##VIDEO ID:jQsl6DMT4Xw## 4 public notice of this meeting was given to all board members and Associates in the notice dated August 30th 2024 and September 27 2024 adequate and electronic notice of this public meeting has been provided specifying the time place and manner in which this meeting is being conducted it was advertised in the curvier post posted in all schools the administration office the municipal building the library The Bu dupal Center with Aces elmtown and the win Township Post Offices and this is our mission statement the mission of the wiso Township School a large diverse and growing Community is to educate all students to become independent lifelong Learners critical thinkers and caring and competent members of their Community The District in partnership with the community and in the climate of cooperation and mutual respect will provide an academic environment which values excellence and diversity encourages students to strive for personal excellence and assist them in acquiring the knowledge skills and attitudes necessary to contribute positively to a rapidly changing World roll call please Mr ASU pres M Dron here miss Martin present Miss NE Miss Peterson present Mr Shaw Mr Shaw will be absent this evening thank you Mr Thomas president and Miss pitz President we have a forum thank you can you stand for to the FL of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation indivisible andice for all 2024 2025 District go number one student achievement continue to implement best practices for delivering instruction to students that this shall include conduct weekly administrative walkthroughs to monitor teaching and learning consistently review student assessment data to guide and redirect teaching continue to provide supplemental activities I.E tutoring enrichment periods to address student deficiencies Benchmark assessment for nth grade math language art and number two create a safe and positive learning environment for students and staff strictly enforce the district students code of conduct focus on upper element Elementary School students to modify student behavior in the early grades reinforce positive behavior in Pacific and genuine way approach discipline with care respect and the desire to see the good in all students and three increase parent caregiver and Community engagement in education provide opportunities for two-way communication with District stakeholders continue with the communication Consortium focus on refining our communication methods and messages to better Market our schools continue with our public relations with the community and now as you all are aware of we have a board vacancy and at this time we will conduct interviews for this board vacancy I'd like to ask all the candidates that are here here to please uh step outside and we will call them up into the room to proceed with the interview one at a time is are the other candidates here yet okay as long as if any of the other candidates should try and come in we should ask them this thank you Mr Davis we should ask them outside definely Two Gentlemen in the and we'll call the in when we're done with Miss was first she's first come on Miss CL how are you today I'm wonderful thank you for asking sure um I'm how are you nice to see you miss Lord in order to become a school board member uh I just want you to be aware of a couple things um there's certain requirements that you must be able to fulfill and I want to ask you about them before we begin um with Mr Tomas asking questions first is yet you have one year residency within the school district that you register to vote in a district that you have no personal interest in any contract with or any claims against the board that you not hold office as a member of the municiple governing body that you not simultaneously hold two elective offices it doesn't mean um Lion's Club or something like that that means like a governmental office you can't hold two at the same time so if you're a board member you could be on Township committee or something else to which was an elective position and um effective a couple years now you're required to undergo a criminal background check uh within 30 days of the appointment um in order to be able to take your road so while the board might be in a position to make an appointment tonight it can't swear in anybody after that appointment until that criminal background check comes back so and that's usually takes about 30 days sometimes less to accomplish um so unfortunately while the individual might um get selected tonight they may not be sworn in or take a seat until they satisfy those requirements are you able to meet with all those requirements Miss C absolutely 100% thank you I'll turn over to the boss that's Miss but I see something Miss CLA happy to have you here today thank you for having we just have a SE a few questions that we want to ask some question to so feel free to answer any man that you should that's number one why do you want to be a school board member I want to be a school board member because I'm submitted that's number one that's the first but I have five top reasons why I would love to be a school board member for Township School my passion for Education my community engagement my diverse perspectives my commitment for improvement and my vision thank you number two what personal qualities do you possess that you feel like or feel will make you an effective School Board member so first of all I'm the chairperson of the CAC which is the citizens advisory committee for wnow Township I've been citizen um on the citizens advisory committee for two years this past year I've been the chair and the last year I was a co- I've been actively involved in making sure that I get the voices from the community to bring them to the board of education and an effective and with integrity and in in a manner where we can try to move forward to Bringing progress to the winow Township School District and I also feel as though my passion for the 5,000 student students is my drive to ensure that we can make sure that every student and W those Township School District can graduate with success can come to a safe environment to learn and be happy to learn to have teachers that care about them and have a ministration that care about their teachers number three are you aware of the extensive time requirements of a school board member and what life or work experience do you have that would make you a good school board member I am aware of the commitment I am aware that there are many nights on Wednesdays that you may be here for hours Beyond um discussing things um in your executive board meetings I'm aware that there are classes that I would have to take I am I am a self-employed unemployed person I work for myself so I make my own time schedules so I can work around my schedule with the board to make sure that I am at every meeting that I need to be at to Be an Effective board meeting a board member for this W Township School District so I can commit to the wins Township School District and to the board of education and the final question how many school board meetings have you attended over two past years over the last two years since coming to here I think I might have missed maybe four board meeting and it may have been due to illness or may be on my vacation other than that I've been at every school board meeting if I wasn't the four that I didn't miss even when I was in Niagra BS I was on YouTube watching the board of education so I was still engaged in what was going on with the depart with our board education so as far as how many have I missed none I've been at every last one of our board meetings at this time first of all we want to thank you for your answers and your responses we really appreciate it my pleasure at this time does any School Board uh member have any questions or comments for Miss GLA I do have have a question ask I would just ask if you do have a question absolutely no trouble asking that question but if you would ask that question of the other members when they come in so we're hitting them with the same exact questions for evaluation purposes I appreciate it this is to allow it a little bit more one things that she said in her opening she had indicated that she had a vision for the district but I would like her to expand upon what that Vis my vision is to ensure that not only do we have a athletic department that brings colleges to the our school it will also be academic Excellence my vision is also that all these new homeowners that are coming into wissow Township do not Choice out and send their school their children to different schools outside of our district I want l Township School District to be the district that everyone wants to come to not only for academic Excellence not only for the athletic department but because the administration is the sound Administration the board of education is the a sound um Administration our children are happy when they come here our environment is safe so I believe that that is a great vision for me to have that's that's a great vision for me to start off with and I just want to say one thing um give a quote um that David Ralph David aathi St he said I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future and I'm aware of who holds the future I'mma Be The Voice for our children I'mma Be The Voice and I'm an advocate for the parents and the teachers and I'm G be a support for the administration here so I need to be on this board I am qualified to be on this board and I'm ready to be on this board any other questions thank you m Paul you're welcome do I need to step out or I she can stay since she's completed okay thank you the next one up Mr Nico milberg start [Music] good evening Mr milberger how are you good how are you all good I'm Howard long I'm the board attorney I'm just going to start off tonight with just a couple of preliminaries if I met sure um I just wanted you to be aware that in order to become a board member there are certain requirements that you must fulfill that are mandatory by law um one of them is uh you have at least one year's residency in the school district you be registered to vote in the district that you have no personal interest in any contract with or claims against the board that you hold uh no office as a member of the minicipal governing body excuse me you may not simultaneously hold two elective offices at the same time and as of a couple years ago the law changed requiring an fairly extensive criminal uh history background check which is completed within 30 days of your appointment and is a requirement prior you do to you receiving an oath of office that 30-day of uh period commenced upon confirmation of the appointment and while the board may make this election this evening regrettably if chosen excuse me you may not be sworn in or take a seat since you have to satisfy that criminal background check requirement before we can square you in and have you take your seat are you able to meet all those requirements sir absolutely excellent thank you I'm going to turn it over over to our vice president Mr Thomas Mr milberger how are you today good how are you nice to be here have a several about four questions we need to ask you yes all right first number one why do you want to be a school board member yes so uh before I address um answer this question I first want to thank you all for having the opportunity to be here tonight um so first question very simple for me I want to help students succeed um I believe highly and Student Success student achievement at every school in the district um every every student whether they're in school one to the high school early childhood education I want them to be able to have Big Dreams to aim high reach for the stars in fact if I were brought on I would have an initiative or bring forward an initiative that does just that by focusing on um our general education students of course while also focusing on our special education students uh as I believe that they deserve a fair representation as well and from being uh a wiso Alum graduated in 2020 from wiso high I believe I could add a Fresh Value to the board FR value perspectives uh as well as being able to relate to the young people that are in our schools today so I look forward to hopefully uh having this opportunity a marvelous opportunity to join you all and to do wonderful work thank you number two what personal qualities do you possess that you feel will make you an effective School Board member yes so um I recently uh graduated from Drew University hey look a winow kid right graduated wissow Township High School taught 15% of my class and I went to Drew University in fact an interesting tippet uh is I ran into uh one of our Drew counselors who actually recently went to wisel high to about recruiting uh future students and he had such wonderful things to say about what's happening in wio high school um very proud to hear about that hopefully going and extending more Partnerships with more schools now so what I can do I I'm GNA ex I'm going to extend questions two and three together because I think they align very similarly so first crisis management um I do the board does deal with multiple crisises on a probably a daily basis uh and adaptability Innovation are crucial uh for members um one of my experiences at Drew um I was a student worker one of my experiences was in the finance region I was president of the sociology Club um which was connected is connected uh to the sociology Department um they have uh a wonderful program um and sadly back in 2017 or 2018 a former student of the sociology department and a group passed away doing a due to an epileptic seizure her name was Tammy Tammy went by they them pronouns so you'll hear me reference Tammy I they or that uh Tammy uh was an active student uh a student that uh believed in community outreach Civic engagement uh and she and vital student uh in the department and further through Community um once Tammy passed away her said parents uh donated a special fund to the sociology Department by extension to Sociology club uh $5,800 uh which is owed so it's AC crewing interest as we speak um and for several years uh that money was unaccessible uh meaning that uh uh in the large part that the no one knew where the funds were so there was an obvious place of mismanagement by the university uh this was a year-long battle many years um uh and night Co hit pandemic uh and so of course everything grinds to hold uh including this uh and so um once the club was resurrected and I encourage you all to go to drew. Sociology you'll be able to see a beautiful story written uh soci sociology Club reinvigorated uh our trip was to Ellis Island and the funds that we used were Tammy from Tammy's parents we were finally able to get these funds under my leadership and many others tensions were high uh between a faculty member who was an advis an adviser to Tammy uh with the administration of course that's completely understandable as they had a close relationship um and so I worked diligently with partners with with the professors with the Department uh with the administrators to to work out a a deal to to get access to funds and by we were able to go to El asyland which was an incredible uh experience we were also then able to go to Pantry Eastern safe kind of country in Philadelphia um and so that for me was financial planning Financial accountability which I know and I understand are crucial for this board uh for anyone to be on it um and they have a clear balanced budget uh another thing uh is Crisis management I possess as well and effective communication and leader search skills so crisis management so I was a student worker in the sociology department at Drew University uh I worked for the chair of Sociology um who at the time was a co-director of the business department um and um before the spring of 2023 commen so this was wi recess uh I came in you know a little early and I asked the chair do you have anything you need me to do I'm go get and you'll hear that tonight Mr Bill Mr milber can I ask you um because we have a time restraint on the question I'm ask you to summarize that we got two more questions we need to add okay um so uh essentially the uh the professor the academic uh was badly injured and of course had two full classes of management overflowed um and was a and had to teach on Zoom um last minute of course and so I worked leg L with partners with the professor um to ensure a seamless smooth operation of those courses to be thank you and your third question are you aware of the extensive time requirements of a school board member and what life or work experiences do you have that would make you a good school board member yes so uh absolutely I am aware of the extensive time that would take place uh to beion board member and I respect that I would have an immense amount of time um as you know possible member I will ensure that I devote more time than necessary to ensure the successful outcome of our students and the board itself uh as far as background I did mention this before from the come at Drew um as I said before those questions kind of were similar so at the same time I just combined it those financial responsibility clear effective communication uh and crisis management skills and your final question is how many school board meetings have you attended over the two last year so uh in the past two years I was a full-time student at your University so unfortunately I couldn't have gone to a fiscal school board meeting however I while I was a student at wi High I was interested in the budgeting processes and in fact I have a list of the bu uh friendly budget with me now and I highlighted some areas where I was interested in and had questions um and so um to in that regard I'm fully committed to uh to seeing a possible position uh and to ensuring the success of all our students faculty staff and working with everyone on the board so so what's the answer to the question um not in the last two years as I was a college student yes at this time I would like to ask if there's any board members that have any following questions for Mr milber I do have follow question sure Mr ask my followup question is what is your vision for the district yes so my vision would be uh you correct me if I'm wrong on this uh think going toward the district model preparing um our leaders for today tomorrow um I I believe in that strongly um but I also believe in preparing our students for success to aim high and I I believe the board has also pivoted to this um for this FIS schal year to make this a priority and so I would be fully in line with that opportunity um so that that would be the vision that I have obviously announcing different initiatives like a high would be one specifically focusing on our special education students I want every student in this District to feel that they can attend Val school and not feel that oh they're not you know they're not uh worth that I want them to see value themselves so that's thank you D Mr thank you for your time next up will be Mr Robert sea Chester he may sty once Mr Davis thank you watch hi Mr Chester how are you sir fine yourself very well thank you my name is Howard long I'm the board attorney it's nice to meet you this evening I just want to go over some preliminary matters before I turn it over to Mr Thomas to ask substantive questions I may so there are certain legal requirements to become a Schoolboard member for instance you have uh have one year's residency within the school district have to be registered to vote within the district you can have no personal interest in any contract with or claim against the board you cannot hold any office as a member of the municipal governing body and likewise you may not simultaneously hold two elective offices and uh lastly uh even though the board may make a selection tonight as to who it chooses to become uh to fill the interim term there's a requirement that you undergo a criminal background check and you will not be able to be uh sworn in and take your seat even have selected tonight uh until that requirement has been satisfied you understand those points I made yes thank you and are you able to meet those requirements I am thank you very much sir I'm going to turn it over to our board vice president Mr Thomas Mr chest how are you this evening good Mr Thomas how are you good I have four questions for you the first question why do you want to be a school board member I think um between my professional background and educational background it grants me unique insight to be a successful board member and by that I mean as far as my professional background I've been in the military for 10 years military police my last two years in the military I was a recruiter so I helped to Mentor young students that were transitioning from high school to the military um I also uh currently Mentor wissow football team through the A Few Good Men agenda actually just got from there just now but I've been doing a Few Good Men with wissow Township football for about seven years now U and I'm also actively involved in my church I teach Sunday school fifth sixth seventh and eighth graders and I also Mentor young people through my fraternity we have what's called the sigma Beta Club where we young men ages 8 to 18 years old thank you second question what personal polities do you possess that you feel will make you an effective School Board member uh with school board I understand it's a volunteer Organization no one up there is getting any paychecks uh so I uh also my person that lends myself to volunteering as I've stated I volunteer with my fraternity I volunteer with my church um and it's all geared towards mentorship of I want to see that they survive and uh do a great job of when they're done being thank you very question are you aware of the extensive time requirements of a school board member and what life or work experiences do you have that would make you a good school board member yeah I'm very familiar with the time of dedication it takes I've sat on board before uh through my fraternity and other organizations that I've been a part of I know it's just not the Wednesday meeting there's committee meetings that you sit for as well and my leadership through these other boards that I've sat on will end well to the school board your fourth question how many school board meetings have you attended over the two last years about 10 thank you at this time is there any other uh questions or comments from our board members before Mr J president Tom do have a question sure Mr ask um what is your vision for um you know before I do anything I like to or join an organization I like to check the mission statement and I did go on the school website to look at the mission statement and uh my goal is align with that uh I think it says something to the effect that teaching all students to become independent um lifelong Learners uh critical thinkers uh caring and confident members of the community and uh those values I instill in myself I in my 14y old son goes to WS high school so by learning that mission statement I can say that my goal is align with it right now I'm a life learner I'm actually at R getting my masters in higher education and I know for a fact once that's done eventually I want to get my PhD thank you Mr CH thank you sir you may have the SE if going to stay for the meeting or excuse thank you this PAB would seem to conclude our um selections no we have um well you take it how you wish to proceed at this time what I'm going to do so we we're permitted that to so if I may in accordance with the requirements of the uh open public meetings act will be juring in executive sessions for matters of personnel and client privilege we will be doing that at approximately 6:20 my watch is um and I would anticipate maybe 20 minutes Mr pit yeah and we will be returning need a motion in a second and voice at this time board members I'm asking a motion to proove our moving into uh our pre executive session pet move for approval to move into our brief executive session second Miss move by Miss Peters second by Miss Martin at this time I'm asking would there be any uh questions no questions roll call please Mr ASU yes M Tre yes M Martin yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Miss yes at this time weing dress everybody itend and doesn't doesn't affect it if you're there on the day or days that the test is somebody's is on turn on up must have realized good it okay all did a good job just so you guys did great you did great app your [Music] name questions here I'd like to ask are yeah 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 asking for a motion toj executive session here's a move for adjournment of executive session second Martin move by misset second by m Martin all in favor any n we are back Mr Thomas ladies and gentlemen uh of the board and of our stold at this time I am calling for a motion to fill our vacancy board seat Peter move for approval to appoint an individual for a vacancy up until December 31st 2024 second Miss Martin so in in light of the fact oh want to ask there's any questions first um M Mr Thomas uh at this motion second any questions any questions if I may interject Mr Thomas um the way that we typically do this when we have multiple candidates and there could be multiple combination of it's It's majority role um so when the role call is is done by Mrs Bole if you would pronounce the last name of the candidate you have selected that would be very helpful proceed in that fashion is everybody in agreement yes great thank you Mrs Bo Mr ASU Chester M Dre Miss Martin Chester Miss Peterson Chester Mr Thomas GL and Miss pits thank you from the count I it appears that Mr Chester has received five votes and um Miss GL has received one so it appears that um Mr Chester you correct Mrs Bo um Mr Chester if you would make arrangements there you if you would make arrangements to reach out to Mrs Bo perhaps after our meeting for sometime tomorrow so that she can go through with what needs to be done to get your process for your paperwork moving now board members at this time we we're on page two Awards and presentation good evening uh board members if you would take a seat in the front row thank you good evening everyone um as I indicated over the past two board meetings and we will be presenting the spring 2024 learning assessment results um board members you have a copy of this presentation in your folders and if you'd like to take notes and uh gather your questions for me at the end of the presentation before we get into the New Jersey assessment results uh one of our community members asked a question about one of the goals that we had last year under student achievement and that was to increase benchmark scores in fourth grade English language arts for the end of the year um as you all know we have a new Benchmark assessment which is I ready and what we done of course is um conducted a test in October this is a diagnostic which is an opportunity for us to find out where each of the young people are so that we can address those needs individually um the first line which his diagnostic one um in October when we took the test um you have at or above grade level so we had 45 students that was at or above grade level in October according to our diagnostic 46 early on grade level meaning they were very close to being on grade level 13 of our fourth graders was one grade level below 32 of our fourth graders was two grade levels below and 83 of our fourth graders was three or more Bel now um what I want to point out and I did write it down at the bottom it says columns one and two reflect the increase in the number student progressing toward or performing at or above grade level so when we take when we administered the test in April which was considered the end of the year you want to see how many students progress to the point where they are now at or above grade level so if you look at diagnostic 2 which is administered in April we went from 45 students at grade level to 100 which means now we have a gain of 55 students early on grade level meaning very close we went from 46 to 48 two additional students now these last three columns you don't want to see pluses you want to see minuses because you want to see how many students can you get from grade one grade level below maybe move over to the early or at or above and of course uh two grade levels below you want to move those children over so that they can uh show some improvement M and as well as column number three so one grade level Below in October there was 113 when we retook the test in April it was 111 so there were two fewer students that were one grade level below if you go to the next column two grade levels below there was 32 when we took the test again in April there was 16 so there were 16 fewer students at that grade level moving on to three or more grade levels below there were 83 in April there was 44 so there were 39 fewer students who were three or more grade levels below that is the purpose of the diagnostic from the beginning of the year to the end of the year you want to see where there's growth I take the time to do U to explain this particular slide so when you see the others you already know pretty much how that hurts all right so let's move on now the goal excuse me the goal was to increase benchmark scores in fourth grade ELA I did the math also so you can see the progression as well as in math fourth grade all right diagnostic one October you'll see where each of those young people were and diagnostic to you'll see the increase for example at or above grade level we increased by 50 students early one grade level we increased by 46 students one grade level below we had seven fewer students two grade levels below we had 30 F students so again these young people are moving according to our diagnostic three or more grade levels below we went from 75 to 22 53 F students all right so to give you an idea where we are as far as our I is concerned I took the liberty to do um grades four five and six and in grades four five and six these are all of the students uh fourth grade fifth grade sixth grade took the I already diagnostic one and two when we combine all the students together in October there were 122 above or at grade level close to grade level8 one grade level below 266 two grade levels below 188 three or more grade levels below 326 now we talking about maybe 1,20 students 130 somewhere in that those numbers you do to math uh but you see as we go across above grade at or above grade level we had a gain of 127 students uh close to grade level we had a gain of 34 students however one grade level below instead of us uh decreasing we increased by 13 students so the number went from 266 to 279 two grade levels below we went from 188 to 157 excuse me 151 which is a 37 fewer students and three or more grade levels below 326 students to 189 we had 137 F students now keep in mind ladies and gentlemen look at what I'm saying here fourth fifth and sixth grade one grade level Below in either one of those grades two grade levels below and then three or more grade levels below that's what the diagnostic test showed us and that's what we want to see where the young people are and what additional service these young people need in order for us to put them at Great level now the question would be whether or not we saw any increases whether or not any gains when we went through our all right um mathematics same thing occurred four fifth and sixth grade uh diagnostic one October those are your numbers across diagnox two in April you see the gains 127 at or above 139 almost at grade level we decreased the one grade level below by 46 students two grade levels below mathematics we have 69 F students and three or more grade levels below we had 207 F students all right let's move on to the assessment Ang jobs by school school one school two school three School four the green is year [Music] 2023 and then the purple is 2024 which was last year so we're doing a comparison from one year to the next school one went from 33 to 31% proficiency School two with from 28 to 33% proficiency school three went down from 42 to 32% proficiency and school four maintained 48% Proficiency in both years now keep in mind these are not the same students um the third graders in 2023 this is the new group of third graders in 2024 these are the youngsters who were in second grade last year okay moving on schools five and six 2023 31% proficiency down to 26% proficiency last year school six 27% Proficiency in 23 up to 33% proficiency last year which was 24 Middle School went from 39% Proficiency in language AR literacy to 28% 11% decrease high school went from 35% in ela to 32% what I also did here for you is a 4year study or four-year comparison um 2019 was a year before Co okay uh we didn't administer or the state didn't administer the State assessment in 20 and 21 we picked it back up in 2022 23 and of course last year is 24 third grade went from 43% before covid dropped down to 38% in 2022 up 139% in 2023 down to uh last year to 2024 fourth grade 36% proficiency before covid after covid 22 32% 23 back up 1% to 33% and then in 2024 again up 1% third and fourth grade grade five before Co 41% after covid 2022 30% and 22 20 uh 9% and 23 and 26% in 2024 sixth grade was 45% proficiency prior to covid after Co down to 33% in 22 down to 26% in 23 uh an increase in 2024 to 28% grade seven before covid in language arts literacy we're at 40% 2022 right after covid 30% 23 up slightly 39% last year up to 40 48% eighth grade 43% before covid 2022 39% 23 38% 24 26% ninth grade 36% before covid de down to 28% and 22 back up to 35% and 23 down to 33% and 24 language on leaders mathematics school one mathematics and of course these are all third graders school one mathematics last year excuse me 2023 was up 27% efficiency last year down to 22% School two 23 26% last year they moved up to 43% 177% increase school three went from 33% and 23 down to 23% and and 24 School four 36% in 23 34 4% in 24 fifth grade or excuse me school five I'm Sorry by school school five 19% in 23 up to 24% last year in 24 School 6 16% in 23 up to 18% in 24 middle school math 15% in 23 up to 18% in 24 high school 10% in 23 9% and 24 same thing we did in um language arts litery you have a fouryear uh comparison 44% um in third grade before covid 30% uh in 22 after covid 31% in 23 30% again in 24 grade four 28% before cod in 2019 16% in 2022 22% in 20123 30% in 2024 grade five to 2019 before Co 31% 16% 22 15% and 23 18% and 24 sixth grade 32% before Co 19% in 22 22 excuse me 16% in 23 177% in 24 seventh grade 25% before covid 15% in 22 19% in 23 16% in 24 8th grade 12% in 2019 9% in 22 6% in 23 8% in 24 ninth grade 24% in 2019 20% in 22 133% in 23 18% in 24 intervention strategies basically so what are we going to do to address these issues you saw what the I ready diagnostic test showed us we do see some growth in skill development uh we still have some issues that we need to address so as a district what are we going to do to address these concerns we're going to start with our schools these are our intervention strategies first of all you have to create create and maintain a learning environment where teachers can teach and students can learn can't happen without it if your environment is not conducive to learning is not going to happen all right teachers have to be able to teach young people have to be in an environment where they can learn pretty much nonthreatening minimize classroom disruptions it only take one student in the classroom to make sure that no one gets anything done particularly if the teacher have to deal with destructions maximize teacher instruction time they don't have to take their time to deal with discipline or disruptions that entire time they're going to be using for instruction which gives us an opportunity to make sure our young people getting all the time they need in instruction increase classroom Library support to reading across the curriculum and basically in the elementary schools we're pouring more and more books into those classrooms giving these young people an opportunity to read um whenever the teacher have an opportunity for uh when they break them down on groups we want them to re re re re read data driven decision making the numbers that you just saw Drive everything we're going to be doing the data will drive all the professional development is going to drive what we're going to be doing with our young people so we're going to continue to review that data whether it's the state assessment or your benchmark assessment because you have to have more than one assessment according to the Department of Education in order for us to decide or determine where our young people are which will drive instruction and professional development meaning that if we see certain areas that need to be strengthened we also need to make sure that those teachers are getting that uh professional development so that they can strengthen their skills better prepared they are the better we feel they can provide instruction to our young people continue administrative data sessions uh with staff to guide instruction and money you have to take time out uh during that school day to look at that data with your teachers and uh put together your uh action plan as to how you going to address it um yesterday um we had an opportunity where school didn't open until later that gives us a couple hours to um the administrators have a couple hours to sit with the staff members and one of the things they're doing is going over the data and as they go over the data that will give us an opportunity to drive instruction professional development continue to provide ongoing and targeted professional development that focuses on improving teaching and learning we again we're going to train and retrain and retrain and continue to provide training for our teachers so that they can be in a position to be at their very best continue to utilize all available resources in and out of the district to support student development and both math and language arts um as you know over the years and we continue we bring in professors row Canon County College uh we have opportunities for our teachers to go and be trained and turn key when they come back so we're going to continue to have all those resources in our schools to help train our teachers continue to provide parent workshops to enhance their awareness of facts that affect and contribute to students success uh as you know last year we had several parent workshops um the one that comes to mind um for our little people we had uh workshops for our kindergarten uh for our preschool uh teachers we had workshops for mathematics reading all the materials we have online to help our parents uh learn how to use those materials and we talk about uh their awareness of the facts that we know help um particular those little people reading to them accounting um helping them to understand how to sit quietly and work uh helping you doing things around the house measuring all those learning opportunities we're asking parents to continue to do little people love those things but they don't know they're learning at the same time progress monitoring does the student know what has been taught if not we are asking our teachers to retach retach reteach however there is a pacing that you have to maintain because you can't be on the same subject area for three months so you have to pace your way through but there are many opportunities for teachers to retach because if she say you're class you guys understand what's going on and they say no then you know you have to go back and retach right building principles directors and supervisors reserving staff and providing feedback so all of those individuals that middle management people are in those buildings assisting those principles observing staff and giving the teachers feedback uh to strengthen their delivery of services conduct weekly administrative walkthroughs to monitor teaching and learning we want our principles up in those hallways in those classrooms so that they can see what's going on on a daily basis so if you call them and they're not in their office or not able to respond this is one of the reasons why we expect them to be in those class so that they can monitor uh the teaching and learning provide interventionists to support teaching learning we have interventionist in every one of our schools these uh individuals are there to pull out uh those young people who need additional services and they go into the classroom to work individually with small groups uh so we're providing as many services as we can uh to support those young people of the greatest need one of the things we continue to ask our teachers and administrators is to continue to develop a relationship with the students and motivate them to do their very best um that helps us those young people to build their confidence set high expectations and the better the relationship you have with the young people the harder he or she's going to work for you all right early intervention strengthen the students foundation in the early grades and place more emphasis on skill velopment and prek to third grade uh ladies and gentlemen of course you know we now have three year olds in our schools I think they get smaller every year um but that's essential to put them in a learning environment provide them with opportunities to learn while playing uh to learn while engaging with others but it's important for us as the diagnostic indicated you cannot have that many young people progressing through the school district and they're still two or three years below grade level that's the task we're confronted with all right online learning we still have online learning resources available to the teachers and to the parents if you go online your school we have materials and resources for language arts literacy and Mathematics for the parents to work with their children out vinark assessment tool we are going to continue with our I ready to assist the teachers in identifying the specific needs of each student U last year was our first year with him um I think they uh that tool has been very effective we've been able to identify uh a lot of the needs we've been able to Target uh what needs to be done in the classroom we also are using this tool to Target our professional development before and after school tutting program we're going to continue to provide before and after school tutoring program to support student achievement ladies and gentlemen you remember earlier this year I said to you we identifi 393 students who needed extra help to come to summer school only 53 showed up um but we going to continue to provide it however um the resources are there the teachers are there to help these young people um but we're asking our parents to please uh take it advantage of those opportunities we provide continue to place greater emphasis on daytoday assignments and quarterly grades for each subject now we're not teaching to the test State assessments we're teaching skill development but those grades every quarter you should be looking at those grades you should be talking to your children about those grades because these are grades that's going to determine whether or not they promoted from one grade to the next these are are the grades that are going to determine their GPA once they get to high school these are the grades going to determine whether or not they go on College all right so I don't want us to think that everything we're doing is basic and looking at testing we want that dayto day teaching that shortterm memory to be um the same amount or if not more emphasis on uh the day-to-day learning and those quarterly gr so monitor their report cards and monitor as much as possible uh this is some of these strategies are a continuation from last year parents we're saying develop partnership relationship with teachers to increase student learning work with us be a part of what we're doing let your children know that we are a team that we're working together in their best interest see your child to school prepared to learn and that's a big one we need our young people to understand why they coming to SCH School what's the purpose of coming to school what do you want to do upon graduation come to school prepared to learn make your child make sure your child studies and completes assignments homework assignments uh which is required of them support your teachers and hold your child accountable for their actions and that's so important um a lot of times we are trying to deal with issues with our young people we communicate with the parents a lot of times they don't agree or they don't support us and we're not saying that we are 100% correct on everything we do but what we are saying is when you know your child has done something that he wasn't he or she wasn't supposed to do then hold them accountable because this is a learning process as we going on attendance send your child to school every day stay home when you're sick but we know there is a strong correlation between attendance and student a if you're not in school you're not going to achieve academic all right parents monitor your child's progress uh our on course connect is our new Parent Portal so I just put that there just so we make sure that we are on the same page monitor the gr homework assignments monitor the attendance support your child by attending back to school nights parent teacher conferences and School events please take advantage of the support programs that we have in place to support the child's academic growth and we asking you to please if you can send your child to the before and after school programs extended school years some enrichment programs Etc at this time I'll take any questions you may have yes I have a yes sir I guess IDE one the third increase the only beginning yeah first of all let me applaud you for this transparency and taking the time out to uh to put this together but I think with the second slide when we increased by 13 students in grade level 4 fth and six one grade level below okay you said four5 and six okay right there okay the only one that was like that can you break that down why you think that happened they increase 13 students oh um well that's uh that's difficult to say um I'm not sure how um maybe the student wasn't progressing as those kids weren't progressing as they should maybe they didn't take it serious there are a lot of variables that may apply Dr K would you do you have any well when you look at the numbers I'm just how did that happen like increase how do you think we got to the point where that's that's the only column in that that in um I gu you know once again everything I applaud you for everything you did but just the question just to see how how did how did that one is the only one that we really look like we we went South yes and and there and and as I stated before there could be a lot of reasons um you know when you take a form of diagnostic or standardized test some of our young people just don't take it as serious as they should so we don't know what may have transpired there whether or not they took it serious whether or not they've been applying themselves because we with our I ready diagnostic we spend about 15 minutes every day 15 minutes every day so that you have that skill development because it's like a building block you build on every day every day you're building on and in this case these 13 students U to be able to specifically say why I'm not sure but it could be AET thing yes Miss could it possibly be that some of the students like The 137 instead of being below they may have moved up only student move all the way depends started and they multiple variables and of course my uh my mad people here would look at it half full as opposed to thank you but thank you but that is again that's another variable uh in this because what we want um Mr Thomas we want those young people moving from right to left that's that's the way we want to move we want to moving from right to left like I said the overall performance be very good it's it's U just I already based on some of the things we've done in the past has been a great comparison for us it has given us some information that we now of course can look at and say okay this is what we need to do so how do we approach it so all those strategies that I just mentioned to you hopefully we'll start some um some more gains um but we'll see what happens in second year basic skills in general it is not the state assessment and the skills are different so on the state assessment they may have much more challenging skills and tasks presented to them than that that they have on IR so you will see a difference in stores so if the expectation is that because we have the Benchmark assessment and the students are doing fantastic here that we should see those same results you should see movement but don't expect results to be the same it takes time to get to that point years and you're looking for change but also can I pleas I'm sorry and I concur with what um Dro said but in five years but in five years the state changes the test that's correct and see for the past 14 years we've had three different assessments so they don't make money in I shouldn't say that well the other side of that is that there's already a discussion with the state department as what they're looking at in terms of so things are forever changing um a quick example that came to mind for example let's say we're working with two play multi and the kid wasn't the student wasn't doing well but by the end of the they were doing very well with two Place multipliers but when they got the state assessment they had three and four Place multipliers they W as offici but it didn't mean that they didn't show some game the tests will always be harder plus we don't know what's on the test you never know what but uh again um over the years we've continued to dig at this make changes along the way does this word no does this word yes to stick with it it's it's a t it's a task but when you see that you have young people three two and three years below grade level it's going to take some time to get but you got to St yes ma'am I have a couple questions yes you said 393 students were identified do you have which grade levels they were in and if so out of the 53 are they were they transported to the school well we provide transportation for all programs yes transportation is provided for all of um if we went into our records we can identify who the 53 were and we can tell you the ones who say no because we know they are and was that just struggling students or students who failed no no no no no we always look at those students of the greatest need the greatest yes so you look at your let's say uh lower 30% that 30 percentile so we invited them through their parents we sent those letters home to invite them because we felt they needed that work for example they could have been the ones and not necess say now but at that time based on our similar benchmarks they could have been the young people in the three or more grade levels below or the kids who were in the two grade levels below so those are the ones you really want to focus with at extra time so so you target I should sayet but well that's a term you you targeted them based on the assessment and not their grade well so the recommendation for the summer uh program comes starts with the teacher first and it's based on skilled deficiency and in all of that the report cures are considered class participation everything is included there overall whether or not the teacher thinks that the student will benefit from participating in the summer program so the summer program is not a credit recovery program we only start looking at credit recovery for some sixth graders middle school and high school and during the summer program for those students it's an online program not an inhouse and the reason for that again participation was extremely low so even though we were paying uh the teachers before the students had to pay their own summer school well we offered to pay and we paid so it was free to the students and we still had very very few students participating so now it's an online cred recovery program so if you want to get your extra credit so that you move on then you have to absorb the cost of doing itself okay so um if I may sure um my kids don't care me for this but I had I enrolled them into the recers reading summer program yes um for several years until they start screaming though but maybe if you want to enhance all of the students and and get value for the teachers still being here why not just open that up for not not just the people who are not taking advantage of it but for the ones who want to continue so that learning slip won't slide over the summer so I can send my child to school if you going to provide right so basically what you saying your your children are doing pretty good you know SATs and all that and I would grant you that most of those parents would take advantage I'm not sure what you said um so a summer program for all all students right and so the problem with the summer program for all is we simply don't have the staff to do that we can't provide the transportation for all students during the summer oh no no I don't I don't mean for all I should say for the ones who want to take advantage of maybe specializ it for um the kids who want to specialize towards SATs to enhance art to learn instead of us parents that are paying records re records reading program $3 $400 for six weeks we can I'm just understand understand what you're saying I agree with you say I agree with Dr car said because we've done it both ways however I am inclined to believe that parents with children who are inclined to want to come and want them to be there I think the numbers would be much higher than what we had this past com on that because that was that was one of myquest several months ago um to to even if it's limited or if it's on a first curent surch basis somehow because I know in athletics and you know they practice during the summer the B they practice during the summer so in order to be great at what you do you got you got to do it all year round so if we can provide if the ones that need it don't want to take it but the ones that just want to be advanced in that in their skill set and education if we can find a way to open the door for them I think that would be not ask it to our district but ask it to our community if we can find a way to open the door for those if we have 390 seats and we we we offer to the ones that want to take it and then they don't want to take it and the ones that don't necessarily need it want to take it we could open the doors to them I think that that would do do wonders for our district okay yes ma'am so um in your presentation you talked about um minimizing class distractions and maximizing the teachers teaching time yes well in high school they're currently using the online pass system yes and if anything that took more time out of the teacher's teaching time than it did the agendas because now they got to stop class every time to sign every person who needs to go somewhere or pass so they got to stop teaching their lesson okay rather than just a student creating a past in the agenda and then signing well let me just ask one question where are the students going during class time the bathroom okay and I understand that however um when you go to class whatever it is you needed to do now every once in a while someone has to go to bathroom F but it cannot become a situation where the teacher is doing so much that it's interfering with instruction that's a problem that's a problem shouldn't be happening um again I know some people have to go to the bathroom however if it becomes an issue then you need to bring me a doctor um but other than that those interruptions should not be occurring at such a rate that the teacher has to stop or interferes with instruction in order for uh for that to happen that's new newent ask take seat because it's easier us you must by mind so I love what I'm seeing here with the I ready and kind of help um bring in context as a student my daughter who's been who's now in sixth grade so she took the ready all all that right and it is not you and it is quite interesting that if you start to score above or headed towards but like you start to get more as the diagnostic goes on it now is giving you skills that you may not have learned yet because you're above grade level so it is quite a comprehensive um Diagnostic and I really feel like that is helping and I like to see I think it makes sense in that frame I'm also very happy that you put in those fouryear Gap because I think what we might look at and a little like those graphs that show your four fouryear breakdown I think what what concerns I think me as a parent and what I'm seeing is the students that were first second third grade during 2020 so they had virtual first grade and half of second grade virtual and right they're the ones that are now in Middle School six seven eth grade that are just we're seeing we're not really seeing that increase that we want to see right we're kind of hovering in that third like that that 20 30% right um how how can we Rec I is that going to recover then is that planned that that might recover that it is a diagnosis it is skill development we're hoping that this will enhance what we're trying to do to get these young people CAU up however the teaching and learning process begins once that door closes in that classroom it's all about instruction and that's why I'm strong on pencil paper I'm not one of those stand behind the computer seriously it's it's about teaching it's about good teaching there's no substitute for good teaching and that's where it all begins sure this gives us an idea but it's all about what's going on and the other question so the what's missing from this presentation is that because we don't have it is the GPA results okay the NJ GPA results right is that not on that do we not have that yet or do we because you mentioned about high school and you me those adults you're talking about are not the 11th graders it's the no when I when I refer to GPA I'm pretty much thinking of grade point average right but I'm saying when you in your presentation you have high school that's ninth grade performance not the 11th graders who take it only goes up to so where are the high school GPA results NJ GPA results I don't think it goes beond just a few kids that might be 10th grade but but 11th graders took a whole new assess the graduation they took it this year too yeah well we would have the results this year but didn't they take it in the spring yes do we have so we as a as a high school parenting I'm quite concerned and I'd like to kind of are we going to then present that in a different presentation okay because I'm concerned and I feel like we as a as a district should look at how much what percentage of 12 current 12th graders that were 11th graders in the spring that took that assessment that didn't meet expectation and are now in the portfolio class there are I last year it was almost 67% if I'm remember correctly from your presentation it was a good majority of the seniors from last year right class 2024 it's now a graduation requirement for the class of 24 25 and a and we're talking about a majority of those seniors didn't meet expectation in mathematics right and I would like to know kind of where we are with that because my concern is you talked about looking at grades checking GPA yes being we could have a student that is honors honor student straight A in honors track um courses in mathematics and are sitting in a are sitting in a um portfolio class because they didn't pass the meet meet expectations so there's a in my opin there's a disconnect I can do really well in class not necessarily disconnect because you're comparing apples with ar class workk is short-term M meaning I go to class every week every two weeks I have a test I'm great longterm memory is the assessment however the assessment that they take will not keep them from graduating that's why the state had put in different options in order for you to move forward right the entire State cannot afford for the number of youngsters in this state who doesn't pass that test the way they give it you're talking about let's say 60% of all the high school students in state of New Jersey they're not going to do that so that's why had three four different ways for you to Mo on again the GPA is important because the colleges aren't going to ask you how would you do assessment they don't even want it what they are going to look at is your I guess my point is like what are we doing to get a better connection the same kinds of things we're doing that this level okay at the high school level we are building skills we even have math enrichment we have in those classes associated with the assessment where the young people who are identified who didn't pass they're in those class yes I didn't know that for nth grade we are doing that for incoming nth graders were placed in these reg classes yes based on their scores in eighth grade so I do see I guess I want to make sure that we're proactive not reactive absolutely because I feel like we are at the point now where we don't need to react anymore right we're building proactive strategies [Music] so they s before the assessment and if they don't complete it you don't get score and so they come back where they were not proficient the only other option is to go through the alternative I think again as as we we proactively talk about this starting at night I would I would encourage us to kind of whether that's do I don't know if that's Mr Bella or if that's the ninth and 10th grade um principls or vice principal that kindy to bring that up but but I what I'm saying is starting in we should start having these conversations with the students and the parents in nth grade that the importance of this and what will happen is you will be removed from an elective course to be placed in a portfolio class and you will lose credit and you will which will affect your GPA that's because already place and so that's one of the points I to we particular this year you will never imagine the number of parents that say they don't want their children in the classes oh can and um the the other point I wanted to make and I'm not sure what percentage but the young people at the high school already know that this is not going to keep them going to college it's not important um so you know you have a few to tell you well it doesn't make a difference as far as my progression is concerned so a lot of don't take it seriously I think that's one of our greatest concerns beyond the teaching and learning in the classroom holding them accountable classroom is getting the young people to high school to take these test serious would agree I agree with that thank you get them to take it seriously so we we we're going to do the things you mentioned some we are already doing but I appreciate you your support anyone else thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you board members before we continue uh with our agenda let me ask you this how many in this in this audience today right now have children or grandchildren in this District okay keep your hand up for a minut great nephew one two three now I counted five hands which means that you have children here there are 5,000 kids in this district and what we did here tonight was advertised it was put on our website and on our Facebook what I want to know from our tech department sometime this week if I could just know how many uh people tuned in to this tonight because folks this is a Cooperative Endeavor here I have four or five parents here tonight now I am not casting aspersions on folks who have busy schedules folks who have family and marriage I understand that I understand that but what I don't understand is why I have five hands that were raised and there are 5,000 kids in this District let's just remove the children from Ek up to third grade because as we all know what they don't take the test okay so from third grade up to 11th grade right yes that's the bulk of this school district there was an education commissioner who said and first name was Lucy I can't remember last name she was David right she said that children she has found in her years that children will live up or down to the expectations that we and you parents put on them so when so we've got to do better we can do better and I'm expecting better and that's all I have to say because the hour is getting late and I know my board members want to move on so that's what do board member I know I set like that but anyway board members we're on page two our attorney let me know that my name but um board members I'm on page two and I am asking if have any correspondence none this evening Madam president thank you at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve our minutes from our regular board meeting which was held Wednesday September 25th open session is there a motion Peterson move for approval of regular board minutes from September 25th second Miss Martin move by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin any F comments or question hearing none roll call please Mr ask you yes Miss dreon yes Miss Martin yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Miss pit yes motion has carried than you moving now at this point we going to go through our board committee reports would there be a report out of our athletic committee Madam president our athletic committee is not due to me to the of the month however I like to use this as a public service announ announcement just to remind everybody that our our W wall f is October 25th and we still have a few seats left it look like we're going to in sold out capacity so if you're inst and come and make sure you get your tickets and it's going to be a Grand Event that's about I do expect that all board Meers I we do expect that all board members are all covered and are invited to attend so will you get them the date again October the 25th at 6 o' at Bas going to be a Grand Event four more four more for for those may not do the best you can look at the next thank you Mr Thom moving now Citizen advisory committee would give the report out of our citizens advis not at this time thank you m education committee would be report no report at this time but we'll meet at on October 16th at 4M thank you Miss I'm going Tove now Pres family Emergency Operations committee is there report out of our operations committee no this time M president thank you moving now to our policy committee uh with regards to our policy committee um we should say that the policy committee U met virtually September 26 2024 at 4M members and attendance were Mr Shaw Mr ASU M and myself administrators in attendance Mr Dion Davis director Human Resources the following policies and or reg regulations were reviewed and discussed and are being recommended to the board this evening for first reading additionally it should be noted that each policy and or regulation has in some manner been revised and those would be regulation 5200 that dealt with attendance regulation 5440 that dealt with honoring student achievements policy number 533 seven that deals with service animals policy number 8420 that deals with emergency and crisis situations and policy and regulation guide 8467 that deals with firearms and weapons and again we should note that all of those policies have been divided the meeting concluded at approximately 4:40 then our next meeting will take place on uh October 9th 2024 any questions with regards to that report board members thank you moving now at the top of Page Three I'm asking for a motion to approve the superintendent report as it begins at the top of Page Three and then it continues through to the bottom or the mid of page eight is there a motion Peterson move for approval of superintendent report that recommends approval of the following items found in item a through b page 3 through 8 second is move by m Peterson second by Miss Martin any comments or questions hearing onone roll call please Mr ask yes M Dre yes M Martin yes M Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Miss P yes motion has carried thank you miss moving now boy REM I'm at the top of page nine our business administrative board secretary report before I ask for a motion on that I would ask that you take a at page 14 down the bottom of page 14 where it lists um the names of of um individuals who are going to our annual um Conference in October if you notice down here says um board member name that should be read this way simply member name okay because Mr John in the S was deals with the esort going but that should be just member name okay all right so therefore at this point I'm asking for a motion to approve the business administrative board secretary report as it appears beginning page nine and continues through to the bottom of page 14 is there a motion Peterson move for approval of business administrator report that recommends approval of the following items found in item A and B page 9 through 14 second Miss Martin move by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin there be any fur comments or question hearing on roll call please Mr as yes M bre yes Miss Martin yes Miss Peterson yes Mr sha Mr Shaw's not here but Mr Tom is here so I'll take the line now Mr Thomas yes thank you and Miss pits yes the motion has carried thank you Miss moving now board members I'm at the top of page 15 I am asking for a motion to approve Personnel reports as it begins at the top of page 15 and it continu through to the bottom of page 16 is there a motion Peterson move for approval of personnel report that recommends that the super recommen recommend superintendent recommends approval of the following action items B A 1-6 page 15- 16 second Miss Martin move by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin would there be any further comments or questions hearing on roll call please Mr as yes M Dre yes Miss Mar yes Miss Peterson yes Mr thas yes and Miss yes motion that's thank you miss moving now board members to our agenda that sheet that we have and that we had an opportunity to read through it so therefore at this time time I'm asking for a motion to approve the item on our agenda that begins with the superintendent report letter A it begins and ends on page one is there a motion Peterson move for approval of superintendent report which includes uh recommendations approval of the following items found in item A1 second Miss Martin move by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin any further comments or questions hearing none roll call please Mr as yes M Dre yes M Mar yes M Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and M yes the motion has carried thank you Miss Paul moving now we're at the still on page one of the agenda I'm asking at this time for a motion to approve the board secretary's report as it begins on page one and continues through to the top of Page Three on our agenda is he a motion interject for a moment item six I wanted to just make a correction or addition okay so number six It should read approved to reallocate 23 24 special a won and other related costs for out of District students so we're putting in other related cost from the ARP estr to the general funding the amount 4 850 0724 for per the attached exhibit uh costs are to be charged to 11016 uh 566 1100 567 and we have two more account number 11270 350 and 11271 518 everything else Remains the Same I'm going to pass this to you Miss P Miss uh and you can the highlighted in yellow what is what has been added all right board members on the board I'm going to at this time amend that movement that move to include the changes that were stated by Miss Foy so before I move to ask for a roll call did we get a motion in a second Mrs po no we have not had a motion so so we need a motion second to approve that section as amended by Mrs Bo Peterson move for approval uh the board secretary board ad uh administrators recommendations found on page one item a 1 through six thank includes page 1 through three and amend number six on three as specified by our board administrative board secretary is second Miss Martin moved by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin any further questions any further comments thank you hearing n roll call please Mr ASU yes M BR yes Miss Martin yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Miss pitz yes the motion has carried thank you Miss Bo moving now board members on our agenda I'm asking for motion to approve the Personnel report as it appears and begins at the bottom of page three and continues through to the bottom of page four is there a motion Peters move for approval uh a Personnel report which specifies superintendent recommend approval of the following action items down from a through 1-5 page 3 through four second Miss Martin move by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin any further comments or questions yes page four number four number four graduation cohort tracking team exactly what is that so the high school received um additional funding this year as and part of that funding is uh to be used to improve graduation rate U and to um put programs in place to add address uh the decline in graduation rate and so as part of that uh the school had to develop a plan to address graduation and these this is part one of the strategies that they came up with and so it was approved by the state and actually recommendation from the state that there be a team uh to address um to track the graduation cords uh to see you know what the issues were so that the graduation rate would improveed and Who provided those names of the administration the high school the high school the high school and so um these were people who volunteered for the position it is after school after their regular work hours in addition to this Mr DAV TK had on the posting earlier for me it will be coming if it's not there approval for Mentor teacher Ventures yes as a part of the their plan as well so there are three major things that the high school has incorporated as part of your schoolwide plan and you'll see those coming on the agenda thank you okay we okay Miss Martin yes any further comments or question hearing none on this motion roll call please Mr ASU yes Miss dreaded yes Miss Martin yes Miss Peterson yes Mr Thomas yes and Miss pits yes motion has Carri thank you m board members we're turning to our regular agenda at the top of page uh 17 open public records act request yes Madam president between the period of September 20th 2024 and October 7 2024 we received responded to one request from Mr Todd gy from a teain therapy he wanted a copy of the winning proposal submission for the RFP for 202-02 for Behavior behavioral list consultation and services those documents were compiled thank you m moving now board memb informational items Dr would you any information yes yes uh Madam president of the report I have three information items um first of all I'd like to address uh the embarrassing and unfortunate situation that occurred uh Last Friday Night at the end of our football game um I would first like to say that the members of the football team from both schools uh showed their sportsmanship after the game was over over they shook hands they went to their respective locker rooms there were no incidents on the field um which was pleasing to all of us however after the football game um for whatever reason the young people started fighting um which jeopardized the safety of everybody who was in attendance um Dr car and I along with Mr Mel in the building administrative team along with Chief lemon and members of his staff um met today to discuss and to strategize how we can best address these issues to prevent and or minimize these kinds of things from happening um in the future at this point the investigation is ongoing by the police department and uh once they conclude they will share that information with us but he shared with us today that that is ongo and he can't give us a timeline as to when that will be concluded however for those individuals or students we have identified uh from WIS Township High School now there were individuals from other high schools involved other than our student but for those who were involved in the incident from wind Township High School uh we will be dealing with those individuals according to our student code of conduct we had to remind a couple parents uh that students who are involved in incidents at a school related function whether it's doing school after after school the rules and regulations still apply to that high school and therefore we will take the steps that we feel necessary to address it uh at the meeting we made some recommendations um the school district as well as the police chief but as far as the school district is concerned these are just some recommendations that we would like to consider um but one decision has already been made by me um our next home game will not be at night we're moving that game to an afternoon game uh because we feel that um those night games create situations that could have been avoided however um we also have been in communication with the other schools uh because this of course became very public so we've been in communication with the other schools and the other schools have responded in such a way that they appre um that we are considering doing some things that will create a safe environment for everyone in attendance we're also uh looking at um how we sell tickets we would like to do uh have ticket sells online as opposed to cash up front uh that will enable us to Monitor and uh put a limit on how many tickets that are sold uh students from W Town School District must use their student ID in order to purchase tickets middle school and elementary students uh who may or may not have ID still must have permission from their parents and when they come to the game they must be accompanied by a parents only those students from the other High School are permitted no outside Spectators will be permitted to attend our games um we U have only one home game left which is maybe two weeks away uh the team has been very successful which means that there may be playoff games here we do not have control over playoff games on that site that's the uh njisa a they control those games and we would like to communicate with them um some of the concerns that we had to possibly be able to work with them and providing some security uh the police of course are recommending enforcing curfew laws and things of that nature uh we even after I made a robo call we talked to as many parents as possible about young people coming to the games picking them up by 8:15 8:45 at the latest um that night we had students still there police offic is waiting till 11:30 for children to be picked up it it it baffles me to think that a middle school age young girl is out there and no one comes to pick them up I don't care how many phone calls it I just don't understand it um and most of the young people he said there had been at least 50 60 students still there waiting in front of the building uh without a ride uh to get home and he is in a position where um they gonna be talked to the prosecutor's office and they're going to start enforcing curfew laws finding these parents because some needs to be done uh with these young people who were out that time and night and no supervision no one pick them up after the game and we're talking about hours after the game so at this point uh again most of what I mentioned tonight is in the discussion stages um but we will be able to confirm some of these things along the way uh but we're definitely going to limit our Gams to students of this district and only those students from the from the teams that we're playing and we will also minimize the number of tickets they will be able to purchase also again everything at this point is uh being done um as far as safety is concerned we have to make sure that not only our children but when we have visitors at our stadium and on our ground we have to ensure that they're going to be safe and that they can come in and leave safely and that is a concern concern um that we all have at this point so that concludes that first um information it if anyone have any questions i' be b toy answer I do yes sir so the only home game we have coming up now is CH am I correct yes sir so and so we're gonna move into through the afternoon yes sir on a Saturday yes sir I would ask that some Provisions be made we we with the Hall of Fame had made some special Provisions for that day as well so I'm asking that some collaboration or some consideration we together make sure I agree with you your term that everything must befe but still all we must get to the state yes yes as as a matter of fact um Mr Thomas you're absolutely right and I did not think of that uh at the time because we did have some some things that we wanted to do as a matter of fact we had um made that day also um byy Le and mble Le Jersey day where the k is where the jerseys of course with the par they can come into the game because we wanted to have more people there for that so yes Mr th I'll be more than happy to collaborate with you whatever you feel Works let's let's do it all right all right I have two other uh information items U and I think it's important because it's in reference to the young ladies um we would like to uh incorporate flag football at the high school for the young ladies flag football is when the girls play football yeah it's flat they wear they wear a little belt with a flat and okay but let me let me f because right now U there are 26 teams in the state of New Jersey already entered into the flag football um as a matter of fact uh right now the funding is coming from the Philadelphia e for start fee uh they will provide 25 uniforms Flags diagrams for grass and Fields and football they also will provide $33,000 stien to pay for any other fees deem necessary um what we would have to do of course get a head coach assistant coach and of course each team will play four uh four home games four away games U gives us an opportunity to get young ladies involved in the process and and 2526 the NJ IAA will make it an official sport for high school so at this point uh just getting another sport involved for the young so so Dr with regards to this this is something uh what what grade levels are high okay and so so if indeed this becomes a reality for Winslow yes it'll it'll uh kick off in a sense um for our um we like 25 26 we like to look at next next year 25 25 25 26 years now Dr these girls want to be wearing helmets no I'm not familiar are it is a growing it is a growing sport across the country and that's why the NFL not just e all the professional teams in City are sponsoring this it does several things of course any athletic programs um you know among the young ladies encourage them to get involved help them academically and get more young ladies involved in sport have an understanding and knowled but more important is going to become um a pilot sport in the state of New Jersey and then at some point eventually it's going to become sport in what months oh this this will be um in the spring it's in the spring it's a Spring sport um um Monday through Friday um you know and the Philadelphia Eagles is willing to come in and do some clinics and train and things for coaches that sort of thing I thought it was a great idea that's why I presented it because again it gets more young ladies involved and um it's good to have another sport which takes me to my last recommendation and that is for the middle school girls we would like to implement another volleyball program uh right now the middle school and volleyball if you had an opportunity to see a high school volleyball game which I went to back Mr cust coach cust has done a great job withb team great job with doing ex extremely well um we have no feeder system the girls our girls unfortunately get to play volleyball once they get in high school there are other places where these young ladies playing volleyball Middle School some as early as Elementary but we feel that if we can Implement a volleyball which is a very very low cost Sport uh because we already have a lot of things things like that um there will be uh it'll be open for all the middle school girls you'll have two teams you have an a team and A B Team uh because the intent is not to cut anybody so the a team is for the girls who are a little Advanced the B team is girls who need a little more instruction you have a head coach for the A Team assistant coach for the B team and again generate more interest in the game of volleyball and of course as a result of Olympics volleyball becoming a growing Sport and uh we would like to get the young ladies involved this will be a fall sport just the way it is at the high school it's a fall sport young people will now Dr with regards to these this is exciting this is exciting now just like any other sports the students who step up and want to be a part of this are we going to say that they're academic have to be there's a there's an academic requirement in our schools and there's an academic requirement through the New Jersey and Scholastic atic Association if you don't maintain a certain grade you cannot participate the same thing will apply to these things be no different again the emphasis is to place um we would like to place more emphasis on the young ladies get more young ladies involved uh in some of the giant traditional sports but also help what we're trying to do at the high school we like to have a theater system for all of our sports but right now outside of you know what our community does with sports we don't have anything for volleyball and it's probably going to be one of the cheaper of a lot of can I make a statement with that if I may sure I would ask that also uh because you know as we've been lobbying uh that you know academics Athletics and academics go together and if you look at statistics some of the brighter uh students are in our athletic department so here I would like to monitor uh of the ninth grade that goes out for this athletic team just to see how Athletics this type of athletic uh influence their academics because I believe that that when you get it get in the team environment and get in a motivational environment that it will enhance their academic skills and I just like to see if we can put some type of monitor on it so in the coming years we can understand that process and maybe that's something we can look further into expanding yeah Mr Thomas let me just say uh it has been a known fact for years as students who participate EXT extra activities better academically whether it's in music it's in the Arts uh if it's letics whatever it is in most cases has been proven that those young people who participate in ex activities do much better academically so uh it's a fact and I would only assume because as you know some of our uh athletic programs have some of our top skills but I like to emphasize so that we don't lose track um 90% of all our students who go to college go from academics not Athletics all right so it's always academics first we take pride in student athletes um because if you don't have the grad you can't participate and if you don't have the grades I don't care how good you are you can't brge it it just it just Happ so uh we want to continue as we talked about tonight we G Place emphasis on the academic programs we want our young people to maintain a high GPA so that whatever they want to do upon graduations they have choices thank you that concludes my information I thank you Dr moving now board members would there be any old business that you would care to discuss this time thank you hearing none would there be board members any new business that we would care to discuss at this time thank you moving now we can move now into our public comments portion thank you madam president uh the winds chall Board of of Education highly values the input of citizens in making important decisions that affect the children of our community we also believe in the rights of citizens to observe board meetings to ensure that all our citizens have the opportunity to attend school board meetings and offer comment and to ensure that the board can conduct the important business of the district he ask that the speakers follow the guidelines for making public comment the board secretary will recognize those individuals in the audience who wish to make comment and we'd ask that you kindly respect the following procedures all members of the public uh attending school board meetings must treat each other and the board with respect please State your full name and your count of residents please limit your comments to four minutes in the event the board is unable to answer your question please leave your name address and t phone number with the board secretary where you can be contacted and your question will be answered within a reasonable time frame lastly individuals offering citizen comment are not permitted to make personal attacks on any District employee board member other testifier or member of the public thank you Mr board members at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve our moving into public comments Peters move for approval of public comments be granted second M Martin move byet second by m Martin all in favor any n thank you president we'd like to call ju CLA New Jersey I just have three things that I want to um um bring up or make statements in regards to question first question is um we were under comprehensive review um last year or this year um is that still going on is if um if it's not still going on do we have the results of it and when will it be made public that's the first thing the second thing is today when I was going through my grand children's uh finder to do their homework with them before I came to this meeting I noticed it was a blue flyer inside of the folder and the blue flyer said meet the candidates at the middle school in October 17 at 6: p.m. now when did that become okay to send that flyer out because last year it was prohibited it did go through the schools and it was in my grant all my grandchildren's books when they came home today so we need to find out how last year it wasn't Pro it was prohibited by law or by whatever the reason was that you all did not do a meet the candidates flyer and get it disseminated in the school but this year it got disseminated in the school and I find that to be very very suspect to me the next thing IID like to say is Dr poti thank you very much for bringing that incentive for flag football for the young girls because the team being active in the community you know things that are going on in the community and I'm very active at the mfield they have a dynamic flag football team going on for the young ladies starting from age six all the way up to age 17 coach Rob is the coach over there I'm I'm gon make sure I pass the word to him to contact you to see if he's qualified to be the head coach to apply for that job but that flag football team is is is is is treading ound in the turf out there um in our community with the MERS so it is a great incentive and no it's not contact football you don't need a helmet they just pull a flag so it's it's like running track with The Paton that basically that's um and so if you all can look into the two two questions I asked one the comprehensive review and I'd like to get a response on that one and also how did those flyers get to seminate this year and our schools when they were prohibited last year thank is that something you can um speak to because being suspect is what I would like to hear further about that why is that suspect because I mean how do you say last year it was prohibited because y'all consider it as a political situation when this year it's not prohibited so to me that suspect whether that's a wrong choice of word for you not to understand but that's a choice of word that I choose and I want to understand how was last year it was not allowed but this year it is allowed so important yes well as far as I am concerned all Flyers that are disseminated in the schools must come across my desk fors I have not seen any your schools are passing them out I'm not sure how that happened we will find out but in order for any Flyers to be disseminated in our schools it must come to my desk and I have to approve it I have not seen it now let me just make it clear I'm not complaining I think it's excellent because it's about time that our community get to know that we have an event such as meet the candidates so they can come out and they can meet the people who are running for the board of education but let me just on that comment let me just say with regards to um M Lord is about time there has always been this district has always had a me candidates name every single year because school boards elections are end every single year so meet the candidat tonight I want to be clear it's not something new it has always taken place and I'm going to point to miss Thomas because I know she can affirm that because she's been to many of them there's always been a meet the candidates night in this WN School District I am not disputing wait a minute wait a minute I am not disputing that you did not have that meet the candidates it has been a tradition yes but last year a tradition got broken when you all stop 5,000 flyers from going out and being disseminated with the students this year those flyers got disseminated it's a blue flyer and my grandchildren I have eight grandchildren in winbow Township Schools and I called all their parents and I asked them that they received that flyer and they said yes so I know it was the s whether you're aware of it or not I'm not holding you accountable but maybe find out how last year it wasn't okay but this year is okay and I think it's a great thing now so I'm not arguing I'm not complaining against it I think it's a great thing but for it not to happen last year and for it to be okay this year I just want to know how did that change many of our schools yes elementary elementary school I have Elementary School students and I have a middle school student okay so majority of my children are in elementary school all right and I have one high school no actually two high schoolers I didn't check with those two but I know the middle school I mean the middle school and the um elementary schools all of the elementary schools got it home so and like I said I'm not complaining I think it's an excellent thing because that's huh's the DAT of that the 17th of October at 6:00 p.m. at the middle school yeah October the 17th 6 p.m at the middle school there are eight candidates running this year and I'm not going to name any of them because I'm not oblig to do so but there are eight candidates running so and I think it's a great opportunity that we get to have that and I commend it but hopefully no one gets in trouble but I just wanted one simple question how did did not if they get in trouble they should get in trouble for not letting go proper protocol that's one thing but I think it's an excellent incentive since it's something that traditional that we do and without mentioning any candidates name it's not political it's bipartisan and the school board is bipartisan so at the end of the day it doesn't hurt to inform your community by sending home that paper to the parents so they can see it so they can have an opportunity to set that date and save that date and come out and meet just the school board election school board members it is not bipartisan it's nonpartisan okay nonpartisan there is a difference okay correction I stand corrected nonpartisan but it doesn't matter it's the fact that you get to go out there and meet the people who are making the decisions for their children inside of the school district Mr M Martin U last year when we went to do the candidates meeting meet the candidat meet the candidates there was an issue with the fact that Flyers were going home these flyers have been going home in the students book bags for I don't even know how long last year there was an issue with the fact that these flyers were ready to go and they were pulled it was said that it was because it was political that they could not send these flyers home now the question the question that comes is is the year before it was done and there wasn't a problem nobody said anything it didn't happen last year and now here we are this year and it's happening this year so the question becomes who is responsible for saying that these flyers can't go home she's saying that they have already gone home Dr PO says that he has not approved the flyer because he has not seen not seen him so everything that everything that goes out you see and approve and that has not been done but the question is is that we need to go back not only to last year but the year before because it was done the year before this is done by the leag of Women Voters and the uh Union the teachers teachers union the only thing I want to add to that is consistency now since it did not occur last year it would not have occurred this year if it had come across my desk for the same reason that it didn't go out last year now I don't know how it happened happen this year we will find out and um it's important that we're consistent that's that's all I need to understand we need to be consistent whatever it is we doing we need to be consistent and I just need to find out how that happen yes thank you and about the comprehensive review I'm not sure what Mrs GL is referring to the comprehensive I think is referring to the Q we didn't have a comprehensive review last year the review took place I think the year before and so what we received that was um we had a meeting with them to review their findings and to review the uh corrective action plan that we put in place so we were never up for a comprehensive review it was only a review in one area and that was in curricul instruction because we got 79 instead of and we posted those scor you did see the scores right you did see our scores from that from our most recent review yes oh okay no no no no I didn't no no okay the most recent review no that's why I was asking okay that was it yeah but when we did our last um assessment the at the middle school whether we I think it's mid SCH this is the first time we've done it here I saw those it was part it was part it was part of that slide presentation because those scores I think November 2023 it was around about the same time that I did the presentation and I had those scores as a part of that presentation so I'm not sure I mean if you want the uh the scores I don't know if we post them or not it may have been but that's something you are entitled to I made it public we are required to make it public [Music] de good [Music] even um as you guys probably already know I'm a senior this year I'm part of the marching I'm part soccer um I just wanted to invite you guys all out socer senior night this year is on the 21st of October home it's against Oak Crust I believe and it's at 3:45 so if you guys could show up hopefully oh oh D you got the Traer there we good we good and the football game their last home game is the senior night to recognize all the seniors including Mar seniors cheerleaders and the football team and it would be greatly appreciated if we could find a way to incorporate the safety of our Spectators staff and the visitors and still have a nighttime game so that the seniors can be recognized Under The Lights I'm not going to mislead you It's Not Gon to happen it's not g to happen I'm sorry uh there's too much EST stake it's too much EST stake and we're not going to be able to put all the things we want in place to ensure the safety of our fans as well as visitors so no I'm I'm sorry I mean it's just too much at stake and um um what you also need to take in consideration of the other schools in our league you don't want to come here you need to understand that right come here tonight are you kidding me after what they saw and these kids running around to the fights with their cell phones taking pictures they all on the social media I mean it was it was embarrassing and everybody sees those things and I mean it was unlike anything we've ever seen here and I don't want to be too dramatic but I can't make this up it was bad and uh you know we have to assure visitors when they come here that they're going to be able to leave safely and I cannot put you and everyone else in jeopardy uh just to accommodate some activities however those activities still take place in sunshine as opposed to at night I mean we'll still have those things but it will not be a night game will there be an announcement to let people know that the time has changed old family members yeah we had three weeks when the B when the game is going to be and now it's moved three hours a well it's it's it's three weeks from now so we have more than enough time to get it out I mean we don't want we don't want a short Change oh that's a great question will they will our family members be allowed to attend sure okay sure does I mean we we uh going to put things in place to make sure uh than I mean some of the more drastic things that I found out from my colleagues who had since incidents like this they've had games with no spectators at all and to be fair Dr we were there we witnessed and I was driving to get to pick them up like it was it was to it was like nothing I've ever seen before but it wasn't all and I think it's very safe to say and important to reveal that it wasn't 100% of wi because what happens is everybody's like oh all those big fights did you see and and it's not it was there were there were hund it was a well intended game yes it was we are getting because our football team is undefeated in ranked number four in the state we are getting fans from all over the place so I I just I think it was a it was a a group it was that mob mentality yes yes from all over the place yes they were from various school districts a lot of kids we couldn't identify we didn't know who they were um but yes I am um I I have to uh lean toward safety in every case I I just have to do that because um that situation has put us as a school district and as a community in a bad light um it it was just it was embarrassing and it was just uncalled for uh so now I have to lean toward safety first and foremost uh to make sure that our community come and go and of course when someone comes to your home to your home field got to make sure they get home saek it's it's it's imperative or we'll be in the situation unfortunately because the football team the players from both team not a problem but these kinds of things canning sanctions to be placed on our program and it's not fair to these kids not not so of course they're looking to see what we're going to do and uh at some point you know we'll be able but uh I know the and NJ going to be calling us and ask what are we doing to provide safety for visiting teams and officials that sort of thing can I ask so just some clarification is the atmosphere different for that senior event in what respect um I know it's at one versus night verse is under the lights but there's something different that we can still do for a day oh you can still do everything you want to day okay um I mean you can still everything we talked about as far as young people being acknowledged sure you can do it that's not going to keep them from being honored and knowled that okay Mrs piss may I comment yes so I think it was me that said we can't send the Flyers home yes correct um Mr Thomas was good not like to me under the bus it was me thank you for reminding me I found what I said last um so this is State Statute so whatever happened before last year never got brought to me so I get asked the question from the administration and the statute is 18a col 42-4 and it says no literature which is any part or any manner uh thereof promotes favors or opposes the candidate to see of any candidate for election at any annual school election or the adoption of a bond blah blah blah blah blah shall be given uh to any public school pupil in any public school building on public school grounds for the purpose of having the pupil take same to his home to distribute it to any person outside the building or grounds um so the state there's a state law that says you they cannot take flyers home and I was asked that question last year um I'm a little slow to the draw I apologize I was better 10 years ago but you know once in a while Mrs pitz um it and it took me a little bit that I don't have a good contact so it took me a little bit to pull it up because I know where I looked last year I was asked that question for the first time and gave the correct answer and if it was done this year um Dr Caro it's already know what it's highly inappropriate to do so I got so the school and that election need to keep total separation there's also guidance New Jersey school boards Association on elections question 52 and 53 that say the exact same thing interpreting this statute that the School Board needs to stand clear um one of my partners had this very same question in statford last week they the very same answer as I gave last year and I'm giving now the reason why all that happened beforehand I don't think I was ever asked I think when I was asked this came to be I I called you you did um it never came up to me until last year correct that's what I recall and again you know I'm not going to plead in uh ignorance but if you don't know you don't know but when you ask the question get the answer then you have a responsibility to correct it if you know that you know then do what you have to do because ignorance is no excuse and I didn't know so I asked and I didn't want to throw you in the bus Mr long um and you gave me the answer and that's why we didn't do it so if they came to me again this year I would have made the same decision never saw a fly don't know how but Dr C say she's already on top of that and we'll address that tomorrow morning um but that's pretty much and so folks will beeld the C any more anybody that's all that sign all that have signed up have anybody all right so there Point therefore this one I'm asking for motion to adjourn our public comments Peterson move for approval to adjourn public comments move by Miss Peterson second by Miss Martin all in favor I thank you thank you uh Madam president in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act we'll be entering into an executive session on October 9th 2024 at 8:45 p.m the purpose of uh the uh uh private session uh executive session has to deal with student um conduct uh which is by law considered um private in nature and should be held specifically these types of uh processes in executive session um we may indeed be an hour or two um in our executive session depending upon how things go uh so we're all going to be a while thank you madam president what number is that sir number two okay I'm sorry number one Board of members at this time I'm asking for a motion uh to adjourn into executive session Peterson move for approval to adjourn into executive session second Martin move by Peters second by Martin all in favor any thank you we areour to executive