at a Saturday reflection sessions um and that's is where students who may not have followed our code of conduct will have to join us on a Saturday and they'll watch a video on Behavior Uh engage in restorative practices so how can I get better what can I do to improve and discuss expectations with the teacher and also set some goals when that Saturday is over and you walk in the door on Monday what's your goals what are you going to do so that this whatever you're here for does not happen again because again there is a consequence to behavior but a consequence cannot be the only thing now we have to build what are we going to do next so we're going to bring this Saturday um session back and I think um almost 43% of the teachers at the middle school indicated that they would they would be willing to work this session so that's wonderful and then finally mandatory post suspension meetings so we do know unfortunately that suspensions are um sometimes warranted and we have to follow our policy so every student who comes back from suspension will'll have to meet with Miss in as a readmit so sometimes when your parent picks a child up on a Friday because there's been a problem they'll meet with someone very quickly and then that's it the child comes back on Monday well that will not be it anymore uh the parent will have to come in and S have a sit down and we're going to talk about um ways to come up with a plan of action so that whatever happened does not happen again on the second suspension and we're hoping that we don't get there but a student who suspended the second time their readmit conference will be with me in my office here the parent will have to come in and sit with me and so that we can build a relationship and we can come up with a plan so that we don't have a third suspension so that would be that's what the some of the things we're putting in place that we're hoping will promote and improve our climate um at the middle school the middle school is great but there are a few students who we have to say to themselves we have to love them and teach them to love themselves and make sure that they're being respectful at all times so we are working towards that we hear you we heard the the survey we know that there is a concern and we are certainly addressing that concern okay at this time I'm gonna invite Miss donle up and Miss Donley is going to do a presentation a very brief presentation on our Hib self assessment report this is an annual report that we are required to provide thank you Miss Donley good evening Mrs Watson Dr hacket board members and community members uh annually the New Jersey Department of Education puts out the anti-bullying Bill of Right self assessment um and this is done by our anti-bully specialist in each building um so it's a self assessment reflecting on eight core points might need help here perfect um there's a rubric that's provided by the Department of Education um so you can get one point or four points for each of the eight core elements it either does not we have not met the requirements we partially meet the requirements we met all of the requirements or we exceed the requirements thank you uh this was part of the anti-bullying Bill of Rights um which started in 2011 and the eight core values um basically go through programs and initiatives that the schools have individually so all five schools have to take this have to do the self assessment um programs and initiatives training on um Board of Education approved policy other staff training programs curriculum and instruction as it relates to harassment intimidation and bullying um our harassment intimidation and bullying Personnel School level reporting procedures our investigative procedures and all of our harassment intimidation and bullying reporting procedures thank you so each building did complete their self assessment and the results get tallied into a total score so for the five schools in our core element one which is the programs approaches and other initiatives that includes like assemblies how um what kind of programs the schools are using the character education that's being used so a possible 15 points our five schools averaged of 14.6 in core element one thank you um for core element two training um there's certain things that are mandated every year staff has to be trained in harassment intimidation and bullying um suicide prevention training takes place um hi policy needs to be discussed with students so for core element two out of a possible nine points we uh District average was at 8.8 for core element three um other staff instruction and training whether our anti-bully Specialists or if they have an opportunity to participate in professional development um our we have school safety teams how often they meet so that's all part of it again out of 15 points our district average was a 14.4 for core element number four which is curriculum and instruction on Hib related information and skills there was six points possible we were at a 5.6 uh core element five total of nine points available and the district average was nine points um that we're just following the Personnel procedures we have an anti-bully specialist in each building um anti-bully coordinator Yours Truly um and that our school safety specialist teams are active and they do meet two times a year so we did have nine points there for core element six our incident reporting procedures we use a program called hipster it's very helpful it kind of lines everything up for us so out of six total points our district average was a 5.8 for court element s the investigation process and procedures again it's all timestamped everything has a deadline and that aligns with hibster um how we notify parents the completion when the board finds about any incidents that a car um so out of 12 points we averaged all 12 and core element eight is the reporting and that is um again the timeline that is required by the state for reporting and out of possible six points our districts had had six so our total score out of the 78 points on the self assessment the district score for this year was a 76.2 and for last year was 76 so small gains still gains good moving in the right direction um so basically we're finding that um we either meet we either meet or exceed the requirements for all of those core elements anyone have any questions I have a question yes um do you do any education with parents and Community to educate them on what a Hib is when to use a hi because we do get the data that they're founded or unfounded and a lot of them are unfounded so do you do any sort of Education to say this is when you should file a Hib this is when you shouldn't file a Hib do because for my understanding is anybody can walk in and say I want to file a Hib and you looked at me the wrong way right I mean is there so so right because you have to legally right so is there any sort of Education that you schools Etc do to educate the community yes to kind every October I have done virtual presentations and this October 15th which Dr hacket mentioned her report I'll have a parent Workshop just for parents to to to come to you know log in and sign in and I have a whole presentation yeah I think you got to I mean how big as your usual audience because small right so I don't know how maybe there's like another way that you could become more effective and really reach to the community just to save you know right no we present it every October it's on the website so I do put the PowerPoint slides up on the website and I believe last year I sent it out but Dr huckin and I actually spoke today that we're going to do a standalone of just my presentation um after I present it so that every parent will get it through our email blast as well I also communicate with parents very regularly when they have an active harassment intimidation and bullying case right so how the appeal process works um what are the steps that can be taken my point is like you shouldn't have to get that for right I mean people should be aware right and understand when that tool is necessary and unnecessary so sure yes it's an idea always willing to help educate yeah thank you thank you thank you very much Miss sty um each year we're required to report um on our access for El's which Miss uh Lions did last year last month I'm sorry for the multilingual students we had a report on that and now Dr aligre is going to report on Dynamic learning Maps which is also an annual report and then I will follow Dr alagria with our annual state assessment report normally Mr mosis or our assistant superintendent would uh present this report unfortunately Mr moscowitz is ill today he wanted to be here he did a great job putting the report together and I hope I do him Justice by presenting it so after Dr alagria I will be next presenting our njsla annual state assessment report so Dr alagria okay good evening good evening Mrs Watson and all members of the board and our community so um as Dr um hacket mentioned we do have to present annually on the dynamic learning Maps which is called DM and this is the alternate assessment for our students who are in some of our more um involved self-contained classes such as an Autism or multiple disabilities class okay so what is the dlm the dlm is really for our students who are unable to access the njsla due to their cognitive uh disabilities and so this is for students in grades 3 through eight and it does focus on the essential elements which are in relation to the New Jersey standards for students in the general population it is a tiered assessment and it is done individually for each student there we go so who can take the dlm uh this criteria that's up on the board is something that is reviewed at every IEP meeting for students who are being considered for the dlm so we're looking to see if the student has a disability that significantly impacts their intellectual fun um functioning and adaptive behavior that the student is taught primarily using the dlm essential elements that the student requires extensive repeated individualized instruction and support that is not of a temporary or Transit nature the student uses substantially adapted materials and individualized methods of assessing that information and the student significant intellectual disability will impact their post School outcom such as employment or housing so this is something that the IEP team reviews with every student who this is under consideration so the dlm is administered by the classroom teachers this really is a big effort because it is done individually so often times this is um something that's worked out in the classroom through you know centers and and and whatnot to allow for the teacher or even in IA to really support that student but the classroom teachers are responsible for administering the test to each of the students who meet that criteria and their um assessment or their uh performance excuse me is tiered and so I'll talk about that a little bit there are multiple testlets that can be administered within the day but it really just does depend on that individual learner so if we're looking at the test results we have emerging approaching the target at Target and advanced for our students who we find who get on the advanced level those are the students that we're trying to push up and move out of the Essential Elements and more into the into the New Jersey uh NJ SLA for the following year those individual student reports are mailed home to families in the fall every school year uh this is just some information on um their performance level indicators and how to interpret those results so we're looking at our vori student assessment details we had 25 students take the the dlm for ELA and 23 for math the discrepancy between the two student discrepancy is because we did have two of our students in that type of program of autism MD or even lld take the njsla so they took that in math because that's where they had higher skills and were able to be assessed and then they took it in El the dlm and Ela we also had nine students take the dlm in science so science is given in grades five and eight so some of those results um when we're looking at the ELA we had 11 students at emerging we have nine students at approaching Target four at the Target and one at that advanced um very similar results for the math which is 11 students for emerging five students approaching the target six at the Target and one in advance our science scores are too low we don't quite have 10 students so I'm unable to report specifics on that uh due to confidentiality but um we did have a few students who took the science sorry all right so when we break down our scores a little bit more we have 40 for this year we had 44 students at the emerging 36% of our students at approaching Target and 20 at Target or Advanced and then I put the scores for last year 2023 and then we can look at the difference so our emerging has gone down by 1 % our approaching target has increased by 6% and our at Target in advance has increased by 7% for ELA our math scores are a little bit there's a little bit more um of an increase so we're looking at our emerging we had 48% in emerging uh and 22% at approaching Target and 30% at or above Target or Advanced so our emerging has reduced by 28 which is great and then we see that our approaching Target our approaching is increased by 21% which is a pretty big increase and then our at Target in advanced has increased by 7% so across the board we are seeing our numbers decrease where they need to but then also seeing those increases at approaching Target at Target and advanced So the plan for 2425 is the testing window begins April 7th and it goes until May 23rd the majority of the time we use that entire testing window just due the comp to the complexity of administering the test as it is very individualized but we do send out letters to families letting them know about the testing window some of the interventions that we have put in place this year and reviewing some of the dlm assessment data and really just drilling down on what are the the needs are of our students include the some additions and modifications to the curriculum that's being used within those self-contained classes we use the star assessment or use a sar curriculum and then link stars in our elementary and then we use links in our Middle School we've also added the implementation of all which is accessible literacy learning we have seen that our literacy does need to be um increased and improved especially when it comes to the dlm and so we are looking to work through that for this year um in addition to of course our discret trials our pivotal response training our community based instruction that we have and many other um components of our self-contained program just working through those as well and sorry might have to move it for me oh that was it okay so that's it thank you very much um thank you okay so I have the pleasure of presenting this information and I just want to first again acknowledge Mr moscowitz thank you so much acknowledge Mr moscowitz for putting this report together and he really was very disappointed that he could not be here this evening to present the data so I'm going to present the New Jersey student learning assessment results for 2024 I'm looking at you but I have the slide my hand there we go thank you um just this is the vision for public education New Jersey and it basically says that in New Jersey we want to prepare everyone to be 21st century thinkers and Learners we want everyone to have critical thinking and one of the things we done this year in the district is we put together a district kind of definition of rigor what is rigor and rigor is meeting every child their ability level and taking them right before they get to frustration that is rigor and rigor looks different for each and every child there are five performance levels for the njsla for the purposes of this report we focus on levels four and five because that is a reporting on proficiency we look at level three because those are kids who are right there on the borderline and levels one and two we do address them outside of this presentation because we have many many um elements in place to address their needs our oage assistant principal than you here our oage assistant principal is um now responsible for basic skills instruction and also responsible for response to intervention RTI that person was responsible for English across the district and we took that away and gave um that person RTI response to intervention and basic skills and basically the work that Miss Morgan has done has been incredible in the last two years she's put together a structure so that RTI and basic skills looks the same across the district that we have the same structures in place that our kids are getting the same interventions um the she's made the RTI process much more succinct but it meets the needs of all the students so I want to thank her publicly along with Miss Ross who's worked very closely with her to get make sure that we have these structures in place and that's how we meet the needs of our level one and two students through RTI through basic skills through small group instruction where teachers Place students in groups and then meet them at their ability level getting everyone to the goal which is the standard for the day but it looks different if I'm looking at level one group they may have a lot of manipulatives level three group may have some advanced work but the goal is to get everyone to the standards of the great level standards but it just looks different because everyone's rigor looks different next so I just want to share a little bit of information with the community before we go into the report so that you can look for these things in our report level five Proficiency in math which means that the student has exceeded grade level expectations it was higher in every grade tested with the exception of grade five which remained unchanged so all of the grades except for grade five saw an increase in the number of students who were level five proficiency in math except for grade five and they remain the same as 2023 level five Proficiency in ela again students who have exceeded grade level expectations was higher in grade six level four in ela was higher in all grades except for grade four and you're going to hear a lot about grade four during my presentation if you may recall from last year our grade four students were grade three last year grade three last year scores were the lowest of all of the great groups last year and we had said last year that those students were in kindergarten when covid uh we went out for covid and they were in first grade when we had the hybrid year so they lost a lot of that core instruction so we knew that our fourth graders this year we would um not see the results that we had seen in previous fourth grade years we we anticipated that and you'll see that throughout the presentation the njsla proficiency for levels four and five are gradually approaching what they were pre pandemic which is important because we want to get back to that number and then we want to exceed it there have been three administrations of the njsla since um pre pandemic we've had three administrations okay subgroup data has shown that Ela and math from 23 to 24 um has increased and we also um I'm very proud to say decreasing the achievement Gap so our subgroups are our racial groups along with our economic disadvantage which are those students who receive free and reduced lunch and also our special education students we do not report data for our multilingual Learners at this time because the number is below 10 for the grade levels and we cannot report that data our areas for growth which you will see throughout this presentation are grades four and seven you'll see that those are our areas for growth we anticipated grade four would be an area grade seven we are researching to determine some of those areas and why they um why that great level was is Target now this uh slide shows you how we are in comparison to the state average so in ela you can see that we are above the state average in all areas uh just draw your attention to grade five we're 27% above the state average in math as well we are above the state average in every grade and if you can look at algebra one which is dynamic we are 59% above the state average in Algebra 1 which is incredible so although we do have grade four and seven as our Target grades they still were above the state average okay this next slide looks at pre-pandemic difference and also shows you the state average so you can see the state average for every grade level in English language arts and then I'm just drawing your attention to the pre-pandemic difference so the area in yellow means we still have not met the pre-pandemic difference and that is comparing 20 2004 to 2019 the 1819 school year was the last year of testing before the pandemic so the areas in yellow indicate that we still have that percentage to go before we meet pre-pandemic numbers the areas in green indicate that for grade five we've exceeded our pre-pandemic number by 6% and in grade six we've met our pre-pandemic number so we still have work to do and you'll see there four and seven definitely are the grades there that indicate that there is still work to be done so again in grade four we did anticipate that the students in grade four for 24 were going to do we're not going to do as good as the students who were in grade four and 23 we knew that because of the performance in grade three and you can see for grade four in 2023 it was 75% and in 2024 67% proficiency so when comparing grade four to grade four we did know that there would not more than likely would not be an Inc increase but one data point I do want to show you is if you look at what they were those same students in grade three for 2023 they were 57% had Proficiency in 2024 when they were fourth graders it was 67% proficiency so let me just CAU you that they are not the same exact students but the majority of them are there are some students who transfer in and transfer out but we are seeing that when they were third grade they were 57 and fourth grade they were 67 so when we're comparing the same students to each other we did see an increase okay it's not the strongest of data points but it is one to um consider that they are improving when you compare them to themselves but not to the previous grade level I think this is very sensitive here okay I just want to show you level one two and three data um again for levels one and two we have interventions in place and I'll go a little bit more into some of those interventions at the end of the presentation and we do look at level three to see those students who are right there on the borderline but we just want to share uh this data to show the trend over the last four years this presentation will definitely be on the website for you to be able to further digest the information and if you have any questions you can definitely email myself or Mr mosquit these are the data points we look at those four and five for proficiency sake if you see an area in green it means when compan ing 23 to 24 there was an increase the areas in yellow when you're comparing 20 um 3 to 24 there was a decrease okay again we're comparing 23 24 you're comparing two different groups of students in that grade and if you look at the fourth grade um they had in 23 they had 50% and in 24 they had 43 so that was they didn't even keep up with themselves for that particular time and that's something that we have to definitely look into but I do want to give an example that just because there's a decrease in level four it may not be the worst thing if you look at grade six there was a decrease of 51% to 48% When comparing 23 to 24 which is about is which is 3% but if you go on to the level five there was a 16% in 23 and a 26% in 24 so although there was a decrease those students are more than likely over in the level five so every time there's a decrease in level four it would not automatically translate to that there's an issue if those kids are sitting now in level five which is a good thing so when you look at the level four chart the only data point that we would look at as an area of concern would be the fourth grade because that sixth grade they're more than likely sitting over in level five now which is a good thing okay uh looking at level five we did see some uh dips in grades three four and seven and eight and uh we're going to talk about grade eight shortly in English language arts okay so now we're looking at the individual schools and the first data point is the called the change that is from 23 to 24 if it's in green there was an increase when comparing third graders of 24 to third graders of 23 we see that there's those um in each school there were all increases grade four which is the grade that we're targeting when you compare them to the fourth graders the year before there was not an increase actually there was a decrease but again we want to go back and look at what they did in grade three so we comparing them to themselves grade five we saw some great numbers the change went up in every um school with the exception of Signal Hill so let's just take a quick look at some of those third to fourth grade comparisons if you look at ET Hamilton in third grade in 2023 was 55% proficiency but if you go over to fourth grade it is 65% proficiency so again in comparing that the majority of that same group of students we are seeing an increase we just didn't see it large enough for them to be compared to the fourth grade class the year before so but we are seeing and that's what we want we want students to improve individually we do have work to do with this particular class which are now fifth graders this year but we definitely saw that they improved in English language arts the next um group of information is your prepandemic numbers if they are in yellow we still have room to go before we get to that pre-pandemic number if it's in green we have either met or exceeded the pre-pandemic number and if you look at Crescent for grade four even though grade four has been our challenge they are 11% above their pre-pandemic number and you can see in grade five every school has exceeded now their pre-pandemic number we're going to do the same data point for MTH looking at that pre- pandemic difference and also the state average again we're well above the state average in every grade level prepandemic if it's green we if it's a 0% that means the same we met the 2024 is the same as 2019 um any the other green is above the pre-pandemic number and the yellow means we have not met it yet and again you see grades four and seven it'll be a trend you'll see grades four and seven throughout this presentation as um grade levels that we have to address and those students are going to be Fifth and eighth graders this year this is a very sensitive device here okay we're going to go to grades three four and five in math and see the same data set we'll see the change if you see green that means there was an increase from 23 to 24 When comparing the grade levels and the prepandemic numbers in yellow means we haven't met it yet the pre pandemic if it's in green and there's a couple zeros there either we um have met it or the green other green areas means we have passed it again grade four stands out as our um area of concern again that was the third grade class of last year where we had very low uh scores for that grade level okay and this unfortunately in math doesn't work out quite the same just mov it doesn't work out as quite the same when you're looking at the third grade to the fourth grade um so for example if you look at ET Hamilton for 2023 in grade three it was 69% but when you go to grade four it was 66% so we did not in MTH see the same results that we saw in English where when comparing majority of the kids to themselves there was an increase what I can say about grade four though is that is the grade level when it comes to math where you get most of the new standards ards and you get most of the difficult standards that's when the fraction comes in a lot of high level decimals so that is a very tough grade across the state of New Jersey in math grade four um but we are concerned that we didn't see the same level of growth that we saw in um Ela and one of the things that we are doing this year is we're going to all the fourth grade classes we've we went to two schools already when I say we Mr moscowitz Miss Donley and myself and we'll be going to two more schools next week uh to look at the fourth grade this is just uh quick visits then we'll do our real visits in October we'll be go going to the third fourth and fifth grade math classrooms we're just looking for Trends and we're looking for that level of rigor that we um have talked about as a staff um in the district okay we're going to look at levels one two and three in math again that's just for your information and again this will be shared so people can digest the information more and ask any questions they have our mathematics scores this is the difference between um 23 and 24 if you see green it means there is an increase and the yellow areas means that there was a decrease When comparing 23 to 24 again the areas are the fourth and seventh grade you'll see those in yellow and we're definitely going to look at what happened in grade three but all other areas were an increase when comparing levels four and five uh 23 and 24 school years okay we're moving to the middle school we had 74% in total grade six Ela proficiency four and five was 74% which is very good in seventh grade 72% and in e8th grade we had 69% now in e8th grade there was a dip this year and we'll talk about that in another slide there was a humongous dip in comparing 23 to 24 but even with that dip we still had 69% so we're looking at about 25 to 30% of students who are not scoring at the four and five level um we definitely um have work to do but a lot of them are falling in level three so we're going to focus on what was what was it about um the level three that kept them from getting a four and we're going to work on that as well we do a lot of individual data keeping to determine where our students are falling short the next um comparison for our middle school again you see the change if it's in green we have imp crov comparing 23 and 24 or stayed the same if it's in yellow there was a difference and this is where I want to point out 8th grade as you can see in 23 the eth grade class in ela had 84% of proficiency which was excellent but this year they had 69% which is a little bit more in line to 22 and 19 so we're trying to determine what the factor was that where there was that 84 to 69 was the 84 just a unique Year we're definitely trying to determine why there's such a a big difference there I can tell you that we did have one English teacher out on the leave and one basic skills English teacher was also on a leave but again it's just that such a large number that 84% and the other numbers are a little more consistent so we're just definitely trying to look at what happened there and I'll talk to you later on about evidence statements that are going to help us figure that out and then they um movement toward pre pandemic uh the sixth grade has met their pre-pandemic and in seventh and eth we have a little ways to go to get there 6% and 5% okay our math results are not as good as our English results where we have 52% Proficiency in grade six so we do have um a lot of work to do there and uh we do have 28% sitting in level three so we need to figure out what how they fell short why they fell short and provide them with the intervention that they need and those level one and two students we need to continue with our RTI our basic skills Dr aligre is working in her department so that we can continue to move these kids along this Continuum our seventh grade math had a 50% proficiency again we have work to do so half our students in grade seven are proficient level four and five we have a large group sitting in level three 30% so we're going to work and see work with that and grade eight uh 36% I know that seems very low and you'll see in comparison to three years that it is about on point what what have was happening even pre- pandemic however these uh this score does not include your algebra 1 students where there was a 99% proficiency and they were 59% over the state average this does not include those students these are the students who do not take algebra one and again we have work to do with only with only a 36% proficiency we're going to work on that as well okay this is a comparison of the change for the maap and you can see we have more green on this page the area that is not green is grade seven and again four and seven are our two areas but you can see that the change is increased in math and they um all of the grade levels except for seven are have met their uh pre-pandemic number exceeded their pre-pandemic number okay this is a slide I just want to show you uh it's going to be another shot that makes this a lot more easier to interpret um but the first uh row um First Column I'm sorry is total population that's the number of students all the students together who scored a level four and five and then it you can see in comparison to how our subg groups did our economic disadvantage our Caucasian students are African-American Hispanic Asian and IEP and again our multilingual lingual Learners are not on this chart because of suppression but you can see how how our students are moving close to the total population or if they're further from the total population that results in our achievement Gap if our students are far from the total population we have a larger achievement Gap so we are trying to close that achievement Gap and again I'll show you a better slide for that okay we did the same thing here with math trying to see who's close to the achievement Gap who's close to the total population and who's not right and then this is a better slide here so in English language arts this is our sub group information everywhere you see green it means that there was an increase from 23 to 24 and what you want to note is if if you look at grade three for example 5% the total population increased by 5% When comparing 23 to 24 we went up 5% but look at our economic disadvantage they went up 7% our African-American students went up 9% our Hispanic students went up 25% and our Asian students went up 9% Caucasian 2% so what it means is that our subgroups are beginning to exceed the total population increase meaning that we are close the achievement okay this thing is just moving on its own I think it's telling me to move ahead um math results again same thing if you see the green now you're going to see where there's a lot of yellow where is the yellow it's in our fourth grade and we've talked about fourth grade and it's in our seventh grade if you take out the fourth and seventh grade there you'll definitely see that there is more areas that are green which means again uh if you look at just look at grade three again e economic disadvantaged went up by 11% total population went up by five we're closing the achievement Gap Hispanic 30% for grade three we're closing the achievement Gap so in conclusion we're going just share a few things that I talked about in the beginning and then add a few more level five proficiency and math we talked about that in the beginning has exceeded um has increased in all grade levels except for five which was exactly the same so we did very well in math as far as level five level um five efficiency in ela went up by in grade six and level four went up in grades three five seven and8 again grade four is not included that is in Target area for us every school in grade five surpassed their Ela proficiency levels that were achieved pre pandemic subgroup data has shown increases in language arts and math and decreases in the achievement Gap subgroup data in ela so higher proficiencies in grades three five and six and the Hispanic subgroup which was a focus last year saw 25% Improvement in grade three and 32% in grade six why was our Hispanic population a focus group their scores were the lowest last year and their chronic absenteeism was the highest so we did um have a significant focus on our Hispanic subgroup this year the economic disadvantage subgroup saw gains in grades three to six with the greatest gains in grade five 177% the focus last year again are Hispanic IC and our economically disadvantaged students both resulted in improving their performance in five of six grades the math the math data trended posi positively in three five six and eight what grade levels are missing four and seven economic disadvantaged subgroup made gains in three five six and eight and our IEP subgroup made gains in three four five six and eight so congratulations to our department of special services so what challenges do we have so we do have some challenges we have to look at um fourth grade and 8ighth grade which is our new um seventh graders in literacy because that went down we want to look at level five Proficiency in ela and why did it go down uh fourth and seventh grade proficiency scores were lower from the previous year which we said throughout the presentation so we are looking at that as well and we want to continue closing that achievement Gap and our efforts with the sub group math will continue um for the students who are were in grades four and seven who are now Fifth and eighth graders so our last two slides our intervention strategies again I spoke about RTI and basic skills being more cohesive across the district more structured um that is one intervention we're also going to continue to look at I ready because it has shown to be a good predictor of student performance um we have what we call evidence statements the state gives us evidence statements which tells us what state standards we're falling Below in our instructional coaches will work with our teachers on those standards our instructional coaches will work with our teachers on multi-step math problems and small group instruction we'll continue to do walkthroughs we're implementing a new Ela program in grad 3 to five we have advanced math in grades four and five and the lead teachers at Ela at the middle school are looking at that eighth grade data for ELA and that seventh grade data to determine where we need to make the Improvement areas and the last slide we have a phonic program in K And1 we spent all last year creating literacy benchmark assessments three to eight and now we're ready to actually Implement those and they will be given the same assessment to each grade level one time per marking period so that we can find out the trends and across the district in each of our grade levels so those benchmark assessments in math and Ela will be administered this year we have an extended day morning program we'll be implement ing a win program which we're very excited about and that's when students in grade two will spend 30 minutes three times a week working with the teacher that will meet them at their ability level where they are introduce enough rigor to get them right before they get to that frustration level but we want to make sure that we're meeting the kids where they are and taking them where they need to be and we'll continue working on closing that achievement Gap this year our Focus um we focus on all students but there'll be specific focus on our African-American subgroup because this year they scored the lowest okay and that ends my report are you [Applause] taking we ask a question um I saw in your data I mean you went through it so quickly but between third and fourth grade you saw in third grade in 2023 there was a huge jump and then last year so what what is the reason for that huge jump and then I saw it I think in ela and math and then it seemed like in before there was a big de decrease so what was the cause of the huge increase which is amazing but then why did those same kids back off are you referring to grade 8 Ela no third third to 4th 2023 I think it was in ela okay and math um you had a huge you had a huge positive in 2023 which are those kindergarteners third grade and then 2024 it looked like in both categories they decreased so I wasn't sure like why they had such a great 2023 and then a negative 2024 okay we're going to pull up the presentation because I want to see I want to make sure I know exactly what you're referring to it's um let's try slide let's try the six slide let's see if that's what she's referring to that's not it try one more is this the slide you're referring to 75% in 2023 to 67% in 2024 that's fourth graders compared to Fourth Graders so 20 24 fourth graders and 2023 fourth graders as comparing the two there was a drop when you're comparing the fourth graders from the two years but what I did was I went back and looked at 2023 for grade three was 57% and then 2024 when they were fourth graders is 67% so although they did not meet the level of the fourth grade class previously when you're comparing them to the majority of themselves there was an increase a math want to go to the math side that looks just like that it's going to be several slides down I think it's going to be after is this it here that yes so I indicated that this slide and I'm and I'm sorry if I moved too fast for you um I looked at when I looked at this slide um I said that it we didn't get the same results that we had in English language arts when going when trying to compare the students of themselves and I had mentioned that um of course we have to look into that but in grade four the standards for for math are when the new standards are introduced and when they're more difficult and that's across the state that's definely can research that and see that fourth grade across the state is when the standards get to be a little bit more difficult in math but again yes we did not see when trying to compare the students to themselves now again those two groups are not the exact same students but I think the majority of them are you're welcome absolutely and preschool yeah absolutely okay thank you thank you very much and thank you for doing double duty today as well um can I get a policy committee report from Mrs Branch Stewart please certainly good evening the policy committee met on September 17th Dr Hackett Mr mosquit and board members Julie Kover Moren Rudder Julian birdie and I were present Mr Bruce Taylor was also present for a portion of the meeting we discussed no policies or regulations for f first read for second read the committee reviewed and recommends for board approval the following revised policies and regulations policy 0141 board member number and Term Policy 01 64.2 request for information by board members policy 2440 summer school policies and regulations 3160 and 4160 physical examination regulation 5200 attendance policy 5337 service animals policy 5350 student suicide prevention regulation 7510 use of school facilities policy 8420 emergency and crisis situations policy and regulation 8467 firearms and weapons policy 9181 volunteer athletic coaches and co-curricular activity advisors and assistants and policy 2200 curriculum content in regard to this last policy I want to note that the committee's recommendation specifically includes a change to the language of the policy's third paragraph to read the curriculum will be reviewed by the superintendent and approved by the board the curriculum shall as a minimum include the curricular mandates of NJ sa 18a education njac 6A education and the New Jersey student learning standards the committee also discussed policy 2365 acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence and spoke with Mr Taylor in regard to the district use of AI regulation 5600 student discipline code of conduct and student suspension data our next meeting is scheduled for October thank you I have a question if that's okay on some of your comments um when I sorry Mr can you wait till the the policy committee the policy s when there's the motion second Mr Rosner um can you provide a Personnel commit report yes um the Personnel meeting was held on Thursday August 29th the attendees were myself uh board member president Watson maren Rudder Dr Hackett and Dr I mean excuse me and Mr moscowitz we talked about the pre preschool hiring update and the Middle School principal hiring on the preschool end uh the administration at that time hired 39 preschool staff members and the district uh continued its effort to diversify its staff during the hiring process they made an effort to do that um and then on the Middle School uh principal hiring we discussed the process how they Ned it down and um how um it was the recommendation of the hiring committee um to hire Miss in as the principal of VMS and the Personnel committee supported this recommendation and we're you know I think we're voting on that tonight or ratifying it and um also we talked about um the hiring of an interim assistant principal uh on the condition that they part participate in additional events um at a a rate of $450 so um that's it thank you thank you audience participation anyone wishing to address the board please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet while the board is limited its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public relating to the items on the agenda agenda for this board meeting comments are limited to 3 minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take moving right along comments from the board I have a few comments and questions um in regards to committee um I was wondering since the start of the Year why we have not had a community relations climate culture community relations committee and are we ever having a committee meeting for that um I think that was done in since the organ the reorganization meeting since last January and I think it's a really important committee and we should be meeting um so that's question number one my other questions are policy committee um on policy .1 64.2 I have a few questions on that policy why are we copying Gloucester Township's policy why is this even needed we have been of district for so many years and we've never had this type of policy before so if maybe Jen you can answer my questions um but you can question when the policies ready to be voted on okay a motion a second raise okay so then I just have one more um I guess I'm the board representative for the Camden County Education Service Commission and we are having a road trip um meeting and unfortunately I just realized I have a back to school night that night so I was wondering if any other board members would like to go in my place it sounds like a pretty cool opportunity they're going to the Corbett Inc experience center it's in Pennsylvania and they're really hyping it up to be a pretty remarkable opportunity so um obviously someone's going to eventually take my place so I think it might be a great opportunity if someone is available I believe it's October 10th um and they're meeting at the education commission so if someone wants to reach out to me if they would like to go in my place that would be helpful thank thank you I have uh one comment number one I want to um thank Dr Hackett um for all of the diligence you've put into one answering the countless questions that we've get that you get through email throughout the the month but making sure that you um always get back to everyone that you do a thorough job of explaining kind of the decision-making process um that you have remained true to data and looking at the data and having it inform um kind of how the board approaches things how you approach things for the district um it's really important that we have strong foundations for why we do the things that we do um you noted in particular that after we did the parent survey there is a there's been an indication and a desire to have a greater look at behavioral problems I think we've been seeing this trend especially postco um post pandemic uh we're seeing lots of Social and emotional issues we're seeing behavioral problems that are arising because of it um and now we're starting to see rises in some of our Hib complaints as well as suspensions so I am going to be creating an ad hoc committee um that will be singularly focused on addressing this parental concern but also looking only at um the behavioral emotional social well-being as well as the uh the data supporting that from a suspensions and Hib perspective um those assignments will be forthcoming but I wanted to make sure that I announce that at this point yep um any other board comments moving to policy now you can now if you can answer my question or you want me to repeat that we have to do a motion in a second yep can I get a motion to approve all of the items under policy so moved Stuart second rer okay now can you answer I have another policy question about this one but do you want me to repeat them or yep please so it's. 1642 why are we copying gloucester's policy and why is this even needed when we've been in existence for many years and we've never needed a policy like this want me to keep going on another policy or you want yep yeah no keep going I mean the unless you're asking us to take one of the policies out of of discussion the appropriate thing to do would be to vote no for the items that you disagree with or have additional questions about well I still want my questions answered I mean I think the community has the right to hear the answers to some of these if if we have the answers to the questions the appropriate time to ask questions related to agenda items is in committee prior to the board meeting but if we have the answers now we'll provide them I'm not on that committee so and you want to answer or do you have that answer or I'll note that you were previously Prov provided with answers you didn't answer me why we're copying Bluster policy Council responded to you I don't think she answered that question okay fair vote no um and why is it needed in general after how many years have we've been in existence um my other question is on policy 5350 with suicide prevention um there's a lot of changes in that policy and just to note that September is suicide prevention month and um just as an idea for maybe going forward maybe utilizing that policy and educating the community as suicide is such a chronic epidemic in the whole country um that maybe educating our community on the policy would probably be helpful and especially just to bring awareness for suicide prevention mon so com to that thank you okay I think we're ready to vote thank you online voting is open online oh did I already V okay got it I didn't get it no want to take a Voice vote Yes I'm going to vote no to 01642 06 no to 01642 01 64.2 I think it is I'm G to put I'll put yes as your answer and then we'll make a note of thank all right the motion passes seven yeses um oops one one I'm trying to hit no and it's going to obain lady can you just make a note for this one vote it will not take for whatever reason I'm clicking on it it says abstain for Mrs stuper but she's voting yes on all the policies and no on 0.016 4.2 but it's going to show up as obstain in this ready you good okay can I get a motion to approve all of the items under corre so moved second Rosner online voting is open [Music] want me to I'm logging back in but I vote Yes you can do the motion unanimously passes can I get a motion to approve all of the items under Personnel so moved Rudder second Rosner I have a question on Personnel um I saw in the notes that you're proposing to pay an interim principal I believe um the 7th grade for $450 a day is that standard practice that in the past when we had someone until we hire someone permanently is that standard practice um I can't miss um super board member super I can't speak to what happened in the past but right now it's a new school year um we have over almost a thousand kids in the middle school and um I felt that it was necessary to make sure that we were fully staffed with an administrative team um the 450 a day is what we normally do give to principles but as Mr Rosen said in his report we discussed in Personnel um paying the assistant principal that amount with the understanding that the assistant principal the interim assistant principal would stay for all evening events any any event related to seventh grade any event related to math and science teachers that they would um stay for all of those events and that's why we it was agreed that we would pay that amount for the assistant but I felt it was necessary to start the school year off with a full team at the middle school I'll open online voting motion unanimously passes I Mo can I get a motion to approve all of the items under transportation so moved second online voting is open motion unanimously passes I get a motion to approve all the items under buildings and grounds so moved second online voting is open motion unanimously passes can I get a motion to approve all the items under Finance so moved second Rudder online voting is open motion unanimously passes public comment anyone wishing to address the board please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public comments are limited to three minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take yes I am I Spen before um I came to talk about very briefly and I'm being a bit of a pant I'm sorry for that uh the reports that you gave on the SLA and other things um I really really to look at things in C because that is a really powerful way to look at this especially from a longitudinal trending data uh just some small things one um you're using colors that shouldn't be it also has Grays because anyone who's red green color BL they can't see the green um and secondly I would recommend as much as I love a table of numbers whole thing as a data scientist visuals are going to help especially the board understand what you're seeing you're friends so Ming line graphs or some other individual when you're probably that to make a more impactful and more easily understood oh those are great comments thank you so much see no other comments um comments from the board first I want to congratulate principal en um you had a wonderful start to the school year we're so excited to have you and I would love to have you to welcome you up and say a couple of words if you don't [Applause] mind I walked into a school home our school and that they also learn and that we expectations numbers I was a former math teacher um I understand the work that we need to I also understand that as we really do well and how can we make that even better and keep our high standards and all our students of my heart so I will do the work I will be diligent I am here to communicate me my husband's also an educator is starting to begin a career our oldest is gradua college he wants that's okay and our daughter our baby girl she's here tonight I want to say to all our parents and our Bo I'm an educator bestar always that is my guiding principle I wanted my children to have brother we are you know administrators together it is a great place to be a lot thank you very much I know my my children are incredibly lucky to have you as as their leader so very we're all incredibly thankful any other board comments I have a few I know people want to leave but just briefly I want to Echo president Watson statement about back to school night I know the schools are having them I was lucky to attend Crescent um now I have two kids in the district so for kindergarten um and second grade and you know shout out Mrs RC and Mrs Montgomery and Mrs moris it was you know it's exciting to be there to see the rooms that they're in and you sit there in their little chairs and what they're looking at every day and you know they write you a little letter but it's you know just the and you write them back and they love it and anyway it was really really nice and um organized and it's just you know a lot of work and I know um we appreciate it and the other thing is um you know my older son excitedly came home the other day and said a Spanish teacher came into my class and spoke Spanish and I I thought that was that he was excited about it and it's something that we you know as a board implemented last year and it's nice to see like the real world impact of that decision um and that you know it actually made an impact and he's excited for the next lesson so uh I'm happy we're able to do that and and introduce that in an early Elementary age thanks any other comments um our next meeting is Wednesday October 30th and I will reiterate we will have a guest there Chief or um I encourage everybody to try and make it it will be wonderful to hear his thoughts and the process and it's fantastic that he is taking the time out to partner with our district um it's important that the the that Vorhees district and the police department are very United and um and understand each other uh that being said motion to adjourn so move second rder thank you hi