##VIDEO ID:7swN1nTHaHc## for for e for e e for for e for with a microphone that would help notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Board of Education of the town of Westfield in the county of Union New Jersey at 6:35 p.m. on the evening of Tuesday August 27th 2024 in cafeteria B of Westfield High School 550 Dorian Road Westfield New Jersey the board will move immediately into private session to discuss matters rendered confidential by state and federal law including Personnel matters the public portion of the meeting will resume at 7: the purpose of the meeting is to transact the regular business of the board and to transact any other business to come properly before the board this is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act the Westville School Board on on Thursday July 18th 2024 and Thursday August 22nd 2024 cause to be posted at the office of the Board of Education loaded located at 302 Elm Street Westfield New Jersey and delivered to the Westfield leader The Star Ledger the Westfield Library Town Clerk of Westfield tap into Westfield and patch.com a meeting notice setting forth the time date and location of the meeting Patman we have a roll call please rob bachio here Kent diamonds here brenen gallagan here Charles jinus here Leila melli here sonel Patel here Kristen Sonic schmeltz here Julie Steinberg here Mary wickens uh Kent would you mind leading us in a flag salute please I ask the board to approve the following resolution resolve that the Board of Education move into private session for the purpose of discussing matters rendered confidential by state and federal law including Personnel matters and be it further resolve that any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential and the result of the discussion will be made public as soon as practicable may I have a motion please second thank um let's do a vote all in favor I any opposed any extensions we're in private session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're back from executive session we're going to start uh with some announcements Kent any announcements yes the Westfield Public School District is seeking caring individuals to assist our classroom teachers working with individual students or small groups of students who have an individualized education program or an IEP additional stiping opportunities are available to apply to be a special education par professional please visit the district website at www.westfieldnjk12.org and click on the job's quick Link in the upper right hand corner of the screen secondly in its 22nd year the extended school school year program assists students with individualized educational plans in preventing skill regression and preparing for the upcoming school year the esy program operated from July 2nd through August 7th and served approximately 126 students in preschool through grade 12 the instructional day was structured with a focus on maintaining language arts and math skills along with the students IEP goals the schedule allowed for opportunities to learn and build on important social emotional skills as well this year players and Co coaches of the Westfield High School girls and boys basketball teams volunteered their time to provide some physical activity for the younger students thank you uh Brendan yep as the new school year begins we look forward to recognizing and raising awareness of the many cultural historical and religious traditions of our diverse School Community beginning with national Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th through October which celebrates the rich history of the American Latino community Kristen all six elementary schools in Westville public school district have received gold level certification under the New Jersey safe routes to school recognition program which applauds school districts for implementing programs and events to create safer environments for walking and bicycling in their communities among the events and programs that contributed to the three-year gold certification by srts sorry that that's um I skipped that but I should know so New Jersey safe roots to school recognition is srts sorry about that is longstanding walk and Bike to School in October organized by Westfield breaks which is bikers Runners and kids are entitled to safety and Elementary School parent organizations pto's additionally as part of the certification process basine data was collected to determine what modes of transportation were used by students to and from school while the Board of Education adopted a district policy to support walking and bicycling as a way to promote student wellness P pedestrian safety assemblies also were held for all second graders with important safety demonstrations on how to cross an intersection safely you can read more about this important recognition on the news section of the district and school websites thank you CJ all 10 schools in the Westfield public school district have achieved bronze level certification under the the sustainable Jersey for schools program recognizing the important role the Westfield Public School District plays in promoting sustainable practices and educating students to be responsible environmental stewards the majority of points earned toward certification focused on District efforts to put digital and curricular systems in place to promote sustainable practices the full article about this recognition is posted on the news section of the district and school websites Julie congratulations to Westfield High School track and field cross country Coast Christopher T teeski who received National recognition for the second time for his leadership and performance during the 2023 2024 school year coach taleski was selected by the US track and field and cross country coaches association as the 2024 boys high school track and field coach of the year for the state of New Jersey last year the National Organization ALS o named him Cross Country Coach of the Year for New Jersey also 22 Westfield students in grades K through five took part in the multilingual learner summer experience a two-e summer camp that provides meaningful enrichment activities to help students continue their English language acquisition this year's ml program ran from July 8th through 19th at Wilson Elementary School and welcome students whose native languages include Chinese Hebrew Portuguese Russian Spanish and Ukrainian Lea looking to earn some extra money while enjoying time spent with our elementary students during their lunch periods the Westfield public school district is hiring lunch aids to work 90 minutes a day in our elementary schools the salary is $30 a day to apply visit the district website at www.westfieldnjk12.org and click on the jobs quick Link in the upper right corner of the screen home room and class schedules will be released this week as previously communicated please remember to complete the electronic back to school packet in Genesis once you have submitted the packet you will be able to access your child's Home Room Andor schedule U I actually have a couple uh District administrators and Educators look forward to welcoming parents to back to school night next month back to school nights for the intermediate schools will be held on Thursday September 12th for the elementary schools on Thursday September 19th for the high school on Thursday September 26th and for Lincoln school on Tuesday October 1st additional information has been or will be shared by building principles uh second one the parent teacher Council special education committee is hosting its annual back to school meeting on Tuesday September 10th beginning at 700 p.m at Edison Intermediate School assistant superintendent for people Services Dr Michael Weissman and special education supervisors Alex Lindon and Kathleen nesat will join the PTC special education Committee in a presentation and Roundtable discussion with the latest updates and events for the special education Community the next regular public meeting of the Board of Education will be on Tuesday September 17th in cafeteria B at Westfield High School beginning at 7:00 p.m. the meeting will be live streamed via the district YouTube channel which viewers can access on the board tab on the district website the complete agenda will be available on Friday September 13th the board also will hold a special meeting for board retreat tomorrow Wednesday August 28th at 5:00 p.m. the meeting will be held in the first floor conference room at 302 Elm Street special board meetings at which no formal action is taken are open to the public but are not recorded or live streamed I think that's it um we'll now move to the report by District administration Dr Gonzalez yes before we move into our uh presentation of our annual New Jersey um graduate proficiency assessment uh I just wanted to provide some highlights about uh what took place over the summer in preparation for the new school year uh recognizing that we will be welcoming back our staff on September 3rd and our students in uh on September 5th we've been spending the majority of this uh sum are preparing not only our classrooms and our buildings but also uh the personnel and the curriculum that will be uh prepared for our students uh when they arrive um this week in particular we've had our new staff Institute kick off uh with uh about 30 staff members joining us both today and tomorrow uh taking part in a number of activities to familiarize themselves with the district with their responsibilities uh with the culture as well as the protocols and the process cesses uh and policies associated with the district um in addition we have uh a number of students who assist our uh maintenance and grounds and custodial team as they uh prepare all of our schools if you look through all of our schools at the start of the summer compared to now uh it is amazing to see the transformation as classrooms are upended and uh emptied into the hallways um they they then turn into these amazing new spaces uh to welcome students and all of that has taken place uh up until the last minute so I want to thank all of our summer help I want to thank all of our uh custodial and maintenance workers who have been working non-stop to prepare for the uh return of our students and staff and also uh I would like to thank our um our new grounds people so this year we were fortunate to have had the support of the community and the Board of Education to add two additional grounds uh members of our uh custodial maintenance team to pretty much double the amount of personnel that we have and if you haven't seen our fields and our our um Landscaping look as good as it has in the past uh You Now understand why so it is uh greatly appreciated and uh the evidence of their impact is seen each and every day in addition to that uh regular maintenance and summer work that takes place uh we also have a number of projects that had uh continued to throughout the summer including the continuation of phase two of the rec the Roosevelt facade project uh you'll notice that the Scaffolding in the front of the building has now transitioned to the side and the back uh allowing us to continue the work to uh prepare the facade and Shore up the uh the roof of that uh facility all along the way we're ensuring that our classrooms are safe that our staff and our students are safe but also that the continues uh with minimal disruption to the school day uh our Tech education classrooms at all of our schools are or secondary schools at Roosevelt and the high school have been getting a refresh uh with uh paint and Furniture um in store at the um at Roosevelt as well as uh paint and refresh here at the high school uh we also have first grade uh classroom refresh is taking place with uh paint and new furniture for staff and students uh throughout every single first grade again all of that has been accomplished through um budgeted uh maintenance and capital reserve projects so again I I just want to point to all the uh the work that is coming through all of the conversations that took place in the spring is now coming to reality uh for students uh the moment they walk into the classroom uh we also have um throughout the um the district we have our two new special education programs being introduced uh one at Roosevelt and one at Edison and both those programs also experience complete classroom refreshes with Furniture uh flooring as well as uh paint in order to welcome uh those programs into uh each of those schools so we're very excited um to see all of these conversations turn into realities and certainly uh excited to see our students and staff in those classrooms in addition in preparation for the new school year we're also implementing an all of our schools a new visitor management system so in Franklin and McKinley last year we piloted a new system and it's a system that allows any visitors into the schools to have their credentials V vetted prior to walking into the school uh that system take makes use of uh iPad technology and an outdoor kiosk that is outdoor rated to be able to uh withstand the heat uh as well as the elements uh rain and snow um so that our staff have the ability to make sure that anyone who walks into our our buildings uh are properly vetted and receive the proper identification as they're walking around all of those systems uh have been installed and the training has taken place in all of our schools uh and we're excited again to uh see those launch in September um in addition to the physical changes and what you see uh around you'll also notice that our digital presence has started to to evolve as well so we've refreshed all of our district and school logos throughout the districts to create a more unified and consistent look um through uh our print and digital uh representation of our schools and District um but we've also upgraded our Athletics website um to be more user friendly and consistent with the uh district and school website all of that is uh readily apparent uh if you visit our websites you'll be able to uh see at the school level through the school dropdown you'll see all of the refreshes of the school logos uh and the main landing pages as well as the new Athletics website uh through that school drop-down menu that's a lot and that's just the beginning so uh I do want to just uh leave more room for reports throughout the course of the year but I do want to also welcome uh James fur he's going to be our new student rep who will be joining us in September uh I will be meeting with him on uh Thursday to orient him to the work of the Board of Education in our meetings but also look forward to his reports and his participation on uh this St as and last but not least as we look forward to the school year ahead uh be sure to uh stay tuned to our board meetings as well as all of our district communication regarding our upcoming uh referendum uh scheduled for April of this coming uh school year 2025 as well as as continued progress and updates regarding our strategic plan uh as we enter year two uh for this coming school year so a lot of work has taken place a lot more on the horizon but I'm excited um by all that I've seen and and certainly look forward to continuing updates uh during our board meetings at this time that concludes my report but I'd like to welcome uh Dr Matthew Bolton our assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment to provide his annual update and report of the uh New Jersey uh graduate proficiency assessment as well as our access for eles uh assessment results Dr Bolton thank you Dr Gonzalez uh thank you for everyone um allowing me to present this evening uh you're going to hear a little bit about um the NJ GPA scores from last year that's the class of 2025 and our access for L's um access hasn't gotten hip to the the lingo we call our students ml now multilingual Learners access has sticks with the L's moniker so that's uh English language learning students so um just to begin a little bit of information about the graduation proficiency assessment which most of you have heard from me before um this is a state required assessment for all students in 11th grade um this is a mandatory assessment to gauge students Readiness for graduation cut scores were established by the New Jersey state board of education at a scale score of 725 so just keep that that notion of scale score in mind and cut scores we'll reference it again later on in the presentation um if you remember probably about a year and a half ago there was some debate at the state level with regard to what the cut score should be it was 750 and then it was moved to 725 um so when when I do reference later on in the presentation scores from 2022 you'll see a a pretty significant difference when those cut scores were 750 versus 7 25 um NJ GPA is designed to measure students Readiness for graduation in English language arts and Mathematics we measure students in English language arts at grade 10 standards and Mathematics is aligned to the algebra 1 and geometry standards so something interesting about uh the NJ GPA is that it is an it's it's an assessment that's given to our students once when they're in 11th grade so one group of students gets one test in 11th grade so we don't really have an opportunity to dig in like we typically do and do a cohort analysis and really monitor student performance against this assessment as they progress along in the grades like you'll hear in October when we report out on the njsla same assessment over the course of years same kids so when we do look at the results just keep that in mind that any comparison from year to year are completely different groups of kids so you probably see a little bit of variability in the scores nothing tremendous but a little bit so again more about the NJ GPA um students are required to take the assessment and they are required to meet that cut score of 725 if they do not they have lots of opportunities to meet graduation proficiency so if they don't meet the cut score that first time taking it in March of their 11th grade year then students are permitted to retake the assessment in October of the following year so any student that did not meet that Benchmark they then retake the assessment that's the first step in the process if you didn't meet The Benchmark the second part part of that process is a second pathway so the first first pathway is reach a 725 on the test the second pathway is meet a designated cut score on an alternative test such as act accuplacer PSAT or um the SAT so there are students who there absolutely students who may not have met the mark on the NJ GPA in March but then later on throughout the year take the SAT reach that threshold which I can I can share with you as well the the cut scores for those different subtests um and then they've met graduation proficiency and we can check them off the list of meeting that requirement if students fail to meet those benchmarks then that second pathway we move on to a third pathway which is a portfolio assessment um after multiple assessments and completing one of the alternative second Pathways typically there aren't many students who require portfolio assessment but for those that do um I think last year we had like 22 students that required that and every single one of them met graduation proficiency through the portfolio assessment and that's that's primarily due to the level of support that our teachers and our administrators provide to them at Westfield High School um it's individualized support so each student is aligned with a faculty member they're given constructed tasks that are aligned to the standards in the specific discipline and they work with the faculty member in demonstrating their understanding and then we submit those to the state to demonstrate compliance and then students have met graduation proficiency okay so just a real quick overview of the some of the numbers um so 2023 24 English language arts we we did fantastic we score uh met graduation proficiency at 96.9% that's um about 458 students total out of about 462 students last year so our participation rate is obviously very high students know that they need to take this test um another little asteris is that before students can move on to a second pathway they have to sit for the assessment so they can't just take the SAT and say I met the graduation requirement they have to first sit for the um the njpa and that's why we have a participation rate of about 99.3% um uh mathematics we score we met graduation proficiency at 85.8% um we have 14.2% or 65 students who still need to meet graduation proficiency as scores in AC sat start rolling in that number is going to diminish and then as students sit all of those students will sit for the graduation Proficiency in October I believe it begins October 7th and takes place through October 7th through the 11th um so you can look at these numbers and again they're fairly stable um you see some variation from year to year again different cohort of students um what you could also observe by looking at these numbers quickly is that it's not just a Westfield thing there's a state Trend that the mathematics test is more challenging for the students and that's why you see the performance that you do so again subgroup comp comparisons these are different subgroups that are represented in our school district if you don't see a subgroup that's represented up there it's because their n is under 10 that just means that we have to um redact any subgroup that's under the number of 10 um and some of those subgroups that are represented there are right at that threshold so it it plays some tricky games especially when you're reporting um statistics and percentages so Ela subgroup comparison all all subgroups did excellent in ela math subgroup comparison again you see that we still have subgroups that are having some challenges and some areas that we need to do some work so what we do in these specific instances is that we dive deeper into these particular subgroups find out exactly who these students are and that's the the beauty of having such a small number of students who did not meet graduation proficiency is that we can identify individuals find out exactly who they are where they are what their program is and what of supports they need I'll talk a little bit more about um the supports that we provide to these students who still need to meet graduation proficiency something that's interesting though when you do dive a little bit deeper into some of these subgroups as I have done um you start to see that in each of these subgroups couple of things one um the subgroup of special education and subgroups of race are are are not discreet they overlap so you're looking at multiple students being being reported twice in a subgroup um so you might be Hispanic but also be special education the other thing that's really interesting is when you look at the scaled mean score so we're going back to scaled score that's 725 right when you look at the distribution of these scores within the subgroups our scale mean score for each one of these subgroups is higher than the 725 so you can deduce what you want from that but I I I have deduced and I've looked at all of the numbers in each individual student um that the way in which the number spread the variance Is Not Great there's they're condensed around that bell-shaped curve which means there are a large number of students who are right there ready to pass this test the second time they take it so we're close with lots of students um and that's a good thing for our students and a good thing for us so again um the lizes Liz riy and Liz delandro they dive right into these test scores as soon as they're they're they're published so areas of strength um you can see we have clear areas of strength in levels of analysis and how authors um analyze a series of ideas we have areas of strength in comparison and contrast with primary and secondary sources and writing and the writing and knowledge research simulation is a strength um area support obviously even though we did incredibly well in language arts we still have areas that we need to continue to grow and again it's comp analyzing complex charactera characters with multiple conflicting motivations and determining an author's point of view in a text and analyzing how authors use rhetoric to advance that point of view um so addressing concerns I'll get to addressing concerns when I get to both um subjects because they're very similar um so mathematics again areas of strength polom operations interpreting using creating equivalent algebraic expressions graphing functions applying the Pythagorean theorem and solving quadratic equations or strengths areas to support are multi-step contextual problems involving functions um writing an argument for the application of various geometric formulas and applying forms and functions to real world tasks so in addressing these concerns so what do we do to address these situations one we make these points of emphasis with our teachers we provide professional development in these areas so teachers can improve their capacity in addressing these specific areas um and the other way we do that which we're implementing just this year for the first time at Westfield High School uh as part of our mtss initiative is We Gather more data that's reliable and valid um so for the first time at Westfield High School this year we're implementing a universal screener in 9th grade in Algebra 1 which again is are the standards that this test is assessing we're Algebra 1 and English one so three times a year students will be assessed using a universal screening tool and then that will provide that's that's also standards aligned that will provide us with some level of predictive measure to know exactly who's struggling on what so that we can pinpoint that and again it's like anything else the earlier we can identify a need the quicker we can address it the more time and attention we can spend with those students the better the outcome so the better the higher the quality of the information that we Gather in a strategic way then the better the outcome because we can address it and that's um I have to be be honest with you that's a that's a very actionable step that we're taking at Westfield High School this year to address any student who's not meeting graduation proficiency um for now and in the future so again intervention strategies are really about focusing on the individual finding out who they are where they are what their programs are who their teachers are what levels of support they need Gathering that data and then creating individualized interventions for them um some of these students absolutely need these interventions and some of these students will have already met another pathway and just may not have performed on this assessment so next steps for Westfield students uh Mr Brett Curtis is already working on it over here our new assistant principal we just spoke today about this um we're exploring we're looking at every single student finding out exactly what pathway they need who needs to take the test um our counseling director Fallon balison is already meeting with her counselors about these individual students developing plans to address their needs and um and then also making sure that we have constant a constant stream of data around who needs what with regard to the next step of assessment so who scored what on the ACT if they took it who scored what on the SAT um who needs to retake the test who needs a portfolio and the portfolio piece really doesn't come to fruition until about January that's when I'll send an email or a letter to parents letting them know that we're at the point of a third pathway and here's how this is going to work those students who need a third pathway will meet with their counselor individually they'll get lots of information we'll strategically partner them with a teacher a faculty adviser who will Mentor them throughout the process of that um of that entire portfolio and and again for for many students it's it's individualized because it needs to be um and many these students who might need this might have an an individualized education plan and need the accommodations and the resources that they're provided with throughout the assessment but they're also provided with as they complete the the um any other pathway whether it be the SAT or be the portfolio assessment the next assessment that we conduct annually is the access for L's um this is an assessment of all of our students in our ESL program um you can just look at the numbers and it's a testament to the teachers that we hired over a year ago because we have a growing population of students in our ESL program so this assessment is conducted in the spring it assesses students oral language skills listening and speaking literacy and comprehension um these are students who are the vast majority of them are point of entry students this is their first time in the country they're learning to speak the language language they have um they get a tremendous amount of resources from our fantastic ESL teachers and and supervisor um what you see in this chart and and again so the chart just lays out the years in District of students the students who were tested in that category of those numbers of years in the program where they fell within the the um the scoring of the access for L's students must get to a 4.5 to exit the program um I pay less attention in this chart to the actual performance on the assessment than I do to the numbers of students in the years in the program so what you see is 91 students who were tested in 0 to two years in the program about 70% well exactly 70 about 69.7% of those students are in elementary school they're new to our district they're new to to to the United States they're learning to speak the language and within 2 years being in our program you see what happens there's far less students who are in our program for three and four years um and then students who are five or more typically there's there's something else going on in that situation that that and again those students are getting individualized attention and and other supports um so what this graph shows is that our program is working so next steps for our ml students um ml teachers are all over these assessments they're sharing the data from these assessments with the classroom teachers um our ml program works both through a pull out program where students especially Port of Entry students are pulled out for multiple periods of the day to Pro to be provided with small group instruction but it's also a pushin program so some students who might require less support ml teachers are pushing into those classrooms to support the students in the context of a social studies or language arts class and while they're supporting those students in the context of that class they're also modeling instructional strategies that are best practices for working with multilingual Learners with our classroom teachers um that's a that's a really hard thing ml teachers are specifically trained in how to work with these students and many classroom teachers are just emerging in their understanding through professional development with our ESL staff so one of the best ways to do that is vicarious learning having our ml teachers come into the class room and model instructional strategies for them so that's the value of the push-in program so every every place that they can our ml teachers are trying to schedule push in Opportunities with their students um they're also pushing in to meet with teams of teachers they're going into department meetings they're going into faculty meetings they're going into team meetings of teachers to talk about their individ their their students and to talk about instructional strategies and best practices and that is our NJ GPA and access for L's annual report does anybody have any questions any questions questions all right we'll all right we'll start we'll just go right in this Ken go ahead thanks I just have a quick one you you said that Brian and Fallon are already working on it do the students know who they are already or have they been told yes so yes students these scores come in right at the end of the school year um as soon as they come in they're loaded into Genesis so parents can see them students can see them and that every parent gets a letter from me um parents have lots of questions about this um the letter has links to lots of information but I I will say that um any parent of a student who did not meet graduation proficiency still has questions and that's why I always encourage any parent send me an email send Fallon balison an email speak to your counselor they're well-versed in this process and um the message that I give to every one of these parents is it's going to be okay we are going to it this is one assessment and we're going to get you through this process um to ensure that your student is graduation ready and there's multiple ways to do that Christen I think um are do our MLS kids have to or MLS who were saying take the test also yes and and so they're included in these graphs okay yes um and some of those again there's cross pollination there too so some students who are MLS may also be special education right we don't call them out here though but I assume that they're just throughout the groups yes yeah um okay so this is a general question not one to be like answered at the podium which is just kind of a thought I'm just curious if there's based on I know that you call out areas of support and and where you're addressing concerns but if there are um like programs or professional development or something that you've come across or your team has come across that you think would be helpful in terms of us supporting you to support our subgroups so just something to think about and we could talk about in committee but I'm just curious ABS unless you have an answer no we can definitely talk about it in sip but but I will say the the step that we're taking which again is part of our strategic plan goal number one in implementing an MTS plan in in having a a structured process for collecting data in a timely way and then working with teachers to build their capacity to respond to the needs that they're seeing in that data is already being supported by the district and something that we're we're spending budgetary funds on to include these these Universal screening tools so there's not only not only do we just layer Universal screening say here's an assessment we provide professional development so on September 3rd the our first district ins service professional development is being provided to every teacher who teaches English language arts math um special education intervention in these Universal screening tools yeah no I get that I'm I guess what I'm asking is whether or not there are specific trainings or specific um teaching methods that we would use to speak directly to certain subgroups not because everything is very individualized but whether or not there's anything that we can do to support the groups versus the individuals you know I don't know if there is but I just wanted to throw it out there there's something we can help you with let us know basically I I I will also say the the addition of of our Dei coordinator Anna mun last year was critical and again she's just hitting the tip of the iceberg with building the instructional capacity um of of our teachers in in in cultural competent instruction so that's uh that that's definitely part of an initiative as well as part of the Strategic plan I think that's exactly that's what I was trying to think of like cultural competencies I think that's perfect thank you um so noticeably uh 50% of students um W were not graduation ready um who um had learning disabilities so I saw under moving forward that IEP um accommodations and you know push in services or pull out services but what my my question is and I don't know that you can necessarily speak to this at this moment but I just want I was just thinking about it what about if that's if these are already classified kids and they're already in the proper placement right getting these modifications getting these accommodations what else is available what else can we think about to do for them to help facilitate growth in this area it's a great question and and again I I think we have to really focus on the individuals when it comes to that that particular question because it does become such an individualized situation um there as as you all know the levels of disability vary significantly and we have to look at each individual um all of these students are held to this this standard um so so absolutely there's individualized plans there's IEPs there's accommodations there's modifications that are provided even within the assessment but I agree sometimes that's not enough and and that's why students are offered other Pathways to demonstrate understanding on these standards but but I absolutely understand your your concern of what else can we do right just because um and I understand that that every student demonstrates their knowledge differently for sure um just before we're doing an alternate pathway I'm just thinking you know are there different curriculums that can be implemented like you know I'm I'm not a math person but like you know different teachers have different bags of tricks and you know touch math and all these different things that they know but and I know it does have to be individualized but before we're going to a more restrictive way of measurement um you know just thinking about just scaffolding what else would be my question but it's a it's there's no answer to it right now I know that it's it's a big question but I I I agree with what you're saying is is there something curricularly I don't know that I would draw a a curriculum concern from this data point um but I think if we see this same concern over the course of multiple years for specific cohorts of students then we absolutely have to dive deeper into this hi uh first of all congratulations to you and to everyone on um some very impressive metrics I think that we should all be really proud of um across the district um it's it's very impressive and it makes me proud just to see this so well done um my questions Dev tail on Leela's um and I've got several of them would I think I'll just give them to you maybe you could look at it holistically because they all go towards the same sure Avenue so first of all my first question is whether or not when you're looking at the special education um column in your graph and thank you for explaining the overlaps does that only includ include classified students or does that include students with 504s as well my second question is um you mentioned that the guidance counselors are working closely on these issues but given that there's such overlap in the disability Community are they collaborating with the child study teams particularly with the uh learning resources within those child study teams my third question and again it's all the same sort of thing but they different topic so it's it's uh it's it's uh it's meant to get to the same point is are there and has there been any creative discussion for these tests as it relates to accommodations for different disabilities so a kid maybe with processing or short-term memory issues is going to be different from a kid with fine motor issues it's going to be a kid who's got attention issues is different from a kid who's got um other issues so and the classific obviously in the I may help you with that but even within those it's very very nuanced and then my final question goes to your guidance because you were talking about the guidance counselors and I asked about the CST but I know for example that with the other paths the act the SAT other other standardized tests it is in fact the guidance counselors not child study team who ask for accommodations so my question is is it in fact also the guidance counselors that ask for specific perhaps more creative accommodations when it comes to New Jersey standardized testing it's a lot sorry thanks those are good questions um so a couple of things one just to answer the 504 question uh absolutely 504 is pulled out you can see in our highest performing subgroup in ela was students with 504 so that's that's absolutely a category um we could dive way deep into what that means um but that may maybe that's a conversation for sep um CST and counselor involvement is they are absolutely doing this hand inand specifically for the for students with IEPs also Alex Linden involvement as the supervisor coordinating that involvement with Fallon bison so and and now I have to be honest in some of the restructuring and reorganization that we've done having our student support um directors of student support that are looking at a full 360 of child study team special education and intervention that's all in their domain I think we're going to find even greater articulation of all of those services with those with one person responsible for those at different levels um so there's absolutely coordination between the counseling department and special services and CST When developing those plans and and Dr weissman's a part of those conversations as well um creative accommodations in terms of demonstrated need of students so so all of the accommodations are Guided by the New Jersey Department of Education and they're laid out in in pretty explicit detail about the accommodations that can be provided so there's a restriction on how creative you can get but there and but those decisions are also made within IEP meetings so so parents are absolutely part of that discussion um with their their case manager and the and the entire team and and teachers um to decide what the best accommodations are so when we look to determine the accommodations that are provided to students with disabilities while they're taking these assessments we really look to the IEP first and see so what was agreed upon in the child study team meeting with the team so if there's if there's something that we think as as an an instructional team or something that families think as the parenting team that that should all become part of the child study team conversation that's actually super helpful so just to clarify though because I know it's not always on everybody's mind because there's so much that happens in an I meeting so is it part of what the goals are for this year to make sure that the child study team of kids who are coming up into 10th grade are very um focused on making sure that's part of the discussion I I would say that's always a goal that we should hit every detail in a child study team and even though that may be a perun part of a meeting which I I know from sitting in many child study team meetings that it it just becomes the thing that might roll over from one year to the next I think it's important for families to understand that that's something that we should look at um very carefully when we're making determinations heading into um another year of an IEP other questions I got a couple okay um so first question is you you listed a number of areas of concerns uh both on the math and the ELA that uh you know areas to improve upon how are those comparing year-over-year are we seeing the same concerns come up I mean are we always having issues with functions are we always having issues ETC or are we seeing some Improvement stepping there it's definitely a good question and they are similar they're similar concerns because they're more challenging Concepts so when we look at like the there are breakdowns that were provided by the state which is the degrees of difficulty of a standard that's assessed throughout the assessment um most of these areas of concern are the challenging standards that are being assessed so and it's it's broken down actually pretty nicely in a chart that the supervisors dive into by standard and the level of complexity and the number of students that were given that particular standard on their particular form of the test um so so yes these areas of concern are obviously more challenging standards so we have to come up with more creative and and um new or more refined ways to address those areas in year over year or are we seeing some slight Improvement there like you had mentioned some of these students just on a granular basis were like just at the cusp you know we were you know very very say are seeing that getting better I mean see the challenging concepts with regard to scale mean score in terms of like are we moving the curve yes yeah absolutely I mean this this was definitely better than last year in terms of how close we are with students who may not have met graduation Readiness so um that's that's actually a really optimistic look for us to set okay so we're making progress in in moving the the mean to the right next question is the SATs and there are other I guess the secondary paths that come in if if this doesn't work out how do the SAT questions scores compare to what we're seeing from NJ GPA like are students looking at the same things or is the state coming at this from One Direction and the College Board coming at it from another Direction it it's tough to make relative comparisons um I I I will say especially because there's um there are many students that are and we again we could do this in sip to talk about all about sat2 scores and and provide a whole report on sat and AP um but it it is tough to make relative comparison be between question types too um because these are focused on New Jersey standards so it's it's a challenging to make a a onetoone correlation um there's also a a difference in the numbers of students that are taking SATs from year to year as well uh number right third question was about accommodation so Julie got that one um we've been doing a lot of we've been spending a lot of budget dollars lately on last two years at least on improving technology across the district right we were certainly well well behind how is just you know we always want to make sure our dollars are well spent so how is the additional investment technology helped getting the the multi-tiered support systems going and and and our tracking this data I I I think in terms of Technology for us it's really about the application of of analytics and and the software that we're using to look at the data that we're collecting so how is that being made easier um certainly accessibility for instruction is is is something that we're investing in investing in with new technologies but for us in terms of investing in software programs within the technology that we already have so using new software PL programs and platforms to analyze data in in in more depth is absolutely where we're seeing we're and we're going to continue to see growth great and my last one is for the uh El for the L's I guess um I saw how our program is doing is doing seems to be doing really really well how does that compare with other L El programs across the state are we seeing you know is our move on and move up rate you know comparatively better about the same how how do that yeah I I can tell you I haven't done those comparisons but I can tell you in terms of I the vast majority of districts in the state are seeing an increase in their multilingual population so again an increase in a population um becomes a more complex problem so which requires additional resources in in additional capacity building because again when you look at our ESL program students might spend two periods in a in a pullout support type of program with an ESL teacher then they have six other periods of the day where they're in a general education classroom where the primary language being spoken is English so there has to be a tremendous amount of professional learning on the part of those mainstream teachers to support those students so again and the more students the more diverse the language is um it it becomes a more complex problem thank you okay you got one more sure we almost had you out of there sorry I just wanted to duvail on something Rob mentioned at the beginning of the meeting which is that the first um sped meeting is coming up on did you say September 2nd or 10th um that maybe it might be a good add to the agenda to talk about this I mean obviously you don't need to give the whole presentation but I think that maybe mentioning that to that group of parents would probably be of great interest sure was the 10th Dr Weissman is happy to add that to the agenda right all right um thanks very much for the report much appreciated any um any further reports from District administration excellent all right um on to the next so realizing this is our first meeting from the summer uh I'm going to go through board committee reports I realize there might not be a lot here but I want to give everybody a shot to to talk if they if they have it so first is report by curriculum instruction and assessment committee we redid our committees with the change in the school year and the the new election so this year's sip chairs are going to be sonel and Kristen I don't know if there's any report at this point not really um we haven't met since June sonel and I are going to meet with Dr Bolton on Thursday to review the plan for the year and then our first scheduled full committee meetings on Monday September 9th uh next is finance and Facilities uh we're keeping those chairs consistent with Kent and and Brandon uh we also haven't met since June although we are meeting on Friday to view uh some work done at Roosevelt and if we have time we'll tour some of the other buildings in the district excellent next is policy personnel and governance that's going to be Lila and Mary uh Lila you're solo today same's um we haven't met over the summer um we are working on getting our schedule of meetings together and looking forward to diving in excellent um obviously not probably not too many questions on those reports um so we'll next move to the public portion of the meeting um during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only there will be a second public comment where uh residents and uh and members of the public will be able to address the board on any item uh in accordance with the hearing requirement set forth in njsa 18a Colon 11-11 the public is also invited to comment on the approval of the employment contract with Dr Raymond Gonzalez as a courtesy allow current students and staff of Westville public schools to speak first the board requests that individuals sign in and state their name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable for the record the specific action items they're commenting on and asks that all all remarks be directed to the board president or design not to individual members or staff the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded itude by the board with the exception of what we talked about before students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate that participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting each speaker's statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration if you need a hand with signin uh Maran will be there to help out okay um seeing none I will close the first public comment again there'll be a second opportunity for that later in the um later in the uh meeting um now on to board action items uh first we'll start with uh the minutes um I'd like to make a motion to approve the June 25th 2024 regular board meeting and executive session minutes as well as the August 20th 2024 special board meeting and executive session minutes have a second please second for Lila we can do this I think by Voice vote all in favor any oppos osed I wasn't at the August 20th okay so and one abstention then for that I too will abstain from August 20th so two extensions on August 20th uh moving on uh sonel would you move the governance action items please okay I'd like to move item a under governance to approve the following resolution whereas on August 20th 2024 the Board of Education received a report from the superintendent containing the results of Investigations conducted by each school regarding alleged in incidents of harassment intimidation and bullying and whereas uh States njsa 18a 3715 B 6 C States the report also includes information on Services provided training established discipline imposed or other action taken or recommended by the superintendent and whereas the board has considered the report presented by the superintendent now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education affirms that the findings of the investigation and the actions comply with the district's Hib policies and procedures for the following Hib incidents can I have a second thank you Kent no discussion we go to a vote please rob bachio yes Kent Diamond yes brenen gallagan yes Charles delus abstain Leila Morelli yes son yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg abstain Mary wickens next we'll move to the Personnel items for the agenda ilila the following items relative um to Personnel are recommended by the Board of Education by the superintendent of schools in accordance with policy 3125 in state guid guidelines pending School employee criminal history review um tonight we're moving items a through is that 11 or a through two double l oh um i' just like to point out that item a is to improve the employment contract for um superintendent uh Dr Raymond Gonzalez through 6329 upon notice of public hearing as required by njsa 18a 11 11 as approved by the Union County Executive superintendent of schools on 8 2724 um so I'd like to move items a through Double L under um Personnel so I have a second second personal and then Dr Gonzalez did you do we vote first or do you make comments first on any um at the end it is double I not dou l double I yeah indeed so I was not prepared to present this Tex tonight yeah so uh so with that correction any discussion on Personnel items son yeah I'd like to um express my full support for the re renegotiation of Dr gonzales's contract given the significant changes our district uh needs to invol to evolve over the next few years including curriculum updates budget constraints and a referendum for full day kindergarten it's essential to evaluate the superintendent's performance Ure that it compensation aligns with the evolving needs of our community by renegotiating the contract we can clarify expectations and make a commitment in our relationship with him and his educational leadership so thank you Dr Gonzalez for all you've done for our district and for continued success in moving us forward um I'm GNA add to that um so we decided it was largely a mutual decision to um to revisit Dr Gonzalez's contract and and one of the main reasons for that is because of all that we have going on in our district coming up uh Dr Gonzalez spent a lot of time in his report talking about all the different things that have just been going on over the summer and these are things that are happening through the regular budget process and through some Capital you know just some basic Capital reserves um but we have a larger referendum coming up in our district there has been a lot of changes already that have set our district you know just steps ahead really leaps ahead from you know from where we were just a few years ago when we started um and before we start asking the public to come along on the ride with us and and and make sure that you know and support the referendum and support the different things that we're doing you know we all thought it was very important to show that same support toward the person who were tasking to to lead that going forward um and it was certainly uh it was a very easy negotiation I mean Dr Gonzalez I can tell you is is committed to this District as we were to keeping him here um there was you know some exceeding positives about having this contract squared away now um you know it brings the district the level of cost certainty uh and I can tell you that Dr Gonzalez in negotiating was very um was very conscious of where the district is going um of the uh of his desire to to to make this District you know really the best it can be but also understand that you know the district has is going to be asking for a lot of financial commitments and make sure that we weren't over overstating that so um I'm very very happy to support this um and very happy that we uh we can we can get some stability on our leadership for the next next 5 years and with that Rob bachio yes Kent Diamond yes Brendan gallagan yes Charles jinus yes Leila melli yes sonel Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg for items B onward yes for item a I am choosing to abstain okay and Mary wickens STS okay oh that's right go ahead I'll turn it over to Dr Gonzalez I know we have some of those also just approved today yes so uh I I first want to just thank the Board of Education um for their support and uh entertaining the opportunity to renegotiate a contract and recommit uh our work together I recognize that a lot has taken place over the last three years um really to set us up for an amazing five years ahead uh and I wanted to uh be sure that the district was uh aware of my commitment uh hence the reason why I uh sought to renegotiate um for the um for a new contract with that in mind uh I am uh motivated to continue the hard work that brought us to where we are today uh and uh excited uh by the prospect of of what's ahead so again I I thank everyone for their uh vote of confidence um moving forward uh I would like to also use this opportunity to officially welcome Brett Curtis uh the newest member of the administrative leadership team of the district and uh Westfield High School uh Brett is joining us as a member of our admin of our uh teaching ranks um and has demonstrated his uh desire to to pursue leadership uh in this District I've had the opportunity to sit with Brett and really learn firsthand what uh possible opportunities um that he sees available to him in his future and seeing that alignment in in our uh opportunities here uh was certainly a match made in heaven so I'm grateful to see Brett uh join our ranks excited to see the work um that he is going to undergo and and certainly working with Miss spring and Miss hun has as well as Mrs sendis I think Brett will be an amazing uh member of the leadership team so at this time I'd like to invite uh Brett to the podium to share a few words good evening and um I'd first like to express my sincer gratitude um to the Board of Education um to Dr Gonzalez and to principal fenis um for providing me with this incredible opportunity um to join the leadership team at Westfield High School um I've dedicated my entire professional career to West to the Westfield Public School District um as a social studies teacher and as a basketball coach for the last 11 years um throughout this time I've always prioritized students needs um not only fostering a deep understanding of the curriculum um but cultivating essential life skills to help them succeed both academically um and Beyond Westfield High School um I'm excited to bring the same passion for student development that I had um as a teacher to the role of assistant principal um in this position I'm eager to work with students in in various various capacities both inside and outside the classroom uh with the goal of making their experience at Westfield High School both meaningful um and memorable um while also equipping them with the skills necessary for Success um Beyond uh graduation so um just kind of piggybacking off a little bit on what Dr Gonzalez said my my my educational philosophy um is very much aligned with the pathway that the district is on um in the 5year Strategic plan um and I look forward to collaborating with the leadership team um through the district level and at the high school and and with the staff at the high school um to to put that um into place and continue the progress that we've made um over the past couple years that I've seen firsthand um from the classroom experience uh but obviously excited to to move into the administrative piece of it um since the beginning of my career in Westfield I I I I'm not from here I didn't grow up here um so I was immediately um impressed uh by the dedication this town has to educating their children um but also from a teachers perspective the motivation that the students have to excel um and you know just the want to learn um was something that had always stuck with me um and it's still here um it's still something that I have today um and you know that perspective remains unchanging I'm I'm confident that um I'm at the ideal stage in my career um you know and that we have the right team in place at the high school um I'm really looking forward to working um with the team there um to leverage the positive aspects of the Westfield Community to enhance um student outcomes um while I have been planning and preparing in the building since early August um I can't wait um for next week uh to get get started uh with the staff and in particularly with the kids um you know so I'm looking uh you really forward uh you know to getting started in the capacity when we open the doors to students um on September 5th so um once again I I appreciate the opportunity um I'm I'm excited um and eager um to get started and and work to continue um the progress within the district as a whole and obviously within Westfield High School thank you [Applause] thanks very much and and again welcome on behalf of the board um next we'll move to the finance and Facilities portion of the agenda Kent thank you I'd like to move items a through S and before I ask for a second we're starting the year off with a bang with a total of $255,000 worth of uh donations I have nine call outs I'd like to do uh hang on no I'm sorry it's the wrong I read the wrong thing didn't I one moment please I'm still on summer break there is no is that huh you didn't pull it up the no I'm looking donations hold on thank you one of those days thank you there we are I was looking at the wrong thing Mckinley school PTO $400 to purchase water for the staff room at McKinley uh Lincoln school PTO $1,437 to purchase items for Behavioral support for Lincoln students Washington school PTO $2,237 to purchase Scholastic News and time for kids periodicals for Washington students next is westfeld school boosters Association donating $4,599 to purchase a frame shed for the Westfield High School field hockey team Washington school PTO donated $478 59 to purchase extra picnic tables for Washington four are portable and two are permanent uh Franklin school PTO donated uh $41,250 69 to purchase equipment and floor surfacing for Franklin's playground Jefferson School PTO donated 9,466 to purchase and install new equipment for the Jefferson playground next we have the Union County Board of County Commissioners donating $600 for a stem educational grant to fund up upgrades the Jefferson greenhouse and last but not least the Westfield Coalition for the Arts donated $494 to purchase a music rud for Jefferson thank you to all those who have donated and may I have a second please uh Kristen thank you any comments questions thoughts berer Rob Rob bachio yes Kent diamonds yes Brendan gallagan yes Charles jinus yes Lea melli yes sonel Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg uh yes to all but item M from which I will abstain and Mary wickins okay next we'll move to the curriculum instruction and assessment portion Kristen y sorry I just have to pull it up I haven't I I me what I was going to um um okay I make a motion to ask the board to consider action item a under sip it's asking the board to approve two student interms interns excuse me one for the health office and one in elementary guidance counseling um can I get a second thank you sonel any questions Rob bachia yes Ken Diamond yes renden gallagan yes Charles jinus yes Leila melli yes sonel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg yes Mary wickens uh I'll next call the board's attention to any notes for the record uh any unfinished business new business leaz on reports okay uh with that done we'll move to the second public comment session I don't get to say samies so I got to read the whole thing again uh during this portion of the meeting members of the public are invited to address the board of education on any topic as a courtesy allow current students and staff of westfi public schools to speak first the board requests that individuals sign in and state their name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable for the record and ask that all remarks be directed to the board president or designed not to individual board members or staff the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration good evening U Veta Watson are we still doing addresses no um hi uh thank you for your time tonight as always um I just I wanted to address something I know special ed was discussed a lot tonight but I wanted to address something pertaining to special ed um I understand that the board of Ved um has Board of board liaison and I just heard uh a call to Liaison for any updates they might have um in the Board of Ed handbook it says that board of ed education members may be assigned as Liaisons to PTO and other community-based organizations the board values these relationship as a critical component of our communication with parents and the community um I also understand that current liaison assignments include um school PTO U you Union County SBA and jsba delegate assembly um Westfield Rec commission and the PTC um and I it came to my attention recently that the special education committee um used to have AA on but no longer does and um I just wanted to as as a I should say I'm the co-chair of the special education committee um I do understand that it's a parent advisory group mandated by the state um and the you know I under statute each District Board of Ed shall ensure that a special education parent advisory group is in place in the school district to provide input to the school district on issues concerning students with disabilities um I also looked into some other districts I it's hard to really figure it out but I saw that for instance Princeton has a special ed liaison for their parent advisory group so I I I was surprised to learn that we no longer have one um and uh I'd like to understand better why that is and why that decision was made and just kind of go on the record to say that I do think it's valuable to maintain that kind of position so that there's a direct line of communication between members of the board and someone representing the parents right um and for instance uh the back to school night on September 10th it'd be great if board members or at least a board member would attend to hear some parent concerns that might be raised um so I encourage I encourage you all to attend our events uh we'll make it a priority to attend our the board meetings more often when we can or send a representative um we're growing our uh sped committee and we hope that we communicate better [Music] okay I don't think there's anyone else we'll close public comment I don't I don't know if you want to address that or not I can I mean I I I actually would i' um so we've been back and forth on this I just you know full disclosure so vetta and her co-chair Jen and I were on a a half hour call about two weeks ago and I know it was in email exchange even today um just helping to understand how the communication between the sped committee and the board is going to work so with respect to the liaison the liaison was in place a few years ago I think it was largely a function of of covid uh requiring some of that the law that establishes the special education department or this this parent committee uh requires that there be a direct contact between special education parents groups and our special education assistant superintendent who's who's Mick Weissman um for that reason it's actually one of the only committees I think that actually has that level of direct contact with any member of the with any member the administration so having a board member as a liaison you know is not something that we want to interrupt right we they have the direct contact between between the the apparent and the administration a board member may actually go about do more to confuse that and potentially frustrate the purpose of the law than it will necessarily to enhance it um sped is also part of the parent teacher Council the PTC and the PTC does have a liaison so as you know as mentioned the PTC liaison can also act as the liaison to the to the sped committee um we did talk about um ways to expand sp's uh Outreach to the board I certainly encouraged uh the sped committee to send the board uh not just about the 10th but sped very positively hosts meetings I think it's just about every month for for parents in in different uh in different locations um sometimes at different times too so I'm hopeful that the board will get the whole schedule of your meetings um so that we can all attend as well um and then finally um special education when it comes to policy and and curricular and programmatic aspects is covered by the the curriculum instruction assessment committee which Dr Weissman CIS is a part of um which I'm a part of which Julie is a part of uh which son is a part of and which Kristen who happens to be the PTC chair is part of um so you know while I understand the you know the interest there I think there's actually about three or four different ways that sped has to communicate both direct communication to administrators and through the board that I think should cover it obviously we'll keep you know an open mind to things if for some reason the communication flow is not working we're happy to to change it when we can uh but I I want to make sure the public understands there's there's a lot of different tendrils of communication going on uh which which makes me happy quite frankly um you know I know I went you know just shortly after I was elected board president one of the first things I did was attend the end of year social because I do think it's very very important that we all you know realize we're all look we're all on this together is best the way to put it so so thank you for coming up and talking and and keeping this top of mind can I just um say a word as well um just to correct um the liaison was actually in place when I moved here which I think was in 2012 and I was very active in the committee then um so it went back it existed for at least eight years and my understanding is prior to Dr Weissman being here that liaison also existed so a good decade it stopped during Co um and a lot of things stopped during Co but that doesn't mean that that's not the I I just want to make sure that we're clear that this was a longstanding liaison that existed I also want to talk about the fact that one um while these parents and teachers I might add who come to these meetings and staff members who come from these meetings and even people come from out of different towns because our sped is that good um there is not a directly uh way for them to contact the ad Administration largely because Dr Weissman who is an excellent administrator and always has his door open uh does not have any purview over 504s which comprise a significant number of students with disabilities and so subsequently the people who manage their cases are not part of Dr weissman's perview and I'd finally like to say that as a parent of a child with disability um and watching how important that liaison was when I was active in the committee I think that it's really important that we look and see whether or not there is a really good reason not to do this because there are people not just myself on this board who are willing to take on the role there is not a clear line of communication though it would be nice but unfortunately that's bigger than the district that has to do with the different laws that govern special education and I think that it's really hard already being a parent with a child with a disability the last thing we should be doing is taking away any of their lines of communication we should be enforcing them we should be supplementing them we should be doing everything we can to make sure that they feel that their voices are being heard and that they have multiple lines because they already have enough problems um we we have the opportunity here to think about that and I would ask that you consider that Counterpoint to this conversation I'd just like to clarify 504s fall under Dr weissman's perview sorry the principes and the guidance counselors who govern the 504s do not report to Dr Weissman Dr Weissman does not have we're not going to we're not going to debate here all right let's move on um like to move the board into uh executive session ask to approve the following resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education move into private session for the purpose of discussing matters rendered confidential by state and federal law including harassment intimidation and bullying incidents and be it further resolve that any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential and the results of the discussion will be made public as soon as practicable the board will not return from this private session I have a second second Brandon uh all in favor I any opposed okay