##VIDEO ID:Ww1M0EYJczs## e e about that part welcome everyone I'm going to call to order the Bridgewood R and Board of Education meeting on September might say September 24th um October 29th I'm in compliance with the open meetings inv New Jersey notice of the September of the October 29th board meeting the bridge R and Board of Education was posted electronically on the district website provided on January 3rd the 24th and sent to the annual notice of the CER News Star Ledger Ron burough clerk bridgew Township Clerk and posted in the Harmon B wa administration building for those who are able please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance flag Mr Stars can you call the rooll please here miss kri here miss Freelander Miss Asuna Mr josi Mr singer here Miss Lee here miss lockran here Mr Walker present see Quorum um next up on the agenda is superintendent report okay thank you Mr Walker so my my comments this evening are are going to be brief because we do have a presentation on student data that's going to come up in in a few minutes delivered by Mr Morello so it just over the past week as a public body we've really seen the fruits of our labor with two events uh that occurred over the past five days or so one is the rededication of the bass alone complex and the second one was the groundbreaking for the middle school edition now projects throughout the district are still in in their early stages and I've really been impressed by the work done by by by our partnership with Solutions architecture the contract who have uh worked on these projects to make the plans a reality and I also want to commend the management by Bob Leto who's our project manager and Peter Stars the ba who's who have really been superb in their management thus far of these projects both keeping us on track and on budget so it's important for the public to know that we are we are on track from a budgetary standpoint and our time frames are on track as well for these projects we knew going in that the referendum was going to be four to five years in length and there would be bumps in the road along the way as we as we uh move towards completion for some of these uh projects again we the main date that we have on the horizon right now is the the opening of the middle school edition for September of 2026 and opening full day kindergarten throughout the district in September of 20 2026 that's really what we're working towards with a lot of the projects that are going to happen this summer um and really over the next 18 months is to ensure that that happens when it's supposed to so as an organization we have people throughout who are committed to getting these uh these projects done correctly and the culmination of some of their work was on display last Friday once more I want to thank everyone who's here at the table also within the community who who really helped uh help make this a reality and uh we look back it's it's almost 2 years since we passed the initial phase of the referendum and it just took that long to get the plans done get things in the pipeline and then bring the first really our first phase to completion so one of the things I the thing I want to present to the Board of Ed this evening is um at the dedication ceremony on Friday we received a certificate of special Congressional recognition uh made to the Bridgewater Ron School District by The Honorable Thomas Cain in recognition of the rededication of the John basalone Memorial Field and the unveiling of a new monument in Sergeant basson's honor so I'm going to present this to the board of ed officially this evening and we will find a place on one of the walls to hang it uh in perpetuity or at least until they renovate this space again thank you Mr B I think that's the first one we've received since I've been on the board of ed Peter do you remember I don't remember come on get in there you got one more month to remember for us so thank you very much Mr be no and I appreciate it it was a really nice evening on Friday and um and again it it was a fun uh picture session today to really uh commemorate starting the project and and the middle school edition um today so with that I'd like to hand this over to Jason marielo who is going to deliver the district's yearly testing report I'm G to go around the back so I can see this more clearly all right thank you very much uh so this is actually part two of our standardized testing report from last school year uh if you remember back in August we presented the njpa and the access results um and now we're presenting basically everything else so you can see it's combination of graduation rate AP exams PSAT sat dlm and njsla so we have lots of different assessments to go over um so let's go ahead and get started uh so I'll start with just kind of the highlights so some themes you're going to be seeing throughout the presentation as you're looking through the data um is really you're going to see an increase in the access and opportunity for career and college readiness specifically when we're looking at PSAT and AP course participation um you're also going to be seeing an increase in the four-year graduation rate at the high school from last year compared to previous years um and when we're looking at most of our assessments really all of our assessments when we do comparisons of Bridgewater raran compared to the state compared to the National averages Bridgewater raran um is outperforming the state and National averages really on every assessment in every subject area in every grade level all right so let's go ahead and get started we'll start right with our graduation rate at the high school um so you can see last year the class of 2024 uh the graduation rate increased up to 97% of our students meeting the four-year graduation rate and you can see that's up from 93% from uh 2022 to 94% all the way up to 97% whereas uh the State graduation rate is pretty much staying steady around 91% so that's really a testament to all the supports that are in place at the high school to really help our students um meet those graduation requirements keeping at the high school level looking at AP results those are advanced placement courses and advanced placement exams uh we're happy to announce that last year the Bridgewater aridan Regional High School um was awarded the bronze AP 2024 School honor roll award um and that's basically based on participation and performance for the class of 24 on AP exams um and there's three different categories that they're looked at we actually received we were in the gold range for two of the three areas um and one area we in the bronze range and that's for participation right for that's actually 49% you there um of students participated 49% of the senior class last year um took at least one AP exam here are some overall uh summary statistics for the AP courses and enrollment and performance over the last couple of years um I'd like to highlight really that first row looking at students enrolled in an AP course really we've seen a consistent increase in the number of students uh compared to where we were in Spring of 2022 really to where we were last year spring of 2024 um and I'd like to highlight the current year so right now currently enrolled in our AP courses is 99 students which is over 100 students more than ever before right not only last year but really ever um so we see a very high increase in the participation in AP courses so that should also translate into the award uh the Honors that we saw on the last slide with more students participating um that should um hopefully increase our status in some of those areas that we saw also I'd like to highight just the percentage of students who are taking AP exams who are scoring a three or higher which is considered college credit for many colleges um last year 94% of the students who took an AP exam scored a three or higher um so the students taking the AP exams are meeting with success here's a breakdown of all of the individual courses that we have that we offer AP exams in um also stating the number of students who took an AP exam last year and the percentage of those students who scored a three or higher um so in general you'll see for all the different areas um it ranges anywhere from like 80% um of the students scoring a three or higher all the way up to 100% it continues on to the next slide um there's also some exams that um had some of our students take AP exams but less than 10 total students and just to protect confidentiality of students um really throughout the this entire presentation any assessment that has less than 10 students participating um we don't share the performance results just to protect that confidentiality sticking at the high school moving on to PS um so what you see here is the participation the number of students who participated in the PSAT over the last three years with the gray bar being last year 2023 24 compared to the two previous years in the blue and the orange and what you'll see is uh for each race and ethnicity you'll see an increase the gray bar is higher than any of the previous uh two years and the reason for that is that last year was the first year that the high school um gave the PSAT to all students in grades 9 through 11 um so by doing that universally and providing it during the school day um you can see an increase really across all Races and ethnicities um but just highlighting a couple in particular um looking at White students more than three times as many white students participated in the PSAT last year compared to previous years more than four times as many black students participated and more than six times as many Hispanic students participated in the PSAT um by giving Universal uh during the day at the high school last year right so great increases in our access and opportunity right for College and Career Readiness so how did the students perform on those PSAT results um so what you see here is how Bridgewater ridan compared to the state of New Jersey compared to globally out of everyone of the PSAT the gray bar is the English version of the PSAT or the English section of the PSAT and the green bar is the math section so you can see Bridgewater ridan um about the same right for both sections 514 and 512 and about 50 points higher compared to the state of New Jersey averages okay now we'll move from PSAT bless you to sat and for sat we're going to show threee Trends we didn't show multi-year trends for PSAT because last year was the first year that we gave the PSAT to all students um so really that's the kind of our Baseline data um but for our SAT results you can see if we look at Bridgewater Aran over the past three years you see a Contin ual increase in the score for the English this is the English version um of the SAT um but if you look across the state of New Jersey and globally you actually see decreases um so similar to what we saw last year we're still seeing that same Trend where across the state of New Jersey and even globally a little bit of a decrease in the average SAT score um and a slight increase in what you're seeing in Bridgewater aridan for the English test looking at the math test you see a similar Trend across the state of New Jersey and across globally with a declining Trend um and with Bridgewater ridan right we had an increase with the class of 2023 and then another slight decrease with the class of 2024 um but also the decrease from 2023 to 2024 in Bridgewater ran was not as much as the decrease that you saw typically across the state okay we'll move on to the dynamic learning Maps or the dlm um so this is an assessment it's an alternative assessment to the njsla and it's really given to our students with the most significant cognitive dis I abilities um so this test is really given to less than 1% of our students probably only about 26 students um uh participated in the DM uh this past year and it's given in similar grade levels uh to where we give the njsla which we'll talk about next so here's the breakdown both in English language arts mathematics and science um for the DM over the last three years um so something to note that you see here is really for all three subject areas English Math and Science if you look at the most recent assess from last year 2023 2024 you'll see a higher percentage of students at the at Target or advanced level those are the Grays and the yellow levels um for last year compared to either of the two previous years across all three subject areas so um we're seeing uh kind of higher student performance than we've seen in over the past previous years okay and now we'll move on to the njsl which is the New Jersey student learning assessment um so this is an assessment that we probably have about 5,000 students taking so this is probably the one that most uh people are familiar with across the district and across all different grade levels it's given to all students in grades 3 through n um we'll start talking about English then we'll move on to the math section and then the science section um so there are five different uh categories for performance levels um and really the performance levels uh that we're kind of looking for for meeting grade level expectations is at level four and then exceeding expectations is level five so here's the breakdown by grade and you can see all the five different performance levels for each grade level and then all the way to the right you can see the overall uh District average that's the combination of all grade levels together uh the dark blues at the top are the students the percentage of students who are exceeding expectations and the yellow is the percentage of students who are meeting expectations and what we'll do over the next couple of slides is really focus in on those two specific groups and do some do some comparisons so the first comparison for the English version of the njsla is uh you'll see the Bridgewater raran percentage of students who are meeting an exceeding expectations in blue and across the state of New Jersey the percentage of students uh meeting an exceeding expectations in Orange um so you can see uh consistently across all grade levels Bridgewater aridan outperforming the state of New Jersey um and looking across from one grade level to the next you'll see as the grade level increases both in Bridgewater ridan and in the state of New Jersey you'll see an increase in the percentage of students who are meeting or exceeding those expectations so this next slide shows the growth of students from one year to the next so for example uh when you see grade three to four those first two bars there those are students who were in grade three two years ago and that yellow bar represents that 50% of the students who were in grade three two years ago were meeting or exceeding expectations those same students when they took the njsla last year they were in fourth grade 66% of those students were meeting or exceeding expectations that shows a growth of 16% more students met or exceeded expectations when they were in grade four compared to grade three and that's looking at for the same students that same cohort moving from one grade level to the next um so you can see the progression and the growth um from each grade level to the next grade level and looking overall when we combine all students together the overall growth you can see was an increase of 4% um and the average across the state the growth was 3% um so not only are we achieving at a higher level than the state we're also growing at a higher level than the state average in ela here's the breakdown by different subgroups so you can see the blue bars represent the different races and ethnicities the gray bars represent the different genders and the orange bars represent the different programs and then the green bar at the right was that overall percentage that's all students um average performance uh percent of students who are meeting or exceeding um on the ELA assessment in njsla so you'll see some subgroups kind of outperforming and some subgroups underperforming all right so now we'll move into math and we'll basically do the same thing that we just did with English but we'll go through it uh focusing on the math slides once again grades three through n here's the breakdown by grade level with the overall uh District math on the right once again the top uh darker blue bars that's a percentage of students who are meeting or exceeding in that grade level um sorry exceeding in the grade level and the yellow bar is the percentage of students who are meeting for that grade level once again we'll focus in combine those meeting and exceeding percentages and the blue is the percentage of students meeting are exceeding for Bridgewater Aran and the Orange is the percentage of students meeting or exceeding for the state of New Jersey um and once again overall for each grade level you'll see that the blue bar Bridgewater aridan outperforms uh the state of New Jersey um but if you focus in there there's some darker orange bars there especially look at like grade seven and grade eight um so I'll focus on grade seven for example not all of the students who are in grade seven and bridgew raran are included in that blue bar any seventh grader who is accelerated in mathematics and is taking Algebra 1 it's actually not included in grade seven they're included in the algebra 1 uh bar there um and across the state that's true across the state but typically most districts across the state don't offer Algebra 1 in grade seven so most grade seven students across the state are included in the state orange bar so that's why it's a little difficult to make comparisons once you get to kind of grade seven and above um but even taking that into consideration when we have different proportions of students um being included um Bridgewater ran is still outperforming the state so here's the growth for math for each grade level um you'll notice there's a lot more kind of options and Pathways in math than there was for uh English and that's because of those accelerations that are um offered in the midd school um so you can see uh based on the grade level the 2-year cohort um the growth from one year to the next I do want to kind of highlight one thing in particular I know there's always been uh a lot of focus on ninth grade algebra 1 right how are our students who are on grade level who are not accelerating mathematics doing in that first year of high school so that's the uh cohort that says G8 grade 8 to Algebra 1 high school all right a little bit to the right of the middle there um where goes from 19% to 40% so that means that the students who were last year 9th grade algebra 1 the previous year when they were in eth grade 19% of the students were meeting or exceeding expectations those same students when they uh took Algebra 1 as a freshman in high school 40% of those students were meeting or exceeding expectations so that's a 21% increase for that cohort um and across the state it was only about a 5% increase that we saw across the state for that cohort um so that's really a testament to kind of the algebra one teachers and the instruction going on at the high school in those courses overall if you look at the right there is about the same for the two years in in terms of growth a slight increase there was 1% um growth meaning 1% more students across the district we medor exceeding last year compared to the previous year um which is actually the same growth that we saw across the state so we're seeing a little bit less growth um both in Bridgewater ridan and across the state in math than we are in English um but it is consistent with what we're seeing across the state here's the breakdown by subgroup for the math njsla once again the blue bars are the different races and ethnicities gray bars are different genders orange bars are different programs and then the green bar is the overall percentage of students meeting or exceeding and once again very similar results to what we saw when we looked at this for the English similar Trends right and we'll move on to the science njsla um so science NJ ASLA is given in grades 58 and 11 and there's only four different uh performance levels compared to the five different levels that we saw for Math and English um so level three is proficient which is be considered um meeting expectations right and level four is Advanced proficient here's the breakdown for each individual grade level and then the overall district with the yellow at the top being the percentage of students who are Advanced proficient and the gray being the percentage of students who are proficient here's the comparison of Bridgewater raran to New Jersey so brid water raran is the blue and New Jersey is the orange and once again this is the percent of students who were proficient or Advanced proficient um and similar to what we've seen in previous years um I think it's just very interesting looking all the way to the right that 24% the last bar is the overall State average meaning 24% of all students who took this assessment across the state were are uh scored proficient or Advanced proficient right so um I always thought that's interesting it's about the same as what it's been the past couple of years for that and here's our breakdown by subgroup similar Trends to what we saw with math and with English all right so from all the data what what's kind of the the key takeaways right what's what did we notice that was interesting um so overall when we looked at all the njsla results um really math English and science um Bridgewater ridan outperformed the state and pretty at at a pretty consistent level if you look at the overall levels bridgew Aran um had 177% uh higher uh students meeting or exceeding compared to the state in ela the same thing in math 17% and 16% in science um so even pretty consistent between the different subject areas in just kind of where bridgew aridan Falls compared to the state of New Jersey when we talked about the AP results all right bridgew ran was awarded the AP School honor rooll for part participation and performance on the AP exams based on the graduating class of 2024 last year and based on the current enrollment for AP uh exams we expect that to continue and even increase um based off of the having the highest number of students um really ever participating in AP courses this year and overall while we're seeing uh performance above the state averages right we're not seeing that in all subgroups and even certain grade levels and subject areas um so that's where um this presentation is really kind of a highlevel overview of what we're seeing across the district when we're meeting with individual principles and supervisors we're really digging in deep looking at those individual um grade levels and uh coming up with strategies to really support um teachers grade levels and students to really make sure that all all of our students are growing um and meeting with their full potential so what actions have taken place based on what you're seeing um so we're continuing to expand the programs and services really to support all students and that goes from our intervention programs all the way up to our gifted and talented programs right expanding our AP course offerings having more students participate uh that goes into the next bullet of expanding dual enrollment opportunities even though that's not specific to what you saw in this presentation um it's important to note that we are offering more dual enrollment opportunities so students can earn college credits while they're in high school um we've partnered uh our main Partnerships are with rvcc TCN NJ and SE and Hall um offering those opportunities we're also implementing a consistent character education program in kindergarten through 8th grade really focusing on those social and emot emotional skills um and behavioral expectations for students and for teachers um we're planning professional development that's really targeted based on the role based on the grade level um based on strategies or areas that we've identified um coming up with targeted areas for different teachers to be working on and you can see some examp listed of some of the main areas that um we'll be focusing on this year supports and interventions so continuing our supports uh especially with training in multisensory phonics I'm really uh training our teachers so this way they can help uh support students in Reading at the elementary level uh we mentioned before strengthening our Intervention Program really across the district and increasing our and improving our resources that we're using for our intervention students and at the high school um continuing and expanding the programs that we've had put in place um we've seen the increase in graduation rate so we're continuing and expanding those programs to help support all of our students um be successful at the high school level and meet those graduation requirements here's a look ahead to this school year and giving us just some general uh time frames for the different Statewide assessments um across the year uh the specific dates will be communicated out by the schools on the exact days of when the different assessments will be uh will be given and that about concludes our uh presentation so if anyone has any questions I'm I'm happy to help answer any questions thank you Mr M Morel uh just a quick question on um on the AP Bronze award honor roll thing um I understand the first two uh bars what's College optimization yep so College optimization is the percent of students who took at least five different AP exams and at least one of those exams had to be in their freshman or sophomore year so it's really once again it's participation but it's optimizing taking basically trying to get many college credits to optimize that um you know number of credits going into college you're welcome anybody else goe um to just to follow up on that what does that rating mean to us like is it just to say we are bronze or does it does it translate into something uh it's really just a recognition um so there's no like actual award other than just a recognition and recognizing schools that um kind of have that level of performance um across the really Across the Nation um so you know obviously we want to try to improve and and you know it's an honor to receive the the recognition um and that's an area that we have focused on and continue to focus on and second part since we have everyone that took the PSAT now so we have that year of data I'm wondering what our scores look like when only certain kids were taking it versus everyone taking it yes have that kind of information so we do have the information because it's really a different cohort of students you can see how many more students are participating in PSAT now um compared to when it was really optional because prior to that the only way students would take a PSAT is if um you know their families paid for the PSAT they came in on a weekend to take it um so you can see much less participation um so the students who were taking it um the scores were higher right if you look at just the average score um because I think the the cohort of student who were taking that were you know your typical students who were College and Career bound and planning on that um compared to now universally um so the scores are not as high as they were overall but that's expected when you know you're offering and giving an opportunity to all students and what's nice about that is now that students who may not have seen themselves as maybe college or career ready take the assessment see the results and that may change you know their outlook on you know where they plan on going post SEC postsecondary can can I just add to that really quickly because one of the things that didn't come up in this um presentation that did in our academic committee one with Mr Morel 45 minute one it was very detailed so he cut it down for the public um um presentation is that when you saw the change in the number of students this year who are taking AP classes and it went up what about a 100 it was like 800 and something to 900 like we believe part of what caused that was the PSAT because when the students um you know the PSAT gives us that AP Readiness report AP potential y AP potential report and although it didn't change necessarily it was funny because we thought we would get this whole different group of kids and what it basically did was identified the same kids who would have met our criteria anyway but the difference was the students received a letter saying that they you know had this potential and we think that may be what caused the increase in the number of students who actually enrolled for AP courses this year so that's how that all connects for us yep and we'll be continuing that again for this year and actually they just took the PSAT right the PSAT was just this past week yep so any more questions that was quite the slim down version Mr Morel yeah I was like wow I timed you and cam was just bragging about cam was just bragging about you over here getting to 20 minutes so was I could tell that that was my goal so excellent job Mr morelo thank you thank you you got Isabelle and you can ask questions too if you'd like if you have any questions please feel free you know you're part I want to welcome you to the board I wasn't here last week so thank you for coming welcome so so yeah I and and again just just to uh go over over a few of the major points that Jason did make and I want to commend some some people here at the table and others within the organization to raise the graduation rate by 4% doesn't just happen overnight this takes years of work meaning analyzing what the problem is adding programs adding supports and and figuring out a way to get kids across the line and again that 4 percentage that 4% rise equates into to about you're looking at 28 to 30 students who would not have graduated high school um who we were able to get across the line last year so that's that's an amazing accomplishment and also we we're working on breaking down barriers to gain access to high high level courses universal access to the PSAT and and the main thing is that all of these things are align with our values of providing access for all students and opportunity for all students and we say over and over look every student has a mountain to climb right and and the view may be a little bit different from the top of whatever Mountain you're climbing whether your special needs um whe whether you're you're looking at career program whether you're trying to graduate whether you're trying to get fours and fives on four or five AP tests but every student has their own struggle and their own challenges and we want to make sure that we're here to support them no matter what those challenges are so I want to say that this is really excellent work U starting with Karen Jones Jason moriello Amory Mia who is our Elementary uh director and the principles in in each building and and and our supervisors for helping to develop these programs and get kids across and then last but not least and most important is is in order to get a young person across the line and I I'll take that graduation rate you have to have teachers with patience and you have to have teachers who care and you know what we have both of those things and I want to commend all the Educators for helping us do that um so you know I I commend the work of a lot of people because it doesn't happen in a vacuum so thank you everyone for job well done I appreciate it thank you all more questions and move on to the student Representatives report Isabelle and Anana Sunny sorry sorry sunny I apologize I saw the name tag Isabelle that that was this way before I apologize sunny I was reading the other name tag but okay um so first I just had um some positive updates about as we all know on Friday there was the rededication of basone field and I think this went very well um I went to the football game last Friday and I know a couple people who were in the band who played the national anthem at the rededication and um it just seemed to to go like really well and run really smoothly and in particular the new entryway for the ticket stand for the football game I feel like there used to be this really long line to get into football games and now um it just people like were able to enter more efficiently it just seemed to go a lot smoother and also the new bathrooms outside are going to be very um beneficial as her having a porta potty there and um yeah and also it was the football Ander leader senior night and that seemed to go really well and the color guard performance was great and um as a student athlete so I use Fieldhouse daily because I play soccer and so the sports teams are really enjoying the renovations that have been made to the Fieldhouse locker rooms and because we spend so much time in there every single day like we have to get ready we use the bathroom use the mirrors um we have like pizza parties in there sometimes and like tomorrow's our senior night and so we're decorating like our locker room for our senior night and it's just really been um like just beneficial to have a newer Fieldhouse and it's also just like created a sense of Pride for the students I feel to just have like a nicer facility to like just live in like every single day and then um also on the new policy for AP self- exams self-studying exams um students like a couple like some students were concerned about like finding out about the new AP self-study policy um and they were like scrambling to register for exams but the administration Comm communicated communicated the rationale and um most people are very content especially the seniors because they are allowed to selfstudy one exam and um they also extended a deadline for to register for those self-studied exams and a like for example I have a friend and she like this the schedule for AP exams last year meant that she had like three exams back to back like two back toback and then another one and so she just felt that she like she also like was sick so she just like didn't perform her best and she's just really like appreciative of being able to retake her AP exam this year and yeah those just some positive updates I'll turn it to Sunny thank you I'm sorry to cut you off really quick you should know once that restroom facility is completed it'll really help the athletes on a day-to-day basis because that will be open during practice times and things like that so you don't have to go all the way into the Fieldhouse and what have you so we're anxiously awaiting completion of that project it seems seems to be the one that everyone's most excited about but thank you um so some additional like updates throughout the high school so yesterday actually the um some Hillsboro like Representatives including like administrators teachers and students came to um the Bridgewater High School to assess the drop block schedule um because the principal reached out and like was interested in like looking towards like doing something similar to us um and then like the National Honor Society students kind of volunteered to like escort them around um and whatnot and then um like talking to like our students and our teachers the Hillsboro like Representatives found that like pretty much everyone was like very happy with like our new schedule and like we've been having it for a while now so everyone's pretty um you know familiar with it um the big thing that they noticed was that everyone was like pretty calm um because they have more time during classes and lunch and then also like everyone's together during lunch so like you don't have to scramble to see like oh who's in my lunch period um so that was like pretty positive thing and I think um they're definitely positively influenced um next thing is so today we did have like at least for the seniors and the Juniors there was a drug presentation or like an assembly and um I actually like really enjoyed it because um when you walked in there was like a bunch of loud music playing and then the first thing that started was like a cool light show and like bunch of like more music a lot of people around me were all saying that it felt like a concert um but like throughout like through the music and stuff like that there was like a bunch of very impactful stories especially from like Bridgewater alumni um so it definitely felt like very close to home and I think it was definitely pretty um engaging and like informative and was a very good way to um help the students who I believe definitely have like shorter attention spans um and then the last thing that I wanted to talk about was um Club Fair actually starts tomorrow during lunch um and many Club fairs are like providing candy which is like the perfect time since like Halloween's right around the corner um so everyone's pretty excited about that and also just like getting involved like seeing what's going on around the school so looking forward to that that's it thank you um feel free to depart or stay anytime you want you don't want to impact with your studies or rest stand for the soccer game tomorrow you know so that type thing so thank you very much you mind if I get a question in go ahead first of all as a Hillsboro alumni thank you for helping them out with the lunch schedule it was like 19 minutes by the time you got your food so if they can copy us I appreciate that so thanks for pushing that out along just a question you mentioned the club fair this is I believe the first year in a while that there haven't been fees to participate in clubs uh I think that's an effect this fall has that have you noticed I know it's still kind of the beginning of the year have you noticed more participation are people shopping around a little bit more has that had are people aware of it and has it had any kind of an effect um not that I know of like I think it's still like um like there's not been that much of like a difference um but I do know like a lot of clubs are like more interested in like doing more activities and stuff like that with the additional money so okay sorry I can also add I definitely think it has had a little bit of an impact in sports because for example there was over 100 students in our soccer Google Classroom this summer for preseason and we're also at a like really high number for basketball I can't remember what it is but it's like higher than we've seen in many years prior and I definitely think that has to do with the registration fee because they're like why would I pay money to try out and not make it but if there's no fee um I think it just allows students to explore and try new things thank you ladies uh if you would like if you'd like or stay it's up to you thank you so much for coming you appreciate your time um next up is the thank you uh next up is the president sport a couple be a quick one we've had a pretty be busy activity the board activities we've had the um workshop last week thank you for those for going um I think we can I don't know how we want to report out on that I don't know if you want to do it this evening in new business or in your reports there is an expense report Mr Stars has sent out for filling that out so we need to get that done we've also I would like to thank everyone for telling uh I thought the rededication and the ribbon cutting was fantastic on Friday night thank you Mr beers and all the staff and solutions and everybody who did that that was a a really nice event Mike you you have the voice of the next Yankees announcer so by the way you have quite the voice so quite impressive in your speech and you said so thank you so much um also the ground break we we broke ground at the middle school officially tonight so we got to do that this evening so we threw some dirt to each other and mve that around so that activity is going to start soon so get ready for all that activity happening there um couple things is I'm going to be sending out the board self evaluation probably this weekend to you all I'd like it done by probably the Friday the 8th or 9th so we can um Patty's gonna be here on the next board meeting to go over it all right so that'll be coming soon from that standpoint from the other standpoint we have no school on Friday so eat a lot kids can eat a lot of sugar parents I'm sorry about that for Friday morning the wake up but you know you got a good time also the elections are next Tuesday there there are no students in school on Tuesday so we have we do have five schools which are polling locations which are you know and I think the administration made that decision you know in the presidential years not to have the the students in those days the staff is in but the students are home so just we've tried to do that there's been a safety standpoint I would love personally to get the elections out of the schools so if you have you know working with your representatives find a way that'd be great you can allow me that and that's all I have next up is Kim reports at Kim Mr Joshi okay we met on October 24th at 5:30 we had a big audience uh in attendance were myself miss kalist Mr Pepe Mr Walker Miss Jones Dr Sylvia Mr moriello Mr beers and Miss MAA so first item on the agenda was what we just saw today the state standardized assessment results um Mr Morel presented the the district's testing report which is required by New Jersey Department of Education this includes the njsla and dlm results for ELA mathematics and science the report included uh aggregated and disaggregated subgroup data comparative analysis and appropriate intervention strategies this testing report is being presented today which was just done earlier today so we saw the same thing um that was presented item two on the agenda was the review of the annual nursing service report Dr Sylvia reviewed the required annual nursing service report which provides data regarding student health and wellness needs including medication health conditions and health screenings the data is uh delineated by individual schools the committee asked questions about differences across schools much of which is due to the differences in enrollment and some of some of which is just reflective of differences between cohorts of students any questions on that okay item three was the inter Scholastic athletic schedule winter um of 20242 which we have today on the agenda and the winter athletic schedule was reviewed and there were no questions we adjourned at 7:20 and our next meeting is on December 5th at 5:30 any questions see none moving on to community relations Emily uh we are figuring out the date of our next meeting it'll be in November we're just finalizing the date gotcha thank you uh finance faili and transportation Mr singer the finance facilities and transportation committee met on October 14 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in attendance was Mrs Cuna Mr Pepe Mr Walker Mr Stars Mr beers Mr Rogers with special guest appearances by Mr swisser Mr Miller and Mr lomsky oops and I just got rid of the uh report short report yeah up first was the audit review by sub Clooney who are our Auditors uh Auditors Bob swisser and Wayne Miller from sub Clooney were present to review the results of their audit and the district's finances the financials are fairly stated and the district is in compliance with all state statutes and regulations as such the Auditors had no recommendations the Auditors reviewed the various Reserve account balances as well which are available uh in our uh in our documents the recommendation of the committee uh the audit report is expected well has been received by uh the Board of Ed and will be up for vote tonight there any questions on that no questions but just it didn't make any the minutes um but they had great acces for Mr stars and that we were the first to have our information in and I that's pretty awesome up next was the business agenda review the business administrator reviewed the draft business action items for tonight's meeting with special attention to the comprehensive maintenance plan and the van Halton playground purchase the consensus of the committee was to approve the action items are there any questions on that seeing none we're moving on to the projects update Mr Stars informed the committee of the six bids that would be advertised in the next month and the estimates estimated dates for awarding current projects are either in or nearing the punch list phase excluding the HVAC project which is expected to be completed over the next summer there was no recommendation at this time any questions other matters the committee discussed policy 7250 on school and facility names the committee reviewed the construction estimates for phase two at basalone field uh no changes were recommended by the committee for policy 7250 and the committee is awaiting a proposal from Architects before moving forward with phase two questions on that we they adjourned at 6:27 pm and the next meeting date is November 4th thank you Mr singer personal Comm me I'm gonna push it on to Mr Dr fonder because Mr M Freelander is not here this evening sure no problem easy one uh our next meeting is on November 19th thank you for filling in Dr honor um any delegate liaison reports that was pretty easy seeing none item 11 open to the public individuals and their groups are invited to present their concerns comments and requests regarding the following actual aims to the board of education at this time in accordance with board policy members of the public Care lotted One opportunity to address the board for a maximum of five minutes during this period of the meeting please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district website seeing none I'm going to close public comment item 10 approval of of minutes do I have a resolution for the approval of minutes from October 1st Retreat October 8th regular session and October 8th close session so moved second is there any discussion see Mr Stars can you call the role Please Mr Pepe yes Miss kri yes Miss Asuna yes Mr josi obstain on both October one and October 8th Mr singer yes Miss Lee Yes M lockran yes Mr Walker yes on October 1st abstain on October 8th both regular and close session motion carries item 11 action aims approval of Action nams Personnel 251 through 2512 is there a motion is there any discussion do we need to know about that some details of 252 the that Dr we um for this one there's uh in the gold notes there's a description oh okay I have some questions about it okay that would have to be a Clos session item yeah so we need a motion to remove that if we need to close session because we have a motion for both those items is it something that could be answered afterwards or is it yeah is it going to impact your vote vote 2511 2511 I think we can vote for 2511 and then and then do they closed and come out to vote on 252 so the question is what you're looking for in Personnel 2512 would impact your vote yes I think so so in doing so we made a motion for both so we need a motion to modify that so we currently have a motion on the floor for both 2511 and 2512 so in order to move forward if you I can call you know call the role or we need a motion to remove 25 I move I move to remove 25 Personnel 2512 is there a second second is there any discussion can I do a roll call a a roll or just roll call please Mr Stars Mr Pepe yes Miss kri yes Miss Asuna yes Mr josi yes Mr singer yes Miss Lee yes Miss lochran yes Mr Walker yes so now we on to the a motion just for a motion for personal 2511 is there any discussion on that see Mr star can call the role in personel 2511 Mr pepy yes Mr Miss kri yes Miss Huna yes Mr Joi yes Mr singer yes Miss Lee yes Miss lockran yes Mr Walker yes motion carries curriculum 25-27 through 25-32 is there a motion so moved second is there any discussion just like to uh we received the uh during Services plan from Dr Sylvia and it's just amazing the amount of work that our nurses handle and the number of students that they care for on a day in and day out probably minute in and minute out basis at our school so it's it really credible to see that all in one spot so just uh props to all of our nurses and everyone who works with students with medical needs and just have uh just need nursing Services throughout the day the last page it's 59,000 visits to the nurse throughout the district throughout the year so that's our nurses are quite busy and we value what they do and they've been I'm glad we have them for find them we've had those come to a different difficult position to fill so thank you and I thank you for their services yeah just just to that point too with one of the topics that came up was that substitutes are hard to find and the it was impressive to see the system that we have and the extra people that we have that are able to fill in who know the district and know the students at least a little bit and are able to cover schools because I know it could be a Scramble for substitute nurses especially very prod of our Administration and staff they do uh they put their put do what's best for kids every day feeling the SP so thank you is there any discussion Mr Stars can you call the rooll Please Mr Pepe yes Miss kri yes Miss Huna yes Mr josi yes Mr singer yes Miss Lee yes Miss lochran yes Mr Walker yes motion carries business 2547 through business 2556 is there a motion so moved second is there any discussion I was ask a few questions um for the um item number 2554 uh for the purpose of public information um can we comment on the amount of surplus uh and the UN sign found how much that is and how does that amount compared to previous year could you ask the question again the audit report is going to be posted on the website but what was your question yes the question is could you comment on the uh Surplus and the UN assigned fund balance on the amount of it and how does that compare to last year's amount the Surplus is the four and a quarter for for uh subsequent years in the four million for this year isn't that what's baked into the budget uh yeah that's the uh reserved amount that's um I'm not sure if she's referring to the unreserved amount which is probably a two million number I got to call it up here yeah I'm having come understanding what you're looking for Lucy which page if you could be more a little more specific I think Peter is trying to pull it up but let's get but you're ask and I'm asking you you're asking about these numbers here the four four and a quarter and the 4 million correct yes and then you're asking the 4.55 mil yes so if you're talking about the reserve accounts the capital reserve is at 22.3 million um now the maintenance Reserve is at 5.8 million that's a increase of about two point uh it's about $2 millionar increase there the Surplus designated for the current year is 4.2 um five and then four I think they might have that the next one is going to be four million uh to be used in next year's budget and then the um unassigned is about 4.5 million as well of that's a 2% figure of our expenditures that we're allowed to keep as uh 2% is that about the same amount as last year's and the that number is a little bit higher just because our expenditures were higher so the amount that you're 2% of a larger amount is a larger number so thank you any more discussion any more questions or discussion see Mr Stars can you call the RO pleasee also like to thank thank you for the gifts I'm sorry about that got a little distracted there um we have had both our Eisen now P ho Hamilton primary school the bridge the um sorry the Mr Mr Lawrence Powers and Wagman's and sus missions thank you for your donations we appreciate it lots of great things going on for kids and putting that in place so thank you Mr Stars any other discussion sorry about that call the RO Please Mr Stars Mr Pepe yes Miss kist stre yes Miss Asuna yes Mr josi yes Mr singer yes Miss Lee obain on 2554 yes to rest M lockran yes Mr Walker yes motion carries special services 2513 through 2514 is there a motion second is there any discussion see n Mr Stars can call the RO Please Mr Pepe yes Miss kist yes Miss Asuna yes Mr Joshi yes Mr singer yes Miss Lee yes Miss lockran yes Mr Walker yes motion carries other 2511 through other 2512 moved second is there any discussion if so they has to be done in closed session see none Mr Stars can you call the RO Please Mr Pepe yes Miss kist stre yes Miss Asuna yes Mr Joi yes on 2511 abstain on 2512 Mr singer yes Miss Lee yes Miss lockran yes on 2511 abstain on 2512 Mr Walker yes motion carries up to item 12 open to the public in individuals and groups are invited to present their concerns comments and requests to the board of education at this time for any matter in accordance with the board policy members of the public are allotted one opportunity to address the board for a maximum of five minutes during this period of the meeting please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district's website uh hi my name is uh Jim Maloney I live at 433 manin Drive in Bridgewood water um and I am the President of the BR Theater Arts Council um we're a parent organization that supports uh the um theater department at the high school um and uh sorry um I want to uh come out tonight to highlight two things um first uh we had an event over the weekend um it was our our first annual fall theater Suare um it was a a fundraiser for us and also an a chance for the students to uh have a little bit of uh uh present some things that they chose and and perform uh outside of our normal uh shows that we have every year in the fall and spring um it was a a great event we had a good turnout um rais a little bit of money for us so we were all very happy with uh how that went um so that that was nice to see uh the other thing is I have a a request um currently there are in the uh High School auditorium I believe eight body microphones um I'm not sure if that's the exact number but uh the the point is that it's generally not enough for the shows that we put on um last year we uh rented microphones for High School Musical um and is a a cost that right now uh the Theater Arts Council is covering um for High School Musical that was about $1,500 um we're expecting you know the same for our musical this year um and probably for the fall play maybe a little bit less because we don't have as many uh students that need to be miked um but that uh you know that's about $2,500 $3,000 that we're spending probably every year um as a recurring cost um for to put on these shows um and and uh that just to kind of put that in context that's probably about uh you know 40 to 50% of what we're expecting to raise for this year through the the Theater Arts Council um so it would be very helpful you know as you're working on your budgets for next year I know there's a lot of moving parts that go into that um but uh if that's something that you know the uh the board could look at maybe purchasing new microphones or um adding to the budget so that we could rent those every year through the district rather than through the parent organization uh that would be very helpful so thank you thank you anyone else for public comment seeing none I'm going to close public comment item 13 old business do we have any old business just wanted to thank Mr beers and his office and everyone at the high school who uh helped put put together that wonderful ceremony on Friday to rededicate uh basilon Memorial Field and bring in the new monument it was a really wonderful event I can't say enough about it uh so I'll just leave it there but thank you very much to everyone in the district who made that happen Mike you have a great voice can you say the Yankees win in the good voice can you you we need a little they got to score some runs first yeah all right just you have a great voice thank you very much I appreciate that but it's a good story to tell so thank you any other old business is there any new business I noticed on Facebook today that the National Night Out Halloween celebration is planned for tomorrow night at the municipal building in the parking lot and I went years and years ago but I remember a lot of organizations have tables and they hand out candy to the kids and I didn't know if we as a board wanted to have a table and hand out candy to the kids tomorrow night I don't can still do that um I just heard about it today so I don't see if anybody be interested I mean I'm conflicted because I'm already going to be there but it's a great idea is that run by the municipality or is it by the don't know okay I have no idea it's run by Department of recreation and it was combined with the uh National Night Out because it was rained out actually a lot of a lot of municipalities have done that this year too late to aren't you the chair of the right board no if we decide to do it maybe we can kind of decide on as the board whether we chase down that route I would second this if we want to try to even reach out or not I can certainly give you contact information if you need it do we have a paraphernalia do we have a banner or anything like that to put out there we have a plaque you take our certificate you have helmets now I believe too maybe next year you have helmets now I've got a banner in my car you could use ah okay we have a banner all we need is a table I haven't taken it out since Friday and and candy Mr Mr beers do you have any comments or thoughts would you like to go and join them or Mr fond or Mr I I will not be in attendance what if we have what's your favorite candy it doesn't matter okay no I I will not be there it sounds like fun is there anything wrong if we did this legally can you know I'm just asking if there's any just checking I don't want to step on any I I don't see it's a problem as long as you can get in I I I would assume the township would have you sign some sort of waiver if you're handing out food to children I think they provide the candy yes well if you'd like to do like if there's any so I have think it's a great idea I may there I may not there is I do probably go to the girls senior soccer night that's what I that is tomorrow night also um just just make sure you clear any if there's documents need to be signed it probably by these two you know insurance or whatever we need you know from that standpoint so there you know that be be you know tread lightly there and make sure you communicate that way coordinate I have a black tablecloth if you need a black table put his no I'm just saying do you have to go on costume I could hard shovel I have reflect that shovel you can borrow dog walking dog walking okay so so we're doing it are we designating someone to do it or all wants to do it it so I will take the lead I'll send email good thank you okay other new business just remember that during election day we are having our distri districtwide professional development day we're going to have our security Personnel in in each of the buildings where we have um where we have voting and our Personnel in there but U it's the most secure day to be in any of our buildings because you have Bridgewater or Raritan PD in the parking lot and then one of our guys inside so we've got it cover makes it a lot easier when there are kids in the building thank you for the update Mr beers they're jumping up and down every right see them like ducks on a pond they're moving below any other new business I have new business um as we approach the Finish Line to this presidential election which I think we can all agree has been unprecedented in the local Board of Education um I just wanted to remind the board that back in January Mr Walker informed us that Governor Murphy signed a new law into effect which eliminates the vote on school budget budgets for type two school districts in April elections and until like 2012 all New Jersey School elections were held in the spring and then a state law that allowed the districts to ship to November was created and in the advantage to that was the 2% cap um so I just wanted to let you guys know that uh there's only a very small number of districts that have moved I the estimate I could find was about 16 out of this 600 districts and that was all I had moved back to April there may have been some that never moved in the first place right is that possible I think that was included in that number oh that's included in it thanks yeah I just said that 16 have April okay I just was sure if over the last year 16 to move back or some were just always doing it that way if I'm reading the numbers right it looks like five moved last year they were in Bergen County yeah I know it's a very very small number either way so thank you do we know do we know how many are looking to move there was that a discussion last week at the uh convention at all or no what's the polls on this uh well there wasn't specific discussion as to the intention to move but it was brought up in discussion um with regards to the temperature of the election season for many other districts in a couple of the courses it's worth a look I mean it's it's an added cost to I think what $30,000 I think from what I remember 30 $40,000 maybe it's worth a discussion it's also another day that people are in our schools um V true they're definitely uh there are definitely some drawbacks that's that's true I mean one of the benefits I I think why people are also exploring it if if we were to take a walk down memory lane as to how things were 20 or 30 years ago School Board elections were typically in April because as we know our budget year goes from July 1 through through June 30th where where now with elections in in November you're really coming in halfway through the school year versus really having that calendar set where you can plan things for the beginning of your your fiscal year at least I I believe that was as it was explained to me that was the reasoning for years ago when all of those elections were in April because it aligns with the School Board calendar versus I I believe the municipal calendar on the other hand goes from January 1 through December 31st just just out of curiosity Mr Beer in that situation with the new board be voting on the budget or would the outgoing board be voting on the budget I don't know exactly how the dates line up the outgoing board would be voting because it's yeah going it would be the culmination of okay because you're still voting on it in in April right correct got it thanks implementation would be in June or in July correct I just wanted to add to Mr Beer's comment that in addition to that currently when a new board member is elected they come on into in the middle of the school year if they're elected in April I believe they come in the beginning of the summer July July so they reorganized it's a May it's a may reorganization actually yeah it's a may I thought it was May May 1 or something so it's like two weeks so you got to get your background check and be done two weeks so it's a little shorter time frame when you do get the April election and new boards coming in May so it's a very short turnaround which is fine and then they would have to also from a training standpoint the majority of the training now is set up for new board members in January and February in person you know those are the two time frames for new board member training where they you know governance want to set those dates there are very I had a conversation there was a a county leadership meeting yesterday that I attended and I did mention this on there to see who was doing it there are some conversations about it because the elections have basically got political and we try to in and and trying to segment out that out and really focus on let's focus on education make it a nonr nonpartisan election in those areas it also has I don't know who attended did anyone May 16 thank you I knew it was May appreciate that um did who Peter you attended the fiscal cliff one right yes and so in that one um seeing what some of the boards had gone through this past year with S2 changes in funding um you know there's discussion about how the budget is end of February is like when they does the budget then two three days later two days later 48 hours we get our numbers and those numbers and then we have a budget approval and two weeks later preliminary budget is very difficult and sometimes in those areas you may need to say okay you know we'll do 2% we'll go put the rest of the voters so you're able to maybe you know put a refer a statement out there in our case we probably could have been able to put all three questions on there right Bob operationally and the two and the ref questions in one election if we had an April election for nov November still I don't know how that I was just wondering about that because it's operational that we might we'll check on that but we could have done everything those times so there might be some things you know we're done with that thank gosh and thank the community you know but those some things to think about so I there was no one that had someone had gone to it and then gone back again I knew there was one District that did that so there those was doing it out there I also just wanted to add I think it's an 85 day period that you would have to make the decision by so that would be in January Mr Stars you're not going to be here you know so but yeah so 85 days that's when I brought up the last time was actually February 13th and we had 63 days so it's really prickly quickly after the New Year we got to make a decision or before it affects certain people's terms correct yep so your term not end next January those terms not ending in 2024 would be end would be at the April election in 20125 so if you're term is going to end in December of you know end of December in 25 so in your case you Lucy and who's and Steve would be yeah you would be shortened I do think that there's an option to go the other way though from what I've read in other districts where it could be extended which would mean that there would be no oretic election in November it would come back around until April extending your ter so you got six six months extra from November to are we allowed to not have any election in a year that's basically no April no November next year well I mean it's it's been it's been done uh but I'm not an exp on the topic oh okay but so it's been done and and the clerk we'd have to contact we'd have to also say probably the county clerk would know that would he's probably his job so we might need to look more details into that one one other wrinkle I think and I'm not sure how this would work in a Regional School District but I think that the governing body the M of the M of a municipality can make a change as well um they've always been able to change the elections so so they that the public body could change the elections also and in our case we would have to they would have to both agree to it yes we did okay now just if any I didn't I'm asking that question Steve yes thank you you want the gabble you can have it is there any other new business seeing none whereas discussion of the board is required on matters that is an exception to the requirement that the public body hold its meetings in public and whereas the topic is Personnel whereas it expected the details of discussion may be made public as soon as the issues may be acted upon publicly be it resolved the board enter in close session at this time we will be we will be taking action after this on this resol on the resolution we table so stay tuned so we can go downstairs so we're going to depart we'll be back 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 we're back at Open session we going to take action on Personnel 25-12 is there a motion make a motion sorry we got all right we got a first and a second is there any discussion which we had in closed session seeing uh Mr Stars can you call the rooll Please Mr pepy yes Miss kist stre yes Miss Huna yes Mr Joshi yes Mr singer yes Miss Lee yes Miss lockran yes Mr Walker yes motion carries seeing no more business do I entertain a motion forour there second all those in favor I all right we're Jour thank you so exciting to be a motion person it's I I I try not to do it for as long as I could and then there was a meeting with five of us and no one was saying anything it was like six of us so I was like make a motion I had to I was actually