I would like to call this meeting of the EFsham Township Board of Education to order. Pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate public notice has been given by the Secretary of Eve Township Board of Education in the following manner. Posting written notice
on the official bulletin board at the board of education office. Emailing written notice to the Burlington County Times and the Courier Post. Filing written notice with the municipal clerk of Esham Township. May I have a roll call, please?
>> Roll call. Mr. DeMarcy. Mr. DeMarcy is absent. Mr. Fischer >> here. >> Misselli >> here. >> Mr. Conton. >> I wish to vote in the affirmative. >> Mr. Massen >> here. >> Mr. Pelman >> here.
>> Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson is absent. >> Miss Moowitz >> here. >> Mrs. Null >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you. At this time, I will ask for a motion to go into executive session and a motion to approve items 2.1
through 2.4. Whereas an NJSA 104-12 allows for a public body to go into close session during a public meeting. And whereas the board of education of EAM Township has deemed it necessary to go into close session to discuss certain
matters which are exempted from the public. And whereas the regular meeting of the board will reconvene following the end of the closed session at approximately 7 pm. Now therefore be it resolved that the board of education
will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in NJSA 104-12 items 2.2 through 2.4. Do I have a motion? Motion by Mr. Mass and a second. Mrs.
Ionelli, >> Mr. Yates. >> Roll call for executive session. Mr. Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Einelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Conton, >> yes. >> Mr. Masson, >> yes. >> Mr. Peeleman, >> yes. >> Miss Bramowitz,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. See you all at 7 pm. I would like to resume this meeting of the Eve Sham Township Board of Education. Please rise if you can for the pledge of
allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> Thank you. At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Massen to [clears throat] read our mission statement. >> Sure, Miss Null. The mission of the Eastam Township School District is to [music] promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning
experiences. In partnership with students, dedicated staff, families, and community, the district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to achieve their unique potential, embrace self-directed lifelong learning, develop the skills
necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making, respect themselves and others, problem solve individually and collaboratively, and become contributing members of a diverse global society.
Thank you. At this time, we will move into student recognitions. Dr. Smith, >> presentation. So, I am so excited. You're all here for No, no. We're here to talk about kids and celebrate kids. Um, so if I could have Mr. Deani, if
she's here, and Mr. Hoffman, come on down. We got the students teaching about technology club. We want to give out some certificates. >> Heather, would you want do you want to read the names? >> Yeah, lovely to see you.
>> She's gonna read she's going to read the names. I'll hold the >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> And when your name is read, just come on up and we're going to roll get everybody up here and get some picks. Max Benjamin, >> Josh Bonwidi,
Vivian Carr, >> Aisha Shandra. >> Well done, Max. Darwin Ducas, Mia Donado, Karen Falconee, [applause] William Foresight,
Alyssa George, >> Brody Gross, Emily Lee, Kalista Craft, >> good catch, Dr. Cooper Lynch, Lillian Manzy, Arnov Meta,
Angelola Oganubi, Olivia Orreno, Mason Pion, Heath Reiker, Joseph Reachi, Michael Shapiro,
Ion Shiverava, Dylan Simpkins, Emily Walrich, [applause] >> Rachel Wal, >> Owen Wel, Alex Warner,
>> Kayla Wilf, >> [applause] >> Adeline Eatman. >> All right, let's all scrunch in together. Try to get everybody in one picture, especially since everybody's got their t-shirts on. We got to get all that in. Grinch. Grinch. Grinch.
Thank you. [applause] >> All right. So, I'll pull next, >> right? >> Aiden's gonna swap out for me. >> Oh, cool. >> All right. We're gonna we're going to stay with the maroon theme for a second and have our
Marlton Middle School championship softball team come on up [cheering] >> along along with our coaches. >> You need >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna have I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it for you. Hold it for you.
>> Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you. >> All right. Uh we've got Graciana Appaluchcci. Come on down here. [cheering and applause] Maybe I'll hand off >> Lola Betts, [applause]
Nora Carlton, Aisha Shandra, [applause] >> McKenna Dearcy, [cheering] >> Eva Escobido, Eloise Fagardo, [applause]
Cararissa Giri, Reese Ginhart, [applause] Gina Hackne, [applause] our 2026 MVP, Llaya Ruiz, Sarah Schneider, Emma Schultz,
Haley Souder, Hannah Souder, [applause] Charlotte Weinstein, Annabella Wolf, [applause] uh, Uh so last year we had the the absolute pleasure coming up and uh being in the same exact spot and I have to
tell you it's because of three big reasons that we're back again. Number one, uh we have hands down the greatest players in all of South Jersey and they're standing right here. It's unbelievable. Uh from every single moment they step up, they swing, they play. If something
doesn't go their way, they put it behind them. We call it goldfish mentality. It's 3 seconds and you move on. They're amazing. Uh, the second thing is we have I'm going to tell you right now, it's one of the biggest crowds you see in a sporting event in Marlton. We had 215 people at the championship game last
year and this year we were away and one of our biggest fans was there. He never missed a home game this season. Building principal Gary Hoffman is always there with us. All right. [applause] Uh, by far our biggest supporter and fan, uh, best fans around. And the third reason we are here, I'm going to let Coach King
talk about because every team that came to our field lost their mind when they saw the field. >> Um, yeah. So, it [clears throat] started, I believe, last year or the year before, um, with Tuahoo Turf coming in, but it also, um, kind of maintained
with, um, Brian Peterson and his crew. And I'd like to bring Brian up here um, for a plaque that we got for him. and his two guys that did an outstanding job for us was Brian Sans and Jeffrey Loftess. But we'd like to present Mr. uh Peterson with a plaque from the girls
softball team. All right. So, thank you so much. They did a bangup job and and again um the parents and the fans um it was it was I mean we we have now a banner out there. It says welcome to the stable and uh we hang it up and it's we're no joke. And then uh Mrs. touches
in six blue. Um she did this banner for all of our girls. Um when we came in the next day after the championship, I don't know how she got it done. She hung it up. It has every single uh player's names on it along with our managers. Um and it's just it's unbelievable. We're going to pass that down to Mr. Thomas
for next year. But um she just did a bangup job. So anyone looking for banners on uh poster paper, you contact Carol Hutcherson. So thank you so much and You want to get everybody in. >> All right, we have to squish in, guys. Squish.
Somebody better send me [applause] this back to Mr. Thomas. All right. Hey, >> thank you. Fantastic. Fantastic. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, started with academics, then went to athletics, now we're going
on to the arts, and we're going to have >> Do you want more? >> Yeah, let's stick with MMS since we're just rolling with Mustangs. If we could have um our MMS theater directors come up, please. And they're going to help us hand out the uh certificates. There were
two shows this year at MMS. And um Andy Jr. and Wonka. So >> awesome. >> Mustangs, Miss Urky, Miss McCcluskey. Thank you. So, we're
going to pass it off. We'll call Junior first and then >> All right. So, as Dr. Smith stated, we uh performed twice this year. uh once in January with Wonka kids and then this past May uh with Annie Jr. So these are
students that participated just in Annie Jr. Alyssa George, Cadence Kelly, Gemma Molina, Abigail Orango, Angel Perez Bayz and Alia Stevens.
[applause] >> Oh, just a >> Okay. >> Any junior picks? If anybody wants to come up for any junior picks. >> Get one of the whole group. get. >> All right. So, these are just Wo.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. So our next group are for the kids that participated in Wonka Kids, Ariel Abate, Alan Broton, [applause] Celia Dealoon,
Dominic Deamansky, Claraara Eckhart, Grace Hal, [applause] Leila Honeywell, Abby Metsinger, Freya Moses, Leah Savage, Nam Sharma,
>> and Miles Weinberg. We can do that only. >> Yeah. Okay. We can do that. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. Thank you. And finally, our group of students that participated in both
Wanga Kids and Annie Jr., Sky Allen, Jessica Balma, Genevieve Bernstein, >> Josh Badudi, >> Lily Ber, [applause] Vivian Carr, Olivia Carvalo,
Olivia's here, Maya Cordderero, Mhammed Emily Cummings, [applause and cheering] >> Mia Donado, Chase Astrom, Karen Falconee, [cheering] >> Vincent Franciotti,
Avery Francisco, [applause] Shay Hurley, she's not here. Kalista Craft, [cheering] >> Amy Lee, [applause]
>> Irene Lee, Leila Lagardo, >> yours. Wrong person. >> Thank you. Olivia Macdonald, >> Lillian Manzy, [applause] Leah Maninocian,
Ashlin Park, Lillian Perea. Oh, Ashley's here. This is Ashley. Yeah. Olivia Ray, >> Ryan Reynolds, [applause] >> Ariana Ron,
Allesia Richards, [applause] >> Eva Sysmir, >> [applause] [cheering] >> Camry Williams, [applause] >> Milo Wman, >> not here. [applause]
Ava Wolf, >> Gianna Wolfson, [cheering and applause] >> Dylan Weissaki >> and Samantha Ziegler. >> Scrunch in real quick. for a pick. >> Everybody
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I just as uh as our MMS theater is taking their seats and we get ready to recognize our Demi theater, I just want to say overarchingly about both our middle school theater programs. It is so amazing every year to see how they continue to grow in the number of kids
involved and the quality of the performances. The performances are incredible and that those both those programs just keep getting better year after year. So, now we're going to have, if the Demi theater staff could come up, we're going to recognize our dolphins in the house.
So, we've got um >> they're not here. Okay. So, then we're going to have Miss Green come on up. [applause] Amazing. >> Amazing. >> Don't don't don't let the the one show a year versus two fool anybody. Okay.
That's one that's that is a show. It's a Broadway show. It's a Broadway show. So, I'm going to let Miss Green read the names. And as your names call, come on up and join us here. >> Okay. All right. Pervy Agaral
Quinn Atkins Valencia Peros. >> All right. All right. All right. Nice. >> I saw this show. It was so connected. >> Congratulations. >> Good job, Ahmad Brunson.
Woohoo. >> [applause] >> Ashley Kobiano, Simron Chopra, Isabella Castello, Samantha Cook. Woohoo. [screaming] Matteline Cruz, [applause]
Henry Cunningham, Evabella Davies, Logan Decker, [applause] Caitlyn DeFeo, You want >> She's got the sweatshirt on to prove it. >> Luciana Deglio.
John Denio III. Caitlyn Depolo Depalo, Avery Devisci, Max Domingo, Penelope uh Epipano. All right, Penelopey. Here she comes.
Here she comes. Awesome. McKenzie Farardella. >> Emma Pharaoh. Emma Pharaoh. Faith Physicero. >> Ana Gangoir. Victoria Garnett,
[cheering] >> Ariana Gotti, Ryan Gotti, Juliet Gennar or Gayar, Charlotte Gomez, Ava Ham Hamad Ze
Tessa Har, Carara Herbalig, Alexis Wang, Colin Wang, Ahong, Ethan Hunter, Maria Ibrahim, [applause]
Maniah John, Isabella Jimenez, Akira Jindal, Quinn Johnston as Kira, Letha Campati, [applause] Leia Kati,
Nora Kerber, >> okay, there's Nora, >> Megan Cotch, Anna Krauss, >> Abigail Lane, >> Addison Locks. These are special awards. Is that right? Uh, no.
>> Okay. Okay. Uh, Lena Lawson, Zanabel Lee. >> Okay. >> Liliana Lego. Legio Leio. There you go. >> Good job. Congratulations.
>> Good job. Amelia Lieberman. Savannah Lindsay, >> Sloan Lindsay, [applause] >> Emily Lumbo, Christian Mantisi, Maggie Maravage, [applause]
Madison McDermott. [cheering] >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Sophia Miller, >> Victoria Miller. >> Congratulations. Just going to give you our congratulations.
James Mitchell, Katherine O'Keefe, [laughter] >> Congratulations. >> Oh, that's so nice. Autumn Ostrich, [applause] Arya Patel, [applause]
Ava Patel, Sayani Patel, Jacob Peeleman, Olivia Peoples, Josie Peopleman, Avery Pino, >> Ivy Potruski Petruski. Thank you. Trusky
and Sai Porto Kirro Kiru, Lucas, Lucas Reed, Natalie Rogers, Mia Roman. >> Congratulations, Dylan Schnepper. >> [applause]
>> Cadence Shout, Kaylee Cino, Kia Shakula, Miranda Slater, Alexander Smout, Katie Staff,
>> [cheering] >> Ashley Serenitz, [cheering] >> Ariana Sutin, Julia Tiverz, Tvarez. Lydia Taylor. [cheering] >> Good job.
>> Good job, Lydia. So sweet. >> Evangelita. Evangelina Tori. [applause] Robert Thornton. >> Nice. >> An Elise Tierney.
Simone Tierney, Sophia Troso, [applause] Ry uh Ryland Tuno, >> Ella Falo, I like that. >> Congratulations.
>> Congratulations, >> Brena Vieiraa. Congratulations. [applause] >> Adeline Valori, [applause] >> Charlotte Woodhole, >> Jonathan Wood Hole.
>> That's it. >> Okay. >> And if there's anyone here that we didn't call, come on up and we'll get you a certificate later. I don't want to miss anybody. All right. All right. I just would like to say just as Dr. Smith said, this truly is a Broadway show. The
love and support that the kids had from their families and teachers, but it's their hard work that pays off on those Fridays and those Saturday practices that you have. Sometimes it might have been in on Sundays and late after school. So, congratulations. You all deserve this honor.
>> Go Dolphins. Bring it in. Let's bring it in. We got to get a picture. We might need three rows for this. We might. >> That's it. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Thank you, Jennist. Thank you, sir. [snorts] Congratulations again to our Dece.
[applause] I wish I had those shoes with the wheels on them right now so I could wheel back to my seat. But thank you everybody for uh coming for the student recognition portion. We're going to take a
quick quick quick brief break, threem minute break and then uh reconvene for the curriculum presentation. Everyone's welcome to stay for that. Um it it will be done in time for the Argentina game at 9:00. I was going to try to use my booming
voice. So, good evening everybody. It has been an absolute pleasure to be involved in this process and I want to thank the board of education and the um EAM township school district for giving me the opportunity to do it. I hope that what I share this evening will be helpful. And I also know that I have
orders. The Argentina game is coming on. [laughter] So I'm going to try to keep this very brief. The board has full reports on both the assessment piece and the curriculum audit piece. So I'm going to be really giving kind of like the
highlights this evening. So first of all, let me share a little bit about the phases that were involved in doing the audit. The first phase was really just looking at the curriculum documents themselves. And in doing that, I of course used information coming out of
the science of reading research because that is the the most current research on reading instruction. I also pulled a lot of documents from the department of education website. So you'll see on the left that I created a rubric using things that were coming from all those
different documents. two of them are specifically kindergarten to third grade reading instruction again because that has it's what's been most impacted by the science of reading research. So that's where a lot of changes are taking place across New Jersey right now. And
then the other two are more general in terms of what's happening in all classrooms and the types of materials that are being used. On the right you'll see that there were four possible design designations for the rubric. The highest was four and that meant that whatever
component I was looking for was present very strongly. I could see it across the curriculum and I could see lots of examples. Three would be effective. So a level three is actually a an acceptable fairly good rating. And then the lowest
is one meaning that either the component was just not there at all or whatever was in place was contradictory to the research that we now have. The second phase was looking at your student performance data. So what I was
looking for there was does the the data of students show that the curriculum in place is actually leading to student growth because a curriculum can be beautiful on paper but if it's not delivering for students it's not worth much. So this phase involved looking at
all that information and the the main four things that I was looking at were the state assessments and in this case because I was doing kindergarten through fifth grade I was looking at the third to fifth grade assessments. I looked at the I Ready which is a new program in
EAM just this year and this year it was testing kindergarten through third grade. So I we I used the data from that. I looked at the districtwide reading and writing benchmarks which are designed at they're like performance-based assessments and they're designed to assess how well
students are meeting the state standards for the end of the year. And then finally reading recovery data which looks specifically at your intervention in first grade for the lowest level readers at that point. The third step which to me was the most
enjoyable actually was the classroom visits and surveying the staff. I asked the district to put together a list of teachers for me to visit. And on the left hand side there, you'll see the things that I asked them to do. So, I asked for two classrooms at every grade
level in each school. I asked for a cross-section of types of settings. So, some that were just general education, some that included classified students, some that included English language learners. I also asked for a cross-section of teacher experience
levels. So some more experienced and some less experienced teachers. And as part of that process, not in every case, but in most, I was able to also have about a 15minute debrief with the teachers and to just kind of dig a little bit more into their perceptions
of things, things that, you know, things that they saw as positives or challenges. And I was able to ask them some questions. The survey was done anonymously and I believe there were 90 um 90 respondents
as I recall and it was meant to measure three things. It was looking at just teachers level of comfort with the curriculum. Do they feel comfortable in delivering it? Do they feel as if they understand what they need to do? The perception of the impact on students. So again, what do teachers feel they're
seeing in the classroom as a result of the instruction? And then also the professional development piece is the professional development helping teachers in the ways that they need to be able to implement the curriculum. So the results overall looking at the
curriculum document itself the rating for the entire document was a 3.74 which is I think a very good rating. The implementation fidelity rating, so looking at how it was being implemented in classrooms and whether it was being
done consistently across the district, was a 3.7. These are the components that I looked at when I looked at the actual document, and you'll see that each of those has a separate rating. And the highest are
funological awareness and fluency development. Funological awareness is the skills that students are taught as kind of a precursor to phonics. It's really working more with the sounds of language as a way of moving into working
with letters and the sounds that the letters make. The fluency development would be just reading, you know, with at a good pace and with strong expression. As you look at that list, you'll notice that the lowest score, which is by no means a bad score, was the phonics piece. And that's not surprising because
the science of reading has probably impacted that area more than any other. That's where we see changes in instruction that need to take place. And Esham has definitely taken steps in that direction. But you'll see in a few minutes that I offered some recommendations to to strengthen that
even more. So I do want to share strengths because that's important. You need to be aware of the things that are that are being done really well. Some of the really specific strengths I saw in the reading part of your curriculum involve these.
The actual instruction that's taking place in classrooms is explicit and it's systematic. So students are being taught what they need to know and they're being taught in a way that they can understand and use. There's an emphasis on application which is very important because you know years and years ago
phonics was being taught but it was being taught in workbooks. So, it was kind of isolated. Students weren't necessarily applying it. In your classrooms, there's a real emphasis on taking the things that they're learning, whether it's phonics or comprehension strategies, and actually using them as
they're reading to be better readers. They have an addition of decodable text in classroom or not, I shouldn't say in classrooms, in schools. So each school has decodable texts that have been purchased this year and they're in a centralized location which means that
teachers are going to have to go into the class or into the location to borrow the decodable text. And then there's a very high level of use offormational text which is to me really impressive because I've worked with many districts
that do not do that. There's a lot of reading of stories but not a lot of reading of non-fiction. It's extremely important. It's important for building background knowledge and it's important to just learn how to be good readers of non-fiction. And I saw that threaded
throughout all the classrooms recommendations again kind of go back to what I already said about phonics. So one thing that came to light actually through my conversations with teachers and somewhat through the survey was that at the kindergarten level there was a
little confusion about the scope and sequence what was to be taught and in what order. So that's really a matter of just clarifying the document so that teachers are clear on what they're expected to do. Another is to even further increase that application piece
of the phonics by making those decodable text more available, adding to the collection, putting them into classrooms, making sure that teachers have them at their fingertips where they're easy to access and use. And I hope that that will lead to more use.
Ideally, in kindergarten and first grade, we would want to see most of the small groupoup reading instruction being done with those decodable texts. So students are really applying their phonics skills. Kind of in a related area, I looked at some of the word study
activities that were being done independently in classrooms while small group reading instruction was taking place and noticed that a lot of times there there wasn't a lot of application in those activities. So, another suggestion is to kind of work with
teachers and help them put together activities in classrooms that have students really applying what they're learning in word study. Another one is vocabulary. Vocabulary instruction is absolutely taking place. A lot of it is happening with students learning
prefixes and suffixes and how they change meanings of words when they're added to the words. My suggestion was to go beyond that and directly teach more academic level words. So words that are not part of students spoken vocabulary
and are not necessarily made with prefixes and suffixes but are important to know. So I suggested that that become a more structured part of the curriculum. In writing again very strong writing. One of the things that really stood out
to me was that there were a lot of examples and a lot of models in the classroom. So students were being really shown what a genre would look like when it's written well and also how you write it. Like what is the thinking process
that a writer uses in order to write well in that genre and that is super important because that's what how they learn to replicate it. I also noticed that they go through the writing process multiple times. Another really important thing because in many districts in a
unit of writing students produce one piece by the end of that unit which means that they've only practiced writing one time. Here they go through that process multiple times. They write lots of drafts. They do lots of revision which means they get all that much more
practice to become better writers. Revision is something that across the board students are resistant to doing. They they've written their draft. They do not want to be bothered with making it better. It's done. In this district,
more than any place I've ever been, I saw teachers really developing a positive mindset toward revision. Teachers communicated to students that it was important and that it was what made their writing better. And uh that's again something I don't think I've seen
anywhere before done as well as it's being done here. They get timely and actionable feedback as students. When the when students are in the process of writing, the teachers are working with them right then, giving them feedback and instruction to help them become better writers of that piece and every
piece that comes after it. They're not just getting a grade at the end. So that's a huge part of the writing process here as well. And then motivation is really important. If you've done any writing, I'm sure you would say it's not easy. Writing is hard
[laughter] and unless students really want to do it, unless they're invested in it, they're not going to give it their best effort. And what I saw here was that they're being given reasons to want it to be good. They're being given an audience besides the teacher. So, somebody's going to read that and it's
someone whose opinion they care about and they're being given a purpose to write. They're trying to communicate something meaningful. That is very motivating and it makes a big difference. And then they have a lot of agency. they're choosing the topics that they're writing about and so on. So that
motivation cannot be underestimated in terms of how important it is in developing good writers. Recommendations kind of like the vocabulary I'm I saw grammar instruction taking place. My recommendation would be to ramp that up
a little bit and make it a more structured and more systematic and routine part of the writing instruction. And then specifically in fifth grade, I noticed that the over a few years, the the scores in fifth grade writing on the state test, specifically in information
writing areas were a little bit lower than the other grade levels. And as I connected that back to the curriculum document, I saw places where two specific units in that document could be adjusted just a little bit and probably
really increase your student test scores. And then the final part, I'm going to kind of wrap together several things here. I looked at not just the assessment data, but how the district is actually assessing students and what they're doing with that. I looked at the
appropriateness of the curriculum. How does it match the needs of your student population, your community, and so on, the teachers, the time that's permitted for doing it? And then also the implementation in classrooms. And these are all strengths that I noticed in that
area. So again, there's a wide range of assessment tools and all of those assessment tools are giving teachers and administrators data that they can use right away that they can use to actually make the curriculum and the teaching better. There's collaborative analysis
of that information and that is kind of a big deal because it's it's something every district tries to do but time is very limited and sometimes it just doesn't happen. Here it is happening and that is really important. The documents
themselves are very detailed. They're very explicit. They give teachers a great deal of guidance and they have lots of clickable links that teachers can use to get to the resources that they need to do the instruction and teachers are also given a lot of supplemental resources that they can use
to support them. They another big one especially in New Jersey right now is that idea of the culture affirming text. So that you know wanting to know that your diverse student population that all those students have opportunities to look at books that reflect them that
they feel as if they can see themselves in that book. And I specifically look for that and saw plenty of examples of that which I think is very important. And then again I mentioned motivation in writing. Well, motivation in reading is important too because the more motivated
readers are, the more they read and the more the read they read, the more practice they get and the better they get at it. So, the fact that students have lots of opportunities to choose what they go what they're reading independently means that they're reading something of interest and they're likely to do more
of it. And then finally, I think this is a big one to highlight because because of the fact that you have your own district created curriculum. There are so many cross-curricular connections with other subject areas that you would
never see if you were just bringing in a package program. So that to me is a huge strength of the curriculum that you have in place here that um I I saw honestly lots of connections that I was never able to make in my own district when I was a curriculum director. So that
really stood out to me. There's a lot of consistency. Teachers across grade levels, across buildings were delivering the curriculum in very similar ways. That small group reading instruction was just absolutely textbook. I do
coaching of teachers and I sat in classrooms and thought I would love to bring some of my teachers in here to see these lessons because they are model lessons. So I can't say enough about that. Teachers use key language. You know, I've mentioned before the kind of
the mindsets and the attitudes we want students to develop across the district. I heard teacher language that was really designed to do that to help students apply what they were learning and to motivate them to do it. I have never
honestly seen that much consistency before from classroom to classroom and I have to say it has to be the professional development playing a role in that. So that was very really amazing. And then finally, there's
enough flexibility in the curriculum to enable teachers to make adjustments and to differentiate what they're doing for students. So many strengths. Honestly, the only recommendations I have to offer in this area are number
one, the I Ready is a new program in the district this year and it's been used very well diagnostically to assess students. It also provides a lot of resources for teachers to use in small groupoup instruction based on the needs that have been identified. And I was
hearing from teachers that they would like a little bit more professional development in that area because they know the resources are there and they would like to take advantage of them. So a little bit more professional development would help with that. And then the second one is including the
recommendations I'm making. All of these things require time in the classroom and time is always at a premium. So, it's just important in general as a curriculum is being developed and implemented to keep in mind the time that it requires and make sure that the
time that is required is actually available. So, just something for the district to continue to think about. And then finally, I just want to end by saying congratulations because this has been a very enjoyable process. I have seen so many good things, things that
were kind of encouraging when you think about the state of education right now. Very encouraging. So your curriculum is comprehensive. It's well aligned to the research on reading and writing instruction. It supports student achievement based on the data that I
looked at. And there's really strong fidelity in the way it's being implemented. So I think with just a few adjustments, it's going to be even better. That's it. Thank you everybody.
Questions from board members? Okay. Thank you for presenting your findings. We appreciate it. I'll allow the board members to ask questions if they have any. I know some of you have the audit documents in front of you and we'll need
more time and there'll be an opportunity to ask questions later, but anything specific now? Missyelli, >> I just wanted to follow up. Um, you did meet with the curriculum writers as well
as the admin team about these improvements and suggestions and they've already started getting that process started with working on implementing some of your suggestions over the summer. Correct. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> I just wanted to say thank you. Um, and it was really great the end where you kind of summed it up with all the positives. So, I really appreciate that, >> Mr. Mass. So a question I have is as the state obviously makes recommendations and different things moving from kind of
more of the balanced literacy to the science of reading type do we see that we are adapting with that change and we're moving along with it or is it coming where are we at pacing wise compared to where we should be >> I definitely see you moving in that direction you know the decodable text
are a good example of that you have solid study and some of the recommendations are really just to kind of continue that journey to make the dec >> and the work always continues, right? It's never just done.
>> Thank you. And thank you. Oh god. Uh thank you so much for putting this together. I appreciate it. Um, question I have is is kind of on the timeline on how long it takes normally for these things to get implemented. I know Missionelli mentioned that you're
already working with some of the administrators to get things implemented this summer, which is great. Is there any sort of published timeline or or expected timeline that we might be able to see that would say, you know, here's the the anticipated time that we expect these things to be put into place. And then additionally, in your experience,
um, when do you start to see results from these changes? How long does it take for the kids to actually adjust? Um, you know, the teachers to adjust and and all those good things. Is it a year? Is it two years? You know, when should we expect to see some improvement um from the from the areas that you
recommended? Thank you. >> I love that you And I saw that they're more professional development. very important part of that really
teaching. >> Sure. No, I I I appreciate a realistic timeline. So, that's that's great. I appreciate it. Um, just to go back real quickly to the first part of the question, and I don't know if this is is your purview or not. I don't know if you just deliver recommendations and then you know the administration handles it but is there any sort of timeline that
we could look at to say you know here are the recommend you know you've already mentioned all the great stuff that we're doing which is awesome love to hear that um but for the things that we need to improve um you know we expect to have these things in place by you know next school year the following school year you know January 1st
whatever it might be um did we put anything like that together or is that part of what you do with the administration >> that might be a question to address the administration Okay. >> Okay. Great. >> Yeah. And that's fine. I'm just curious
what it looks like. So, no worries either way. I appreciate it. Again, thank you very much. >> Can I say something else? I also wanted to note we did talk about how this is like an ongoing process and we're moving towards that MTSS model. So part of the
curriculum department's job is to analyze the data now that we have more data such as I Ready and it's going to be expanding K through five. We're going to see okay do we need to strengthen tier 2 interventions and we have more
data to look at to help guide our practices. So, like we said, this is not we're done. I think this is an ongoing effort to just ensure that we're dedicated to making those very important improvements to show that we want to put
it the best practices in place for our students. So, I appreciate your thorough audit. I also want to note this was a long time coming and it's not just the admin team. I think we need to acknowledge that there was community stakeholders. we had a literacy parents
for improved uh literacy outcomes. So, I think this was a a big collaborative piece and this is the first step to really showing that we're dedicated to improving literacy outcomes. So, I appreciate everyone's efforts. >> Miss Null, I have one more thing. I just
a follow up a few moments ago. Um I don't have the slides. Obviously, we have some of the details, but are the slides going to be made available at least to the board? or it's a nice little summary. Um, you mentioned our professional development, right? I know a lot of it was maybe towards I Ready or more I Ready implementation and
perfection. Is there any other recommendations or because really our staff is the mainstay of what happens here and we have an amazing staff across the district across all six elementary schools and middle and we also have right we have interventionists we have other people to help us and support us
along the way. Is there any recommendations for maybe professional development time or dedicated time to help kind of support those roles and help continue to grow that? I would say again obviously the irony and then I think the other big one would beical
text comfortable using them very effectively and that's something they mentioned to me as well and then I would say the other one would be looking at how you're going to incorporate vocabulary instruction how you're going to
incorporate grammar and the word study like helping teachers find activities that would be that would give students more opportunity to apply what they're learning more studies. Those to me are the big professional development areas for you that
professional development in general has been excellent. I've heard that from the survey. I heard that conversation with teachers in the classific. >> Thank you. >> I have a couple questions. Just you had mentioned the teachers are asking about
decodable text. What are they asking for? Okay. >> Okay. >> So, >> okay. So, I understand that we need more and we also need the professional development for the teachers. So I think
in curriculum we discussed that we are purchasing more. It's in the budget for next year. Correct. So instead of one group, I'm going to call it a group, one set per school, there are going to be multiple sets,
one per grade level. >> Oh, okay. So the teachers don't have to go too far to get their set. Okay, perfect. >> Yes, I know.
>> Right. >> I know. >> Yes. Good. >> I know. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you, Miss Mculik. Sorry, I have one last question. You talked about in our curriculum
meeting the word studies and I believe you touched on recommendations for communicating at home. what the explicit skills being taught were and how we can better communicate that to parents and families like this is our reading strategy, this is the skill, this is a
phonics skill. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Absolutely. follow-up question. Is there any recommendations for progress monitoring on showing mastery of the explicit skills being taught? Okay,
>> thank you everyone for your thoughtful questions. We'll move on to the public comment period. Just in case anyone is not aware, we have two public comment periods. The first public comment is for agenda items only. The second public
comment is for anything of interest that you wish to discuss. This meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only. However, if your questions pertain to student or personnel items or negotiations, we ask
that you see the superintendent after the meeting. Since we do not discuss these matters in public, we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes, please, and also state your name and your place of residence before you
speak. Is there anyone who wishes to comment on agenda items only? >> Hi, Amanda Gaunt. um five links way parent of two children at Rice as as well as one at MMS. Um strong leader in
the advocacy group from the parents end. So just hearing this information from the first time I have to say a lot of it is very surprising um to hear as a parent uh in regards to progress monitoring. I've never received progress monitoring. I just heard the auditor say
that she thinks the assessments are in place. I've never seen or have been able to have an answer by a teacher. What is my child's mastery of this specific skill? That's has never been done. Um, in terms offormational text being an
area of strength, that's also something that I just can't say I've seen in this district. In fact, I had a meeting earlier um back in fall parent teacher conferences because my son in fourth grade scored very low onformational
texts on the NJSLA and I said, "How are you going to address this?" And I was told there was only one opportunity onformational attacks this whole school year. Other than that, it was going to be homework, which did come home. The teacher was did an amazing job of supplementing things coming home. But in
terms of what the curriculum offered, there was one opportunity. Um, so that's another area of concern. In terms of the decodable text, I hope that you all consider that you can't just throw decodable texts in a classroom and think that they're going to work if they're
not aligned with the scope and sequence of the phonics program that you're using. So, that's something that I hope you all consider when you're thinking about implementing these things. Um, I did hear the auditor say that decodable tech should be the small group
instruction that's occurring in K1 that's never taken place to date. So that's significant area of change. Um, these are just the things that I'm sharing based on my initial receiving of this information and to be honest I'm
quite shocked at these results. Um, it seems like there weren't it seems very overly positive and like open, honest feedback wasn't necessarily shared at this public meeting.
>> Thank you. >> Hi. Sorry, [clears throat] Alyssa Hayes. Um, Brierwood. I have two students, a second grader and an incoming kindergartener. And just echoing sorry what Amanda was saying, I also was very surprised and I felt like the scores and
some of the areas that were listed as like, oh well, yeah, we could improve this were actually really big areas. To say, oh, small groupoup instruction was exemplary, even though it's been leveled readers this whole time. That to me is a mismatch and it makes me question
how if this was truly unbiased or because it just seemed like there was a real heavy emphasis and I'm not saying there are zero positives. I agree that you know sometimes there have been times where I've seen like they're helping my child find interest in a certain topic.
Um my child loves to read, my child loves to write. That's not really what we've been arguing. we've been wanting more explicit comprehensive instruction and then to hear her say oh well it's exemplary except it's not decodables to
me that's a mismatch and it it just if I could ask more question and saying oh the progress monitoring you already have it I have never I think Amanda said this I have never been able to get from my teachers kindergarten first now we're almost done with second where is he and
what does he need to work on what has he mastered can you show me? And the answers are very broad. The answers are, "Oh, well, he's he loves this." And I I don't see the data on on my son's report card. My on on my son's report card, the
very first report card I got this year, it was Ethan is a joy to have in class. He loves to learn. He his smile lights up my day. Wonderful. I didn't no data no data on what he's actually working on. I had to have multiple meetings to
try to get any sort of differentiation and so it's and the home the to say oh the the stuff coming home is appropriate. we've been getting the same word work like and the words that he's getting home he's end of second grade his words
have been man take he's spiral writing the word man six times in a spiral and so it's hard for me to listen to this oh it's exemplary and comprehensive it's not matching what I've seen it's not matching what we've been seeing and all of us again are in this space we are
educators speech pathologists so I just wanted to express that I I have not seen whatever that presentation was does not align with what I've experienced as a parent. >> Thank you. Anyone else wish to comment? Hi, I'm Renee Pico. I am in Brierwood as
well and I have a son in second grade. Sorry, I'm just going to speak briefly because I'm not prepared and I'm very upset with the findings of the report. I'm a teacher as well. I use dibbles in my school to progress monitor. I use so
many resources that are not available in a school district that I expect more from. I've never seen progress monitoring done as well. The benchmarks, they're not done either. I'm given very little information. I don't understand
why it's so hard to give our kids what they need. Where is the tier 2 services? Why is my kid getting homework at night on a bingo board saying, "Write your words in different fonts." Is that what we expect from our kids? I
spend hundreds of dollars a month on extra tutoring for my son cuz I can't trust this school district to educate my child. So, I work really hard and I hire a tutor to come to my house every week
to educate my son because I know it's not happening. I know that the school district does not have the resources. The teachers are not receiving the PD they should be receiving out outsourced PD. They're just not getting what they need. Our kids are not getting what they
need. And I'm begging and asking you to think about our kids like they are your own. that we might have to get a second job because I have to pay for extra tutoring services because the school is not providing it for my child, that my son has to come home and say,
"Oh my gosh, mommy, why do we have a why do I have a tutor? I was in school all day." Well, that's because you're not learning the science of reading in your school. That's because you're still they're still using font and panel. That's why I open up the book that you get home and it says 1986
that the pages are ripped out because they they're so worn and so old. I have never seen a decodable. I've never seen progress monitoring. I have never seen an assessment to tell me what level is my kid on for reading.
What level? I don't know. I know because I hired a tutor that is Orton Gillingham trained. I know because I'm a teacher, but the school cannot tell me any other information. These kids don't have time. They don't
have time to wait until the the right um resources and supplemental activi resources are added in. They don't have time. They don't have a year or two until everything's put into place. The more time we wait, they're going to fall apart. These kids are going to the gap
is going to grow. You may not see the failures now, but you will see them fail because we can't waste time. If they were your kids, would you waste their time? Would you be okay with homework coming home saying, "Write your words in five different
fonts, random words that are first that are grades below. Write them over and over. Write it in the shape of a house. Write your words in the shape of a heart. Write it on the back of somebody." Three minutes. All right. Sorry. >> No, you're fine.
>> Hi, my name is Jaclyn RC. Um, I have three students at Race and one at Banzant. Um, again, I'm also very shocked by the audit. Um, I appreciate you guys putting your time in to um, find an audit and have this done. I know
it took a lot of time. Um, I do have to say that the recommendations were a lot smaller than the strengths. So, I would just encourage you guys as the board to ask as many questions as you can. Um, they were very surface level recommendations. So, when we're talking
about like these PDs, like where are we getting these PDs from? Are they being um done through [clears throat] the DOE or are they just being inhouse PDS? So, I think like these things are really important things to consider and you guys have a really big job. Um, I also I
am happy that we have the I Ready data. I'm I'm glad that we're moving in that direction. However, I do think that we're missing that homeschool connection. Um, I did bring my I Ready data to my parent teacher conference and I was told that she did not even know what was inside that. So, we could not
discuss it at parent teacher conferences. Um, I have not yet received any IRA data for the end of the year either. Um, so that's that's concerning. I did at parent teacher conference ask where my child was in reading and I was told they haven't done too much of that
yet. Um and she would get back to me on that. So I do think that we see a lot more math um because they do have a researchbased curriculum. Um I don't see much reading. My third grade child has never come home with a book at all. Um a
library book, but as far as a decodable book or any kind of book from the classroom, I've never seen that. Um, so I think you guys have a big job and I appreciate all the time and effort that you guys have put into that. >> Hi um Danielle Palmer um seven for
court. I have a son. He is in second grade at Rice Elementary. I've been part of this ad advocacy group for a few years now as well. Um you know I was pretty shocked at the findings of the audit. I um coming from a parent
perspective and not an educator. Um you know, I see my child hear my child talking a lot about nothing. You know, he goes to school, he comes home, I ask him what he reads in reading. Dogman. He read Dogman for seven months in school
this year. And um if you're not familiar with the series, a lot of Dogman is full of nonsense words and nothingness. So, you know, it's really discouraging to see my child, who by the way is not below grade level in reading. He's
actually above, which I'm very proud of as a parent. Um, I've worked hard with him, but I want him to be a child when he comes home from school. I don't want him to have to sit and work on vocabulary skills and comprehension and, you know, more in-depth things that he really needs to compete in the real
world. you know, the spelling tests that he's given every week, we haven't studied once for them, and he's gotten all 100s on them. So, as a parent, I'm disappointed um in the quality of education he's receiving. Um I also want my child to be a child when he comes
home. I don't want him to have to come home and and work with me. um just so I know that you know there is there isn't a gap there isn't going to be a gap forming and he will be able to compete with his peers when he leaves Marlton New Jersey sometime in the future. Um
you know I just wanted to just say you know reiterate what the ladies were saying just ask as many questions as possible. Um what I'm seeing as a parent did not match what the auditor was saying. So um yeah thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else? >> Um, good evening. My name is Claire Bennett. I'm at three Elizabeth Court. I'm not a parent. I'm just a community member. And so, I wanted to say to the district and the school committee, first of all, like I applaud the vulnerability
of going through this process and um opening up your doors and and really examining your practices. I also want to uh applaud the parents who are here tonight advocating for this. Um I wanted to come tonight because I'm a community member. I have a baby. He will eventually be an EPAM uh township
student and I am alarmed by the uh data that I see for um EAM students. Um, and I think what struck me about the findings that were presented tonight, um, was the discrepancy between sort of the cursory level of recommendations
that we heard and the reality that I had to double check because I was like, are we talking about the same, um, groups of students, we have a third of EPAM third graders reading at grade level at prof meeting proficiency in the state of New Jersey according to the state tests and
I think it's what 50% of students overall. I mean, so then like hearing this report and looking at the actual data, it seems like we are missing a lot of information about what is actually contributing to those results which are abysmal, right? The everything that the
parents said here really resonates as just a community member hearing this. Um, and so I would hope that the audit would be made publicly available. I think there are a lot of uh community members who would like to read the report. I would be very interested, of course. Um, and I hope that the school
committee and the district will commit to getting a lot of information that seems to be missing. We didn't hear anything about, for example, building background knowledge, text complexity. Um, maybe that's all in the report, but that's a big question that I have. Um, because
reading results are not just about the systematic uh, phonics instruction, which is important, but there is an entire element of the science of reading that I didn't hear mentioned at all tonight. Um, so that certainly gives me pause. I hope the district will endeavor to hopefully partner um with a
well-qualified partner to develop a long-term uh plan for literacy improvement. These things take a very long time. um two years to see outcomes in in student data um at the state level would be um nice, but you heard from
parents here that their children don't have two years to start to see improvements. And so um really getting the results that I think they're asking for um require some pretty sweeping change and and big um moves. Um there are free resources out there, publicly
available resources that you can access. Um, I'm sure it sounds like there are members of the community who have some knowledge that might be able to help if that's something that you all are looking for. Um, but I would just like to say as a future parent of an EHM student, I'm very concerned and I hope by the time my student joins uh
kindergarten, um, we would be seeing a um, just a significant change in the way that literacy instruction is currently happening. Um, because I am alarmed by what I heard tonight. So, thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to comment before I close the
comment period? Seeing none, then we will move on to approval of the meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve items 6.1
to 6.3? Miss Ianelli and seconded by Mr. Wilson. Are there any questions or comments on the meeting minutes? Miss Null, I did make a comment earlier
that on the special meeting minutes that I was not attending in that meeting, but it showed me as present. So, I'm just going to vote no for that one. >> On the special meeting? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> We'll adjust the attendance record. No reason to vote no. We could vote
affirmative with the We'll just adjust the attendance record. >> Yeah, you can vote yes. >> Yeah. >> Well, on the 19 on the 19th meeting, he would abstain and Mr. Dearcy as they did not attend.
Correct. >> Okay. No other questions or comments? Roll call, please. Mr. Yates. >> On the minutes, Mr. Marcy >> abstain to 6.1. Yes to everything else. >> Your abstension is 6.1 is noted. Mr. Fischer,
>> yes. >> Minelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Compton, >> staying 6.1. Yes to the rest. >> Your abstension is noted. >> Mr. Masson, >> abstension 6.1. Yes to the rest.
Your abstension is noted. Mr. Pelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, >> yes. >> Miss Moitz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. Now we will move on to item
seven, superintendent report. Do I have a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.7? Mr. Fischer. Thank you. and seconded by Mr. Peel Peeleman. Dr. Smith, I'll give you the floor now.
>> Thank you, Mrs. Null. And before I um have short prepared comments, but before I do those, I just wanted to Mr. Massen asked about the presentation being on the website, I just want to say we will be putting it on the website. Um and that's as we would as we do with all
presentations, we'll add it to the agenda and the website. Um, and uh, also on our website, which we recently added, were the uh, school performance reports that the New Jersey Department of Ed puts out. They're probably the best
source of data on student performance in the state. And uh, the the the most recent ones are from the 2425 school district. They show in the summary page uh, that our ELA and math proficiency are higher than the state average. and
we we are always looking to improve. Tonight is all about that. Um but I would encourage people to check out the audit on our website. Now for my prepared comments, really brief. Uh it's our last meeting of the year and the school year ends in um less than a week.
So first and foremost, I just want to thank all of our staff and you could see that evidenced tonight through um you know the students success for their hard work and dedication all year long. It's been a wonderful year and I'd like to thank our families as well for their
partnership with our schools and district. There is no better perhaps embodiment of that than our PTAs and PTO who enable wonderfulness uh all year long. It truly takes a village. And then lastly, just want to congratulate our eighth graders who will be graduating
tomorrow morning up the hill at Cherokee in the pack. 5:30 to Macy, 7:30 MMS. And um the live stream links are in the ETSD updates that I've sent out recently. And um and then on Thursday, our former ETSD students are graduating as seniors from
Cherokee uh Thursday evening. And uh so we're we're so proud of them and um congratulate them on their journey. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Does anyone any board member have questions or comments on any of the items under this
superintendent's report? Mr. Mass. Hi again. Um question I have in regards to the um let's see this would have been 7.3 the new organization chart for 2026 and 2027. Is it possible maybe in the future and I don't want to talk
specifics but um maybe some numbers or headc counts in reference to some of the boxes I think would be helpful not only to look at you know where we have you know our staff as far as you know where they are by the by the players but also to some of the support staff for example like some the secretaries the
administration some of the other areas just to make sure we're accounting for who's helping where and making sure we get the right resources necessary. Yeah, I think um we can definitely it's I appreciate that because I feel like we have other documents that have some of
that info like our at a glance for example things that are on our website. So perhaps we can like dovetail some of that into this. So thank you. >> I just think like corporate America I think corporately going to have to look at a structured chart. So thank you. >> Appreciate it.
>> Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call. Mr. creates. >> Roll call on administrative items. Mr. DeMarcy, >> yes. >> Mr. Fiser, >> yes. >> Miss Ionelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Conton,
>> yes. >> Mr. Masson, >> yes. >> Mr. Pelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, >> yes. >> Miss Bgeritz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. Moving on to item eight, curriculum and instruction. Do I have a
motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5? Miss Bucher Mowitz. Seconded by Mr. Massen. Thank you for curriculum instruction. Are there any questions or comments from the board?
>> I feel like I'm asking everyone. >> You go right ahead. >> Uh just for clarity, this ETSD emergency closure remote learning plan, that's pretty much a carryover from year over year. We don't see a whole lot of change year over year. Correct. >> Correct. >> Thank you. I just wanted to confirm. Thank you.
>> That came out of CO. >> Yeah. And I actually I mean nobody's hoping to go into co but I think my understanding I mean my question during the meeting was like you know why other than just good practice to have a plan
but I think it's I mean the way Miss explained it was if the state ever were to allow like a virtual learning I mean another pandemic of course too but if there's like a like an excessive amount of snow days or some sort of like have to close at a moment's notice it's just the the blueprint that will carry us through that.
>> Yeah. I'll just add to that. Now, if you're closed for some reason for more than 3 days, then you can utilize that. So, kind of >> into action. >> Just just want to parenthetically add to that. Not permissible for one-off snow days. So,
>> no, it's not that's not allowed at the moment. >> Richful thinking. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Yates >> on curriculum and instruction. Mr. Mr. Dearcy, >> yes. >> Mr. Fischer, >> yes.
>> Miss Einelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Conton, >> yes. >> Mr. Maten, >> yes. >> Mr. Pelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, >> yes. >> Miss Brammoitz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Nolan? >> Yes. >> The motion carries. >> Thank you, Mr. Yates. We'll move on to
finance and operations under item nine. Do I have a motion to approve items 9.1 through 929? A motion to approve and that would be Mr. Conan and seconded by Mr. Peeleman.
Thank you. We have quite a lot here. Does anybody have any questions or comments ahead of the vote? >> Yes, Mr. Mass. >> Just keep going down the line. Uh Mr. Yates, can you help us understand and and I know some of the things were added late, but student transportation
contracts, is there um I know we have had some discussions previously about trying to look at consolidating costs wherever possible. Is there any um good news or good light to share here on this one >> if we've consolidated or not? Well, I I see, you know, there's I see contracts
being awarded to multiple organiza, you know, different contracts for different things. Is this pretty much carryover year over year? Is this a new agreement or >> So, we've condensed uh our routes as
much as we can. Um, you know, we've we rely on our professionals for that. So, that's the work of Brianna Woreram and her team in transportation. As a result of that, we're going to renew the contracts with Hillman as we have um there's two here. We're also going to renew our minivan routes that are with
Delaware City Bus Company or Dell City more commonly referred to. And then we're awarding three contracts. Our preschool routes are going to be awarded to Hulcom along with two routes that are remaining that we were not able to
consolidate into um we were not able to consolidate with others. That's going to go to Hulkcom as well. Those are regular school year routes, not preschool. And then we also are awarding the extended school year routes to Hillman bus service.
>> Okay. Thank you. And then the other question I have is a reference to some of the facility improvements. Obviously the Macy schools well well needed long-term awaited parking lot repaving approvals as well as some uh improvements to Evans in preparation for preschool. Is any of that uh covered
through the preschool grant program or is that going to be >> So, no, we're not allowed to do capital projects through preschool funding, but preschool funding does allow for required maintenance which can offset
some costs locally. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Mr. Gates, can you please clarify? I want to piggyback because it's related to the transportation contracts. We have 9.21 Hulcom. 9.22 Hulcom. Can you please
clarify which one is for preschool and which one was for those other routes that we needed to go out to bid for? >> The preschool route is the 20 uh the one that says O2 27 or 2026 2027 O2. That's
the preschool routes. That's for the 11 preschool um bus routes that we're going to have next year. We've tiered them. So, it's two tiers. So, there's a uh an earlier start time and a later start time. And we've we're able to couple those together.
>> Okay. And and then the 921, can you just explain that one again? >> It's just it's just routes to and from school, regular routes to and from school. >> Okay. How many routes are they getting? >> It's it's four runs, but two tiers.
>> Aided on a 24 passenger. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments from the board on any agenda items, finance and operations? Mr. Dearcy, >> um I just want to uh shout out, you know, the work that was done. Um there's
some shared service agreements on the agenda tonight. Um and I'm always, you know, advocating for for getting smart with our money. And I this is just example of work that was done by, you know, thank you John for for helping put those together. Um and in addition to that, consolidated the bus routes. um
you know just looking where we could save money, find efficiencies because it matters. So thank you and uh you know job uh one final question Mr. Yates referenced um does this include after school for next year or is that going to
be a separate line item in the fall? >> We're probably going to renew our late runs where necessary. >> Okay. So, um I right now don't anticipate that we're going to need to bid those. Um so, and that was that's through uh my conversations with
Brianna. >> Perfect. Thank you and thanks for all the work as well. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, excuse me. [clears throat] Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Yates >> on finance and operations. Mr. Dearcy, >> yes.
>> Mr. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Missionelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Masson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Peeleman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wilson. >> Yes. >> Miss Bram Moowitz. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Null. >> Yes. >> That motion carries.
>> Thank you. Moving on to personnel. I need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.11. Do I have a motion for personnel? Missyelli. Thank you. seconded by Mr. Fiser. Thank you very much. Under
personnel, are there any questions or comments from board members? Mr. Peeleman. >> Um, well, I wanted to welcome all of our new appointments to the district and say how excited we are about everyone. Uh, my family in particular is very excited for Mr. Fox to be joining the district.
We've known him for many, many years. Um he was instrumental in starting uh my children on a life of music that has continued all throughout this time. My daughter knew him when she was at Dacy in kindergarten and has always referred to him as Uncle Fox. Um which is how we
all talk about him in our house. He is uh just a wonderful human being and a great asset to the community and we are super excited to have you. >> And if I'll just add Mr. Peeleman for those folks who are watching at home um who can't see Mr. Mr. Fox, that was that
exchange had the amazing added value of having Mr. Fox and his family here in the back. So, uh, and, uh, Mrs. Smith, who's also on the agenda for recommendation for the new principal, MEES, is there with her family, too, cuz Mario's been making the technology
happened the entire time. I mean, your kids have been so great during this um not long, but just a meeting, you know, and uh >> so kudos kudos to uh to both of the kids, too. So,
[applause] are there any questions, other questions or comments from board members on personnel? Seeing none, I'd like to add, you may have not seen it, but on um the board members have seen it, but the public might not have seen it. On this agenda,
the board will approve that Dr. Smith will resend his retirement September 1. He has so graciously offered to stay on. The board has asked him to stay on until the new superintendent,
whoever that new superintendent will be. who are still in that process can begin and we anticipate possibly November, possibly early December. But I want to thank you, Dr. Smith. He he gave up his
uh travel plans. Just joking. He was happy to help. >> Education is the ultimate travel. So >> I I we we so appreciate you and I wanted the public to know that the board has asked him and he has accepted. So, that
is on the agenda tonight. >> I appreciate you mentioning that because I I wasn't going to say it about myself, but um and I I just want to um that I wanted I wanted just Mr. Fox, Mr. Mrs. Smith, I just wanted their last
personel. So, that's cool. [laughter] >> Sorry. >> So, sorry. >> No, no, it's cool. >> Okay. Um no more questions or comments then. Roll call, please. Mr. on personnel. Mr. DeMarcy >> abstain to 10.10.
Yes to everything else. >> Your abstension is noted. Mr. Fischer, >> yes. >> Misselli, >> yes. >> Mr. Kton, >> yes. >> Mr. Masson, >> I wish to abstain from 10.3 and 10.10.
Is that yes to the rest, sir? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Your abstensions are noted. Mr. Peeleman, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, >> yes. >> Miss Bucher Melitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries.
>> Thank you very much. Moving on to policy. Do I have a motion for approval of 11.1 first reading on policy? Miss Moitz seconded by Mr. Pelman. Thank you. Are there any
questions or comments? No. I have a question for Mr. Mongan. So, we have this um requirement for cell phone ban, bell-to-bell ban. when is this policy going to come out and that we can approve it and the the faculty can know
what to do in September? >> Great question to ask. So, um when I went to the last sty workshop, they they shared that they don't have it yet. They are working on it. They're waiting for the leg to completely make up their minds on how it's going to roll out.
They promise as soon as they have it, they have a draft ready to go that they'll share with the districts. I I talked to the policy committee last week and we all agreed that we'll throw together a quick emergency meeting. Hopefully get the first reading on the August agenda,
>> right? I forgot about the two meetings. Yeah, >> I know that we do this well and I see Mr. Hoffman here. >> Yeah, I would say >> no nonsense, no cell phones, but >> it'll be it'll mean very little change for a district like ours. That's um >> and we have plenty of meetings in
August, so it'll get done. [laughter] >> Okay. Well, I thank you for that clarification in case any of the public was wondering where our policy is on the cell phone ban. I appreciate it. So, no other questions or comments. Roll call, please. Mr. Yates. >> On policy, Mr. Dearcy,
>> yes. >> Mr. Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Ionelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Compton, >> yes. >> Mr. Masson, >> yes. >> Mr. Pelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, >> yes. >> Miss Bramitz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Null, >> yes.
>> That motion carries. Okay, thank you. Moving on to committee reports. Do I have any committee chairs who would like to share their meetings this month? Any information on the meetings? Committee chairs? No. Seeing
none. Okay. Um, we'll close that portion. And we have no old business, but we do have an item under new business. I would, as discussed in the executive session, I'd like a motion to approve the sale of a portion of 15
Handover Road to Burlington County. Do I have a motion for approval? Mr. Peeleman, seconded by Mr. Dearcy. Are there any questions or comments? >> One one question or comment I'd like to make is this is property that is
undevelopable because it's all wetlands. So there is no effect or any sort of rehabilitation or building going to be happening on this property whatsoever. Correct. >> Correct. It'll be preserved as wetlands. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. >> Okay. No other questions. Roll call,
please. Mr. Yates. >> On new business, Mr. Dearcy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Miss Anelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Massen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Pelman, >> yes. >> Mr. Wilson, >> yes.
>> Miss Bermittz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. And we have our second public comment period now. So, we are going to um move on to that and um the meeting
will now be open to public comment. Reverend, I'm sorry, no, it's on any items of interest. If your questions pertain to student or personnel items or negotiations, we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in
public. Please limit your comments to three minutes per person. And please state your name and place of residence before you speak. Are there any is there anyone in the public who would like to comment? Any items of interest?
Seeing none, we'll close that portion of the meeting. And I believe lastly, we have board member announcements. Is there um anyone who would like to comment before we close the meeting?
Missionelli. Um I have a couple comments. I just want to reiterate I think that our district knows that we have improvements in regards to curriculum. We have a wonderful new um leader taking over and I think that she
Miss Cam will will continue to look at the audit and take the valuable feedback that we heard tonight as well as working closely with Miss Mculic and and collaborating with the staff to ensure that we are taking the right steps
because there's always room for improvement. Even though we're above the state average, we're always going to strive for excellence. So, I think that we need to have that mindset and I know that Miss Cam will take us there. Um, I do want to congratulate all the
retirees. We have a lot this year. I just wanted to give a special shout out my twins. Both of their teachers are retiring. Um, Miss Cohen and Miss Seager from Beer as well as the technology teacher, Miss Adams. They have been
wonderful and they have served this district for many, many years. So, [music] congratulations and thank you for all the retirees for their service and dedication to Esham. Um, last night, this is just a highlight for the Beer
PTA. Uh, they had their ice cream social and the line was wrapped around the building. You, we waited like an hour, but it was okay. The kids were having a blast and it was a great turnout and again it just shows how amazing our PTO
and PTA organizations are. >> Anyone else? Mr. Massie. >> Well, since Miss Ielli stole my thunder, I think your teachers might have retired based on Okay. No. Okay. [laughter] No. Um, so I I want to start off by thanking the amazing PTAs and PTOs across the
district. Um I had the opportunity the last few weeks to attend at least four ice cream different socials both where schools my schools where my kids attend and also some new ones. So um it's great to see community involvement community outreach and being able to talk and and see people and just um the joy right on
students faces when they get free ice cream. Um I had the opportunity briefly stop by the administration building. They got free ice cream. I just want to know when the board members get free ice cream. Everyone else gets it. Where's ours now? Um obviously when it comes to curriculum and thank you to the um improved literacy group. I mean obviously again as as Christa
recommended and and discussed there's a lot of things took a lot of notes copious notes and I think this coming year is going to be a big year of change right from administrations across the board. So congratulations to those new appointments um and sincere congratulations to all the retirements especially Mr. Hoffman who I don't think
has missed a meeting since I have started with the board and I even all the meetings I came to Mr. Hoffman never missed one so >> we expect you to keep coming afterward >> Mr. from I've been here nine years and Mr. Hoffman has always been in that front row. [laughter]
He has and he used to sit beside Mrs. Romanelli and now Mrs. Green is here. So yes, he never misses a meeting. >> Well, we we recommend that he uh we'd love to have him anytime for free water bottles or where else we can offer you to come by and visit us. Um but just wanted to thank [laughter] all maybe
we'll get to the bigger ones. All right, but no, just wanted to thank everybody and um congratulate the graduates tomorrow from both the Macy and Marlton Middle. Um there's a lot of events have been going on but the work isn't done for us. I think some of us can have meetings throughout the summer in various committees and curriculums and different things. So um we appreciate
the hard work that all of us and our teams do and then look forward to be coming back in uh year of change in 2026 and 2027. So thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Masson. Anyone wish Mr. Con Compton >> uh Mr. Hoffman are you coming in August
or is this your last one? >> Uh it's debatable. There's a probably will just because there's potential for staff recition. >> All right, good. Then I I'll save some stuff for then payroll. >> All right, good. [clears throat] I I thought [laughter]
>> I had stuff to say, but I won't say it now then. All right, cool. >> Um >> the only other thing I'll say is uh Dr. Smith, I'll have stuff for you to say in November or whenever it is. But um I think you continue to exemplify the fact that you're the most selfless administrator I've ever worked with.
Then I want to say thank you to to you for staying longer and and sorry to to Alisa that you're staying longer, too. >> I want to give a very brief because it's been a long night on the superintendent search. You probably know the job posting went live and it will close on
July 5th. There is I believe on our website hopefully an online survey and that was pushed out via update by Dr. Smith last Friday I believe. Okay. And then also we are
beginning the stakeholder input sessions this week with administrators and I um am going to work with Mr. Peeleman as well. We're going to uh schedule we need to schedule with all staff and the community at large. that will happen next week or the week after. We're still
trying to schedule those. There will be multiple opportunities. We'll do an in person and we'll do a virtual. So, look out for more information on that. Thank you all and enjoy your summer break. Do I have a motion to adjourn?
>> Oh, I'm so sorry. >> The the survey closes July 1st, correct? >> I Yes. So, if anyone has not done done that, um there's still a couple weeks left. So it would be really really helpful. >> Yep. >> Yeah.
>> July 1st. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. >> Motion to adjourn. Mr. Massen, seconded by Mr. Dearcy. >> All in favor? >> I >> I thank you everyone.