the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided. This is a meeting of the board of education at which formal action may be taken. The public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda. Um can we all please stand for the pledge of allegiance
already? We're doing good. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice
for all. Thank you very much. And I will hand it over to Dr. Burton for the superintendent report. Good evening. So, we're going to begin I'm going to begin by um a couple of presentations and the first of them is
the Branchburg Ed Foundation has assembled a lovely group of children. It's so great to have children uh come to a board meeting. Um they had a children's business fair on October 10th uh at the Celebrity School. Uh we'd like
to have the tonight's opportunity to showcase their ideas at the children's business fair. So I'm going to introduce Mrs. Lorraine Steel on behalf of the uh Branchburg Ed Foundation who will share more information and allow the childrens
to come and present. Welcome. Thank you Dr. Burton. Thank you very much board for having us uh this evening. Um I'm here tonight as Dr. Burton mentioned representing the Branchburg Education Foundation. Um, you may have heard we had a fun BMX biking
presentation this week uh across all of the Branchburg schools that kind of drove home a very important bike safety and anti-bullying messaging. Um, but the reason that I'm here tonight uh is to introduce to you some of Branchburg's
youngest entrepreneurs. Uh, beyond funding teacher grants, we also work closely with our sponsors to develop and bring to life meaningful educational events for our students. To that end, last Friday evening, we hosted our first children's business fair in partnership
with our friends at the Celibbury School of Branchburg, we invited Branchburg's young CEOs, inventors, and creators um to set up tables and showcase each of their very own businesses. Students of all ages joined us to share their
brilliant ideas and merchandise with the Branchburg public, including some of our very own more seasoned entrepreneurs in town. Um, I'd like to introduce you tonight to a few of the most hardworking and ambitious kids in town. Um, when I call
your name, please come up to accept your certificate. You can give a little explanation of your business and to let the board know what it is that you offer. All right. So, without further ado, I'd like to call up Laura and Aaron
Erdom from Laura's Pet Care. Congratulations, Laura Ar. Would you like to say a little something? Uh, Lara's Pet Care is a child-owned parent supervised petsitting business
that um I started when I was in third grade. We have 10 clients. And also for smaller animals, we could do boarding. For bigger animals, we could
go to the house, give them food, water, and also walk them. If you don't have pets, we could also take in the mail and water plants.
And if you want, we can um take out the plants from the dirt and put them in somewhere that you want us to put them. Great. Very good. Thank you very much.
Up next, I'm going to call uh John V. Caric, and she is here from Beep Buddy. Hi, I'm John V and I'm 8 years old in third grade. So, um, Beep Buddy is a button system that can alert your bus
driver without disturbing anybody or making like a loud noise. So, how it works is you would press it if a kid's upset or there's a spill or someone needs help and the bus driver will numb. It doesn't
make a sound so it doesn't disturb the bus driver. It just makes like a light signal. Oh, wow. That's great. Thank you very much for you. All right, we have the cutest little
face painters around. Aa and hold on, I'm out of I'm out of and Shaheen here with dad. Do you guys want to tell us about your face painting? You don't have to.
You don't have to. You did a great job. You should have seen them clean faces on Friday. Thank you so much. You guys did a wonderful job. Do you want to say hi? Great job. Excellent.
And last but not least, I'd like to call Robert and William Steel uh from Steel Brothers 3D Print Lab. Wow. a little bit short for this. Um, all right. My name is R.J. and um I'm here to show
you my 3D print lab. We take custom orders and um right we also made flyers and um we sell stuff so we can get a better 3D printer to 3D print better
things and um get a and um sell more things to 3D print. Tell them what you have right here. And we have a laboo right here. We have a ghost that could dumpy. And we have a hand that could hold stuff.
And we also have a keychain of a tiger. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you all very, very much. Um, I also want to give a quick shout out to Jay Krishna Martifi from Jay's Sport Zone who also participated but is unable to be here this evening. And a
big thank you to the Celebrity School of Branchburg for their partnership in this. Um, as our board president Anita has said, we believe strong role models make a lasting difference and we think our sponsors are among the very best. Uh, thank you be board of education for your time tonight um to share in the
entrepreneurial spirit of these incredible students up here. I would like to Jal Pesh, did you want to say a quick word? Get out of here. Thank you everyone. I'm Jal Pes. I'm from Celebrity School. I'm here with my director Denise. Uh we have
um just want to say thank you to the at the foundation to give us an opportunity to be partner with them and uh you know we're here with you guys for you guys ever you need anything let us know. I'm not going to take much of your time. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you.
You have to do the picture. Thank you. Picture. Picture. Clearly, it's never too You're never too young to start being an entrepreneur. Okay, everybody say cheese. Cheese. Okay.
Yay. We did it. Okay. One more. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone for coming out tonight. We really appreciate having our children in our at our board meetings. Have a great night. Thank you all.
You're very welcome. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Let's go, mister. Okay. Next, I am going to welcome up U S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E S E L Landisburg and Denver Anderson. They're
going to talk to us uh and share with the board the uh analyzing key trends and insights for improvement. This is our annual performance report to the board. I'm sorry. Good evening. I have to lower it. The
kids are taller than me. Um, so we're going to do our performance report of the student um analysis from the NJSLA, but we're including a few other Can you not hear me? Oh, closer. Okay. Um we're going to include a few other um
important insights that we find from the variety of data that we look at to make decisions in the district. So I'll take you through briefly I'll try to be brief um the data sources the types of assessments we use then the bulk of it will be on the analysis and
insights from NJSLA and then our current and future plans in the district. So as you know there are a wide variety of ways that we assess our students. It could be from presentations that they're giving, um, sharing how they apply the information that they learn, doing labs,
um, or something more traditional like a standardized assessment. What we really like to do is not look at just one piece of data to make uh, decisions in our district about our students or about the curriculum. So, this is just a snapshot of some of the types of assessments that we use. And we
look at them for different reasons. The NJSLA is a statemandated standardized assessment that looks at our students on a broader level. So it looks at your district in comparison to the state of New Jersey. For some districts that are larger, they can use this information to
look at a fourth grade in one building and compare it to another fourth grade in another building. For us, we only have, you know, our one group of fourth graders and and above that. Um, so what we look at this information is it's how our students are performing across the
years and if we're noticing any trends in our data and then how do they perform compared to the state. We have summitive data on here. So summitative is at the end of learning we want to assess what did you retain? That would be like a
topic assessment or unit assessment that we give. And then we look at more formative um data and that drives our instruction that helps us identify what our students need and what progress we're making. So on here are just some examples of those different types.
We're going to dig into the NJSLA. So the NJSLA looks at the content standards. So it's your grade level standards and it has five performance levels for math and language arts. Um, level one starts with you do not meet the expectations and then it goes all
the way to level five, which means you have exceeded the expectations. On our charts, you're going to see we highlight levels four and five combined to show our district average of students who are meeting and exceeding the expectations versus the state
for we'll start with mathematics. Um, so you see I it's highlighted in green similar to last year where you can quickly identify here's the levels. um in grades three all the way up through geometry.
It's important to notice that um or to note that starting in seventh grade, our students, some of them do not take the grade level assessment because they are taking algebra 1 assessments. So the same thing in eighth grade. And we'll talk more about the individual grade bands as I go through the slides, but um
this is just an overall a percentage um and the percentile points of where we fall for our trends in grades three through five. We are significantly outperforming the state in all three grades. Um so you'll I put it up there. I won't read it to you, but I'll just
highlight quickly. Um you know, 71% of our students are at levels four and five. that means that 71% of our students are meeting or exceeding the the the standards um and that we're beating the state in that and that's consistent all the way throughout. So
what that shows us with insight is that our uh elementary mathematics program is really perform really strong and targeting what we need for our students. Um and an additional data point to that or insight is that the percentage of students in the lowest performing that level one of not meeting is also
considerably low in all the grades um in the elementary three through five. So that means we're targeting those foundational skills um well for our middle school for um grades six and seven we're continuing to outperform the
state but it the margin definitely narrows um and you can notice that from the data that's there. So um then in eighth grade as I had mentioned we start to separate out. So not all of the eighth graders are taking that. So um important to note at the bottom it
shares 15% of the students were enrolled in geometry and 32% of the eighth graders were enrolled in algebra. So they were not part of the eighth grade um assessment. However, we do need to look at those numbers um and look at
what we can do to provide interventions for our students and move them over from um because we obviously want all of our students to meet the grade level standards. Um and we also need to note the transition between grades five and six because that shows a noticeable
narrowing in that performance. our advanced level courses. So the algebra one, the geometry, the students outperformed the state um rather significantly. So 87% of our students achieve proficiency or were advanced
proficient um in algebra and then in geometry as well. We also did. So this indicates that our our advanced mathematics track is is preparing our students for success and it's highly effective. So, what do we do with that information
that I just showed you? Um, I need to look at the curriculum and identify trends that I see in the data and where I can bolster um some of our resources and really engage more um learning and activities and supplemental resources if I'm noticing that there are trends um
specific areas. So, when I write specific areas or do domains, mathematics is in different domains. So um it could be measurement in data or algebraic thinking. If I notice trends over time that are showing that we need to strengthen them then we make adjustments in our curriculum. We did
that as you know when we implemented a new mathematics program. That's one of the reasons we shifted to the envision program. We started to notice some consistent trends in our data not just the NJSLA but our cla our school data. Um, so we implemented that in the elementary buildings about four years
ago and we've noticed great gains from that and our students are really making great progress and we're hitting those foundational skills. We implemented that in the middle school last year. So, what would happen and what we're hoping will happen and um next year I'll
hopefully come back and show you some great gains in this data is that with this implementation, the continued um rigor and expectations that we're setting for our students as well as our instructional practices, we're going to notice that we're addressing the needs that our students have. Um
professional development. We need to continue to provide professional development for our teachers. um training them in those engagement strategies. We noticed in one of the the things you can glean from is if there's a shift in it, it might be due to engagement, especially the older our students get, not just because the
content's getting harder, but um their level of engagement. We have to increase the types of things that we're doing with them. So, you know, more hands-on activities, um making stuff more real world for them. So, we need professional development in that. Um and then really looking at our tools, our resources that
we have for our students. So, hands-on manipulatives even for the older students. Um, ways to provide access for them and then really focusing on that transition from fifth to sixth. But also looking at scheduling and we'll talk a little bit more about scheduling later, but the amount of time that we have in
mathematics decreases greatly once you get to the middle school from what it was at the elementary buildings. Um, and then really looking at our intervention opportunities. So, how are we hitting those students? As I mentioned on a previous slide, our level one was low in the elementary. That means we were
targeting those students that we identified had gaps and we were moving them over. Um, but what are we doing at the upper levels? How are we targeting that? What are we focusing on? So, um, really looking in and what type of intervention are we providing and is it
effective and doing a overhaul of that ELA. Um this is actually a picture of a recent uh training that we had. So you'll see Dr. Burton standing there. On October 3rd, we brought in presenters from Dibbles. Um that is a screener that I have talked to you about before. The
state mandated um that we screen students in grades K through three. Uh not only because the state mandated it, but last year I spoke to you about adjusting our assessments to match our instruction at our um foundational literacy grades. So, in kindergarten and first grade, we were looking at finding
more um assessments that were aligned to phonics and decodable text. The state came through and just added a little bit to that and said, "No, no, not just for your kindergarten, first grade, but make it K to three and we're doing it. We're telling you in June that you're going to
implement it in September." So, we did. Um, so our staff has been trained on that. We were a little ahead of the game. Now, we're bringing in our second and third grade teachers to that conversation. And um so we currently are in the process of assessing using that right now after we were trained in it.
Um if you look at our data here, you'll notice we are outperforming the state in every grade level 3 through 8. And um you know I put in the percentage points so you can see how much we're outperforming the state but also how
many of our students are at the meeting or advanced in language arts. So what does this tell us? Um it really shows us as well that um from what we noticed in the uh grades our level one is
considerably lower than the state average. So that means that our foundational instruction is setting up our students for success and preventing them from falling significantly behind as they move along the grade levels. So the work we've been doing in the kindergarten,
first grade, second grade with adding in um phonics instruction and really targeting our instruction for literacy has given those students the foundation that they need to be successful. Um but what are we going to do? We don't stop. We're Branchburg. We're going to keep going. We're going to make it
better. So, we are continuing to enhance our curriculum, looking for, you know, the best things that are out there that we can provide our students, making our lessons engaging. We're going to continue to revise our curriculum um and employ that gradual release model that I
presented on last year at the middle school. We want our students at the middle school to get the same types of strategies and opportunities that our students do at the elementary grades with targeted instruction, small group, a lot of choice, and really increase that engagement. That picture over to
the side is actually from our sixth grade classrooms. They um quite a few of them decided to do almost a cafe for their book choices. They're starting book clubs. This one made Starbucks. um they gave they had different tastings of
books set up around the classrooms. The students got to go and sample them and then place their order for what book they would like. So this is just one example of how we're increasing engagement, providing variety and opportunity and access for our students, but also making it fun. Um and you know,
we'll continue with our job embedded professional development. and our coaches have done a phenomenal job of oops of really um making sure that they are there side by side with the teachers to help them with this and focusing on reading strategies and foundational skills not just for our elementary
teachers but almost more importantly for our middle school teachers. Um because when you get a 7 through 12 certification, you're talking about literature and analyzing literature and synthesizing literature, but you're not learning how to teach how to read. Um so
we're really working on providing those staff members with those skills so that they can help target any students who are falling below grade level. And then we'll continue to um you know provide resources. Science in NJSLA is different than math
and language arts. So, for some reason, we only assess grades five and eight, and they change up the scoring a little bit. So, instead of having five categories, there's four categories. So, it's either below, near proficient, proficient, or advanced proficient for
the way that they score it. Oh, that is one of our students. So, um I just we are reviewing the science curriculum and we already started to do some of those um some of that and our STEM coach uh received a BEF grant for
Legos um to have them in the classroom and provide some hands-on fun activities uh with the students. So, she's been working through all of fifth grade. She's actually going to come later in the year to present to you with some of the students. Um but that's just to show that, you know, hands-on active
engagement. That young lady is very happy in the picture. Um so our scores we do outperform the state but on average the state performance on the stand on the math uh assessment I mean on the science assessments are low compared to math and
language arts. So, um, what we see is while we remain ahead of the district, a decline in the performance in the middle school years is something I'd like to continue to explore. Um, we also, while we do have a smaller number of students performing at
level one compared to the state, for me that's still a high number of students that are performing at a level one. Um, so it's something that we need to look at and look at our support systems and we have been and I'll talk a little bit about how we're pro we're working to provide more access to the content for
students. So we are in the process of reviewing the science curriculum and the course programs. There are a number of different ways that you can teach science. So we are going to explore some of the ways that other people do it. we tend to do at especially at the middle
school where we break it down to be life science or um you know earth science and we're not really bringing it in across the year the different types of sciences and that is one approach that is out there now the standards are being revised for science and they I believe
they should be out around 26 27 um so I I feel like that's the direction they're heading in and I always like to be a little bit ahead of where the state's going to tell us I ask you a question Sorry, I didn't. So, how do you make that assessment versus like do you get to see what other
schools are doing? Like, are they doing well? What are they doing? Can we copy that? Yep. So, thankfully, um, everybody in education is pretty collaborative. So, um, we do talk as, you know, different districts and we get together as directors or supervisors and talk about
the scores, we talk about this test, and then we also talk about what's what programs are out there and what other districts are doing. Um, a lot of districts many years ago went to just when NGSS came out, which was the standards for science, and they changed, people went to just buying kits, um, and
were like, "Okay, it has NGSS on it. We're going to go with that." In Branchburg, we didn't feel that that was the best choice. So, what we did was teacher created, we knew what the standards were. We went to trainings at RBCC with um somebody who's pretty well renowned in that sense and he taught us
how to implement this and we developed our own um at the K5 level and then at 68 they kind of did a combination of the textbook and that what we're seeing now there's a lot of options out there and there's been a lot of things that have been piloted and through beta um one in particular is open sad that has gotten
really high ratings and um we've seen a lot of growth in other districts not necessarily ones around here but um other places. So that's something that we want to explore and go visit districts that are doing it. And then fortunately for us um the STEM coach
Katie Kelly that came into our district last year, she is an open sed certified trainer. So she has experience in it um and you know is starting to incorporate some aspects of it to pilot it out in our classroom. So we're going to start where we explore a variety of different
ones. When anytime I do any curriculum review, I kind of bring together committee. We review a variety of different things. We look at how, you know, the performance of them, the ratings of them, do they meet the standards? Um, and then we make a decision. So, thank you. We start that process. Um, but
regardless of that, we're already starting to increase hands-on active learning experiences. That's why the picture of the gliders is there. Obviously, that's not our students. It's not. However, if you drove by here in the last couple of weeks, you would have seen our students at the middle school
outside um doing a glider experiment where they have built their own gliders and they've gone out and tested them. And those types of activities are things that we can bring to our students and gets them excited about it and they're doing so many different elements of science and math and planning and
engineering. Um and those are the types of things that we're trying to bring more of to here. Um again we're going to do professional development training our staff and then where I talk about resource alloc allocation um providing AI tools that will increase access. So
we're very fortunate that we live in the age now where we have these types of things that are out there. I can now put in um a sixth or seventh grade text and bring it down to a third grade reading level. So we're not going to worry about having to, you know, decode these words and and understand that. We're talking
about the science concept. So, that is an um a way that we're hoping to provide more access to make that content accessible to the students, more engaging um and reach all of our learners. Not that I'm much taller, but I'll move
it up an inch or so. Um so, Mr. Landersburg went through and talked to you about the um almost like big picture view, right, of our ELA math and science performance. Um I'm going to hit briefly upon our sub analysis our subgroup analysis because the state does ask us
to make sure that we're presenting that information out. Um it's definitely a part of the process when we are looking at our data. Um not just okay how do we perform overall but what are the specifics? Let's start to break it down. Um, so our subgroup analysis really I've
been doing this I think for 10 years and it usually is pretty consistent from year to year that our subgroups um whe whether we're looking at race, gender, socioeconomic background, we tend to be relatively consistent. So there's no major discrepancies across the board and
even as you go from grade level to grade level, we're not really seeing anything that's a drastic um something to worry about. Now are there always areas for improvement? Yes. And so when we look at it per grade level, we're trying to pay attention to what could be the reason for this or what are these specific
standards. As I've said in many years before, we don't really get to see questions. We don't know if it's language based. We don't know um you know what might trigger something to be slightly higher one year or slightly lower another year. Um but we look at the big picture and we we always go back to our subgroups to see what can we do
better. One of the pieces that I sort of have shifted my role and can speak a little bit more or am hoping to be able to speak a little bit more specifically to is our special education group. That is our largest subgroup and it is something that everyone pays attention to. Um we will show down at the bottom
insights when we looked at our data across the board. We have a we have a large number of students in that level one. Now caveat to this is this is a grade level standard assessment. Most of our students who we have classified are working below grade level. So I know we
are going to have a larger population towards that lower end. I would like to move them out of that one area into our two and three and progress up. Um, and I think that we are able to start to look more specifically at our individual student needs and really look at trends
of specific students now that we have multiple years of data to see where they might be increasing or where they might be decreasing over um over their time here in Branchburg. What we are looking to do in the special ed realm um and we've you know started that path and even prior to me we started that path is
to provide that individualized instruction to our kiddos. So, it's not something where I can say it's the same um area of weakness for all of our friends. So, this is what we're going to do. It's going to miraculously make them shift up, you know, two or three levels. So, what I really want to take a little
bit more focus to is um I'll use the worth audit, but really look at our RCR programs, our self-contained programs, um and as they then build into our ICR settings and see what additional supports we can be doing to provide those kiddos what they need. um more specifically on an individual
basis. So we'll be reviewing curriculum as we have as we always do but we usually pick different areas. Um so you is it this approval that they're approving all the curriculum. Um so this approval you would have seen that we had
um RCR ELA I believe was the ICR and RCR within each of them. Um so we work to support there. We'll also be looking at different programs to be able to bring in additional resources. Um, you know, all of our staff are trained on what the grade level expectations are, but then what are the more specific pieces that
our special education teachers can pull out of that back back pocket to work with um their kiddos. So, my goal for this year is really to be able to dig into the data and have much more of a focus on what it is that we are doing to support in really the RCR classrooms
first because those are the kiddos that when we look at our data tend to fall down into those lower um areas. And again, knowing that it's a grade level expectation test, I know we're going to be a little bit lower there, but I'd like to see how we can work to improve moving forward.
Um so some actionable insights. Um you know Miss Lannisburg has spoken to many of these pieces along the way as far as curriculum. You know we are always going to work to continue to develop lessons focusing on those prerequisite skills because those are the building blocks
from which our kids can then continue to move on. That in special ed takes a little bit longer. We need more repetition. We need to see more opportunities of things in different ways. Um but stressing those pieces and then again looking at specialized programs in certain areas that might help some of our friends who need that
targeted assistance. Professional development, you know, we've been fortunate to already have one of our professional development days under our belt. Um and we have we're already starting the planning for coming into the next school year. Um but we're getting the feedback from the staff members of what areas they're looking
for needing support. Um, but we also pull from these assessments to be able to identify, okay, if you're not recognizing it as a teacher, we're going to share with you this was an area that we have a little bit, you know, a weaker area or we need some, we need to strengthen it a little bit more. Um, so
you guys will see coming across your plates for approval, a variety of different professional development for different staff members, um, special education, you'll have our instructional coaches, all of these people come back and they'll turnkey it, um, to their colleagues as well. coaching in the district. I think we'll speak a little
bit more to that on the next slide. Um, but we are fortunate again to have those coaches to be able to come in to model and help support our staff members. Um, we have a a slew of new staff members, you know, new to Branchburg, not necessarily new to education. Um, but everything looks a little bit different
in a new district, so they're working to support them there. And then resource allocation. Um, you know, our budget is tight. It's not that we're throwing money around in different places, but really trying to make sure that we're making good decisions about what resources we are providing for our staff and then in turn for our students so
that they can meet success. And as Miss Landisburg talked about, looking to use AI as a support along the way, I think is going to open up a few more doors, hopefully many more doors than what we've had in the past. So the other two pieces I wanted to just speak briefly upon because we do have
other assessments beside NJSLA. Um dynamic learning maps DM is actually the um modified assessment shall I say for those students who um don't qualify to take the NJSLA. Um all students still need to be assessed. So the dynamic
learning maps is an adapted um assessment from NJSLA and it really pulls back to the essential elements of a standard and assesses our students there. We have a very small population of students who take that cess. So I can't really share that data out um which is why I sort of just gave a
summary here. And then the other assessment that the state asks us to provide our students um our multil- language learners is the access assessment. So the next slide does give you some um information about It's on. That's why I'm like I know I
could see it. Um so we have you'll see at the end of this slide we have an appendex that has all of the old data that I used to spend all of that time going through every slide. Um it's all there for you but we didn't want to hit each piece of it. And what I did on the slide for access to show you is a
three-year comparison. Um so you'll be able to see sort of the how the students have shifted from one level to the next. there's um actually six different levels in that assessment that they can move through. Caveat to that is um it tends to be a little bit more of a transient
population. So I it's not particularly the same students three years ago all the way through. Um but it just gives you that dynamic of seeing how kids have shifted um here or there. And that assessment is in um usually March April time. So this is reporting data from
there. One of the other pieces that I just wanted to speak to too um because I know that some of the communication has gone out from the district um NJSLA has decided to shift to NJSLA adaptive. Um good old state of New Jersey like two weeks before school started let us know.
Um so we are actually field testing in the next two weeks our students grades four through eight. Um that field test is not going to be giving us any data back. they're not actually capturing anything related to our students specifically other than what their responses are. That's going to help them prepare the assessment for the end of
the year. Um, so one of the things that I'm hoping, and I say hope because I don't have enough background information, they're calling it NJSLA adaptive. Um, and they are proposing that it's going to be adaptive in nature so that if you do well, you continue to get questions that move you forward and
if you struggle on a question, it brings you to something that's more appropriate. um very similar to what we use for MAP. So, I'm hoping that those things will correlate. I'm not positive of what that will look like because I think we still have to hold them to grade level expectations. So, I will present more on that once I have
information. Um but just so you know, those pieces are coming through. I'm not sure what that will mean for our data presentation next year. Hopefully, we can make connections to what we've had for previous years, but I just wanted to make sure that I shared that out with the community because it is up and coming. Um, so current and future plans
and Miss Landisburg, feel free to come in and pop in when I'm not saying everything clearly. Um, so curricular developments, you know, I think we've spoken to this regular revision. I think we do a great job in this district of staying on top of our curriculum. Um, and just adding in sort of in real time
what are the things that we're seeing not only based off of NGSLA, but based off of all the assessments that we're providing for our students. Um, and really hitting those standard specific identified areas for challenge. um curricular and supplemental resources. We are always looking at those pieces because someone is always out there
trying to do something better. Um we don't just jump the gun and hop into something. We like to take our time and make sure that we're actually testing things out before we make that shift. Um science, I know we talked about um what that shift might look like at the middle school. So again, we'll continue to
explore that. Um and then focusing a little bit more on um emotional intelligence. that has been an area since we started implementing panorama we were collecting that data yet again another data point um and Mr. Um Brad Street Rand is here and he really has
the ability to focus in on that data. So that first administration of that survey for the year is coming up I think in November. Um so again another piece to sort of pull in and tie into the overall learning that's happening in in the district and similar to sorry
similar to the science um committee review we are going to be having a um emotional intelligence program review because we are looking to implement a program next year. So, um, Brad Street has started to collect data. Um, we started thinking about this before he
actually came to our district, um, and and, you know, started the laying the groundwork looking at our HIPS, looking at, um, our conducts and figuring out what are what are our teachers saying that our students need and we identified that they need help in perseverance and grit, emotional intelligence, but also
emotional regulation. All of those things as we've spoken to you about before affect the whole child and affect academics. So that is one of the things um that we're definitely going to move forward in and then um implementation of Dibble. So that's really up there as I
spoke to you already about it. It's not just about giving another assessment for us. It's about identifying what our students need and then providing evidence-based um programs for them and and strategies for our students. So that
is um a huge focus for us. Do you want to go programmatically? Yeah. So um just this bottom piece down here for programmatic developments. I know that Miss Landisburg briefly oops I'm hitting the button. Sorry. Um briefly spoke about schedule um really looking
at the schedule exploration up at the middle school. So t tapping into other districts around us to see a lot of them have gone to a block scheduling or a rotating drop or whatever the cool thing is um you know for this coming year. But we're going to go out and sort of explore all of those different settings
and see how did that impact the students, not just test performance, but just in general what did it afford a little bit more flexibility with? What do we want to bring here to Branchburg? Um because right now at the middle school, our periods are 45 minutes. Um and so you are you are making comparisons with districts who have that
block of time that might be 60 90 sometimes depending upon what's um what they have structured. So, we're really we want to look to see how that can work um to support our students here in Branchburg. Last year, you heard us talk about instructional support and sort of standardizing those procedures across
the district. So, continuing to refine that. Now that we have a year under our belt, we're moving back into those conversations at each of the buildings. Um and really focusing on standardizing the goal setting of those conversations and then progress monitoring our students. um refining our intervention
and res referral services um process and supports and then as I spoke to um special education associated programs and other instructional activities. So those are the things that we're looking to sort of move forward um with explorations in the upcoming year.
Um so for professional development we already have quite a bit of this already happening. Um starting in the summer we offer teachermies. The coaches provide um time for the teachers to come in if they choose to in the summer to go over any new curricular changes. Um we have
as I mentioned and um Jen mentioned job embedded professional development. So, all of our new staff and in the last two years just teacher-wise, um I had two new staff orientation classes of 25 each. So, we'll say 50 teachers that are
in their year one and two in our district. Our coaches meet with them once a cycle. So, that's once every six days. Our coaches meet to provide them help with planning, with curriculum, with classroom management. They demonstrate lessons for them. um they
look at analyze student data and identify areas that they can support them in. Um so that is really special and a lot of people who have come to our district really value that. Um and I've noticed that that really helps keep those people here which there's a huge
um statistic in teacher burnout between the first five years of being in this profession. So, that's one of our ways of trying to keep our staff here, but then also make sure that they're doing what we're asking them to do and doing it the right way. Um, they also offer
lab sites. So, in the past, I've showed you pictures of teacher trainings where we actually go into classrooms while students are here and our coaches demonstrate some new strategies or some new learning and then debrief with the teachers. That is one way of our professional development as well as um
they go in and unpack at meetings. So they'll go in and unpack what a new unit is that's going to happen and walk teachers through what the standards are, what the assessments are, and how to help our students. Teachermy's next board meeting, you will have a long list
of offerings. So so far I've gotten 70 responses from our teachers on different things that they would like to see offered for professional development as well as um people saying that they would like to present for our own staff. So that's our great way of internally helping each other and bringing back the
lists of professional development that you approve each time back into district and turnkeying it for each other. Um that ties into the out of district on-site and offsite. So we are um really you know we have to train the teachers so that they can support we have to
support the teachers so that they can support the students. Um, so you know that we send people out of district. Um, we also bring people out of district in. So, so far this year we've had Dibbles in, we've had link in to help us with intervention manager. Um, we have a
partnership with RWJ Barnabas that comes into to help our staff with um, well-being as well as um, you know, time management, stress management. Um, IMSC has some been something that you're actually approving some people for tonight, but that is multi-ensory reading approach for targeted
instruction. and then some math conferences and a whole wide variety of different things. Another thing that we're going to explore is maximizing our resources and opportunities by tying in with other districts. So, we've done that with Somerville. As you know, on October 3rd, our middle school went over
to Somerville and was able to see their presenter and and go to some classes there. Um Dr. Dr. Burton and I have talked about reaching out to other smaller districts and seeing if they're willing to partner with us. So that way we can pull our resources together and provide our teachers with opportunities
to see um some things that maybe we can't afford if we're doing it just on our own. Um or we can have more money to offer, you know, other things by using by saving costs um in ways that we can. But then also just hearing from other people and seeing how other districts do
and it's great to really build those relationships. Um, and then again, we're going to evaluate all of our subscriptions. So, I'm looking at all of our online subscriptions that we currently have in the district and seeing what things can be replaced. Now, you can get one subscription to a
particular AI tool and it takes the place of five different things that we may have used. So, I'm pulling usage and looking at how we're using um our resources in the district. um we formed an AI committee um or a council and uh we're going to really bring in
stakeholders from across the district to see what types of things that you know the teachers need and the staff need from the different platforms so that we can make the best choices and we're going to increase all of our resources and the things that I spoke about for literacy. Um we used as you know we
accepted grant money for uh the focus grant which helped us with um the universal screener and the foundational literacy practices that we have to do. We're going to continue to explore additional grant opportunities for other things. So bringing in money from, you
know, out there um as well as local partnerships and then um and the BEF has been wonderful as I mentioned. They they donated PTO um but looking for larger um donations or grant opportunities and I really again want to focus on um looking
at my budget and working to increase those STEM resources. So just to pause. So two things. Um one because I was at the Sville board meeting Tuesday. We had our main Tuesday and they called out the PD part. They they were so happy to have that
collaboration with the Branchburg team. So they that was specifically called out on how wonderful that was to have that joint collaboration. So I think it's great to continue to do that. I maybe that was the first time. I don't know. But we did it like five. Yeah, we did it precoid. So, it's like
like the first time then first time in a long time and the first time for all of them because they're all newer over there and they're newer. So, they love that. And the second piece is and you're probably aware, but they applied and got the AI grant. They're one of 10
districts with $75,000. And so, they're starting to first um embed it with the teachers, right, with a lot of PD before they roll out to the kids. So again, that's another opportunity to your point of pulling resources of what are they seeing, what are they learning. It's not it's not just for the high
school obviously, it's for the younger learners as well. And so that's an opportunity for next time that you meet. Yes. And they shared with us over the summer when they were doing their summer academy. They opened it up to us. So um they had quite a few AI offerings and I attended a couple and connected with
their um she they have a director of they do Ariel Ariel. Yes. Um, so she had shared that they had all this money and I was asking her like, "Okay, so what happens after your grant money expires?" Um, so really this
year they're opening their doors and then they're going to have to um pair down, but it's great because they're going to they're going to get to um trial some things that we might not I I did save some money to be able to from the AI committee if they are interested
in certain tools. Um, usually they'll give it to us for free for a short amount of time to pilot, but I did save some money in case we need to um pay for a a pilot of a couple tools to try out. Um, and so far we have provided professional development asynchronously
um to our staff on Magic School AI and then Gemini Education. Magic School. Yep. They mentioned they mentioned that. Yes. And then we just purchased diffit um which will be I'm going to slowly roll out to the staff. Um I don't want to overwhelm Yeah. I don't want to overwhelm him. Yeah.
I want anything that we're sharing, I want to be able to provide resources for before I'm saying like here we have all of this stuff go. I want to have like screencasts of how to use it and and effective ways to to use these tools. Um and then I this is just the appendix. So
this is that longer um slideshow that just has all of the data for you if you want to look at it and look at all the subgroups um and you could see all of those numbers. So that is attached there. And next, can I ask a few questions on the data on the Thank you. That was awesome.
Appreciate it. I know it's a lot of work to put it together, but more work to actually do the work. So, appreciate that. I just had I think there's now just two questions. So, when I was thinking back to the map, right, and that the middle school that that gap wasn't as large as
usually versus state. So curious if I'm sure you have compared it to the prior year to see I think it was the eighth grade to see is it that group of kids that that might be struggling they had the same kind of gap when they were tested at seventh grade or is it just eighth graders or like is it an eighth
grade thing or is it the group of students that might need a little more? So I I think historically you're going to see the eighth grade number lower because of the way that we take out such a huge chunk to take 50% of our kids. So on that side they made sure that we broke it down to see it's about 50% of
the eighth grade population isn't actually counted in. So then that brings it right which it's not negating in any way. It's still something to focus on and it helps us to focus a little bit more readily. But but then when you look at the number of students who are left, then if we were to because we dig into
it a little bit, you know, in more detail to look to see who has who's identified with um an IEP, a 504 um instructional, you know, and then we break it down of who's who's within there. Got it. Okay, that so year to year that can change.
Sometimes we have a larger number of um special education students, sometimes we have a smaller number. So the numbers can fluctuate a little bit, but I think the biggest factor is the fact that you take out algebra 1 and geometry in eighth grade. That that makes more sense. Um, second question with the special education group.
I know to your point right NJSLA is just one point in time and so there's a lot that you're trying to do as you said to progress them from one standard one to two three four five. Is there a way to measure it in between the NJSLA test? that slide that uh Miss Lamsburg put up
that had all of the different types of assessments that we look at throughout the year. You're really looking at those formative assessments and even your summitive assessments at the end of a unit as opposed to waiting just for that year and standard. Um what I have historically liked about the MAP assessment is that it would point you back to what grade level
they are falling on. That's why I'm hopeful the NJSLA adaptive will tell you. It'll still tell us we're below grade level, right? But hopefully it'll help us to point to the picture a little bit more specifically or that it's just consistent with the data that we're seeing in the classroom and math. You know, I think you could ask any teacher
and they could give you a rundown of where a child is, but it's just sort of confirming that piece. And then if we're seeing trends based off of that information that will help us to determine where our additional areas of support are. And I think that's a really important thing to remember is NJSLA is an
assessment that we're giving that looks at the standards. Okay, but I don't know what questions you've gotten on that test. So, you would think standardized assessments are all getting the same questions. They're not. So, when we break it down by looking by standard,
it'll show us like, oh, we might have performed a little bit lower on this standard. Let me look at that. And then when I look at that, I'm like, oh, only half the grade got a question on that standard. Interesting. Okay. I don't know which half of the grade got a question on that standard. So, it makes it really difficult to identify
specifically for our students where they struggled. And I can't see their answers. I can't see even their open-ended responses. We don't get to see any of that. And when I called I've had to call the state in the past to question, you know, why did this student get a zero? Did they not put a response?
They don't have the answer to that either. It go it went to Pearson. Yeah. Um, so that's why I say you look at NJSLA as a compar across the board if we're noticing trends consistently in a certain area. But for our individual
students, I look at all those other pieces of Got it. Because then you have more and the adaptive when it goes adaptive is going to be even worse in terms of being able to see. We'll we'll say I mean hopefully it'll be like start strong where we actually got results back, right? And we were able to see the questions that our students were asked, but
um I don't know yet. Couple of quick questions. These scores are from last spring. Correct. Correct. So the 20% of eighth graders who were under standards have now been passed to Somerville. Yes.
Right. So in your opinion, did we fail those students by passing them on when they couldn't achieve grade eight level? I don't know. I wouldn't say that we I never look at say that we failed um in those areas. I think that we just like
some of our just like any district around the state of New Jersey, no one's knocking it out of the park with 100%. So there's always going to be a a a population of students who we're working to support. We share our data with Somerville. So we have a in the same way that we're trying to build that
relationship there. They are using the link platform. So we're sending that information up. So we are actually helping to set them up for success. So, it's not that they're starting at a ground zero with no background knowledge of a student, but they can sort of see, okay, where were those levels of performance? And we're hoping that articulation between our staff members
is also going to help those pieces. So, it's not optimal, Charlie. I would love to say that yes, everyone going there with flying colors, it's, you know, knocking it out of the park. Um, but we can always do better to support our kids. It's it's just disappointing because the students who are high
achievers, the algebra and especially the geometry students pass through with flying colors. But the students in math 8 who struggle who may not achieve up to grade level
don't seem to get the level of support that maybe they need. And I've asked this question every year. Does it really benefit the district when 16, 17, 18 kids take a geometry class when that
teacher might be better utilized reducing the class size of a math 8 to raise the performance level? Yeah, I will tell you that while I have been here, it has been a point that when scheduling does happen at the middle school, even when our numbers are starting to look bigger in those algebra
and geometry classes and they're like, "Oh, should we split it?" I do push to have our grade level classes on all sixth, seventh and eighth grade to be those smaller classes and when possible to have it as that two-teer model to get that intensive instruction to be able to
support um because to me that is the most important piece right the smaller class size and the more individualized instruction is going to help those students to perform more. So I think the piece that we want to look at there is how do they fall within that continuum of the one two three four five and our
goal each year is to move more out of that one two into the three and then four five because yes as you said four and five that's great you know that's something we can hang our hat on but you can't forget about them but what you want to note is in the in
when we looked at the data across in level one in mathematics it was lower it was significantly lower than the state across the board in level one. Now when we looked at it a trend we identified in special education was that level one
increased as the years mathematics. So you have to think about where are where is our gap how is it growing and what interventions are we providing and that's it it it becomes more difficult as the skills increase and the language
increases in mathematics in particular. Um, but I think that's part of what Jen's going to do is really looking at the resource room, um, and really looking at what programmatic changes do we need to make to make sure that they are making gains and we are providing
things to at at the very least go from a one to two, you know, so that we're we're pushing farther along that continuum for Okay. And the other question is, you know, the presentation was great. I see the word study. I see the word investigate.
How long do you study and investigate before you implement? So, we're doing implementation and that's why I wanted to do the current and future because a lot of that goes hand in hand right now already of what we're doing. So, um we've already
started to purchase things for science and already started to implement some of the lessons in science and and looking at exploring in science. We have to continue that process because now we have to bring it bigger than just myself and the coaches. looking at how we're doing things with a couple classrooms
and now form, you know, a larger committee. Usually committee review is about a year. I wouldn't want to make a shift before I know what the new standards are going to be, right? Um so, you know, it'll be a continued of like, all right, let's see what's out there. Let's see what we can start to incorporate. Let's see what's on the
assessment in NJSLA that we're not hitting. Where are we falling down on this? Um those are all things that I'm going to analyze and start to analyze this year with this. um for some of the other stuff it has been years that we have been focused and working on this the mathematics. So it's it's a
continual always I feel like it always should be a continual revision of what we're doing a continual analysis of the data to see you know are things changing with these new group of students you know what was good last year might not work on these kids so I have to look at
the data and see where do we have pockets maybe I have a grade level shift of all new teachers so you know I might need to provide more support there so I think that's where when we put refinement um you know, revision. It's because we're continually looking at it
to how we can improve it. Yeah. And and I only ask, excuse me, because every year it takes to implement, 12% of our students have moved out, right? So that there's a percentage of the population of students that loses out on that benefit every year it takes.
So I was just wondering how long it takes to implement those changes because if you take three years to study it and make the change and implement it, a third of our students have moved out. I think one of the things that maybe is a little bit more of a comfort for you at to me at least looking at the data
this year. We are into year two or three. Um what are we down at the elementary year four? So we've we're we're seeing the results of what those those shifts were. Now we did elementary math first before we moved to middle school
that benefits us. Correct. I understand that. Yes. Who are the groups of kids that we didn't have there? But I think to me that's the promising piece of it and we're we're seeing that there wasn't as much growth in our middle school ma or the the discrepancy wasn't as great in our middle school math. Right? That's one of
the pieces that um Miss Lisber spoke about. those kiddos coming up have now had those foundational skills in the mathematics program to continue to build. So my goal would be to continue to move all of our kiddos along that realm. Okay. And we're a couple of years beyond
COVID now. Yes. So the first year of non-COVID students are now in what? Third grade. Um kindergarters. The kindergarters right now are the ones that um are the kids that were born. Yes. But I
think third grade I think third grade school that started in kindergarten in 22 third grade fourth grade fourth grade. So have we looked at a difference between students in 5 through 8 versus K through four to see if we can see what
that co effect still is is lingering. There's definitely I mean I feel like we talk about that across the board. I when we talk with our teachers we talk about that too because they're like well the kids used to they used to stop saying they used to right there was something that impacted everyone during that time
we have to shift our dynamic of present of presenting information and understanding that the foundational skills for a chunk of time were not as solid as they were having a teacher with you all of the time providing that instruction. So, you know, I think there are still implications which kids went
to preschool or didn't go to preschool. You know, like those pieces were always a part of the puzzle, but we are now back to kiddos who were born at that time and really didn't have that impact. But you still have that window of kids from kindergarten through fourth grade who are shaky, you know, shaky on
certain things. Well, and then our middle schoolers, yes, we are looking at the interventions for our middle schoolers. we are that is a a conversation that we've been having about how are we providing more support for these students. So this year Dr. Stanton did look at scheduling and try
to provide when possible um if we have identified students in instructional support that there is a push in teacher going in. So um we've maximized the schedules of the staff members. So it could be a teacher who teaches geometry who is now pushing in to support grade level math and working with
instructional support students um because we know that those students have a gap and we know that um co actually impacted mathematics more than it did language arts um so we are looking at that and we are working on that they're already implemented but there's still
more that is needed because of the data that you say so that's where when I say like continue to that because what more can we do to make sure that we're filling those gaps? Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Thank you. Can you just remind me is it K through five that had the math curriculum
change? K through 5 had a math curriculum change. However, kindergarten does illustrative math. At the same time that we made the shift, we allowed them to pilot a couple programs. And kindergarten chose um illustrative
because that was more foundational skills. Okay. through fifth grade uses Envision and now sixth through 8th grade uses Envision. And when we rolled out that Envision, we did first and second with a few third grade pilot classes, third,
third and fourth for the first year and then it was three, four, five in the second year. So you sort of have it was a tiered approach, right? Um when we rolled that out and then everyone at the middle school last year at the middle school including algebra and geometry switched to envision.
So fifth would have had two years of it. Yes. Okay, thank you. Yeah, no problem. Any other questions? Thank you for letting us speak to you. Thanks very much. Very comprehensive. Good job, Tony. Well, good evening. Tonight, I'd uh I'd
like to present a high level view of uh the district goals um and share specifically how they were developed with support of actually Dr. Chase uh as well as uh input from the uh district administrators. And so,
come on. You broke it. Yeah. Doing the silent. It's It's making a noise. It must be because it's on your computer rather than on the Oh, yeah.
I'll do it. Just tell me. Okay. Uh thanks. Uh so there are four main pillars that really support uh what we refer to as the strategic visioning and they're outlined. These are the sort of the lofty vision uh statements that you
really strive to attain. uh and then subsequently we put together goals on an annual basis towards attaining the district's vision. Um again these high level pillars continue year-over-year uh with the annual goals and the action plans to build upon them. So those being
student empowerment uh promoting student achievement, strengthening family and district collaboration uh and ensuring safety and sustainability. Okay. So from uh the vision for student empowerment um don't need to uh first of these is a
uh the empowerment key elements within this pillar is really the students level of connectedness uh to their school and the benefits they gain in taking on challenges and re uh reach their fullest potential and there is again much research about students having a connect you know the psychological sense of
connectedness that they feel connected to their school in in many different ways it actually has a correlation to student achievement. So the goal again is essentially to do uh to complete action items towards that vision and they're in these specific
target areas that are listed and um so I'll just read through in terms of student behavior uh as you're aware we have spent some time on the code of conduct um and we'll be implementing that it's already been underway as well as monitoring it under uh strengthen the
student transitions. This is to improve the school-toschool transitions. The AI as you've just heard, you'll see you're here tonight a lot of ch um transfer to what um we just heard with regard to the student performance and what it looks like uh already implemented. You know, with regard to
our goals, we do have a we're piloting both a teacher and studentf facing AI tools and also for our student voice. We have established student groups to foster leadership in the realm of the capacity for emotional intelligence. Um we're
establishing training uh for staff in emotional intelligence and I will tell you as um Mr. Tumi you're mentioning with regard to the impact on COVID. A lot of what we're hearing is about you know students mental health and the impact that CO had on mental health and then strengthening the special ed uh
inclusion. We're targeting training on co-eing models, collaboration, planning between both general and special ed staff for the vision for promoting student achievement. This centers on our programs to engage uh learners, provide
supports when needed, kind of again more of what you've heard this evening, as well as activities outside the school day to support additional student interests. And so under goal two, okay, as we've mentioning about expanding and
refining the middle school offerings, uh identifying gaps, developing new opportunities align with students as well as again looking at our schedule. I will share with you as we're um having come from a district that has um changed the schedule when you're talking about our students just to give you a
perspective spending 45 minutes as compared to other students spending 80 minutes on math and ELA does make a difference on a day-to-day basis. Uh refining intervention referrals. We're looking at data again and also doing cross school collaboration
analyzing in the impact on newly implemented our attendance practices that we have uh implemented. Again, so important our students have to be here and so we've had some potential issues with some chronic absenteeism and looking at the correlation between chronic absenteeism rates as well as
student performance going. So it's not just simply you know students abilities they've got to be in our schools. So we've it's an important with regard to tier one. These are again strengthening activities and strategies for our teachers in the classroom. Uh as we've heard, we're going to be looking at evaluating our special ed program,
specifically addressing students and the program needs. And then finally, as part of enhancing culture and climate, doing the analysis of the panorama data that we'll be looking to implement it and addressing those areas of needs.
Uh we take a look at the next the vision for strengthening family and district collaboration. We certainly know that the school, family, and the community that connections are vital to our student success. So, we need to nurture this collaboration again through our communications or opportunities to
get um our partners involved uh in their students education. So, that looks uh in in the form of goal three, those key target areas. There are a number of ways that we're ensuring that families again and our community uh get regular and ongoing communications about
what's happening in our schools to stay connected. our website needs uh to contain to a sort of a depot of where to find information uh at their fingertips. You know, again, on your phone, is it readily accessible? Uh myself and other district leaders, staff members, and the board continue to find ways to partner
with the PTO, the Ed Foundation. We saw them this year here just this evening, as well as the Baronburg Police, fire, EMS. Again, had the opportunity just today to have a conversation with Chief Buck. Uh township committee. Again, we need to foster those greater collaborations. that makes for again a
more cohesive community for our students uh as well as our family. And then finally the vision for ensuring safety and sustainability. Um all important pillar again is that safety and the viability of our schools. First and foremost again as the
superintendent um schools need to be safe for our staff to come to work every day, our students to come to school uh and learn each day. Securing our schools and again maintaining our facilities and uh the district's assets. that's really the the stage for that long-term success for our schools uh and for a thriving
community. So, in terms of that goal, we're going to be looking to again continuing to uh maintain our mental health supports, staff development, training, evidence-based suicide prevention and intervention protocols uh under the anonymous reporting
monitoring and our awareness of anonymous reporting system. Getting the word out. If you have con concerns, there are multiple ways that you can connect with mental health providers to support students. Strengthening again emergency preparedness, implementing again a statewide uh schedule for
required safety drills as well as improving staff confidence in those procedures. HIB again always continuing to analyze our HIB trends quarterly and then finding ways to inform professional development, prevention efforts, and reporting. Um, one of the ways that we're
maximizing our facilities use is uh using a master library usage, taking a look at the work order that work order system and aligning uh rental policies to support sustainability and capital planning. And again, always exploring new ways to uh develop revenue streams.
And so, um, going forward, we'll continue to, uh, provide periodic updates, uh, will be shared with the board in the community on our progress on our district goals. Can I ask a question? Sure. Thank you. That was that was great. the
emotional intelligence um like emotional regulation too, right? Executive function assuming all of that's within within there. The again as I sat through Tuesday Somerville board of ed meeting they they actually went through a deep dive on what their mental
health support looks like. It was just that that time when they're providing a deeper analysis and of course Somerville has more resources as a K to2, but I do think there there probably is a lot there that we could think of or get benefit from the work that they're
doing. Dr. Tanya McDonald, she is amazing. One of the things they called out that they actually do with their eighth graders is a challenge day which helps them get ready for high school, but they do it in a way where they're really fostering that sense of community amongst the kids themselves. So I'm
happy to connect Bradreet with Dr. McDonald just to see like what are some of the practices that they have embedded that works out really well especially for their K to8s that we might want to think about here just to again help facilitate the the EI component that you just talked about and that Miss Anderson
just talked about previously. So I'm happy to connect them just to see if there's anything else that we could take that they're doing. Yeah. And I will tell you that I've I've connected uh with superintendent there as well and he is very much in favor of you know partnering because again they're they're all of our kids. Yeah.
And anything that we can do that in um mirrors what they're doing at the K8 level. Yeah. That sets students up for success at the high school level without a doubt. Yeah. For sure. It's a really good opportunity. Yeah, it is. Thank you. Okay. Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. That concludes Dr. Burton's report. So, we'll move on to public comment on agenda items only. Anybody have any comments on anything on the agenda? Okay, we're going to move on to governance. I have no report, but we do
have voting items. Um we have one approval of minutes, two approval of HIV investigative report, three approval of submission of 2025 2026 NJQs school nursing services plan and four approval of school bus emergency evacuation drill
report. I do have a brief question because we were not presented with any HIP investigative report tonight. Do we need to vote on that? Uh there are no HIP. All right. So should we say no, abstain on that? Do we need to um say yes to zero? Say yes to zero. You
got it. Thank you. That makes sense. Um, can I have a motion to move that motion? Second. Any questions or comments? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandback. Yes. Miss Joyce, yes. Miss Shaw,
abstain from one and yes to the rest. Miss Smith. Yes. Mr. Tuma. Yes. Mr. Carpetier. Yes. Thank you very much. We will move on to policy. Uh Mr. Desai is not here. I do have a
brief report. Um so there were a few policies that you'll see on the agenda for first reading. Those were just minor language updates. Nothing substantial about the the way the policy will be applied within the schools. Um, I also
want to point to the P7510 policy, which is the use of school facilities. Um, we are trying to work to revise the facility use policy so that we can ensure that it's clear, it's up to date, and it's being applied consistently across the board for all of the, you
know, outside groups and community groups that use our facilities. Um, as our district, as we navigate a tightening budget, um, these updates also include a revised fee schedule to ensure that the full cost of using our facilities is covered by the users and
not by our taxpayers. Um, this is just an unfortunate and critical step that we need to go um in order to be kind of responsible financial stewards that protect the reason why the the funds are here in the first place was is to
provide education for our students. So, um, if you're a user of the facilities, just be on the lookout for that. Um, and we're, you know, so we're not happy to do it, but it's just something that we have to do in order to move forward, um, in a financially, um, responsible
manner. Um, and that is the report. We have voting items. We have one policy and regulations first reading and two policy and regulations to be abolished. Can I have a motion to move those? Motion. Second. Any other questions or comments?
Just a quick question. Um the bottom you've got you said 7510 school you said school facilities. One is labeled P and one is labeled R. What's the difference between those two? Policy and rank. Oh, that makes sense. Thank you.
Is just another question on the special education Medicaid initiative. Is there anything notable there or is it just language? It was like changing like students to another word. Like a lot of these were like very very minimal. No like Got it. Okay.
Anybody else? Just a reminder this is only the first reading, right, for these. So if anyone has wants to read them more thoroughly and make comments, you still have time. Yes. Thank you, Terry. Um, can I have a roll call, please?
Mr. Halbeck. Yes. Miss Joyce? Yes. Miss Shaw? Yes, Miss Smith. Yes, Mr. Truma. Yes, Mr. Carpadier. Yes. Uh, next up is curriculum curriculum and instruction. Mr. Halbeck, do you have a report? Uh, no report. Uh, we haven't met since
last uh meeting, but we do have another meeting on the 23rd of October. Thank you very much. Uh, we have some voting items. We have one, conferences and travel. Two, approval of 2025 2026 out of district programs. Three, approval of
revision of 2526 out of district programs. Four, approval of tuition payments to Somerset County Vocational School. And five, approval of revisions to curriculum. Um, can I have a motion move those? Motion. Second. Any questions or comments?
Just on the out of district programs, the Readington is is new. Usually the out of district is at a specialized school. Is there anything notable about Readington that they offer that we don't? Um, this is a a specialized um set of
circumstances for these two specific students. Okay. Um, that I can I can tell you specifically. Yep. Later. Okay. Anybody else? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Halenbeck.
Yes. Miss Joyce? Yes. Miss Shaw? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Tuma? Yes, Mr. Carpenter. Yes. Next up is personnel. Miss Joyce, do you have a report? I do not have a report, but the personnel committee will be meeting next Thursday.
Thank you very much. We have voting items. One, approval of leave. Two, approval of revision of personnel. Three, approval of substitutes. Four, approval of personnel. Five, approval of resignations. Six, approval of extra duty pay. Seven, approval of school
clubs. Eight, approval of title four clubs. Nine, approval of revision of mentoring. 10, approval of 2526 athletic stipens. And 11, approval of recision of resignation. Can I have a motion to move those items?
Motion. Second. Miss Joyce. Any questions or comments? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Helenback. Yes. Miss Joyce, yes. Miss Shaw, yes. Miss Smith. Yes.
Mr. Tuma. Yes. Mr. Carpio. Yes. Uh, Mr. Tuma, do you have a report on finance and facilities? I do. The finance and facilities committee met last Thursday. Reviewed most of the items on the agenda. They're monthly routine. Nothing out of the
ordinary. Um, spent some time discussing the mechanical repairs at Whiten. We were given a rod grant for that. The dollars actually came in below the grant amount. So, we're saving a little bit of money there, which is a good thing. We spent a little bit of time talking about
the wrestling contract, which we've discussed earlier. Um, there was one other play, one second. I'm sorry. uh the comprehensive maintenance plan which is the yearly plan of all the work
that we'll be doing on the schools and uh the grant applications. That was it. I think that was it. Cool. Thank you, sir. Um okay, we have one billist and payroll. Two, secretary and treasures report. Three, line item transfers.
Four, approval of emergency transportation services. Five, approval of comprehensive maintenance plan for 2425 through 2627. Six, reapproval of a of amendment of fiscal year 26 ESA grant application.
Seven, approval of donations and grants. Eight, acceptance and award of bid for contract for the mechanical replacement at Whiten Elementary School. And nine, approval of agreement with Somerville Junior Pioneers Wrestling Club. Can I have a motion to move those items? Motion.
Second. Any questions or comments on um item six, title three? We declined the branch. Again, we needed to be part of a consorcia. We had a district um in uh Somerset
County that was looking to and had agreed to be the lead in that consortia. Um but that didn't um manifest itself to pan out and we were not indicated. We were not told that that was that didn't happen until after the the grant
submission um application time frame had expired. I did uh reach out to the county executive superintendent to see what I could do in terms of trying to get that money, but unfortunately the the time frame had passed. Got it. That's right. Can I just ask um for the
public's uh edification uh if you could just again remind us what the mechanical replacement is for at Whitney specifically. HBAC. Which HBAC? Oh, now you're testing. Um
I can email you if you could. Yeah, if you could. This is a broad grant that was approved over a year ago. Yeah, I just couldn't remember which system it was for. You see that was not part of the big massive HVAC that went in the gym part of the school on the front side. The cafeteria, the
offices, not the gym, not the offices, but the cafeteria, correct? Because the big chiller system that we put in covered all the classrooms, right? So, this was work for the roof mounted stuff.
This is the roof thing tied into that. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tum. It's like you did it yourself. You licensed. Uh I always just like to thank the PTO and the B PEF because they've been such
great partnerships. I thank you for all everything you're donating. I know our students and our teachers really appreciate it. Um can I have a roll call? Unless you have something. I did. I did a little bit more in my report. Oh, sorry. No, no problem. Um I did want to also
mention um that um on an annual basis October 15th is the date at which we uh determine and we do an accounting of our enrollment. Um and so at Whiten School grades preK3 we had we have 634 students. Uh Sony Brook grades four
through 5 310. Uh BCMS grades 6 through 8 460 for a total of 144 students. just to address that by basis of comparison. Um we had 1,400 students uh last year. Um but I do want to just um mention the
fact that we're taking a look at um the year-over-year. Um and the good news is the trends that I'm seeing is that we maintain our students uh year-over-year. So we're not seeing uh numbers of students trail off um and know we'll continue to monitor them uh over time.
I'm going to probably be looking at a five-year look back um and also um looking to do a um an analysis of a three and fiveyear projection just to kind of give in light of the fact that we have the over,200
plus housing units what that looks like in terms of impact on our schools going forward. Do you know when that you'll be able to share some of those numbers? Um, I'll share as soon as I have them, I will I'll put them in my weekly update because I've already we've already kind of talked about
Okay. doing that. Uh, I did want to also mention that uh on the agenda was the bus emergency drills. Again, we're uh annually need to conduct them with all of our students who ride our buses. Just a few of the drills that we conduct to ensure again our students are prepared in the event of an emergency. Um, school
safety drills are also part of, you know, our process. And I was going to mention the curriculum just again to thank all of our staff administrators um who took part in all this curriculum work. It's a lot of work that happens over the summer. So thanks to our staff and as well um on the agenda were uh
donations from both the PTO and the Ed Foundation. Uh I had again the opportunity earlier this week to uh see the BMX show at our schools. It was a exciting and engaging presentation again recognizing both bike safety and bullying. Um and I asked the students
loved the show and again represented at all of was able to be uh represented at all of our schools uh due to the generous support of the Branch Ed Foundation. So thanks again to the Ed Foundation. Thank you very much. Um can we have a roll call for the
finance? I don't think we did that. You can. Thank you very much. Mr. Hollandach? Yes. Miss Joyce? Yes. Miss Shaw? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Chuma? Yes. Mr. Carpentier. Yes. That brings us to public comment on any
item. Um, anyone who wishes to speak on any topic at this time, please feel free to come forward. Yep. Good evening. My name is Laura Foley, 208 Ronin Way. Um, I want to give some up exciting updates uh for the PTO.
Really exciting. Our Scholastic Bookf Fair has started this past Tuesday um at Whiten School and it's going to run until the 21st. It is going to start on um at Stonybrook from November 10th
to for to the 14th and it will run at Branchburg Central Middle School from November 17th to the 21st. We are also extremely excited about our trunk or treat event. We want it bigger and
better this year. It is scheduled for a for Saturday, October 25th. We're moving it to kind of that side parking lot at Whiten uh to be able to um funnel more traffic. We are going to have our first
ever sensory hour. So, the event is from 4:30 to 7:30 and we're going to have a sensory hour in that first hour. And this event, we will also are going to partner with a bunch of food trucks and different experience tents. And of course, we have to advertise that there
will be plenty of candy. We all know that the holidays are approaching very quickly. So, the PTO will also be offering a version of Thanksgiving thoughtfulness and holiday happiness this year. So, next meeting we'll have
some more details for both of those initiatives for you guys to be aware of. So, thanks for all that you do. Thank you. Thank you. I think you're putting Mr. Mater out of a job. I know she did a better job anyway. Uh, anybody else? I'm going to close
public comment and move on to board leison on reports. Somerville. Yes, sir. Uh, so because I missed last last month's meeting of a few updates. Um, one, now that we have our new super that's been in place in Somerville for
over a year and new administration in place, the board has decided it's time to kick off strategic planning um, which will involve heavy engagement with the community and identification of a facilitator and a company and it will be inclusive of what is the vision, the
mission process can take a year and a half but um, that is going to be very structured process to help lead it through the 2026 2027 process. strategic planning process. So, something to look forward to with Somerville. Second part of that, or
not part of it, but this year they're conducting the uh culture and climate survey. They're using New Jersey Sky through Ruckers, which the team seems really excited about. I don't know enough about them, but that's that's a little bit of a change. Uh some other things we talked about the AI grant, and
they're starting to implement that. and the professional development. Again, that was really wellreceived to have Branch Per combined with Somerville. So, they were they were excited about that. From a senior or sorry, not from a senior, from a high school standpoint, uh yearbooks are on sale. So, that is
something that the kids including my own who have asked about has not yet bought the yearbook, but please buy your yearbooks before the prices go up. And homecoming is on October 25th, 6:00 to 8:30. Thank you very much.
Uh, we can skip PTO. Somerset County Ed Services. I missed the last meeting unfortunately, so I don't have any report. New Jersey school boards. Miss Smith. Um, just wanted to note November 17th is the next Somerset County hybrid
meeting and it's going to be at the Votech facility or you can be online but you can enjoy a delicious meal if you go to VOTE. Uh but the topic is uh stronger together effective superintendent board relationships.
Thank you. Uh Branchburg Township. Yeah, just a quick note. Um I attended coffee with the mayor in the township committee meeting this past Monday. The only item that could potentially impact the schools is the Aldi quick check
development on the corner of Old York and Route 202 has risen from the is coming back. It's no longer dead and it could potentially impact the buses coming in and out of the bus
garage in a couple of years when it gets built out. Wow. Are we getting the light at Holland Holland Brooks uh school road and up there for that development? I thought I saw that it is coming in and they approved it on Monday. All right. But until well the way they
said it was you'll know that they're going to break ground for the development because the traffic light has to go in first. So once the light goes in you'll know that they're going to start clearing soon. All right. But there is a light approved for that will help bring people across that way.
All right. Thank you. Uh BEF I have a report that Nat gave me. So, they just wanted to say that they recently funded two grants like we said. So, the B the BMX week of respect
assembly that took place this week and also the Lego STEM hands-on learning kits which was alluded to tonight by Miss Landisburg. Um, and they also wanted to make note that BF is hosting a Halloween fundraiser at the Hummingbird Studio on October 23rd where
participants will be making creepy cabinets. whatever that means. I'm not exactly sure, but uh you can find out more details on the Hummingbird Studio website and the BEF Facebook page. That was October 23rd. You got it. Thank you.
Um uh lastly, CPAG. Uh just note that all of the CPAG building based meetings will be happening next week. So, if you're interested in that, the timings are on our website. Um can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion. I thought you looked at me. All
in favor? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Just a quick thing on the job description.