##VIDEO ID:n8_zXU-IWhM## you are live you are got to do the audio test all right so welcome everybody the members of the public to our August Board of Education meeting uh we'll start with a few administrative items and then into our goal setting activities so the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advaned notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interests is discussed with the provisions of this act Board of Education policy 0162 the Board of Education of the B Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office in B Brook High School and mail their facts to The Courier News Bound Brook clerk South Bound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and pay the required fee please stand pledge United States America Mr G certainly Mr B Mr Dawson here M Gazo Miss Carlton Mr zco miss m here Mr minhas pres Miss H here Mr Fulmer here Mr J here Mr board president you have a quarum present this evening thanks very much at this point I am Miss Patty re I say correctly very nice who is our new njsba Field Services rep who's going to work with us on setting district and to that's your choice wherever you're comfortable I'm sorry wherever you're comfortable well I you [Music] know anyway as as L I am a field service rep with New Jersey school boards um I've been with the association for nine years um I've been at field service rep for two years the first nine years I was the county activities coordinator for the northern counties before I was on before I worked for New Jersey school boards I was on my board of education in suet County for 12 years I did then one term on my Town Council then I got the job at school boards and you can't have an elected position um and I really enjoy what I'm doing uh at school boards I will say also that Gwen your former field Serv is not gone she is now the senior director for field for Content at njsba she now oversees Field Services in a couple other departments so she's still around she's based more in Trenton now um but she'll still be around and with all her relationships answer questions or whatever and if you go down to Workshop you will see Gwen because she will be there we'll all be there so we're asked to come in tonight for goal setting um and I was excited when when told me that you are your board is on the path to become a a Carol Larson Master masterboard Certified which is fabulous that's the second level and the highest level of what a board of board certification and there are very few boards throughout the state that achieve that because it's um a continuation of the the certified board and it's a lot of hard work so I commend you for your goal and your hard work and I think you're only a couple hours away um from getting that so that that's exciting um and I think you should really be proud of the hard work that you've been doing toward that and so with that I I made some that you've been down goal setting before so I not put in the slides that talk about the very basic levels because I'm thinking as a almost Master board that you know what that is um but we'll just start with this um you know goal setting for 20 24 25 it's hard to imagine hard to believe that we're already uh in 2024 and almost 2025 and how long ago 2000 now seems but one of the most important roles uh that a board event can do is uh to set comprehensive goals uh for your students and your District it helps drive your student achievement and as we go through this consider what um what have you accomplished this year uh what what do you think may need additional Focus um and or do your priorities reflect your core values now I also understand that you just um com almost completed a strategic plan for um 2024 to 2020 2027 no three four four years five years um so some of what we we look at and we recommend as District goals we recommend that everything flows from your mission statement which I I have the slides of to your um vision statement and that your strategic planning goals your District goals and your board goals are all aligned uh in which makes it um like setting setting the ship on a specific course we we have two different kinds of goals the the district goals are owned by everyone in the district uh and they are set generally by the superint the recommendation of the superintendent with a with discussion of the board the board goals are really all about the board and tasks and processes that are owned by the board um but they should also um support the district goals and then support the strategic planning goals as you go as you go through that and I know that you do this because you're a board C you know certified board and almost a master CER but um goal setting is a continuous cycle throughout the year where you about this time of year you're setting your goals and you um analyze them throughout the year and then you re and and review them and see um if there's anything that needs to be changed added tweet whatever but it happens throughout the year we know that effective school boards Define Define clear goals for student achievement that are based on your vision uh of vision of high expectations and shared beliefs that all students can achieve so as we're going through this consider what your focus should be um what to most dramatically accelerate your student learning um and uh what data have you reviewed that um Identify some areas of improvement and then align your financial resources toward those goals to support the achievement of those goals so as we continue we're going to consider your um the vision for your District um part of this discussion your District mission statement your strategic plan and then and any data that may support that or support um or support any part of your goals um and we'll look at your previous [Music] goals so your mission statement is um is really well crafted and to the point the Bound Brook Public Schools is a supportive Multicultural community that provides an Innovative and academically challenging educational program while offering a variety of extracurricular and social opportunities that encourage lifelong learning and citizenship and in one sentence that pretty much says a lot um and and I think it really does um is the guiding force by where your goal should be and as I said I did look at your what I had for your strategic plan and then your vision statement which is even more encompassing and so some of these you can look to see as you're getting into board goals um what you might um have as a goal to to support all of this so and this talks about your this is your District goals for last year uh Gwen sent me this copy to continue to create a safe environment where students and Staff feel comfortable taking risks and working collaboratively toward a common goal and then the second one is to fully utilize data through professional development to inform instruction and strengthen student achievement um and we we put these up because you might want to consider um is there anything that you want to continue do you want to tweak it think there's more work that needs to be done or do you think that we've done this we can move forward um in another Direction and I think for the district goals you had some suggestions for this we have to continue no these are this these are the coming year I thought these were the last year they were but we we start off at a very basic level okay so this is something that we that'll take us another year or two to get fully place okay so you're really your your your thought um is to continue these for 2024 2025 okay yeah and not to put you on the spot but I think we talked about that at governance comme yeah at governance committee too we also talked about the Strategic plan and having move for with it with that to make sure that communication is there between the board and and the whole Community um we want it to really be a living document something that we are constantly looking back to to just get so does that mean we need to tweak it a little bit to modify for your two I I think what we need to do is it and I think from there we need to set timelines as to what we going to be looking the next step is to further drill down on these with an action plan that includes who's going to who's going to be responsible for that portion of it um and um the timeline um to achieve it and what does achieving it look like specifically um and that that is really and and that is something that boards do right that that they we have like in your strategic plan although I know you haven't gotten to the your your action plans are still being developed but the action plan is kind of like the road map that you use to get through to to achievement and then as well as I identify what does achievement look like so so um you know is achievement looking like um more more collaborative working U more people working collaboratively together um or um where more opportunities for students and staff and if I can maybe add and I'll tap into oh I know on the education committee side we've seen more than a few presentations about how the new assessments that are being done are aligning with how we're changing the curriculum or aligning with how we're changing the PD so to Dr Freeman's Point using data is something that we said from the moment we were selecting it has been a common theme over the last two years exactly where we are in their journey and how we're using it I think is evolving over time but the idea that we need to get to full utilization something to well and having the data to back it up um is really helpful for board decisions you can you know if you're spending um money or resources um you need to know um that um what you're doing is is effective and it's achieving working toward the goals that you want to achieve um and and so as I said I thought this when Gwen sent it this was for um this current year but you're going to um continue and do what you said give some specifics in terms of timelines who's responsible be presented to yeah and the action plan for distri gos are very similar to the action plan set up for right um strategic plan and I have a I have a template if you need that but I'm thinking one probably may have sent it um but it's it's they're just traditional action plans for um what you're doing all right that that was easy I thought we were going to have discuss but but you've already had it and and these are these are good goals and now you'll you'll work to get um the action plans and you'll have a you know what to look forward to and just for the sake of achieving consensus because I know was discussing governance but not everybody who's here is all the governance committee you guys specifically does this make sense are you supportive would you like to see changes made have any feedback or suggestions so we can have do you want have that discussion now or there if we could yeah that's fine got I yeah I will I will say from my point I wasn't actually at governance even though part of the committee but I support this approach in general well I mean we recommend that they get voted on by the board so if you have any things you want to add it or any comments 10 hours a Time the only thing I would ask like I I agree keep the keep what we have but because this is as we mentioned we've been using the word evolve and we're evolving we're too fully so in that respects I see this get the sentence the wording to be evolved to reflect our evolving and getting closer to our goal as opposed to just reusing what we already using last year even though we agree that we're getting we're getting some place that we're looking to get there with there too but I would like to see some evolution of this of what we have written down to reflect the gains that we have on so okay I I don't disagree do you have any suggestions on how we might do I'm trying to see how to rephrase that that's always the tricky part that is that is I agree word SMI I think includes basically reviewing what has happened where you are and where you want to be and where you want to be just as would I don't want to use the word accountability but recognizing here's the benchmarks we've gotten 50% 60% 80% we're working towards 100% into when freeming does the action plans that kind of information will be in the action plan like and and and these now you realize these are now taking more than one year to achieve so and it may take two or three to achieve but the action plans will really drill down into um what is encompassed in that and what it looks like when it's achieved and so I'm just looking at you want something that is easily read and easily understood for you know people who are looking at the district goals but the meat of this is going to be with the Strategic plan and the timeline Etc and then that I imagine for me it looks like that will come into all committee meetings as to here's where we are here's where we were so that everybody is updated on exactly where we stand but I don't think we want it all in there because it gets like word suit well yeah I mean the goal should be brought and the action plan more specific so like one of the things that I was thinking of and I'm just going to go with the second bullet because that's probably easier to um since talking about data is we've already started and made that approach to utilizing that data through professional but now instead of informing the instruction we want to strengthen the instruction we want to empower the instruction and not only are we want to strengthen and we've seen through um that student achievement has gone up I I'm struggling with another term for strength but something to empower that's doing achievement I mean Empower long but something on that level to to build what we call these because as it's written there how I take it is the data is used to inform instructions so that's the staff part of it the curriculum development part of it and the the end result is you want to strengthen right but we've we've made an effort this past year to really push a lot of professional employment to improve the instruction um to enable different methods to empower the staff and the administration and teachers to be able try to take different risks you know and and we've been doing that I think it's been working really well and it's actually been showing the and the results that we've seen and I want to continue that but I I I don't want to just continue like we pressing that just going in cruise control so I will note your comments but I will maybe share a different perspective which is you know everybody throughout the community is to point going to read these goals and I think part of the reason why the right now resonates is because it doesn't matter which part of our community looks at that goal and reads it they should be able to self identify what they're doing in terms of achieving that goal so whether I'm a teacher I'm a par professional I'm somebody on a child studying team I'm part of the administration I'm you know part-time volunteer coach everybody should be able to identify with that goal and and not only that but identify what they're doing to help the district move but it also should be understandable to your public what what it is I we recommend that once the board approves the district goals any of the goals that it be put on your website um as well as the action plans and that you know that's where where our next steps are and then to maybe periodically throughout the year quarterly or whatever works for the the district report out on progress towards those Works keeping in mind that the superintendent of valuation is also based on progress towards the district calls so it's helpful um to report out to the community but also for the board to have periodic updates so that you know that that things are are are getting done and I think back to the point you guys are making which is we have not done a great job historically in the periodic reporting and I know when we went through the Strategic plan part of the reason we all participated so heavily was because the last strategic plan fell so flat in terms of where it actually fell in our priori how we're making decisions and we didn't want that to happen with this one so I think the schedule that we have been talking about I don't know if we did this only in governance or we've shared with the whole board but to have Dr Freeman come back into a state of the district report at a board meeting either two or three times a year moving forward and have that aligned not only with the goals and where we are achieving that but with the Strategic plan to make sure share a couple ideas of course um I think there there's a a duality between between the goals we have down on on paper and then what that work looks like at the school level at District level the culture that supports or hinders those hols so what I'm thinking is I'm wondering how do we as a board support people who are making positive contributions to the culture of the district to the work that's going on like would we could we kind of marry the two ideas of for lack of a better word evaluation and have a goal that says something like as as a as a board we want to celebrate contributions from staff students families that support you know the attainment of strategic goals or board goals District goals so instead of it looking like we're trying to be aalu or have an accountability lens let's try to marry that and and do some positive communication and celebrate you know when we are Meeting those goals or people are doing something above and beyond to help us get how can we create the culture and celebrate that in a public way that's going to allow the district to achieve what we need them to do instructionally data how would you feel about that that's really something that we basically discussed in in governance is to really get the word out as to what is happening in the district and I love that s too to really recognize those who are really bringing and and putting forth so much effort um because that's what this is that's what this is is so yeah and I think I mean what I'm hearing is everybody's kind of on the same page with this it's the communication how do we and that's I think what we were talking about in governance everybody here is in and everybody here is like this is where we need to go and the thing that we do not want to fall flat is communication with the parents with kids with step with the community those things we want to keep that really going well that's what where strategic plan is helpful and the way that you did it in bringing in the public and so again here iodic updates towards the progress towards the Strategic plan and and everything else but communication um I mean um that could be a subset of this but that could also be um if you're looking for a board goal because the goal four goal that Gwen sent me is about the Strategic completing the Strategic plan which you've kind of done every every month we recognize a student of the month and we publicly recognize K through 12 as the outstanding student for that particular year there's no reason why we should not and your weekly letter that comes out every every weekend you highlight some positive occasions do that in the public meeting not only recognize the student of month but here's a teacher that did X over above and beyond to help us accomplish that particular so that where I was thinking as St um we have not only the student the educators of the month yeah um and the criteria for selecting the educator educators of the month has evolved over time back to Evolution but is there a way that we could work highlighting specific contributions to these goals into that recognition program and kind of make it a virtu c I wouldn't say it has to be every single month but no but I mean wait that heavily and if people are doing it it's to get priority to the what about have and Dr Freeman can chime in on this um but having periodically um a presentation by staff member about a su successful part of their program at a public board meeting doesn't have to be long five minutes um and that's a recognition not only to your staff that that you're you know acknowledging what they've done but also recognition to your community that yes our staff is working hard and they're working towards our goals and they're doing great for our kids and our community I mean there is that something like that I like it so I guess back to the question do we want to amend bullet two do we want to add bullet three or do we want to contemplate working these Concepts into the board for this we to and we'll add you're with the go you said or you think should I think that there should be additional goal which deals with the Strategic plan and the recognition of I agree with that yeah so then if this a third goal what is it yeah it's what be gos on paper what it looks like for culture how do we support those making positive additions to the district have a goal that celebrates contributions from staff students Etc do we want to make it specific and say celebrates contributions positive contributions to the district and make it broader do we want to make it something more specific saying celebrating you know completion of Milestones of the Strategic plan where work I think there's value in keeping it broad I mean success could be you know improving your school attendance could be but you know I think people need that affirmation on different levels right because we've been trying to move the culture of the district in a positive way so that might look different different people depending on what so can we build on that celebrate positive contributions to the district or could it be as simple as celebrate positive contribs to from all stakeholders from all so I would be personally inclined to go with something that directly contributes to either a goals or a strategic plan but the S point I I do think it needs to be sufficiently broad because yeah if you talk about attendance I mean one of the things that we spoke at length about was the um students attitudes around standardized testing and their attendance on test days and while it's not um evaluative data in terms of like an assessment on a specific scale there was data that was brought to the table in order to make inform decisions about how to change the school schedule on those days and what services were available to the kids in the runup so you know I just want to be mindful that we cast The Net wide enough to recognize all of those things that are making contributions but not have it be so esot that's the purpose of a role is to be brought and then the action plans bring the specificity um to that and so that to me this this is almost part of the action plan if I'm saying anything I'm saying I really exactly the way that you leave it out the first go back why didn't somebody record I listen I I almost tried because I knew where I was going I didn't get it word for word but I'm going to read the notes that I took delling between goals on and what it looks like for the culture how do we support those making positive additions to the district have a goal that celebrate contributions from staff students and dot dot dot is what it put but it's all stakeholders right so I would start from that last sentence finish with all stakeholders and say in achieving more district and strategic goals yeah say that again Cate so I would take the last okay which was celebrate contributions from staff students do we want to say from and and and all district and strategic remember last time we did this and it took us forever to get like one word yeah and then I think this really covers what we we have been speaking about in our in our committee meetings and I think this brings it just do you think they Dr Freeman do you think that give us enough or or your team enough sort of flexibility to be able to pinpoint recognize yeah I think it gives us as you're saying it I'm envisioning it in my head but yeah that gives her no sex and if it doesn't I'll come back to you tell you don't forget about the action plan too that I really appreciate the Twist from it being an evaluative type of thing to it being a way that we can quantify and evaluate things right it becomes a tool that we can use as board well I mean it's sort of unstated right if there's a key aspect of the plan that is not getting recognized I don't know if we want to be in the business of publicly questioning why a particular stakeholder goal is not currently being where is right we haven't had one in a I know it's getting late towards oure but goal number three sounds is more of a result of something that we're doing where these are goals we're trying to create the safe Mar we're trying to use data and this is like we're celebrating that's more of a result of we should be doing as opposed to create a goal that says hey we're going to celebrate I think the action is celebrating right what we're celebrate could be achievement we worded is is important so maybe if it's um identify you know where elements of the Strategic plan have been completed or contributed to in a positive way and celebrate the stakeholders who are responsible something along those lines that is almost part of the action plan or maybe part of the board goal as opposed to the district goal but what is what was what what was come what was said is celebrate contributions from staff students and all stakeholders in the achievement of District Boe and strategic goals is that does that sound good to people I agree that's weed but I think Don's feedback is he's not happy with the vot no I'm I'm happy with that I'm not gonna fight and say oh that's a stupid idea I no I how about we add identify and celebrate we're identify what's going on yeah and then we can celebrate it yeah can we as opposed to saying all right this already happened so we're celebrating what happened let's go out and say this is what we found we identified this particular project and now we're going to celebrate so just by adding that one word I two words identify celebrate that keeps the whole message still there right saying we're making an effort to really look at what's so we're good sorry yeah I'm good so what everybody agreed to is ident identify and celebrate contributions from staff students and all stakeholders in the achievement of District Boe and strategic goals okay is that something that you can work with of course all right I know I hate to mess it up but if celebrate is is the contentious point you could go with acknowledge ackowledge it could be different terms but it could be a celebration identification and then action plan could say some was looking at that's more of a result of what we're trying to what we found found something you have to identify First Mr Gori Jo made a good point she said she doesn't know what our cake budget is for the coming school year may have to look into that operations all right Patty I think we're good you're good with the district goals so what what are the next steps well we did that um adopting your your annual District goals coming with an action plan um you know superintendent will work on that and then adopting them and then as I said the periodic review um and progress towards those goals so that not only does the board know where you're going but so does your community and and that that that helps project a positive image of the district moving forward not to anticipate what comes next but I imagine boths is next yeah in your presentation yes we get there since we did the Strategic plan last year can I make a suggestion that we make operationalizing this schedule our primary board for this year it's something we haven't done in my three years here or haven't done well and something we've all said we would want to see done so maybe we should make this the actual Focus for so strategic plan goals District goals for goal should all be aligned all heading in the same direction um that makes a lot of sense to me because you're you're the Strategic I mean the board goals well we'll just go into this three to five you know three to five goals to focus on um we talk about coming from the board self- evaluation which I see you haven't done that's um helps boards I some boards identify um things that they should work on the um the board goals are um just processes owned by the board and and tasks that you do uh and um these are just some things you might consider um and part of your discussion is what can you be more uh do more effectively in Communications both internal and external what can you do to enhance your governance skills and performance I mean your Governor skills you're almost at the the Carol Larson um Master board certification which by the way when I was first on my board she was my first uh field service back in the day um she's she passed a number of years ago um but she was she was a she was a um tough task master I learned a lot from her um and then when at one point was going his handle Su Shany for many years so she was mine at one point um so so B Bard challenges and I just put up some some examples because it's it's sometimes it's easier to come up with districtwide for curriculum and student achievement and all that but sometimes it's um it's a challenge to come up these are examples just engage in professional development um your master certification I looked that up because I think you asked I think she we're 30 minutes away yeah 30 minutes away and um the foure RO the twoyear rolls [Music] over eligibility ends on June 20th 2025 so you have till next June um and since you have I think a half hour away I think it was what it was after today yeah you'll be at nine and a half after today um so you have you know a full almost a full school year to get your other half hour uh in and get your certification so so if you're looking for a goal you can achieve yeah that would be you know add that to it but but it's also advertising to your public and your community that you on the EXT you have taken the extra steps to not only be Bard a board C being certified as a board but to earn Master certification which I said is maybe a handful of districts throughout the state um so you know that is one that you can you can add if you want something you want to obtainable so I really like the idea of including that one for us not necessarily because it's achievable but I would add and determine what we're going to do next because you know the whole idea was to demonstrate our commitment to continuing education same way that we're asking the professional staff to do so it's going to be nice to be able to say that we're Master Certified but the question will be what are we going to do next well when you become Master Certified you need to maintain it um so you will have to do within every two years 10 hours of training to maintain it if you don't do that within two years you will lose it and then you'll have to go all the way back to the beginning for the board certification so what you can do is to continue the training that you've been doing be that having uh somebody come into board meetings Workshop counts uh going to County meetings count um lots of things count going to Statewide programs like um the law form at at times um they all count so it's it's not like you get it and you can say okay good it's done no you have to maintain it and again every two years so there is that this was the goal that Gwen had given me but you really um you've had the strategic planning process so this would probably if you want to continue this to um to tweak it to I don't know it's pretty specific you've done you're you're waiting for your action plans for the Strategic plan so I'm not sure um what do you think how relevant this might be so I would fa so we went with one goal just to be very specific last year what we were going to be working on I like the idea of keeping it and adjusting it as you recommended uh in part because we want the Strategic plan to be an area of focus like we invest all that time and energy into creating it so the idea that we would now you know proceed with year one right to achieve what's set out in year one for theic plan to me would be an Unwritten goal and there's no reason why any a something would be to support um the achievement of year one milestones for strategic plan support well I would just say support the um the the look up some more specific wording the goals of the Strategic plan on an annual basis now support not not only means talking about it and and at bo means it it also is providing the resources necessary whether that especially during budget time um the resources necessary so maybe provide um the support and resources necessary uh towards the I I I'm thinking achievement but but but progress toward something towards your District RS attainment attainment attainment attainment thank you that's do you guys agree with putting something in our board yes yeah I that makes sense to put but given that you're writing is should we take it that as implied that you will read back to us some proposed goals so I don't know that we have to worry about words things but before we approve it we want to make sure that everybody's happy with exactly the way right and we wouldn't be approving tonight we'll be approving at the next and and I'll write this up number but what I've heard is to provide support and resources um necessary for the attainment of the district and strategic planning gos that works um do you want want to add in the master board member yeah absolutely right and actually it would be um to engage in professional development to achieve and maintain massive board certification so that's two also since we know where that Clos make sure you pencil in I think it's April um the njsba Somerset County meeting where they do the accomplishments and celebrations because I imagine be and we could also come I can come to a board meeting and so that you're you know specifically if you once you get there if that H because they do it in the spring but if you get it done before that oh we already have a place on the wall picked out for the you tri your community should know your staff should know um it really does have an impact on every because you're functioning and you're governing well or at least you're trying to and you're getting the necessary professional development like teachers do to to give that to get that I don't know that's gonna have to be a big game Fly yeah we'll see what the Surplus is like mean is there anything else that you think on the board level that you might want to work towards before we get into additional comments Dr pman and Mr Gorski since we were so prescriptive with the district goals what do you guys think about board RS what do things you would like to see us exactly what you're saying all right I agree with that um the master board is also that's I didn't mean to put you on spot I think those are the two big ones for me if I think of something else work oh yeah that's why it's hard to come up with the because everything's G to be derivative off I know and I think we've done a good job over the last few years picking goals that would change the way we operate as a board but also not overwhelm Us in terms of what we can effectively accomplish in a given year so you know reframing how we do our meetings for one year you know adjusting our governance Cycles to make sure that we're efficient with our TX obviously the strategic planning exercises multiple exercises last year both with the community and Comm time consuming as a result of the focus we did to jobs to your point you know maybe we keep it to those two and make sure that we have a laser laser focus right that on what we're doing I mean unless you want to you have the technology plan which that's technically part of the Strategic uh you have communication but we identified that earlier with the district RS like you [Music] said one if you're looking for a third goal to um conduct the board self evaluation every year that's I mean it's done you that's that's an attainable want it doesn't take too long and and it's as I said it's not required by law right it's just the best practice it helps you identify things that you might want to drill down on a board Go I mean I like it but we already there we need to be able to do anyway we shouldn't have a go or something that's required I think that's requ not required yeah but what I meant to say is something which I think we did in the spring of 2023 we didn't repeat for 2023 that's you could do it now yeah it's online and the board superintendent and the business administrator non voting members of the board so they can also and it really talks about you you there's um nine areas that you're evaluating the board on and then your contribution to the board so it it can be very helpful um I've seen it work with with boards that are high function like I think you are um and it it kind of acknowledges you show that um but it may show things that okay I feel like need more training in this and it's Anonymous so even the comments you make so that if unless you self identify that you said that you wrote that nobody it's not I can't even see the word because it's just the way it enters into our system is is that um but I and then I've seen boards that were highly divided and um the self- evaluation came back and um one of the worst ones I've seen and um but what what what resonated with the board is that there were two Phil philosophical sides and neither side was happy with how everything how things were functioning so it really led to great discussion once they they saw I'm like oh like nobody likes how we're you know what we're achieving or not achievement and so that really did help Foster that discussion but it's up to you if you're okay with two goals that's that's um I'm okay with two goals it's just the board's Choice the two all right and then work on the action plans um again the next steps are the action plans uh who does what and what the success look like and then uh fre you know we point out your progress towards your District go but the same time you report out um progress towards the strategic planning goals progress towards the district goals and then just you know an update on progress towards Bo goals well we did this in an hour you guys are focused so just ending with a little quote um and with that I think uh unless you have any questions I will write up what we discuss and send it as a memo form may not come till um next week only because I'm doing a search and another and then my next couple of nights is uh interviews but if there's if there's not anything else thank you for having me in tonight I'm happy to come um to Somerset County one because it's it's close but you know my kids went to sumerville high school so I know we compete there in athletics we competed with B Brook so I've been here before we'll try not to hold it against you we try not to hold it against you no it was really great to have you and we're happy to be able to work with thank you for being in this session it's usually one of the most important meetings that we have for the entirety of the Year thank you guys for the the good discussion yeah know it is goal setting is very important it helps the pl come up with the plan and how you're going to get to the to the end result and what it looks like so again thank you [Applause] [Music] that's one my favorite control [Music] all right problem which way am [Music] I e anybody need paper paper we're happy you're here e e e e e e e at this point we are up to committee meeting reports first on the agenda is education committee Mr Dawson thank you Mr President uh the education committee met last week we reviewed a number of items including the school calendar school counseling plan uh we have a presentation about uh the access results which is the test that our multilingual Learners take to measure their progress in Reading Writing speaking listening um we'll be going into further detail on that later today so I don't want to spoil the movie but it's a good movie we're going in a good direction um and we are excited to learn about all the different ways the district is supporting our teachers and our students for the upcoming school year thank you Mr Dawson any questions for Education all right heing want to move on to governance Miss for okay we have for governance this month one of the things that weed right off was um the hi hi process ofation and it's really kind of streamlined so that now um there's going to be email and phone call to parents so that it's very clear as to what the process is um also the hip specialists in each of the buildings will be in touch with inrs and special ed department so that we know that the kids really are um we know where they are and what the what may be accounting for some of the things going on um also one of the things that we're all excited about is there's a quicker review process now so what we will be doing as soon as the reports are finished after the 10day investigation and come to the board we're doing it so that we can review that and have it all approved by the export meeting so it's not going to be looking months to advance it it should be what we're hoping for is to have him investigations and have them approve that month um one of the other things we discussed was the board um and District goal setting which we had tonight we just met with padie and once we get them back from her we again in committees will them um we are working towards our Master board certification this is the Carol Lawson Master board certification program we have 30 minutes left to achieve that goal and we have until June to do it so this is something that will definitely happen yeah um we also discussed um the disses communication um specifically with high school parents we wanted to make sure that all parents are aware of activity going on you know whether it be Sports whether it be after school programs things like that it really is to just get that communication out so parents of students know what is happening um and also in the governance we are also Contin looking at policies and that's itly done any questions on government's committe all right we'll stick with you miss resources so for human resources you know I say this every single month the first thing we do is we look at the spreadsheet of open positions and as of our last meeting there were 25 open positions but there are still those interviews going on um a lot of these positions are at the high school so we're really working hard to get them fulfilled um there were 36 hires since uh July but there are more on the on the tonight so that just keeps um increasing which is what we want we like to be fully staffed one of the things that the um we had talked about with Dr Freeman is we were just looking at um the number of resignations Etc and he compiled this really interesting data sheet because he has interviews with all the people who leave the district so in that it was you know you know what some of the various reasons were for a lot were seem to be closer Home kind of activities some were salaries but it was eye opening to see you know why the people know why we have these presentations um we also talked about new positions and job descriptions um one being an alternative school head teacher it used to be that the um that program was after school hours and now it's being brought into the district from 11 to3 which we just find so exciting because now these kids are going to be part of this school Community it gives them the opportunity to um be in all in the electives it also gives them the opportunity to take part in extracurricular activities and that's what we really want we want it to be so that they have the the same opportunities that um every student here uh we have new teacher orientation the 27th 28th and 29th and the board is coming to a meeting greet that's going to be Tuesday the 27th at 11 o'clock and I think that's all I have to report excellent questions on human resources uh from my part I will just acknowledge the hard work that the administration is really putting in in terms of trying to get us back to full staff uh clearly not an easy task um but as everybody can see from your agendas you know section seven has I think 64 different items in it so I'm clearly a lot of work being done I just want to say thank you to everybody that's contributed any other comments or questions on human resources sounds good thanks um Mr zco couldn't be here tonight so I will just give a brief uh update on operations we really talked about two main ideas both of which are represented in the agenda tonight the first one is item number 9.20 which is an architectual review of the work that was done for the Edition for B at school um I'm sure I don't have to go into excruciating detail for board members this is an Ono topic of discussion um operations Committee in conjunction with Mr Gorski and our primary architect reviewed uh the recommendations from the Specialists um with some work additional work that they would have to do in order to uh explore exactly what went wrong in terms of the um water infiltration issue that we're having in the basement and so uh after some discussion of operations uh recommending that we undertake that next set of steps uh it'll be a professional Services contract and that's what we'll be voting on tonight uh the second one is shared services with the buau um so Mr gorsy and Dr Freeman in conjunction with Mr marman have been working on uh a new agreement to effectively insource uh garbage collection uh that we're currently paying an outside provider to perform uh it should create some efficiencies and actually save the district money way so um thankful to Mr Molina on that as well because I know he contributed but we think it was a really great thing both for the bur and for the district and we are recommending that for it was actually pretty quiet otherwise so don if you have anything to add or if anybody has any questions Happ I have a comment of course I just want to say I know one of the agenda items for um operations was the school signage and I'm really happy to report that the new SMY School sign is up it looks amazing the graphics look great and I'm excited to see the rest of the school signs go up as we progress so thank you to Dr Freeman and to verto for all their hard work in getting that done look great all set other comments or questions for operations okay the only other two items we have were SCC which miss high I believe that report won't be until next month um and uh Miss Carlton isn't here so we don't have a Sol Bound Brook report for this evening before we wrap up any other questions comments on C all right uh so if you will indulge me it appears that I missed item 2.1 and M has you know sat patiently and waited for us but we have to double back and give her the floor so that she can uh make a presentation any objections to going out of sequence that's my apies all right okay good evening everybody um so tonight we're going to look over the results for the access testing for this past um spring uh 20124 um so I hope that you enjoy the data um and the charts that were created for that um so the we access for MLS is the access test to um to find out the English language proficiency for the students it is a yearly test um that's given to all um students K 12 that are identified as multi um it serves two major purposes one is to monitor the progress yearly progress because there should be some sort of growth in the language proficiency um of the students and also it serves as just one of the many criteria to determine whether a student is eligible to exit the program and would that student be able to function and be successful academically and emotionally and socially in an all English instruction classroom um the English proficiency levels range from one entering all the way to reaching um with where you see the four expanding um the cut score for New Jersey is 4.5 in order for a student to be considered um for exiting the program so when they get to that expanding stage it doesn't mean that they're totally proficient yet like that student would still need some sort of language supports where whether they exit the program or still stay um they still need um the support because it's not until they reach a six that they are truly in the same um kind of you know level as their monolingual English Learners um English speakers I just want to make sure I didn't miss anything so the English proficiency um is measured in four domains the reading the writing listening and speaking and then we're going to see a little bit more detail about each of those domains and what they contribute to the overall score for the student um so this is the percentage that are taken into consideration when we get that overall um score so listening and speaking are really only 30% of that total score the reading and the writing make up to 70% so that's why sometimes we might um come across students that they can carry on a conversation and they understand everything we're saying in English but then maybe their reading and writing still needs more support before they can get to that proficiency level so um this is just a sample of the individual student reports all the reports have been mailed um to all the parents as of last week thank you to Irene also did a wonderful job um with all those letters almost like 600 um but we are required to send the reports home and also they have to be in English but we also have to send them in the home language um for the parents so it's really two reports for um multilingual learner families so the there you see the breakdown of the domains um and then we look at the overall uh proficiency score to determine that level of proficiency in English um this is the bottom half of that report so this is just an example of where it says like the proficiency level um and then it gives us the information of what that student can do for that domain at that level so as you see a student might be a four in proficiency level in writing but maybe for their listening they're only a two so we can expect different skills to be demonstrated by the student depending on the domain and this is also useful for the teachers who will have access to all of this um not only through like the coaching and PDS but also through linkit everything is um already on the linkit website for the teachers um and then that just kind of translates into the C do descriptors where at those proficiency levels we can find out okay and listening what can a teacher expect from a student when it comes to Output in language or you know reading or writing at that specific level so it gives the can do descriptors are from actually prek all the way through 12th grade and they give an indic indicator for the teachers onto you know what that student is capable of doing um and I always like to talk about this because um sometimes we might think like the access test if a student is at the high school or at the middle school and they get a a 4.3 um and then we have a first grader that gets a 4.3 it's like what is that the same test that they're taking you know but it it really isn't because the access test measures the content for each grade level so the the state content standards they're all embedded into the access test when they have to take it so an eighth grader or a 10th grader has more content that they have to think about and work through and you know think through when they're answering the questions so the proficiency levels although they might be the same number or indicator it means something totally different depending on the grade level of the student um um so this this is very interesting because um I presented this last Monday what it was last Monday right um so at that point on that day we had 559 um current enrollment for our multilingual Learners so since then um we have 47 students that are currently on our list to do the waa screener so those are the new students coming to the district um which will be completed by August 30th we have 67 students that are newly identified because now we are required by the state to identify our preschoolers so they don't take a test or anything like that the only thing we're required to do is that if they have a home language other than English we have to identify them as language Learners so we can provide the support that they need so we have 67 students already ready to start on on SE September 5th that are prek and P only in those 67 so the total possible multilingual learner um total by 95 could be 673 students so that's like almost a 100 you know 100 students more than we even thought we had last week so this is very important to keep in mind because um as you see like it's the number is just going to keep growing so I'm happy and I'm grateful for all the support that everyone has provided because we're putting a lot of supports in place that these students will be able to come in and they will be able to succeed academically and linguistically as well can so when I see this chart and it looks like we're going up 100 students before we get into the next block of potentially another 100 students I just think it underscores the board members should appreciate while we have invested a lot in izing our approach to educating this part of the community it's not anywhere close to where we need to be we're have to continue to focus on it and invest in it if we're to achieve the results we yeah thank you for that um and totally agree with everything you just said okay so um so for this I just did the comparison of the last three years as far as like the total um number of students there us see um in the first columns like how many were tested parent refusals um this year we only really had 19 and seven of those actually exited so it's less I think we have 12 total right now um 54 students exited this year um compared to last year which was 22 and then previous to that was 28 um and then the alternate test which is given to special education students that qualify for that we had five students that took the alternate test ranging from second grade all the way to high school so this is I just did like an overall um percentage of the different levels of proficiency so you could just have a an idea of like what we're working with as far as like K through 12 but for K3 you see we would expect to see like a higher percentage at the entering level because those are the young kids they're just coming in and you know that's that's how they enter and but we do have some that reach that expanding and then the developing um stage also or level um for 4 to six it changes a little bit more because now some of these kids have been here for a couple of years so it's only 8.2% at the entering level but our biggest percentage is at that expanding stage so those kids might reach a proficiency score you know the following spring this coming spring when we take the test again um but you can see how it it shifts you know the higher we go um for the middle school 10% are entering um and then we have the emerging 33% and then the developing but we also have a lot of students that are at that expanding stage where they are more proficient in their language um and then for the high school we do have a lot of newcomers for the high school so the entering training percentage does go up um so it's 26% um 11 of our students are um students with interrupted formal education so that's actually um 11 is not you know not a large number but we still have those students identified because they need extra support um and then we have the emerging the developing um and then we do have 2% that are at that bridging um and those students exited some of the ones that are in the expanding level and then the bridging they definitely um exited the program um so I wanted to show this because um it's important for us to know that 216 of our students really began last year they've only been here one year so we had 216 newcomer students um 115 of the total students um have been here for two years and then 40% of our students have been here three or more years so that is um also a population of students that we want to keep an eye out because some of them have become long-term multilingual Learners so they actually need more support as far as their language acquisition um so the programs in place for this coming school year we will have um the one-way dual language program 5050 um and we're so excited about that we actually had our our fourth day of training with the Dual language teachers today so everybody's excited we got to go into their classrooms you know showing them how to set up and um they were they were thrilled with that so we have that um we had the meeting with the parents uh the 6th August 6 we had two meetings and we had a good turnout the parents were also very excited about the opportunity of um having the 50/50 um dual language program for the students um at CMS and at the high school we will still continue with the high-intensity ESL which will be two periods of ESL for our students one period is aligned to the language arts standards um and that's um specifically important at the high school because that's how our our students our MLS meet their credits to for the language arts so that ESL curriculum has all the language arts standards for every Grade 9 through 12 embedded in the curriculum um and then the second period will be aligned to the World Language standards um We are continuing our sheltered instruction training for the teachers actually cohort 3 is this week so tomorrow is their last day of the three-day training um and then we have another cohort next week of 20 additional teachers that will be trained so so far I think it's like 80 now right about 80 teachers um after next week would have been trained with shelter instruction and you know most of them content Area Teachers so now they have like tools and a lot of resources that they can use when they have the students in their classrooms that might be a level two or a level one but because there's no bilingual teacher there that's you know their instruction will be sheltered um and next steps we we just talked about the implementation of the oneway immersion program um continue the shelter and instruction training so in October we will start cohort 5 and that'll be made up of the new teachers that are coming into the district so every year in October we're going to train all those teachers that are just coming in um and then we have okay I already talked about that um continue the Dual training throughout the um next school year so we have nine PD days for our teachers and we also have uh 20 days of an A specialized instructional coach going into their classrooms to help them with whatever they need but on top of that um we have the ESL and bilingual instructional coaches that will be able to help K all the way through 12th grade which I'm really excited about that because like job embedded coaching instructional coaching that's PD for the teachers and that's the most effect um effective and impactful type of workshop for them like handson um we do also want to take a deeper dive into the waa access results so so the teachers can become familiar with those can do descriptors um and then a lot of information that will be able to help them so that the students can be successful even if it's a sheltered instruction classroom um and then we're going to keep working on the increased parent engagement um and the discussions through the bilingual parent advisory committee and that's it so any any questions comments questions from m i I have a question I know we're we're testing the the students when they come in what happens if a teacher is evaluating a student after they've been tested at a certain range and feels that they maybe need to move up or down is that is there Flex in it as well you know like if they start out at a certain level is there any Flex during the school year are they locked in at that level um so they test out the retest for the most part the students will stay in that level but even last year we had some situations where I think there were three students but mostly at the lower grade that kindergarten in first grade that we retested because the ESL teacher felt like maybe they were nervous when they took it because their output of the language was demonstrating a lot higher than what their actual screener showed and that's actually what I was thinking in my head was do kids that aren't good test takers do they get locked in when the teachers don't have the ability to flex them up or down on oh no definitely we we we have to take that into consideration especially like even kindergarteners if they don't know the teacher they get nervous sometimes they don't speak but then as the school year you know starts they get more comfortable so that was one situation for one kindergartener last year but yeah it was a one and then when we retested it was a four so that made a big difference too so he was more comfortable like two months in Mr Johson so on behalf of on the board we're all really excited about all the work your team and your department is is taking and we know that you know a child doesn't become proficient in a second language and he hears it's a a long-term approach and we're all really excited and energized by all the work you're you're doing so thank you very much thank you [Applause] [Music] all right next item on the agenda is open to the public for agenda items anybody here to address the regarding the agenda items anything online uh no very good we are on to item 6.1 we have resolved that the bound work Board of Education recommendation of the approves the minutes for the following meeting regular executive meeting minutes for July 24th 202 uh just a point of order Mr Cory because I'm going to have to obain do we have enough members to vote and approve this we do we have seven members pres very good all right I will entertain a motion thank you Miss H second thank you Miss mus any comments or discussion hearing none Mr gki can we do a roll call please certainly Mr Dawson yes M Gazo yes m m yes Mr minhas yes Miss H yes Mr bmer yes and Mr board president abstained so noted motion passes thank you item 7.1 be it resolved that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in District personnel resolution this is 7.2 through 7.64 May I have a motion motion thank you mron second miss any discussion right hearing none Mr K Mr Dawson yes yes m yes Mr Min yes m h yes Mr bmer yes and Mr J yes motion pass thank you item 8.1 be it resolved that the B Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in District education resolutions this is 8.2 through 8.28 have a motion Miss B go second second miss any discussion go forward I just want to say you know I'm looking at all the preparation that went into this and I am so so impressed um you know just looking at the the PD plan in particular that's huge the inrs the counseling the handbooks at each school in two languages I was going through this agenda going this just was accomplished magnificently I just am very impressed with it second any other comments or questions all right he now can we do a roll call please Mr Dawson yes Mr Cino yes Mr M yes Mr Minh yes Miss H yes hmer yes and Mr janzi yes motion pass thank you item 9.1 we have resolved that the bber Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in board Act this is 9.2 through 9.26 can we have a motion motion thank you Mr Minos a second second thank you Mr Dawson discussion one question 9.25 the shared agreement yes are the dumpsters remaining the same the same size as far as I know yes thanks okay uh thank you for the donation yes uh item 926 a donation from Mr trees in front of the high school it's really any other comments or questions hearing none Mr Gorski a roll call please Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes Miss M yes Mr minhas yes Miss High yes Mr hmer yes and Mr Januzzi yes motion passes thank you we are off to item 10 which is other matters to come for the board which I have not been informed of any uh item 11 which is new business again nothing introduced in advance is there anything that the members would like to raise from the floor to see right then we are up to item 12.1 which is open to the public for discussion you do have something online okay uh Mr Gorski do you want the person's name and stuff now or will you uh note that later I would prefer I would prefer to have it now okay that's that's fine uh Denise Ren uh two Hayward street uh they put two comments in the same basically I think they accidentally had submit that's just my personal opinion uh they would like to discuss the volume of the music played over the speakers during football and other various Sports practices uh that's part one um following up on my previous form that I completed earlier today my concern is that there is music being played during football practices at the field of on Crusader way my backyard backs up to the field the music being played at times is rap with foul language and is blasting at uncomfortable levels I estimate at 80 DB I can hear the music inside my house outside it is uncomfortably loud this has not always been the case I have lived at uh this house uh lived at to Hayward for over 18 years uh the loud music was not an issue for at least the first 10 or more years since the sound system was upgraded the music has become louder and more frequent not just before games but at all practices and other events I have spoken with Bound Brook High School athletic director over the years at times he's been receptive their times not so much I spoke with him last week when the practices started I believe this was Wednesday and he was receptive to speaking with the coach about turning the music down but since practice has begun for the evening he may not have been able to reach the coach the music continued to blast for approximately two hours the next evening the same thing I called Mr steel last night and left a message asking if he had been able to speak with the coach I have not heard back however the music volume was lower it was approximately 6 Deb I realized last night that I have a DEC app on my watch that I can measure tonight I did not hear music I don't know if last night was lower and today none were just coincidence coincidences I just like the users on the field to be be a good neighbor as I am I do not blast music from my backyard or use chainsaws or blowers during the times that I feel I may be disturbing those on the field I'd appreciate the same as for the noise during the game I would expect that and have no issue though during the announcer during the game are even louder than the music if it is possible Mr not to interrupt you I certainly want to give this resident there do but I think we get the gist comment um my request will be of Dr Freeman to follow up with the individual who wrote it to understand the concern and to address any practices from District Personnel that may be in conflict with either our policies or with the policies of uh the township I will take care of it any other comments on that uh there not thank you sir any comments from the room all right we are then moving into executive session very nice well myself so please allow me to recognize Robin Thompson our new supervisor of special education please stand [Applause] up excited to see what you're going to do for us in District you've we've heard a lot of great things and again we're just really excited to get to work so thank you very much for coming forward with us thank you all right now we're going to move into the executive session um so uh resolve that the bound Board of Education enter executive session as Allowed by njn 10 4-11 for the purposes of mr4 and4 and7 I have a motion I'm gonna give Mr a motion and Mr all in favor e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e you guys are good to go all right guys so we are going to call to order to move items number 14 and 15 so this is item number 14.1 be resolved that the bound Board of Education approves the resolutions as outl in approval of hi cases under high school this is just over 14.2 Comm a motion I'll give the motion to miss high the second to M mus no discussion so R Mr Dawson yes M Gazo yes M yes Mr Min yes M oh yes thank you Mr bmer yes Mr yes thank you I 15.1 resolve that the Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlin in approval of hi cases on elementary schools this is just it 15.2 have a motion motion thank you Mr Dawson a second second thank you Mr M roll call Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes Miss M yes Mr Minas yes Miss High yes Mr vulmer yes Mr januzi yes motion passes item 16.1 having exhausted the agenda can we have a motion to agend thank you Miss a second second thank you Mr dson all in favor we