good evening everybody and welcome to a regularly scheduled board of ed meeting for the East Windsor Regional School District. Um, had it set up written in advance notice of this meeting was provided at least 48 hours ago. Such notice provided the
time, date, and location of this meeting and included the agenda to the extent it was known at the time. Notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with law. Minutes of this meeting are being kept at the board by the board secretary and will be made available promptly to any member of the public
requesting them from the board secretary at 25A Leen Lane Heightstown, New Jersey. Minutes will be provided at cost and accordance with board policy. Are there any board members present who believe this meeting to be in violation of the open public meeting act?
There being none, we may proceed. In compliance with the fire code of the state of New Jersey, I call your attention to the emergency exits for this room, which are located behind the audience and to our left and right. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
[Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Item C. Having read the materials received, I move the agenda be approved as submitted. >> Second. Pull the board, please. >> Miss Polei, >> yes. >> Miss Conpsion,
>> yes. >> Miss Drake, >> yes. >> Miss Laruso, >> yes. >> Mr. Labberty, >> yes. >> Miss Maheri, >> yes. >> Miss Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Lans, >> yes.
>> Item D. Be it resolved that the East Windsor Regional School District may hold two close sessions at this meeting. These closed sessions concern personnel HIV report of October 13, 2025 and negotiations. Minutes of these closed sessions will be
made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. >> Second. >> Pull the board, please. >> Miss Boli, >> yes. >> Miss Conpsion, >> yes. Miss Drake,
>> yes. >> Miss Laruso, >> yes. >> Mr. Larry, >> yes. >> Miss Maheri, >> yes. >> Miss Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Lans, >> yes. We now move on to our student representative report. >> Good evening board members. Although Sophia is not with me today, I could
speak for both of us in saying that we're excited to share another update. To start, Sophia and I have received feedback from the students who are glad that they could finally got an update on the new principal with many students happy that Mr. Vincent is back at the high school.
Uh, next on Friday, October 3rd, we finally had our pep rally at the high school uh where the energy was incredible as each grade performed their lipsync dances and participated in fun games like the tug-of-war and musical chairs. In terms of sports, football,
cheer, marching band, gymnastics, field hockey, and soccer all celebrated their senior nights with gymnastics taking home a win. Additionally, co coach counts was officially announced as a new basketball coach. On Wednesday, October 8th, freshman,
sophomores, and juniors participated in the PSATs while the seniors gathered for their annual class photo. Next, the MCTS assembly uh occurred where we had representatives speak to the underassmen about the various programs that they offer there. And on
Friday, we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month during during which students showcased their beautiful kiniera addresses and shared insights about Hispanic culture and dances. It was a fun showcase of Hispanic culture that was felt across the school during the
end of the end of day parade. As a final as a final note, the student body is looking forward to the fall sports starting up with interest meetings happening earlier this week and next week. Thank you for listening to this report. >> Thank you very much. I heard great
things about the little parade that went around the school. Very students really enjoyed that. Thanks. Okay, we will now move on to our state assessment update presentation. Okay, I'm going to call Miss Sandy Small up to the podium. I guess she's getting
prepared back there. Uh, each year, uh, each school district in New Jersey is required to provide an update regarding student performance on the spring state assessment, the NJSLA. So, this will serve as an update regarding the um,
spring 2025 uh, NJSLA. For those of you listening at home, we're just standing by for some technical difficulties to be resolved. Thank you. Thanks for your patience, everyone. Technology is a wonderful
thing when it works. Yep. Okay. So, tonight we're going to go over the NJSLA. I apologize to you for my back in there. We're going to go through the NJSLA data from the 2024 25
school year. There are going to be some slides that are here because they're informational that I'm not going to go through in detail and I'll go through explain. So the one thing I'm going to ask everyone to do is to don't panic on any individual slide. We're going to talk about as we move along where things
are going. So if you just bear with me and if you have a question as because there a couple slides that might be a little confusing just please stop me to make sure that you're on the same page. So what we're going to work through is look at the NJSLA is the English language arts in grades three through
nine, math in grades three through 8 along with algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. The science in grades 5, 8, and 11, the dynamic learning maps. Then I'm going to talk a little bit about the number of years that our students are in
district versus the data and our demographics. As a reminder, NJSLA performance levels are in five. We have levels one and two, which we consider below level. The state talks about not yet ready and partially
meeting. And then level three would be approaching expectations. Level four is meeting and level five is exceeding. So we talk about levels four and five is meeting or exceeding together. When we go through our first slide, when we compare our district to the state,
what you're going to see in the far right side is that it appears that we are below the state in all grade levels with the exception of grade seven. That in itself can be a panic, but this is where I asked you earlier, don't go into a panic yet. Let's go through and look
through the next couple slides and this should explain some things. So, if we look at this data, and this is really important that we talk year-over-year, where were we and where are we now? Because it's really important for us to be able to compare where we were three years ago to where
we are now. So when we look at our English language arts in grades 3 through 9 back from 2022 to current 2025, what we are seeing is in our middle school in grades six, seven, and eight, our percentage of students who are
meeting or exceeding have increased tremendously. In grades three and nine, we have increased nicely, not as quickly as we'd like to. We still are seeing some struggles in grades four and five.
Okay, then show you. And then this is this slide is the one that's confusing, but I think it's the most important slide for us to be able to focus on because if we look at our last slide, our last slide is really talking about apples versus oranges. It's really talking about the
students in grade three throughout the years, which is a different group of students each time. When we go through and we look at this current slide where we talk about apples to apples, it comes out to be that cohort of students in a
given grade. So if you follow through with me, I'm looking at the orange block. And if you look at the orange block for 2023 for grade three, and I apologize, I'm going to put my back to you because I've got to be able to see
those numbers. It would be 25.7. that orange block if you're all with me there for level one and then the orange block in level two which is 20.2 two. Everybody sees where I am for those two.
So, that group that were in third grade in 2023, you're gonna I'm going to ask you now to focus on the bottom box for me, you're going to see that that group of students, 46% of those students in 2022
were below level. If we follow those that orange block to where they are last year when they took this test, which was grade five, you could you would add up your 15 and your 18.3 and you will see that we are now at
33.3%. So you will see we have decreased the number of students who are below level. Does that make sense where we are there? because that this one's important for us to be able to see the number of students that we have been able to move in the
trajectory of learning. And then I'm going to ask you to stick with that same orange box in those that meeting and exceeding area. And if you look at that orange box in 2023 under the level four and level five, you are going to see
28.4 and 1.2. Rounding that up, you're going to see that we were at approximately 30% of our students were meeting or exceeding expectations when this cohort was in third grade. As we moved up the line and they're now in fifth grade, we are
seeing that roughly 45% of them are meeting or exceeding. So we have decreased the number of students who were below level like we want to and we have increased the number of students who are meeting or exceeding like we
want to. Does that all make sense? Okay. So, if we stick to the orange, if I walk away because I want to be able to see these numbers. I'm hoping you can still hear me. So, if you go through and look at the orange box itself, I'm start
[Music] 25% [Music]
15.3. [Music] decrease the number of students that are [Music]
right. [Music] And 1.2 30%. [Music] So you're going to see that decrease. [Music]
Does that make sense? each of those colors for the sixth grade. You will see that that's [Music]
more [Music] of what we are seeing. [Music] But I'm hoping that [Music] >> that box was a little confusing. So,
thanks to Mark for pointing that's what it meant. Thank you. >> You guys are all good with that one now. All right. Perfect. So if I continue on this, the next several slides are mandated slides to be able to view when we talk about the demographics in each of the grade
levels. So if we look through here for ELA3, if you look in that second column of data where it talks about the average scale score, you're going to see the average scale score of that 742, which is what the state's average was. And
then if you look at the district is at 734 and our two elementary schools are in that 733 734 area. If you go down through our demographics, you will see with the arrow pointing at the demographics that are exceeding where
the state's scale score average was. And here you're going to see it's our demographics are Asian population, our white population, and our non-economically disadvantaged. What you will notice in most of these slides are non-economically disadvantaged are is
exceeding the state in almost every area that we are going to be looking at. If you go over to the far right in the meeting or exceeding, you're going to see that the state is at almost 50 45% that is meeting or exceeding. The
district is at 38% and the two elementary schools are very similar to the district. You will once again see our Asian population at 69%, our white population at 52% and our non-economically disadvantaged
at 53%. And that would follow suit when I click on the next couple slides for ELA4. And this is something we can painstakingly go through every single slide, but if you understand where to look at it when you go through looking at this at your leisure, you'll be able to see it's the
same thing. And that would be for ELA 5, ELA 6, ELA 7. And I'm going through these because I'm going to summarize it in a moment. ELA 8. This next slide, which is our middle
school ELA levels. This is the next slide that I want you to focus on. And I'm going to move around again because I want to make sure that you are looking at the same lines as me. So I apologize if home can't hear me but it's important that you're hearing that you're seeing
this. So I'm ask [Music] 17% of our students
56% of those [Music] levels [Music] to three [Music] is important to show this look. [Music]
99% are [Music]
sometimes a as well. [Music] Does that make sense? [Music]
>> Just want to make sure I understand. So you're saying that the ESL six, seven, and eight. So that's like 62% is below average, >> right? >> And then 79. >> Mhm. >> No. So tell me what ask your question.
>> I just want to um So the numbers like the 72.5 and then 79.7 and the 75%. So that means that those ESL they're below. >> Yes. So this is so if you remember when I talked about our levels one two three four five
[Music] you are [Music]
Okay. So then if we stay on that example so the number seven so the number seven um is that the number of students like seven students. >> So the thing without percentage are the are the number of students. Yes. Which is where those percentages.
>> Okay. All right. Thank you. And then the next slide is our ELA 9. ELA 9 is not as promising as the middle school is. And there's some work that we're going to have to go through doing that doing with that, but I want to be able to compare ELA 9 with those ESL
those ELA levels in our middle school in our high school. And if you look at this, you look at our honors, our honors are doing as well as our eighth grade advance. We have 99% of our students that are meeting or exceeding. We come up to our standard academic special ed
and our ESL population, we're like, we've got some issues. But when we go through and look at the percentage moving, we're not quite moving that needle as much as we need to in those levels. So, we have some work that we have to do there for our ELA 9 group
here. Good for ELA. Okay, we're going to go into math and I'm going to try it not try not to focus um on giving you everything that I did in ELA, but if you have a question on one of them, please feel free to stop me.
We talk about um the district versus the state and math. Again, if you focus on that last column, it doesn't look good. It looks like we're far below in all of these areas. So, we want to say, okay, but is there anything that is happening? So when we go through this and we look
year-over-year, are we growing even among ourselves within here? So you will see in this case in grades three, six, geometry and algebra 1, we are making great strides. In the other grades, we're moving just not as quickly. So I
always give us that if we're 10, if we've moved 10 percentage points or more, I say we're accelerating those others. We're moving, but we're just not moving quickly enough. If we look at the apples to apples, you could go through that same progression that we did in ELA. But I will tell you,
we are not seeing the same cohort results that we did in ELA. Part of our um caveat on this is in seventh and eighth grade, those students who are taking algebra and geometry are no longer with their cohort peers. They are
in another cohort because they take the algebra test or geometry. So those students who had been um meeting or exceeding in those prior cohorts have been removed from that. So those numbers don't quite add up. So it's not as clean to look at. Does that make sense what
I'm saying to you? So if we had 20% of our population in seventh grade uh course 2 and all 20% of them or 98% of them were meeting or exceeding, we've pulled them out of that cohort now because they're now in either algebra 1
or geometry. So that's automatically going to bring some of those numbers down. That's why this isn't a quite fair comparison as ELA is. However, there is still some concerns. I'm not going to tell you there is not. In the next few slides, again, we'll be
comparing um each of the grade levels compared to the state and the demographics. You're going to see once again the average scale score with the state in comparison to the district, our two elementary schools, and all of the demographic areas, including students
with disabilities, multilingual learners, non-economically disadvantaged, and economically disadvantaged. And your focus can be on the average scale score as well as the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations for the next several slides.
That would be your math for grade four, grade five, and I'm not expecting you to look through each of these right now, but just that I give you the overarching. If we now go back and look at this middle school math levels and in math in
the middle school we have more levels than we do in ELA. So I'm going to ask you to focus on a couple of things which I'm going to move once again. If you focus on the very top line which is our pre [Music]
students level. So [Music] remember [Music]
I'll show you. [Music] [Music] 77%.
[Music]
Then we come up to our algebra one. And our algebra 1 is seventh grade. There are some of our seventh graders who are double accelerated, our eighth graders who are accelerated, and then our high school students. And typically our algebra one students who take our students in the high school who take
algebra one are students who are on level and sometimes struggle in math. So that putting that in there where you're going to see that the state number is 38% of the students in the state are meeting or exceeding expectations. You
see the district as an overarching is 27%. But if you look at our middle school with our accelerated kids, we are well above 80% on that. Our high school is at 7.3% on that one. If you look at our demographics,
that's a combination of the middle school and high school. If you go to geometry, again, this is similar to the algebra 1. You're going to have the middle school and the high school as well. You're going to see 56% of the state. The district mirrors the
state. The middle school is at 88%. The high school is at 27%. That 27% for the high school to me was a little bit more concerning than even that 7% in algebra 1 because those students who took this test are ninth graders in geometry and
they are accelerated students. So I have concerns that if we have those students who are taking this test in the high school and there are 64 of them and only 30 less than 30% of them are meeting or
exceeding something's not adding up for me there in our next slide when we looked at that we are >> Sandy Sandy I'm sorry can we go back to algebra one for sure >> I Guess my concern is and I understand
about the double accelerated, but I almost feel like we really emphasize double accelerated kids in the middle school and we kind of almost make it seem like, and maybe it's just the way I'm interpreting it, like if you're a ninth grader and you're taking algebra 1, well then you must struggle with
math. It could just be that they didn't want to follow that double accelerated course for whatever reason. But it it's really concerning to me that just a ninth grader taking algebra 1 is as low as they are because they should have had the skill through preps to be able to do
well. >> That's why I say that 7% is alarming to me that 300 fact we have 315 of those students sitting in the high school taking this. years ago and I'll say prior we were at
less than half of the nth grade we are now closer to 65% so that percent >> because then I mean it's always hard too because then you learn what you learn in
algebra and then you have geometry which isn't like algebra and then you're shoving them in. Yeah. But then you're putting them in to algebra 2, which is one of the tougher courses here that you have to take. That's just what's concerning to me because if you're struggling in algebra 1, then you get this year off almost just from algebra
to do geometry and now you're being thrown into algebra 2. >> So just if the concern is >> if the concern is that we're taking that year off between them, you're really not because we are using the skills from
algebra 1 for geometry. That's why you need to take algebra 1 before geometry because many of those skills from algebra are um part of the geometry. It is a little bit of a different it's a different part of your brain that's happening in geometry. about the skill like you if someone takes geometry prior
to algebra they're going to struggle in geometry because they haven't built those skills in algebra 1 that are necessary for the uh geometry >> right but algebra 2 is still a completely I mean I'll use my own kids
as an example did great in geometry didn't do bad in algebra 1 really struggled in algebra 2 like really struggled so and these are kids that can do math so that's my concern for these kids in algebra 1. >> Nicole, it's 100% a concern that we have
this many students that are struggling in algebra 1 and they need to continue with geometry and algebra 2. I'm not going to disagree with you there at all. I'm with you. So, the next one I want to go to is algebra 2. This looks phenomenal
until you really look at this slide. How many non-economically disadvantaged students are in our double accelerated program taking algebra 2 in ninth grade? Three. So when we pull those economically
disadvantaged kids and we have this elite group, we're excelling them. We have the skills to be able to work with our students. We have to be able to break down those skills to meet the needs of all of our students. And you're going to see that toward the end as to our next steps. So, this looks really
great, but we're not dealing with the total population that we did in every other grade level in there. Just trying to make sure that you're uh seeing this one correctly. We look at the high school math levels. This slide doesn't even do justice to
what we should have. those honors students in ninth grade and this is only ninth graders taking this test 49% of them are meeting or exceeding and there are honor students whether they're honors algebra 1 honors geometry or honors algebra 2 that number has to come
up so we are struggling right now with that program in there if I get to academic level which is where the majority of our students sit we have 6% and only 33% of them are showing growth this is a concern Here's the slide that I want to be able
to focus a little bit on because I kept trying to spin my wheels. What is happening? What are we missing? How are we going to improve this? And if you remember when was it in the summer that we talked about NJGPA? We started talking about the length of time
students are in district with us. So, I needed to take some closer looks at some things. So, as I looked for the I it's I want to focus on ELA and math is very similar. If you look at the students who are assessed in grades three through
nine, we have a total of 2,854. I apologize if my numbers are a little off. My vision is a little bit focused on the numbers here. So, you're going to see 72% of those students were with us three more than three years. And you
will see that 48% of them have been successful. As we go down to students who are in district for a year or fewer, we are at almost a little bit more than 20% of those students that are meeting or exceeding. So we're missing the boat
with our students who come into district throughout the years and we can't lose that focus on that. And you will see that if you three years, two years, one, you're going to see that that continually goes down. This is an area for growth for us. As students come in, we can't just throw them in with our
students who have been here for more than three years. We have to find out where are their um strengths, where are their weaknesses, and to be able to help fill that. Um and you'll see that on the next on the last slide as well. Same thing for the years in mathematics.
you're going to go through and see that 36% of our students who are with us more than three years are meeting versus um 14 to 20% who are with us fewer um than shorter than a year.
Here's the next slide. When I talked about looking at our economically disadvantaged versus our non-economically disadvantaged, I'm not sure how many of us are aware of this. When we're looking at grades three through five, we're at almost a 50/50 split here. Now, we're 4951%
of our student population um who are economically disadvantaged. If we look at grades 6 through 9, we're at 4654. So, we have to find some more ways to be able to provide services for our
students who don't have means at home to be able to get these supports. So this was a very eye opening. So I actually put it as a chart because I wanted to bring it to people's attention that this is an area that we have to make sure that we are trying to focus on the
students don't that don't have this. We talk about equity in the district. This is an equity thing. Someone who doesn't have the resource to be able to go outside a home for supports. We've got to be that for them. Then I also said let's look at the demographic breakdown. And if we look at
our demographic breakdown, this should hit home as well. So we have to find ways to be able to make sure that we have things that are culturally relevant for our students and
we've done a lot with SCOP in the last couple years. We need to continue with this and to be able to provide supports so that we are meeting the needs of our various populations within our district. So that's I'm going to say that's the
gist of where we're looking. The next couple slides I'm going to gloss over and you're going to hear me say this every year about the sciences. So in science um fifth grade you will see 30% of the state met or exceeded. Our district was at 21%.
Science 8, the state is at 19%, the district is at 19.1%. Science 11, I put a little bit more information in here because it's super important to be able to see this when we see the state is at 31% and the district
is at 30%. So, they're pretty much balanced. Why do we need this other information? If you look at this slide, you see that just over 50% of the students in 11th grade took this assessment.
So it makes it very difficult to say where we are as a district in relationship to the state with science 11. And then I went through in the far right side to talk about the percentage of students in each of the demographic areas that took this. And if you looked
at the non-econom non-economically disadvantaged and the economically disadvantaged, you're going to see 42% of the non-took this assessment, whereas 62% of the economically disadvantaged took this assessment. So this speaks
volumes to the number of our students who are taking the 11th grade science, which is why I'm not going to say that I can tell you anything of value within this slide. Well, I have a Why doesn't everybody
have to take the assessment or no? >> Um, the assessment is required for all 11th graders. Um, however, parents have a right to refuse. >> So, what is the percentage of students that their parent What is the percentage again of the kids that did not take it?
>> There were, is that 52? Guys, help me out here. 51% 51% took the test. So, 49% did not. Do we know if that that 42% they were all excused had excused their parents? >> I I can't answer that. I can check I can
I can find that out for you. >> But I can just tell I just can tell you that 49% did not take this assessment. [Music] Okay. Dynamic learning maps. So this is going to be a really quick one. So,
dynamic learning maps are for a small percentage of our students who um do not yet meet the standard of the grade level. Um Dave Row was going to come in and talk a little bit about this, so I'm going to do the best I can on this one.
Um so, the students that take this assessment, they have four scores, scoring categories that they go into, which is emerging, approaching the target, at target, and advanced. And as we go through, you will see on this slide will be how our students in
grades three through five fared in both buildings. Um, and I'm sorry, I also put um MHK in. I apologize because that's not should not be MHK. That should be PLLD and GNR. Then in 612 are the middle
school and the high school students. But what I did on this last slide, which is where I want to talk a little bit about, is putting the district together. So last year in 2024, there were 36 students that took the DLM in English
and in math. You will see in English, 50% of those students were proficient. In math, 42% of those students were proficient. Science, 14 students took it, and 50% of them were proficient. In 2025, we had 27 students in ELA and math
take the DLM. 30% of those students were proficient in ELA and 44% proficient in math. Eight students took science and 38% of those students were proficient. One of the questions we ask is why does
it look like we um did poorer in the DM than the prior year? And this becomes one of those things that once students are advanced or had met their target, they no longer take the DLM, they move on to the NJSLA.
So it's really this is not really an applesto apples comparison because those students once they've met that mark, they are out of this equation in here. Hopefully that makes sense. So our questions usually become what are
we doing now that we know this? So on the left hand side we're going to talk about what we are going to be looking at as central office and on the right side what administrators we're going to be working through in our meetings. So our next steps are discussing the cabinet
meetings. Now we gave you the global in our cabinet meetings. We're going to talk more granular. We're going to talk about specific grade levels, specific cohorts of students, um, and teacher data in here. So, we're going to be talking discussing this in cabinet meetings. We will be talking through this in content meetings and there will
be individual teacher meetings to review the data throughout the year and that that will be happening shortly. Throughout the year, we are um looking through our resource and I talk about resource management. Are do we have the proper resources in at hand? Are we
using them in order to accelerate growth? Are they culturally responsive? Are they making sure they meet the needs of all of our students um within our trajectory of growth? Um we're going to be having our data meetings throughout the year discussing data at the various
points that we um collect the data. We will be doing walkthroughs with a focus on intentional grouping and not just grouping because all these three kids sit together. We will be looking at focusing on data to inform instruction. We talk a lot about data, but if it's
not about informal instruction, then it's just a matter of talking about numbers. And then we want to go through also look more closely at what students know and are ready to learn and not just a one-sizefits-all. So that's going to be the areas that we
will focus on for this year. And that concludes my slides questions. [Music] >> Yes, Sandy, I have a question. Mhm.
>> Um for a couple of years I know we've been trying to use some approaches to meet some type of state mandate requirements and we've been using the same process and even last year I asked you if we can use some aggressive
process or learn from skill set from other district or something that we can enhance or help our kids get to the at this par level. Um this is very concerning to me um to see from grade level three to high school that you know
they should at least meet the state uh scoring. I know you keep saying we need to do additional work to meet those goals. What exactly is your now from previous years you've seen it's not working. It's obvious it's not working.
what is your process or your timeline of what is going to be implemented and executed because I need I don't see a growth as much as I think we should see. I understand there's a lot of factors involved but if you can give me some
screenshot of what is your plan for our training how to get instructions to our kids and what is the system or whatever we need to use to help to navigate through this process >> right so that last slide that I showed
you so that I I really expect to be able to um to have to have that type of question that you've just posed because that has been a question that we've been working through. So one of the things that I'm going to tell you is that we have that last slide that I have here for next steps that everything on the
left hand side will be happening within the next month. So this idea that we're going to be meeting we're going to be going through individual data. What has happened? So we've though sometimes it looks like on paper it's similar we have changed our approach. Um, often times,
and I said this to Mark, I said, "Sometimes I take for granted that people understand and sometimes when you take a step back and when somebody asks a question, you're realizing, wait a minute, I just made the assumption that you knew what was happening." So, I had to take and
I'm going to put this on me. I had to take a different approach and start coming to the table with don't expect understanding unless you are presenting it for teaching sake. So we are going through and I I want I always like to say we because it's never nothing is a
singleton person. So we are taking the approach of training our administrators in how to look at this data how to be able to understand where students starting points are and where the growth aspect is. So that's where some of those new slides that you saw this time is
that are are students moving at all and if they're moving then they have the ability. We have to find a way to become much more aggressive rather than typical growth. How do we accelerate that growth? So I believe our very first thing is training all of our administrators even our administrators
who are accustomed to seeing this um this data like what does the data actually mean and how do we go through bringing this to our content meetings that once we're talking about it as a holistic um school how do we now bring
it to a specific sixth grade math a seventh grade ELA a fifth grade um math class how do we bring this and to be able to explain to to our teachers, here's what we're seeing. What do you see working in your classroom? And when a teacher says, hey, I see A, B, and C,
part of our job is, let's do some walkthroughs and see if we are agreeing with that. And if I come into your classroom and I see something really working, I need to be able to then be able to focus on you and say, "Hey, I need you as a model to be able to have somebody come in here to be able to see
what's working. And if you think it's working and it really isn't, we need to have a conversation. And sometimes those conversations are hard conversations, but they're needed. And that's so when we talk about having these individual teacher meetings, that's where some of them will be. Some of our concerns that
we've gotten, well, but you know, it's just those kids. We've got to get out of just those kids because all of these kids are ours and we have to find ways. One of the things that I'm hoping that happens this year. And this is really a vulnerability thing is that when a
teacher sees something not working that they're comfortable enough to go to administrator and say help like I've tried this and it's not working. We're here to support but we have to make sure our teachers know we're here to support and not judge. And I think that's
building some of those things that we're going to be looking for. So all of those things on the right hand side, some of these things are administrative wise is that we purchase and one of the things that I say to every teacher and every administrator we hire. This board over
I've been here 21 years has never said no to any instructional material that we have asked for. But now we have to be stewards of these resources. are we using them appropriately or do we have too many of them and our teachers don't
know which ones to use. So this is us starting to now hone in what is working and what's not working and let's minimize what we're asking our teachers to do with all of these resources that they're not really able to see that. So that's where some of that comes in having those data meetings. One of the
things that we did several years back that was very appropriate is we take tests, but do we ever actually talk to our students about what is the test that they're going to be taking? What is the purpose of the test? What are we doing with this data? And when we did that several years back, we saw such an
increase because kids are like, "Oh, there's a purpose for this. You're not just telling me I'm sitting down doing this." And sometimes we forget that we need to do that because these are human beings in small bodies, but they still have a right to know the why behind
things. So it's some of those things that we have to look at. But that very last bullet is something that I think is what we're going to try and focus this year is that too often, and this is really a Marcism, Mark has said this year after year, is that we all too
often look at what our kids can't do. We need to start focusing on what our kids can do and what they're ready to learn next. And not just continually say, "But they can't do, they can't." No, they can't do if we tell them they can't do, but if we tell them that here's what
you're really good at, and here's what we are ready to go on to. Those are some of those things that we're doing a little bit differently. So, and it it's a heavy lift. I'm not going to tell you at the end of the year I'm going to tell you that everything is going to be glowing. But I will tell you that if we these approaches are followed throughout
the district, we are going to see some well we should see some phenomenal things and I hesitated when I just said that is because the assessment is completely different. So what I will say to you is that the star data should be able to say that our actions are showing
the growth and that's what I would be able to present to you next year saying that when we've go everything we present it our star data as we all know that is always very similar to our state that here's what our uh resources and us looking through this have been able to
produce. So I still believe at um the end of the year or this time next year I will be able to show you that growth that has taken place. So I'm very optimistic on that one and I think you know unfortunately for people I'm too honest if I think something's broken I'm going to tell you but I do think this is
something that we can do but we need to all be on that same page working together. >> Thank you Sandy. >> Hi. Uh so I don't see this information in the presentation we have. So, I will upload this because there were some things that I was like, you know what? I
didn't put this in there and I didn't want to change it just before because then I'd have some of you saying this isn't what was here when I looked at it at 5:00. So, I didn't want to do a bait and switch, but I will upload this. Correct. >> Also, another question is like, you know, we mentioned that 49%age have not
taken the test, right? So, what is the most common reason they would come up for not taking it? Um, was that any time analyzed or assessed? >> The value of the assessment.
>> I think I'm going to have to leave it at that and hoping that makes sense. >> And who could like, you know, provide that um push to make them understand the value of the assessment?
>> The state. if the assessment was um an assessment that really was based on what our students are learning and the value of the questions were to be able like our math and our ELA data the value of
those assessments provides a lot of things for our teachers to be able to understand what our kids know and are able to do. We we don't get as much in the science that we do in the math and ELA, >> right? But uh is there anything like you
know from our end we can like u deliver that to the students it's for their own good right unless they take the assessment we cannot godge right they we cannot measure >> so I will I'm trying to be good about
this um if every student took it I'm not sure how much valuable data we would get anyway I >> mean that's debatable I'm trying to be as politically correct as I can be with giving you the information.
>> There is a reason why state is conducting these tests, right? If there is no value >> federal >> federally they need to assess. >> I mean Mark help me out without me uh sticking your >> We're talking specifically about the science assessment at the
>> mostly science 11. Yeah, >> right. I mean so one could argue that it's it's it doesn't have the priority. it's not perceived to have the priority. It's not a graduation requirement. So, it it doesn't have the same level of intensity for students to feel the need to take it
because it really it really has no bearing on on where they are. So, I'm not saying that's right, but I'm just giving you the it's a we have to administer it. >> U but it it's definitely ranks lower on the tier of priority for people to take
it. >> Understood. But if there are any steps that can be taken towards that, you know, it's for their betterment, right? That would be really appreciated. Hope you get my point. >> I I I do I I do understand where you're
coming. As I said, I think if um our students and our teachers received valuable information, I think it would be a different ball game because our other test testing, we are nowhere near that. We have more than 90% of our students assess in every other level.
Great. Yeah. Thank you. No problem. >> Sandy, I just have a few questions. Just want to make sure I understand. Um, if we go to slide 18, what do the highlighted green numbers on the side mean?
>> I have to find out which one is 18. J, give me a second. >> It's year-over-year mathematics. >> Okay, >> you just passed it. What does on the right >> those green on the side means that we are students that are moving. So in this
case that we have third grade that we have increased over the last four years by more than 13.6% of our students have are now meeting or exceeding versus what they were doing in 2022. >> Okay. So you just wanted to highlight
anything over 10. >> Yes. Anything that was over 10% I highlighted as though that was accelerated growth whereas I said the other ones are like typical growth is what we'd see that we're really keeping in line with where we were. >> Okay. And then um in 20 I believe it was
like 2019 2020 our math scores were low for like grades 5 through 8 are the the kids are the students that were in fifth grade are they in ninth grade now >> in 2019 >> the 2019 2019 2020 school year. So we have
>> because then the co hit too, right? So doesn't that fall into because during co >> they would be 12th graders now if I >> 12th >> calculated correctly. >> Okay. >> Who is a 12th grader 2019 when your child was in uh sixth grade >> in the co in the co.
>> Yes. See good. >> Okay. >> All right. Because they were behind. Well I forgot what it was called the because of the pandemic their numbers were behind. I forgot what it was. What was it? The
>> proficiency levels and >> Oh, the learning loss was Yeah, thank you. >> I was trying to figure out what you were talking. >> Right. Right. Right. So, the learning lo is it possible that the learning loss from the pandemic is still affecting the kids now. >> So, >> I think I'm so
I think we did the we had the resources to try to bring them up because of that learning loss only the year after Right. So what was that in 2021 2022 but we haven't done anything as far as learning loss since then. So do you
think that maybe that would also be helpful or that could be a reason? >> So two things um research usually says that with after three years that you should be able to make up for any of that learning loss. Then the second thing is is that that particular cohort
that you looked at, if you remember when it was in the summer, I believe it was in August when I did the NJGPA where we talked about those students who were with us really showed substantial growth because they were meeting or exceeding expectations in the NJGPA. So that validates that one um that they
have grown. Um you asked me another question, Gene, that I was just putting. Um, and then the resources, do you think that those the summer resources would be helpful? >> So those resources, so one of the things that we did, there were a couple things that came out of the pandemic that were
good, believe it or not. One of them being is that in all of our curriculum documents, if you remember, we have like a purple area that were the prerequisite skills. We've kept that in there because that's really important for a teacher to say, well, so and so isn't right here,
but they have a resource to be able to go back and say, what is it that they need prior to this? So, that's one of the things that we were able to do. Some of the resources that were completely digital we have done away with because what we learned over the last couple
over the couple years after the pandemic is we became too heavily reliant on computers and the internet that our brick and mortar was suffering and our students scores were below because of
that. So we've tried to and I say tried to keep the resources that we believed that were valuable. I still believe we have too many resources in some are in some areas which is why we have to still go through and do that resource um
training and see what's working in there. So I think we have kept those things that I think we believe to be very valuable and we gradually remove those things that were good at that time.
>> Okay. Okay. And I just have one more question. Um on let's pick uh slide the slide 19. When we're looking at the is that this one non-economically disadvantaged number. >> No, not this.
>> No, no, no. That's not that one. >> Tell me tell me what the top of the slide is. >> Um it says uh mathematics 3 2024 2025. Okay. Oh, >> come on. Sorry. Sorry, I just want to make sure I understand the numbers >> right there.
>> All right. So, when we're looking at the non-economically disadvantaged and the economically disadvantaged, right? >> Um, are we adding those two numbers to then get >> close to 100%. >> No, I'm saying are we adding those
numbers to get any of the numbers up top? Oh, so the demographics with our Hispanic, Asian, African-American, white multi are really one set of demographics that you're looking at. Then the next one is our non-economically disadvantaged and economically
disadvantaged. They should equal all of those other groups up above. So we have some of our Hispanic students that are economically disadvantaged, some of our Hispanics are non economically disadvantaged. So each of those demographics falls into one of those categories. So, it's not a clear mix
that these two are economically disadvantaged and these two are non. It could be in any of those um ethnic groups can have either economically disadvantaged or non-economically disadvantaged. >> And then when we go to our um students with disabilities and our multilingual
learners, they also will fall into the non-economic disadvantaged and economic as well as one of those demographic cohorts. >> All right. Thanks so much. You're welcome. Hi Sandy. Um
we used to look at the um instruction materials like you said we used to invest we we have invested quite a bit in the instructional materials and a professional training to go with the um profession with the instructional materials. But the reason for a lot of that transition in the past years has
been that our materials did not align with state standards and that was being reflected in some of our test scores. uh teachers are not prepared to handle that kind of material in the classroom um requiring more professional development. So that's been years and years since
those discussions have been had. >> Are we still facing an issue where there's a gap between what we're teaching, what we're using to teach, and what's being evaluated in terms of state standards? So I think Bob for some of our areas
some of it is professional development. Um because as we get new teachers I believe we do the same thing that I had said I do is that you just make an assumption that they're coming in and they know these wins away. Um and we have to do a better job. So some of the
things that our administrators do really well is we onboard our teachers. But when you have an onboarding for three days it's not a then it's done. It's a continual onboarding so that PD is a consistent. Our new teachers do have mentors and they have people to help
support them. But we have to make sure because and this is part of some of the data that we're going to be talking about with our administrators that when we see that we have some of our non-tenured whether they have experience or not. Um we need to make sure that they're understanding all the resources
that we have. and don't just take for granted because you taught math in sixth grade somewhere else that you understand our resource. So, some of um our issues in the past have been our resources were not aligned. I don't believe that that's where we are. Whether we're using our
resources to the best of our ability with all of our students looking at what they know and what they're ready to learn. I think that's part of where we have some the what we have deciphered through some of this. So until we are actually meeting our students where they
are and not that this is where every seventh grader should be and I'm going to start teaching at this level, we know we're going to have very few students that are here. We're going to have them at both ends. So how are we meeting the needs of all the students in there and that's some of the areas that we're going to be focused on within this year
and not I think one of the things that I really want to point out is we don't want to take for granted that this is just happening. We want to be intentional about us um focusing on that as well as our teachers focusing on that in our classroom and our teachers can't do it until we first are trained and
then be able to go through to help support them in there. >> Just follow up on that. So, um again, we used to be very granular about where the skills were lacking as as
being measured by the state. Are we still able to identify clusters of skill sets both in reading, writing and mathematics where we are somehow that there are patterns in the data as to where either
instructional methods or materials are not meeting the needs of the kids. Yeah, we are still able to do it. And I think Bob, that's part of where some of those things that we just assume that people were using these correctly. That is where that training has to come back in. And that's where like I keep feeling
like I I'm going to be saying the same thing and I apologize if I sound like that. But I think part of it is is we've made too many assumptions and we have to get out of those assumptions and start doing some retraining. And if you know it, that's really great. you can help your colleagues, but we have to do our
part in that retraining in there. And some of those skill sets that you're talking about, our data is very, very clear in those skill sets, whether it's the state data and using evidence tables or whether it's our STAR data and being able to bring down and our STAR data and
some of our other resources talk about what our students know and what they're ready to learn. And we have to retrain our teachers how to use that. And we also talk about that formative assessments that you're doing every single day in your classroom. Like we are doing, our teachers are doing that every day. Are they using that to
intentionally form groups? Are they doing that intentionally creating um the space for the students who are struggling to be able to move to grade level? Are they intentionally using that data to accelerate the students that are ready to be accelerated? Those are those
areas that because we don't want to just focus on the students who aren't quite there. We want to make sure that we're looking at our student who our students who are in the middle and need to continue in that trajectory. The students that are struggling, how do we move them to grade level as well as our students who are ready to advance so
that we can move our district all together on that. But yes, I do believe we have the resources to do it. We just have to be able to put them back into place. >> Any other questions? Okay, Paul, can you also add this to old business so if questions come up for our
next meeting, we can talk about it then as well. Thank you. Thank you, Sandy. Thanks. >> Thank you, Sandy. >> Okay, we will now move on to our superintendent report. Okay, good evening. Uh, I will begin
just by thanking Sandy for that presentation. Um, obviously student achievement continues to be kind of our our primary objective here. Um, you know, when we're having discussions regarding student progress, especially compared to the state, obviously we we
would like to exceed the state performance. I will just say this, and it's not an excuse. I just think that when we look at our school district, I think we have, even since I've been here, we've had a pretty significant shift in demographics, and I'm not making any excuses. I just think that I know sometimes there's a temptation for
us to, as we're nestled between a Robinsville and the Westwinds of Plainsboro, uh we have starkly different demographic uh makeup within our school district. For example, we have a 25% uh multilingual learner, first generation immigrant population.
um as you saw in the presentation, approaching 50% free and reduced lunch eligibility. Uh so I I just think that those um uh those those are those are gifts, but those are challenges and I we don't have a a homogeneous structure in our
community and I think that uh I think our teachers work extremely hard. I think that we've we've been very intentional regarding providing resources that we think are aligned with standards. Um I'm going to talk a little bit about our professional development day that we had today. We've uh also
tried to ensure that um we are providing teachers with relevant uh professional development. So I think that um you know we'll continue to to stay the course, but I think that we've got some um you know we've got some some real uh
opportunity here for growth and I think we have to look at those those places where we see it and look to capitalize on it. I also want to make sure that um you know Sandy didn't mention this, she mentioned it briefly, but I I do want to make sure that when we look at the data,
we look at student performance that we are leveraging those teachers that have that evidence of moving the needle with students and really capitalizing on on what they do within classroom. So, uh, our administrative team will continue to stay focused and committed, um, to
student achievement, but I think that, uh, there are there are a host of variables that I think, um, you know, may make it challenging, but I do think the challenges obviously, um, worthwhile, but, uh, I I definitely don't want to to lose sight of the hard
work and the good work and the deliberate work that's happening within each of our schools each day. So, I will just talk a little bit about we did have a professional development day today. I think we called it an inservice day for staff. Um, you know, for the past three years, we've been designating
um a day for professional development. Not to say that it doesn't occur at other times throughout the school year, but oftent times we're we're capitalizing on beyond the school day uh content meetings and faculty meetings, which is which is a part of where we are. And occasionally we'll we'll have some um a cohort of teachers being
trained uh during the school day, but we typically like to shy away from that because we would like to keep stu, you know, teachers in front of our of our students. So today we did have our annual professional development day. Um we started the day with a keynote uh
address um by Carlos O'Hada Jr. really really just as an opportunity to uh kind of inspire our teachers, our educators who were present. Talked about his journey um as a as a multilingual learner, as a student who was deaf,
didn't realize he was um deaf until he was about 22 years old. Just talked about the impact of educators on his experience and really helping him realize who he was as he transitioned to college and beyond. So that was the start of the day. Then beyond that, we kind of broke things up into kind of a
612 um and I'll call it a for us by us, meaning that our uh administrators and our teachers engaged in facilitating the majority of our workshops today. Um so host host of topics whether it's you know engaging students differentiated
instruction co-eing uh our K2 teachers though did have uh their ongoing professional development related to leader and me u so that that was uh that was a full day experience for them so I thought the day was productive um I said to the group this morning that oftent
times I believe that in our district you know the majority of our our challenges that we face um we have the talent within our district to kind of move us forward. So, I think it's always a great opportunity uh when we have our our folks supporting, you know, learning
with and learning from one another. Quick update on uh Heistell High School principal. So, um as we heard from our student representative tonight and as I share with the community, um Mr. Vincent, he's on the agenda
tonight. He'll be uh staying with the district through the end of the school year. We've reopened the search for the principal and uh we'll be confident that we'll have a a successor in place to transition um for the upcoming school year and I definitely appreciate uh Mr.
Vincent's uh service and commitment to the high school community. parents should have received recently um some communication from each of our schools are 312 not actually all schools let me clarify that connected to the New
Jersey school climate survey we um we initially administered this survey last year this uh survey is connected to uh it's actually partnership between Ruckers University and the New Jersey Department of Education and there are se
several domains Um, and we have a a a student version, and the student version is for students in grades 3 through 12. We have a staff uh version of the survey, and we also have a parent caregiver uh version of
the survey. So, all families should have received uh a communication, a link. I think we we uh had a green light date of October 1st, I believe. uh and we'll leave that open for parents, but I strongly encourage parents uh to complete the survey. We'll be scheduling
opportunities for our students in grades 3 through 12. It's not a very long survey uh to complete that. And then we we're finding different pockets to get the feedback from our staff. So, um you know, one of our strategic plan goals is a culture climate goal. We believe the
domains are useful. They're relevant to us in terms of seeking feedback. um you know some of the the the domains connected to our student survey are things like student voice um you know social emotional supports uh student
teacher relationships um so we believe that there's there's great value there so uh be on the lookout for that parents I encourage you to to please complete that survey to give us a parent perspective in terms of uh what you're experiencing
also in recent um a A few weeks ago, actually, I guess towards the beginning of the school year, somewhat of a surprising announcement that the data that we reviewed tonight was connected to the the NJSLA.
The New Jersey Department of Education um indicated that they would no longer move forward with Pearson, who was the company that had the contract for the state assessment. uh that contract went to a company called Cambium and uh it
they've changing the format of the assessment. So the spring assessment that will students will take um in the spring both the NJSA and also the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment the NJGPA they're changing the format of that
assessment to an adaptive assessment. Um several states have adopted this prior to New Jersey. The belief is that, you know, when students are completing the assessment, depending on how they're answering questions, it modifies the level. It's still based on the grade
level, but it either accelerates kind of the rigor of the questions or it kind of um provides a lower level of questioning just to just to get a feel for students to enable them to kind of uh move forward uh more um authentically throughout the assessment. So uh the
feedback is that the the results of the assessment should be um somewhat more aligned with this where students are with their specific uh learning ability. So uh the state has decided the New Jersey Department of Education has decided that because this is a new
format of assessment there will be a field test that will be implemented uh this fall. Excuse me. So, um, this field test is really so the Department of Education can, I guess, work out the kinks, as it
were, before the official, uh, administration of the assessments will take place this spring. So, the game plan, uh, there's a window of time beginning at the end of October through the middle of November. Uh right now, and these dates might be slightly modified, but our students in grades
three through five will will take the field test in both language arts and mathematics. Uh on October 29th and 30th, our middle school students will uh participate in the field test
um on November 12th and 13th. This information should be you should be getting this families should be getting this information directly from your child's principal and our high school students will be participating in the field test uh also October 29th and
October 30th. So um so stay tuned. Once again the field test there's no score for specific students connected to the field test. It's it's really just a trial run of sorts for um the Department of Education to kind of logistically determine what's appropriate for
students when they uh sit down to take the real deal. uh in the spring. Um the upcoming board of education meeting uh October 27th, there will be uh a report an update
related to the student safety data system uh SSDs uh it's a state requirement that districts provide um a report of sorts regarding the uh scoring the data that's related to that. So
this um the report on the 27th will be based on the reporting period the second reporting period from the prior school year. So it'll be from January 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2025.
What that report contains is kind of based on certain incidents that happen within the school. And depending on the category of those incidents, there's a there's a requirement that we input that data into a system that's connected to the Department of Education. So what
what's included in that data are incidents related to violence, vandalism, substance abuse not involving tobacco, weapons, uh, and confirmed HIPP cases. Um there's also going to be some data
related to a uh anti-bullying or hip self assessment that each of our schools also uh complete. So um Lauren O'Brien who the who's the district's anti-bullying coordinator also the supervisor of counseling will be here to
present that information uh at the upcoming board meeting. Uh also uh you know being the month of October, we just completed uh the week of respect. Uh that was last week. Um
during the week of October 20th will be school violence awareness week which is um state recognition of sorts of department of education recognition and that week is uh geared towards reinforcing teaching educating students
on the importance of obviously violence prevention but also uh conflict resolution um bullying prevention in particular as well but also uh tolerance uh within in the school setting. So, there'll be some uh at each of our school levels some
level of intentionality to highlight the importance of uh violence awareness uh during that week. Um I'd mentioned that uh to the board, I think we've communicated this to the community that um we were in the process
of needing to relocate um our staff who are currently assigned to the White House on Stockton Street. White House is an aging building, you know, great character, but just um not something that we believe is really um a good
investment at this point for the upkeep and upgrades that are kind of, you know, associated with it. So, the district recently did purchase a property on Academy Street. um our maintenance department engaged in the renovations um associated with that.
And that building will house our um buildings and grounds department, kind of the the hub of our buildings and grounds department in terms of our director and our uh maintenance supervisor and custodial supervisor. Uh in addition to that, um we'll also
have our student registration services uh department who will be also housed there. So, um, shout out to our maintenance department. They did an excellent job on getting the building, uh, up looks like completely transformed, uh, when we first purchased
it. So, we're excited. We believe it's it's housed in a central location. It's easily accessible for members of our community when families are registering, uh, their children within our schools, and I think it's a a quality work environment for our our staff who represent uh, those departments.
A quick reminder that next week, Monday, October 20th, schools will be closed uh in recognition of Diwali and uh I believe that concludes my report. Thank you. >> I have a question about the survey.
I got it today. Do is that a template that's sent out or did does the district work with someone to come up with the questions and responses? >> So, we don't do anything with the questions. are they just come >> that is so so there's various domains
the questions are housed under those domains that comes to us from really the New Jersey school climate platform okay >> which is a collaboration between Ruckers University and the department of education so that's not us >> oh okay >> all right >> okay I was just curious because it the
way that that you have to answer them there's no in between it's like >> force force I know but that's kind of hard because sometimes you don't disagree or agree you're just like in the middle so I didn't know where who came up with those. >> Yeah, I I I think there's some science behind that, but we didn't we didn't
come up with that. >> Any other questions? >> I do have a few questions. Um question, the first question is the trial test, right? Um is that uh something that the parents can opt their students not to
take or is because it's a trial they have to take it? >> You know what? Um, it's a good question. Um, you know, put this way for the for the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, the actual test that will occur in the spring.
Parents can opt their child out of that. Um, in regards to the field test, um, I'd have to double check that. Look, here's what I'll say. The field test doesn't there's no there's no negative bearing for a student. We're not reporting out an individual score. is
really just to help the uh state uh norm it and make sure that we believe it's as relevant and appropriate as as possible for the for the spring. So there's no there's no negative impact to to a child apart from having to just participate in it. Um so I can get back to you on that.
I mean I would encourage folks to take it because I just think that uh I'm trying to make sure that the conditions for students in the spring are as as best we can have them. I'm a little concerned about the amount of standardized assessments that students are participating in at the state level,
but that's conversation for another day. But this this field test, here's what I would prefer. I would I would not have an issue with the field test right now. Not that, you know, it concerned me that is at as a school
district, we did not get informed about this until we kind of came back to school uh or the latter part of the summer. So, it was a kind of a surprise to us. So, it's just another thing that you have to like schedule and um you know, I completely understand the need
for a field test. I think it would it just feels to me a little rushed to do the field test in the fall and do the assessment in the spring. I'd feel more comfortable if we did the field test in the fall and then we did not test in the spring and then implemented the
following year. >> Okay. Okay. So then that means that all the districts in New Jersey are taking the field test. >> Everyone. >> Okay. Thank you. I do have another question. No, I have another question that totally unrelated. >> Okay.
>> Electric school buses, how are they coming along? >> Do the people love them? How are they on like efficiency? >> The feedback thus far has been positive. Um yeah, we I haven't heard any complaints. Paul, have you heard any complaints? >> No.
So, so far so good. >> We had one complaint where a parent came up and it was a safety concern that every time the bus stopped at their stop, they claimed the bus driver was turning off the bus, not realizing it was an electric bus. So, it was that's probably
the worst thing we've heard so far. >> All right. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Okay. We will now um move on to our first opportunity for board member comments. Any members of the board have
a comment? There being none, we will move on to our first opportunity for public comment. Any members of the public wish to comment, please come to the podium. Um state your name, sign into the uh book on the left hand side and we have a
three minute talk time. Um, and also to speak, just press the little button on the bottom with a face that looks like they're talking. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is David Mwinkle. I live in the uh Twin River section of
East Windsor. I've been there for 18 years. I'm a US uh Army veteran, retired police officer, served in New Brunswick, and an attorney. I'm the father of three children, the grandfather of four,
and I am running as a Republican for the city council or town council with Barry Greenstein and Anna Leenberg. I'm here not in any adversarial manner,
but we have a big problem and you've been addressing it in some of the statistics you're showing. It's almost as if the urban areas are state of emergency. We might say we're in bad shape when we compare it to the rest of other countries and especially in the
urban areas. the um the statistics that we we were shown uh at least uh what I grabbed off the internet was that math proficiency 33%
only reading proficiency 44% and science proficiency 22%. That's not too good. I see the how the statistics are set up to say not yet
meeting expectations partially meeting expectations approaching expectations and then we have meeting finally we meeting now I don't blame anybody here for that you've inherited a tough situation we all have as a nation we
have and as the United States of America if it's to prosper We're dealing here with the bad root, the grassroots of our society. These kids, these young children
from the the the the littlest ones to the seniors, and we go on a stage in a national stage or international stage to have to compete. That's not good. The reason I'm here is because I see a
problem and it's a problem that needs to be solved through people like yourself, through teachers, through parents, through the whole society getting behind your efforts.
my colleagues that I'm running with, we we thought one of the things that we could suggest was a a sort of a liaison so we could better understand the situation. The 62% of our tax bill and we've been
paying taxes. I own a townhouse for 18 years goes to the school system. And as you all know, the school system for the most part unfortunately is failing.
So the question is how do we get it to pass? And that's what we're all about. We were thinking maybe a liaison where someone one of us on the council if we win could basically try to understand what
you have to understand and maybe make some proposals >> because the tax dollar the most significant part of as I said 62% of it that has to be accountability and uh and and that's not just for
for us but it's accountability for the country if the country is is to prosper. Thank you very much. >> Uh Mr. Mswinkle, can you please sign in? >> Can sign in your name and address on the
on the clipboard there. Thank you. >> Thank you. [Music]
Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who wish to speak? Okay, please approach this podium, state your name and address, and please sign in on the clipboard. Thank you. >> Barry Greenstein, 21 Wendover Road, East
Windsor, New Jersey. Okay, good evening members of the board and I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. I wish to be fully transparent. I am first vice president of the Heightstown East Windsor Republican Club and a candidate for East
Windsor Township Council. I want to address the situation at Heightstown High School relative to the principal's position. I won't get into the specifics of Mr. Finle situation as to rescending of his contract and the reasons why that was done which I do agree with as that
may be the subject of litigation hopefully not because as taxpayers we pay approximately 68% of our property taxes to the education system I would like to know the process for selecting a principal such as is it
posted as a promotional opportunity within the school district so qualified teachers and administrators in this school district would have an opportunity first. It seems like we should have a program in place to develop future leaders based on merit
and performance among teachers and encourage them to get their master's degree and principal certification. That way viable candidates can have the opportunity for growth within the East Windsor Regional School District. I see that at Perry El Drew, Miss Erin
Cerville was appointed interim principal while the principal was on a leave of absence and I think that is a great move. I thank Mr. Vincent for stepping back in to serve as interim principal as he has always done a good job. But surely an interim principal from within
could have been chosen while a search is being done for a permanent replacement. And meanwhile, maybe that interim principal could turn out to be ideal and grow into the job relative to the hiring of Mr. Finkel as HHS principal. That was
done by a recommendation by the superintendent and I'm sure that was done in good faith and based on positive past interaction in another school district. However, I feel each board member should vet that prospective principal in both the open forum here
and for any questions relative to any personal information or salary that can be done in executive session. The former interaction gives the opportunity for stakeholder observation and perhaps input before a decision is made. hiring and rescending or firing a highly
compensated managerial employee by a personnel action on the staffing portion of the agenda doesn't seem to be sufficient. That staffing report contains so many items from LOAS to retirement to extra pay for stipens to
new hires and that should also be examined in detail by every board of education member. I could give you an example from several years ago where the drama club at Heightstown High School paid a teacher at Kreps a stipen of I believe
$2,000 to $2500 to keep expense records for a school play that took a few hours in total and several parents had offered to handle that for free. All I am asking for is more attention to detail and transparency. I thank you for your time
and listening to the concerns of your community. [Music] Thank you very much. We have another member of the public. Again, please state your name and address and sign in on the clipboard.
Thank you. >> Thank you, members of the board. My name is Skyail Martin. I'm live at 38 Pal Court in Heightstown. That is part of my comment just for the location. Obviously the school here is on the very far edge
of the Heightstown East Windsor border where I live in Woff Mill is on the other far end of the Heightstown Cranberry border in East Windsor. I want to congratulate you on your fabulous new scoreboard and sound system which I
believe was fairly expensive. But I also want to comment that the last game could be heard inside everyone's home on the far side of Heightstown. So, I hope with the the technical specialties of that machine that maybe the volume could be
adjusted so the whole town doesn't have to listen to the football game if they aren't in looking for that. That's all. Um, there's been a lot of commentary throughout Heightstown, a lot of complaints, a lot of concern, especially because we do have noise ordinances in
this community. Um, that's it. But while I'm talking about volume, I will let you guys all know that from the back of the room, it is very hard to hear and understand all of you. So perhaps you guys could all turn up your volume a little bit. Thank you.
>> Thank you. [Music] Are there any other members of the public who wish to speak? Please approach the podium, state your name and address, and sign in on the clipboard. Thank you. [Music]
Um, hit the little button on the bottom right >> and it'll make it'll turn the mic on red. Hello everyone. Uh, my name is Yachen and I am a senior at Robinsville High School and I had a couple of questions
after look looking at this presentation. So after going over the data from science 11, I noticed that over 40% of the people don't take the test, wouldn't that negatively or positively skew the results, actual results of the test by
limiting the population who actually take it? And what steps are you doing to convince people who didn't take the test to take the test? And and furthermore, what steps are you taking to improve the scores of the test for the people who
are about to take it? What pre-steps are you taking for the younger grades for when they actually take the test? >> Could you sign in, please? >> Yeah. >> Can you please state your name and address and also sign in? Thank you.
>> Should I state it here as well? Okay. Hi there. My name is Kevin Aurora. I'm from Robinsville High School as well. I'm a senior. My address is 21 Amberfield Road. And my first question was um I saw that it was um in many of those like
graphics, those charts, it was based on um races and ethnicities and then there was a separate more broad category based on um ED or economically disadvantaged or noned. So my first question really was just how is that determined because
I think that could have a very significant impact on the type of um way that measurements are calibrated and then also like how factors are influenced just based on how you're measuring um who counts as ED or noned. That was my
first I have another question so I I can wait. >> Um this is really just for you to make statements. We don't necessarily respond. We're not required by law to respond. Our superintendent has the option to if you'd like. So, you can just keep saying all of your statements.
>> Thanks. >> Sounds good. My bad. This is my first uh view. >> No, that's okay. Not everybody knows the way it works. So, thank you and I thank you for speaking up and participating in the civil process here. >> Right. So, my second question was um
just a little bit of context. I uh run a statewide volunteer initiative called Mission Impact which has currently helped over 450,000 individuals in New Jersey and we provide volunteer opportunities to high schoolers um throughout the state and uh my question
regarding this was just what kind of community service opportunities are provided to students uh at Heightstown High School? Um, and yes, this didn't really have that much to do with um the NJSLA information or the size in
general. I just thought I'd make the most of my opportunity here and just bring it up. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh, I could respond. You posed a question regarding economically disadvantaged students. Those are students who are eligible for free or
reduced lunch. And in terms of uh service opportunities, I would ask you you can I would encourage you to reach out to the high school principal um because we have a we have quite a we have a plethora of opportunities here, but if you wanted to get a specific
response, I would encourage you to to reach out to the administration of the high school. All right, >> sounds good. Thank you. >> Thank you again. Any other members of the public wish to speak? Okay, there being none, we were Oh. Oh,
I'm sorry. You've snuck up on there. Thank you. Just state your name and address and also please sign on the clipboard. >> Also, the mic is off the bottom right. There you go. >> All right. Awesome. Yeah. Good evening and uh thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Ryan Kelly. Um I live
on 21 121st Avenue in Heightstown. It's the best block. I'm just kidding. Everyone's block is Yeah. Uh, I'm also a research practitioner and I'm a doctoral candidate in a doctor of education program at Gwended Mercy University. Before anyone gets upset, I'd like to
ask, did you not just hear the student representative share that students were overwhelmingly ecstatic to have their principal back that should tell us something important. I don't like to lean on credentials, but everything I'm saying tonight is grounded in peer-reviewed educational research, not
politics. So, please open your eyes and ears to the evidence and not to those who would use our children's education as a game to further individual political run for office. So, I'm here to support the board's decision to extend or unretire principal Dennis
Vincent and to reopen a rigorous, transparent search for Heightstown High School's next leader. One, the students benefit most from effective, stable principal leadership. That isn't opinion, it's evidence. Two decades of research synthesis show that principles
have a large and schoolwide impact on student achievement, attendance, teacher attention, and school climate. In fact, the quality of a school's principal ranks among the most powerful in a school's factors after classroom teaching. Two, rapid leadership turn. It
hurts schools. Continuity during transitions, it protects students and it protects staff. Multiple studies link principal turnover with lower student achievement and higher teacher turnover. The effects are that it can be especially harmful in high need schools.
Extending an experienced leader to stabilize the building while you complete a careful search align with what the research recommends during those sensitive transitions. And again, the students love their current principle. Don't break a system that
currently works. Three, some say, and I've seen this circulated in a newsletter, just have an assistant principal step in. Sounds simple, but evidence says readiness varies, and the role is not interchangeable with the principal ship. Assistant principles or APS, they are vital, but their duties
and preparation differ widely across districts. The Wallace Foundation's comprehensive review finds that while APS can be an effective pipeline to the principal ship, districts should not assume every AP is immediately prepared to assume full building leadership
without targeted selection, development, and support. Inflating the roles risk setting someone up to struggle and risk the school's progress. Extending experienced interim principal is a prudent uh bridge strategy backed by evidence on successful pipelines. I'm just going to skip down to my closing.
I'm just going to say, you know, the research is clear. Principles are among the most powerful inschool influences on student success. Stability during leadership transitions are important. They protect the school. They protect the community. I also want to thank you for your presentation on the data. I think we saw two different data
presentations. It looks like the school is actually doing better. Um, and there are ways to interpret that, but I mean, good job. >> Can you sign in, please? Right there on the side.
[Music] Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who wish to speak? Okay, there being none, we are going to move into our first our executive
session and we'll be about 15 minutes. Okay, we are back. Um, we are going to move on to old business. Basically, right there, we have a list of our upcoming committee meetings. And Paul, you're going to add the NJSLA on there
for us so we can address it in the future if we need to have any other questions asked. Um we now move on to our se second opportunity for board member comments. [Music] Having no board members that wish to
speak, we will move on to our second opportunity for public comments. Any members of the public wish to speak? Okay. Please approach the podium, state your name and address, and then also sign in on the clipboard.
Thank you, Paul. [Music] >> Hi. Hope you guys can see me down here. Um, I just wanted to introduce myself. >> Step down. >> I'm okay. Um, I'm Jessica Defalco. I am
running to for one of the open seats um for next year. So, just this is my first meeting and um just kind of see how things are going and yeah, just wanted to say hi and show my face. Um yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thanks, Jessica.
If you can just sign in with your name and address, that would be great. And I also wanted to say thank you. I noticed you on zooming in for the county board meeting. So, that was really great to see your face there and that they offered that opportunity for um I don't even know what they call that
when there's no one running against you, you will be part of the board. >> Unopposed. Thank you. Yeah, >> that's great. Great. Thank you. And thanks for coming here to introduce yourself. Thank you again. Any other members of
the public wish to speak? Okay, there being none, we will move on to number nine. Mandated policies for second reading. Policy A, policy 0177, professional
services. B, policy 1570, internal controls. policy C policy 2422 statutory curricular requirements D policy 5339.01
01 student son protection. E policy 6111 special education Medicaid initiative SEMI program. F policy 6220 bud budget pres preparation. G policy 0174 legal
services and H policy 1620 administrative employment contracts. Second. Any questions? Please pull the board. >> Miss Boli, >> yes. >> Miss Conpsion, >> yes.
>> Miss Drake, >> yes. >> Miss Laruso, >> yes. >> Mr. Lydi, >> yes. >> Miss Maheri, >> yes. >> Miss Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Lans, >> yes. Item 10, recommended policies for second reading. A, policy 0173,
duties of public school accountant. B, policy 1636.01, 01 notification of promotion, new job and transfer opportunities. C policy 0143 board member election and appointment.
>> Second. Any questions, please pull the board. Miss Pulli, >> yes. >> Miss Conpsion, >> yes. >> Miss Drake, >> yes. >> Miss Laruso, >> yes. >> Mr. Lyd, >> yes. >> Miss Maheri,
>> yes. Miss Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Lans, >> yes. >> Item 11, mandated regulations for second reading. A R1570 internal controls. >> Second.
Any questions? Please pull the board. >> Miss Polei, >> yes. >> Miss Conpsion, >> yes. >> Miss Drake, >> yes. >> Miss Laruso, >> yes. >> Mr. Lity. >> Yes. >> Miss Mheri. >> Yes. >> Miss Patel. >> Yes.
>> Miss Lans. >> Yes. >> Item 12. >> Having read the materials received, I move that the board approve the routine agenda items as submitted. A. Staffing for October 13, 2025. B. I HIV report
from September 29th, 2025. C. Approve curriculum document. D. Approve travel and related expenses. E. Heightstown High School Library Ambassadors Uncompensated Club. F. Approved new field trip sites. G. Surplus property
disposal MHK. H. Out of district placement. I. Tuition contract agreement with Thomas J. Rabbino Academy 202526 articulation agreement alternative education middle school and high school program. J. Transportation jointure. K.
Tuition rates for non-resident students. L board meeting minutes approval. M report of the board secretary and financial report August 2025. N expense and transfer reports of school monies report for August 2025 and O bill
list of October 13, 2025. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> Hi, I do have a question for D 12D. when it talks about um there's a staff member
that's going to Monroe to check out their um it's called to uh observing today's effective math classrooms in Monroe, New Jersey. Does that mean that they're going to be going
to the their district to check out the district or does that mean that that's like a conference that they're going to? That's one of our supervisors. It appears she's going to be observing classroom instruction with Ed Monroe.
It's a part of a It looks like it's part of an initiative where she'll be observing instructional practices in the math classroom under the special education umbrella. >> Okay. So, does that mean that um I'm sorry, I'm just trying to make sure I
understand. Does that mean that uh their program um is like top tier and it's like oh what are they doing for us to to move our program? >> It could just it could just be um you
know they could be engaged in an initiative where they may have um started something new different and they're providing the opportunity for people to see it. So, so the fact that it's our student services supervisor, uh, I believe it's probably under the special education
umbrella, maybe just a a unique program that they may may be modeling. >> All right, thanks so much. >> I just had a question for D. Oh, no, not D. I'm sorry. The field trips F, it said that um the sixth grade's going to see Aladdin. Is there is that for a
particular reason? Just curious. >> Is it a band trip? >> I actually don't know. But Aladdin's a great great a great uh great great musical to see. >> I just feel bad because a lot of the
classes don't get to go on trips. It's like a really trip. >> I think it may be connected to music, but I I'll get back to you with the specifics. >> I think I heard Mrs. Felisetta say yes. Music music department for Mrs. Velcetta in the back of the room.
Any other questions? Please pull the board. >> Miss Boli, >> yes. >> Miss Conpsion, >> yes. >> Miss Drake, >> yes. >> Miss Laruso, >> yes. >> Mr. Laberty, >> yes. >> Miss Mheri, >> yes.
>> Miss Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Lans, >> yes. We have no need for a second exec session this evening. So that will conclude our board meeting. Thank you everyone for joining us. Have a great night.