##VIDEO ID:ONoiZIzm-7k## Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand na indivisible with liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings La was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meeting of public bodies in which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the forly board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be on September 8th 2024 and September 10th 2024 and posted on the district website at www.foe.com published in the board's designated online media Outlet newspapers the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the burough Fort Lee and mail to all persons of any who have requested said notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any Gathering whether Caporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business of that body roll call please miss buers Kang M kbat Miss Curry here Mr Knight m kot Mr Lopez here M Morel here Mr Rabino here M RoR here five pres the board will be convening to Executive session to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters the board will reconvene into public session at approximately 7:30 p.m. I have a motion to go into executive session motion motion Curry second Morell all in favor I anyos [Music] flag of the United States of America to the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advance notice and to attend the meeting of public bodies in which any business affecting their interests is to stter act upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the courtly board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on September 8th 2024 and September 10 2024 posted on the district website at www.fb.com published on the board's designated online media Outlet newspaper the record and the Star Ledger filed with cl B Fort Lee and mail to all persons of any whoever Clos have notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any Gathering whether cial or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of the public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon a specific public business of that body roll call please K here here M Curry here Mr Knight present M goag here Mr Lopez here M Morel here Mr Rino here M rer here the board can be an executive session at 6:30 p.m. to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters Dr pravits We Begin by sharing a superintendence report thank you m RoR good evening everyone thank you for joining us this evening I want to start by extending a huge congratulations to our first year band director Mr Michael Leone and the marching band who once again being named USA bands New Jersey state champions they brought home the award for best visual and best color guard and at yesterday in the National United States group 5A they took second place one point away from first place during that same competition for received best color guard and best profession in the nation so congratulations to our like to thank our high schol team for successful walk to school day that happened in October the 4B police joined us in encouraging students to walk in bite to school and we're excited to host another event coming up in November please save the DAT for our next CPAC meeting I'm taking some wind out of the sales on November 20th at 7 p.m. it is a virtual program the guest speaker will be Daria capuccino education collaboration manager at berens promised care management organization they'll be discussing the overview of children's system of care wraparound Services through collaboration with the care management organization and utilizing Bergen resource. net it's virtual please join us I am please just also share some Niche rankings that have recently come out school one is number 75 out of 1,422 for elementary schools School number two is 209 out of 1,422 school number three 142 School Number 4 189 Middle School 61 out of 750 middle schools in State and the high school number 104 out of 430 overall our district is rank 47 out of the 243 districts in the state I would now like to introduce our high school students please introduce yourselves we have actually this evening Taylor suus and Lily cardello on Saturday October 12th at MetLife Stadium the forley high school marching finished second out of four bands in group five a scoring scoring an 81.7 they also won the captions for best music best visuals and best color C they were only6 out of first place Sunday October 13th the marching vanand competed at Northern Highlands and even though they were the only band in their group they raised their score to 186 on October 18th the S Club along with several teachers and police officers participated in Champions for change safe walk to school event on oober 24th several students attended the Rebecca Barrera Foundation Symposium at the American dream Mall this Symposium is to celebrate the life of Rebecca who lost her life to a distracted driver almost 20 years ago forley was one of approximately 15 schools to attend on Wednesday October 16th the fortly high school orchestra performed a fall Community concert for our local senior citizens at the Richard Nest Center they will return for Holiday performance in early December the marching band is once again us B group 5A New Jersey St state champions the band also took home the caption awards for best visual and best color bar congratulations to Julian Chen Anastasia liberman Christian Salvador and auni R B for winning an honorable mention for their podcast called trench coats in the NPR student podcast challenge our girls volleyball and girls soccer teams competed in the state tournament today boy soccer plays in the state playoffs tomorrow both cross country teams are still competing in state tournament action our football team completed their schedule this past Thursday and our girls tennis team completed their season on October 10th in the state semi finals congratulations to all athletes and coaches whose seasons are completed and continued success to those still competing members of ptle high school student council pled American flags today November 4th in front of the high school building to honor those who served our country for veterans thank you very much I'm pleased to introduce our assistant superintendent of schools Diane kasso and our director of guidance Kate drungle who will present our assessment results so they prepare I would like to say thank you for the two of them as well as all the administrators who are here this even as we put together this presentation to show our district scort and what we're doing continually look for improvement everything we do is the place good evening everyone thank you for being here in person and thank you to everyone who's joining us via Zoom um also I'd like to recognize that our administrative team is in our audience uh for support tonight as we present our student performance data from the spring 2024 we will be celebrating our successes as well as identifying areas where we can grow to support our students our presentation next slide please Jason our presentation will begin with Miss R director of School counseling services she will give an overview of student performance on AP IB SAT and ACT exams taken during the 23 24 school year evening uh we'll start with the Portland High School graduation rate so for the cohort the class of 2024 we had a 98.9% graduation rate meaning students met all requirements in terms of the credits required to graduate within specific content areas and courses uh they also me the graduation assessment requirement which was the NJ GPA and the graduation assessment requirement remains in place for the class of 2025 so the current senior took the engine GPA last uh spring and potentially this fall they were me to the district as well the next two slides cover our AP scores there's a three-year comparison with the AP scores so the First Column is the mean score uh the second column is the number of students who tested in that subject area and the third column is the number of students enrolled in the course the corresponding course to that subject so for example for biology the mean score was 3.37 there are 27 students who took that exam in the spring of 2024 and there were there were 27 students enrolled in AP biology course in the High School uh AP scores are out of five students who earn a four four or five on the exam potentially earn college credit that's dependent upon the College of University that they submit the scores to and that the College University determines the credit that's awarded where you see in ASAT is where Fort Le's average is higher than the New Jersey state average for the me we did see in 2024 an increase in scores in biology calculus AB chemistry English language and composition US government and politics Spanish language and culture US history and world history of note is that our environmental science class uh was offered for the first time last year uh students did well again we the average means score was above the New Jersey state average and that course is offered to students in grades 9 through 12 and it's being run again this year with a larger number of students enrolled in the course so a larger number of students will take that exam this uh spring um we will also offer the AP Japanese the AP Chinese and the AP French exam again to students in May of 2025 next slide please Jason uh this slide is a threeyear comparison of the ination baloran scores uh the IV scores uh the highest score you can earn is a seven uh proficient is four or greater so fortly has once again scored above Proficiency in most content areas we have increases in history HL math SL and film HL in 2024 we had four students earn the IV diploma we currently have 24 students in the IV program and the class of 2025 has 19 diploma candidates in that Coho and that's the largest uh to date in the in the program history next slide please this slide is a three-year comparison of SAT scores the SAT scores are broken down um still at 800 per section so you can see uh the scores over the past three years uh we will once again as we've done the past number of years offer uh and administer the SAT to all juniors in the spring of 2025 next slide please this slide is ET scores a threee comparison the E is out of 36 uh with the the CL the scores from 2024 we've seen an increase in both the ELA and math sections of the test at this time I'm going to turn the presentation back over to misser next J so we now present the student performance on DM assessments DM stands for dynamic learning Maps next slide please the dlm is an alternative State assessment designed specifically for students with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities offering various ways for these students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge it covers language arts and Mathematics for grades 3 through 8 and 11 as well as science for grades 5 8 and 11 next slide please the dlm performance levels describe how students perform in relation to the Essential Elements the performance levels are emerging which indicates that a student is beginning to understand and apply the content Knowledge and Skills approaching the target shows the student is getting closer to meeting expectations at Target means the student meets the the expected understanding and skill level while advaned represents a deeper more thorough understanding and ability to apply the content beyond the target next slide please here is a brief overview of Fort Lee's 2024 DM results and participation rate most students performed in the emerging category next slide please in response to the Alm assessment data teachers review student reports and use this data to inform and tailor their instruction IEP goals and objectives are customized to Target and measure meaningful growth for each student by providing individualized instruction teachers help students generalize academic social and functional skills across various instructional settings next slide and now we will report on the district's performance on the njsla which stands for New Jersey New Jersey student learning assessment next slide it's important to remember that standardized test results are valuable for assessing academic performance and identifying areas for improvement but they shouldn't be the sole measure of student learning standardized test results are an important part of understanding student performance but should truly capture a well-rounded picture of student growth we need to look Beyond just one type of Assessments by analyzing these results alongside benchmark assessments teacher created assessments and attendance data we can gain deeper insights into each student progress next slide please the njsla New Jersey student learning assessments are standardized tests administered to students in New Jersey to measure their Proficiency in core academic areas such as English language arts mathematics and science these assessments are aligned with the New Jersey student learning standards and are designed to evaluate how well students are meeting grade level expectations the njla is given to students in grades 3-9 for English language arts which we will call Ela grades 3 through 8 Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 for mathematics and in grades 5 8 and 11 for science next slide please the math and Ela and jsla use a five level scoring system to evaluate student performance the levels are as follows level one did not yet meet expectations level two partially meeting expectations level three approaching expectations level four meeting expectations and level five exceeding expectations a passing score on njsla math or Ela is a level four or five the science njsla uses a fourpoint scoring system to evaluate student performance a passing score on the njsla science is either level three or a level four next slide please this chart shows the participation rate on each njsla in Fort Lee our participation rates are strong ranging anywhere from 98% to 100% next slide please districts are required to report both aggregated and disaggregated data to provide insights into student performance across grades years and various subgroups we focus on the following categories R race ethnicity economically disadvantaged students those with individualized education programs or iets students with 5al for plans and multilingual Learners forly known as English language Learners additionally it's important important to note that certain subgroups such as American Indian Alaskan native and native Hawaiian other Pacific Islander and migrant students do not meet the minimum required reporting sizes of 10 and to preserve student privacy they are excluded from detailed analysis in this presentation next slide please and now we will report on the district's performance for the njsla for English language arts next slide please fish chart provides a breakdown of for E spring 2024 njsla English language arts results by grade level and performance level on this slide red bars represent not meeting expectations orange bars represent partially meeting expectations yellow bars represent approaching expectations the light green bars represent meeting expectations and dark grean bars represent exceeding expectations as you can see the majority of our students overall are meeting and exceeding expectations in ela indicating strong overall performance in this content area also like to celebrate that in grade seven the percentage of students exceeding expectations now exceeds the percentage of students that are meaning expectations next slide please this slide compares the percentage of for Le students who met an exceeded expectations on the ELA njla with the state average for proficiency on this Slide the gr bars represent States data and the orange bars represent Fort Le's data as shown Fort Le students significantly out significantly outperform the state average with most grades showing greater than 70% of students meeting or exceeding expectations next slide please this slide shows a three-year comparison of performance on the ELA njsla in grades 3 through n in each proficiency level overall the district's performance on the ELA njsla grew by .9% we're happy to report that across all grads combined the percentage of students exceeding expectations Rose from 28.6 in 2022 to 32.1 in 2024 there's a notable increase in the percentage of students exceeding expectations which is level five in multiple grades indicating that more students are reaching the highest levels of proficiency for example the cohort that started in grade three in 2022 and progressed to grade 5 in 2024 saw increases in both meeting and exceeding expectations with fewer students remaining in the not meeting category additionally grade six students succeeding expectations Grew From 28.1% in 2022 to 38% in 2024 grade seven students exceeding expectations Grew From 36.1% in 2022 to 40.2% in 2024 grade n also approved moving from 26.4% in 2022 to 31.8% in 2024 next slide please this slide combines the percentage of students that met and exceeded expectations over the course of three years there is an upward Trend across the three years in grades five six and nine if you compare the grade performance year to year in grades four five and six we see that we are maintaining proficiency percentages close to or above 70% we do notice however some fluctuation in some grades that require a closer look into instructional Effectiveness and and or cohort differences next slide please this slide shows how students from different racial and ethnic groups performed in English language arts we can see that there are gaps in performance across subgroups with some subgroups showing higher proficiency percentages than others next slide please this chart displays the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts across different subgroups from 2020 2 to 2024 key points include The asian-pacific Islander subgroup consistently maintains the highest performance Hispanic students displayed a gradual increase from 53% in 2022 to 56.8% Proficiency in 20124 the multiple subgroup category experienced a significant rise from 58% in 2022 to 73.4% in 2023 but dropped slightly to 67% in in 2024 excuse me 2024 next slide please this slide shows the English language arts achievement levels for specific student groups it's important to note that students may fall into more than one subgroup on this chart and therefore may be counted more than once economically disadvantaged and student to students and students with 504s have higher percentages meeting or exceeding expectations while multilingual Learners and students with I have larger proportions in the low performance categories next slide please this chart was a comparison in ela and jsla performance across three school years for students that are economically disadvantaged students with 504 plans multilingual Learners and students with IEPs although lower than other subgroups students with IEP show improvement from 27% in 2023 to 35% in 202 Bo reflecting progress among students who receive specialized support to meet their educational needs we also see steady performance in our multilingual learner student population next slide please the ELA njsla results in to create strong student performance with 72.5% of students meeting or exceeding expectations students in grades 3 through 9 perform significantly above the state average scoring anywhere from 15% to 26% higher the proportion of students exceeding expectations Rose notably from 28.6% to 32.1% in 2024 across all grades key achievements include grades four five and six demonstrated the highest proficiency percentages 78% of students in grades five and six met or exceeded expectations marking growth since the spring of 2023 grade six students level four and five scor increased by 6.5% from Spring of 2023 and Grade 9 students saw an 11.3% improvement in level four and five scores compared to the spring of 2023 upon review of The District evidence statement analysis that document highlighted that students of grades 3 through n do require more support in reading skills specifically in comparing and contrasting and understanding Central ideas and themes in literature and informational texts next slide please this slide represents our comprehensive strategy for improving student achievement in English language arts we have implemented progress monitoring measures and curriculum development in alignment with the New Jersey student learning standards for English language arts to identify student needs we use star 360 Benchmark data minimally three times a year for grades K through 12 and found to simpal assessments for grades K24 we are also piloting k25 English language arts program to be implemented in the 2526 school year to help support literacy in the early grades our professional development initiatives focus on unpacking standards to understand their impact on classroom practices and lesson implementation professional learning opportunities will support small group reading instruction structured phonics instruction through the use of the Wilson foundations program and phic awareness strategies for integrity teachers and administrators are receiving training on the use of the star benchmark assessment and educ Climer to make data informed decisions about instruction and academic Support Services additionally our multi-tier system of support known as mtss features the implementation of a win period which is currently being field tested and select classrooms in grades 1 through three next slide we will continue to provide academic support programs for students in grades 8 through 12 including basic skills smart readers Essentials and multilingual programs this year our smart readers program which is designated for students in grades K through2 has been enhanced to include Orton Gilling ham methods and will extend to kindergarten students who meet specific eligibility criteria in February these initiatives also aimed to enhance educational outcomes and provide targeted support for all leers we will now aord the district's performance on the njla for mathematics this slide displays the spring 2024 n mathematics results for Fort Lee broken down by grade level and performance categories each grade bar chart is divided into five performance levels not meeting expectations partially meeting expectations approaching expectations meeting expectations and exceeding expectations the percentages for each C category vary by grade with a notable range of performance outcomes grade 3 through eight as well as middle and high school courses Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 are represented showing different distributions of performance levels the majority of students in most grades are in the meeing OR exceeding categories indicated by the green bars the not meeting and partially meeting categories represented by red and orange bars are generally lower but some grades like grade 8 and Algebra 1 at the high school level show higher proportions in these categories notable Peaks includes 70% 76% meeting expectations in Algebra 1 at the middle school level 100% achieving Proficiency in Geometry also at the middle school level while grade8 math has higher percentages and the partially meing and approaching levels it's important to note that for High School courses the data does not include 11th and 12th grade student students unless the student enrolled in an algebra geometry course in ptle high school from another state or district and did not meet the federal graduation requirement prior to entering the B schools next slide please this slide presents the comparison of the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations which are levels four and five in mathematics between the state and the district across various grades and courses for spring 2024 the state averages are reflected by the great bars and the district's performance is reflected in the orange bars you can see that the district outperformed the state by large margins in nearly every category with the exception of grade math high school algebra 1 and high school geometry this slide highlights the comparison between the percentage of students meeting or expect meeting or exceeding expectations levels four and five in mathematics contesting State and District next slide please this SL represents a three-year Trend across student performance level data in grades three through six in mathematics from the spring of 2022 to the spring of 2023 and then finally the spring of 2024 the last columns illustrate the changes in Combined levels 1 and two and levels four and five from 23 to 24 despite some declines many braids maintained or showed strong performance in the meeting and exceeding expectations levels for example grade 4 demonstrated resilience and progress with a 2.2% increase in students meeing or exceeding expectations at levels four and five from 2023 to 2024 signifying ongoing strength in this grade grade six me significant progress with a 4.4% increase in students achieving at levels four and five reflecting successful teaching practices and student improvement from the spring of 2023 to the spring of 202 four next slide please this slide compares the percentages of students in grade seven math grade8 math and middle as well as high school math courses specific to Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 at the high school level across different performance levels on the spring 2022 spring of 2023 and spring of 2024 njsla mathematics assessments grade seven showed Positive Growth with a 7.8% increase in students meeting or exceeding expectations from 23 to [Music] 24 grade 8 demonstrated improvement with a 2.3% increase in levels four and five despite a minimal rise in the not meeting expectations category Algebra 1 at the middle school level had a substantial 11.8% increase in levels four and five with no students in the not meeting or partially meeting categories in 2024 Algebra 1 at the high school saw a drop in students meeting or exceeding expectations indicating an area that might require um some additional attention high school geometry showed a notable 15.2% increase in levels four and five suggest suggesting strong growth and higher level achievement across all grades and courses combined there was a slight 3.1% increase in levels four and five while levels one and two combined decreased by 2.7% in the spring of 2023 to the spring of 2024 next slide please this slide illustrates the percentage of students in grades 3 through 7 who met or exceeded ex I'm sorry grades 3 through six who met or exceeded expectations in mathematics for the spring of 2022 23 and 24 the performance data for each year is represented by different color bars dark gray for 2022 light gray for 2023 and orange for the spring of 202 four while grades three and and five show declines grade six displayed a notable increase in students meaning or exceeding expectations next slide this slide illustrates the percentage of students in grades 3 through S who met or exceeded expectations in mathematics for grades 2022 2023 and 2024 and it also includes performance in Middle School and High School courses specific to Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 at the high school level next slide [Music] please this slide presents the distribution of students across all grades by achievement level and Mathematics broken down by different racial and ethnic groups here you can see that there's a disparity in achievement levels among different groups with some groups outperforming others next slide please this slide shows the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations across three years broken down by racial and ethnic groups each bar represents a different year with like gray for 2022 dark gray for 2023 and orange for 2024 Asian students demonstrated consistent Improvement rising from 70% 77% Proficiency in 2022 to 81% Proficiency in 2024 black and African-American students saw a slight increase from 30% % in 2022 to 31% in 2023 but dropped slightly to 28% in the spring of 2024 Hispanic students experienced a positive trend moving from 29% Proficiency in 2022 to 31% Proficiency in 2023 and up to 34.5% Proficiency in 2024 showing steady progress soon as the multiple Rees show notable growth with an increase from 47% Proficiency in 22 to 51% in 2023 and a further jump to 60% in 2024 and white students display continuous Improvement across the three years of this well next slide please this slide presents a bar chart illustrating the distribution of mathematics achievement levels in percentages across different subgroup student subgroups it's important to note that students may fall into more than one subgroup on this chart and therefore will be counted more than once each group shows a varying proportion of students Within These achievement levels highlighting differences and performance outcomes across these populations next slide please this slide displays a bar chart showing the percentage trends of mathematics performance for different subgroups economically disadvantaged students students with 504s multilingual Learners and students with IEPs across three years each bar again represents the percentage for a given year the chart highlights performance stability are shifts among these among these student subgroups over the absorbed period And while we and what we would like to point out is that we do see Improvement and achievement in our multilingual um student population and as well as stud performance with our students with IEPs next slide please here are some highlights from our recent achievements in mathematics across the district as well as Finance algebra one at the middle school saw an impressive 11.8% growth in proficiency from the spring of 2023 to the spring of 2024 resulting in a remarkable 91.7% passing rate additionally across kto math we achieved an overall growth of 3.1% at the high school algebra 1 experienced significant progress with 33% ction in students at levels 1 and two from the spring of 2023 to the spring of 2024 grade seven students also demonstrated strong performance with a 7.9% increase in levels four and five scores over the same period Algebra 2 at the high school reported a solid 75% passing rate while middle school geometry reached an outstanding 100% passing rate it's also worth noting that our students of grades 3 through six performed above the same average moving forward focusing on enhancing skills in mathematical reasoning and modeling will be essential next slide please this slide highlights what we are doing to address math achievement the k through2 math curriculum has been revised to align to the new njsls mathematics standards a new math program in Vision math was implemented this school year in grades K through 4 to boost foundational math skill development in the early grades we are also implementing targeted professional development including coaching sessions for all Middle School Math teachers and specialized sessions for high school algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 teachers additionally professional development on DNA which focuses on data and assessments through Renaissance Learning is being provided to enhance our Educator's ability to use data effectively to make data informed decisions to support these efforts we're incorporating a variety of valuable resources including Freckle which is on Renaissance Learning platform Cuda software acao Edge elastic and quizzes all of these tools will Aid both teachers and students in strengthening their understanding and application of math concepts and their mental supplement of core math programs next slide please and now we will report the district's performance on the njsla for science next slide please this slide shows the distribution of science proficiency levels for grades five grade eight and grade 11 and overall across all grades the proficiency categories are below proficiency which is represented by the Red Bar near proficiency represented by the yellow bar light green bars represent um Advanced represent proficiency and the dark green bar represents Advanced proficiency the chart indicates varying levels of student performance with grade eight showing the highest percentage 45% in the near proficiency category and grade 11 having the highest below proficiency percentage at 31% overall across all grades an average of 35% of students are near proficient while an average of 34% are proficients and advanced proficients next slide please this slide shows a comparison of the percentage of students who achieve proficiency and advanced Proficiency in science between the district and the state average for grades 5 8 and 11 positive highlights include in grade five the district outperformed the state significantly with 52% of students reaching proficiency or higher compared to 27.5% at the state level in grade 8 District also showed strong results with 37.1% of students achieving proficiency or higher nearly doubled the state's 18.8% average and proficiency and grade 11 the district's performance substantially higher with [Music] 42.5% of students proficient or above compared to the states 28.1% next slide please this slide presents a table showing the percentages of student performance in science across different grades from 2022 to 2024 again in grades 58 and 11 this table categor categorizes results into four levels below proficiency level one near proficiency level two proficient level three and advanced proficient level four it also shows the change in proficiency levels between 23 and 24 highlighting improvements or declines notable findings include decreases in the percentage of students below proficiency and increases in advanced proficiency across all grades the overall data indicate a slight Improvement in higher proficiency levels from 23 to 24 and districtwide proficiency has improved 1 .9% next slide please this slide displays a bar chart depicting the percentage of students who achieve proficiency and advanced Proficiency in science for grades 5 8 and 11 as well as across all grades from 20122 to 2024 key positive highlights include grade five maintain consistent performance for the study 52% of students achieving proficiency or higher grade eight showed significant Improvement Rising from 27.1 2022 to 37.1 in 2024 grade 11 demonstrated stable results and overall across all grades there was a noteworthy growth from 39.9% in 2022 to 44% in 2024 indicating an upward Trend in science proficiency next slide please this chart breaks down the percentages of students in each subgroup by race ethnicity who fall into the four achievement categories on the science and a SLA positive highlights include Asian Pacific Islander students show the highest percentages of proficient and advanced proficient um and advanced proficiency indicating strong performance in in this group despite some areas of improvement either all sub groups have students reaching proficient and advanced levels next slide please this slide presents a bar chart comparing the percentage of students achieving proficience and Advanced levels in science across different racial subgroups from 2022 to 2024 positive highlights include Asian Pacific Islander students showing continuous improvement with proficiency increasing across three years black African and African-American students showed a positive shift as well Hispanic students held stable results with proficiency at 23% in both 2022 and 20 and 2024 however the multiple um races subp experienced a decline from 44% in 2023 to 29% in 2024 and our white student population demonstrated steady Improvement across the three years next this slide illustrates the distribution of achievement levels in science for the 2324 spring nlaa across various subgroups including economically disadvantaged students students with 504s multilingual Learners and students with I APS again please be reminded that students may fall into more more than one subgroup in this chart and therefore can be counted more than once as we can see while a percentage of students in each subg group are achieving proficiency on the njla science most are performing in the below in the below proficient and near proficient level categories next slide please this slide displays a bar chart comparing the percentage of students achieving proficient and advanced proficient levels which are levels three and four in science for various subgroups from 2022 to 2024 we see that over the course of three years there's fluctuation in performance with our economically disadvantaged students students with 504s and students with I APS however our multilingual Learners experienced steady growth across the three years from 3.1% in 2022 to 6.6% Proficiency in 2023 and 9% Proficiency in 2024 next slide please for grade five we saw an overall increase of 3% from the previous year in students achieving Advanced proficiency our students performed exceptionally well scoring 25% higher than the state average in the combined proficient and and advanced proficiency categories additionally there was a notable 5% increase in the number of students achieving Advanced proficiency and critiquing practices in grade eight we observed an overall increase of 5% from the previous year our students outperform the state by 19% in proficiency and additionally they showed significant progress in Earth and space Sciences with an 11% higher score compared to the previous year for grade 11 our students scored 14% higher than the state average in the profs and advant to proficiency categories next slide please to boost science performance we're focusing on several key strategies we will enhance our Curriculum by integrating real world case studies and data analysis using mosa Ma and DNA and science courses we're also implementing when to limit math and Ela intervention pullouts during Elementary science lessons to ensure consistent science instruction next for professional development we will engage teachers in the use of assessment data to guide instruction and provide strategies to support multilingual Learners especially at the high school level we're going to work on revising assessments through DNA which is an assessment tool that allows teachers to select standards aligned questions from an IA bank and resources like generation genius for grades K through 8 mosam for grades 5 through 8 and defit will help supplement our core instructional resources and allow for differentiation of content next slide please and this is my favorite slide so to close these photos remind us that behind every data point are our students they're curious they're engaged and they're growing every day our goal is to use this data to enhance their learning and ensure that they have the support they need to succeed I'd like to extend my sincerest appreciations to our teachers and staff who work very hard every day to support our students and to our Administration our principles assistant principl supervisors and directors for you being here but also for all of your efforts to support our students and for more information you can hit the link below this um presentation will be available on our website tomorrow morning thank you everybody out there you know it takes everyone participating in everything we do and I appreciate all the stakeholders parents Guardians board members staff administrators teachers everyone so thank the administration can go home if you'd like to or welcome to [Music] stayion I mean they do have a day off thank you guys for coming thank you very all right thank you do we have any committee reports um the curriculum committee met on October 16th and we discussed propos change to the high school schedule for 20 starting 2025 um Academic Year 2025 from the current schedule to a block schedule um currently high school students have the same daily schedule for five days and each day consists of the same nine periods the proposed block schedule would be structured as a 4day block schedule plus one day of um when all classes meet this block schedule is currently block scheduling is currently used in ten live which would nor Valley and other school districts the district has evaluated and considered block scheduling for the high school in the past but due to a number of factors the project was halted following the pandemic the r there is renew interest to revisit this block scheduling for high school um for the high school students and the task force was formed our committee was presented U by the high school administrators they have met the charge and visited schools in area to observe and learn about the applicability to our high school feedback from administrators teachers and students from these School helpful in and in encouraging in um in in our district considerations for adopting this block scheduling some of the benefits that were cited were block scheduling allow for longer class periods and de class periods means less transition time between Class periods and and more class times it also makes more of a CL High College um SCH class schedule so to help that our high school students transition to the College schedule earlier there are considerations that were raised by the committee um long the periods may possibly raise challenge for special ed classes so CPAC um representative this is something that we hope that you also um provide input and and advice to um to the district the logistic of the same language Lunch Period the unit lunch for the entire school is something daunting for us um currently students I believe take um take lunch over three or four period and that that would allow us to release our student in smaller numbers into the community um the unit Lune would mean there's a large number of students being sent out to to um to lunch so we did raise our concern for implementation and safety and and um and that is Paramount to us and we hope that um the administration and and Leadership will continue to prioritize that in in the planning um and and otherwise we the committee supports the BL thank you Mr R real quick a security update we have another class three that is pretty much ready to go uh I just found this information out earlier today so I didn't send it out to the other uh security members committee members uh but that's always a good thing have another without just have two uh class three officers in the schools all the time that's it thank you I I have a question on the curriculum committee report on block scheduling it was was hard to hear everything is the committee endorsing block scheduling we support um consideration for Block scheduling we ask that when when the um when the administration um finalize the details that they take safety as well as um just Fe ability of allowing such a big group of student out for lunch into into consideration so so the committee's key issue and I apologize um the zoom is not coming through clearly uh at least for me um there's a lunch issue that the committee remains concerned about but other than that the committee is endorsing or supporting uh moving next year to block scheduling yeah that's subject to parent and stakeholder input which will be the next step for the um for the administration so obviously if there are blind spots which I'm sure we will um we have that we would evaluate um the you know anything that comes in like into like what what what is the committee and administration's plan to get parent and stakeholder input that's number number one how would block scheduling affect negotiations and our current contract with the fortly Education Association and the scheduling and and contract that we have number three um did the committee take into account our students response to the pandemic and learning loss the attention span issues that we are seeing the absenteeism in our district which is the highest it's ever been um extending learning periods while maybe in a perfect world um would be something positive given our current learning environment were those issues taken into account and would block scheduling it be imposed on special education and other students who already have attention deficit and attention issues if I may before you respond I'm asking the committee chair I'm not asking for a legal opinion I'm asking for what the committee considered unless you were present at the committee meetings I'm not interested in hearing a legal report Mrs coat your second question specifically asked what if any impact on collective bargaining and Union negotiations with this no no my question was my question was in the tape well Mr Taylor my question was was that taken into account which is a yes or no not the impact confidential it should not be discussed publicly thank you you can answer other questions if you can okay the question was was it taken into account it's a yes or no there's nothing wrong with them answering that and my advice is not discuss collective bargaining in a public form thank you well okay are you directing or not to answer answer that question I'm advising giving legal advice um she can take her leave it okay I I put out four qu this is the first we're hearing of a committee meeting on on block scheduling so these are the things that are coming to my mind immediately I'll have more questions M Kang is trying to answer your questions it's the first board meeting we've had since the committee met that's the first reason it's the first time you're hearing about it the minutes were shared several weeks ago by Miss Kang so they were not distributed to you I don't know why they were not but this is the first board meeting since and is the first opportunity she's being given to give her report she's trying to answer your question and you're yelling at I appreciate that please let her answer all I'm saying is that as this develops I may have additional inquiries at Future meetings this is not my exhaustive list so so to answer your questions and in the interests of um of gravity um absenteeism was definitely raised in our meeting um in fact by allowing a rotating block schedule we do we do not have the similar situation where student may miss the first period for the first class over and over this would allow us to really address that and and and minimize and not penalize our student for the same class that they miss um the second question I am going to hear to our legal advice um and I forgot what the question first question was by this time what's your plan for parents and you said that you were going to consult and we were going to have some means to solicit views from parents and stakeholders I'd like to know what that plan is the administration answered this when time in due time we did not go into the specific mechanism of how this data would be collected but it was assure to us that parent and stakeholder input will be considered thank you very much and um just to reiterate no no no there was another last point a block scheduling requires more much more lengthy class and so was there any consideration given by the committee to those students who are failing subjects falling behind have 504s have IEPs that are already having uh distractability issues and attention span issues my in my report longer periods may present challenges in special classes and therefore I invite CPAC parents as well as those parents who are concerned to come for and make sure that your your concerns are addressed um I do I we believe that this process is not going to be overnight and it's going to be reiterative um and that I hope that every parents who are aware of this if you're here tonight to please relate this to your peer to other parents so that we can have feedback from as many parents as possible thank you well I'm going to ask that the curriculum committee in the administration look into the impact and present to the full board how this transition would impact our current absentee issues um special ed uh they can consult with cpeg but I think something more formal needs to be done because I think it prejudices those students thect I would also like to add that this was a presentation presented to the curriculum committee by the administration of the high school who has been working on this for many many many years and it keeps getting pushed to the side so we're back at or they're back at square one with the planning so some of these questions have not even been answered yet and they are in the planning stages and they brought it to us as they have visited the other schools and I can reassure you from what I have heard from the parents who I asked in the past why can't we be more like K why can't we be more like Richwood well we're trying to be like tenly now and we're learning some best practices from them um um I hope that parents will be involved in this process and I encourage you to be involved but we like Christi said learn about it two weeks ago even though months years have been put into this to investigate and research um I thank you for your question and I hope that um I hope that you know we will get some more answer we go I think an ad hoc committee should be p uh formed with parents and other stakeholders this is a major change in the delivery of Education in our district and I I offer it just as a solution this is not something that you just kind of drop in one day start sure so thank you for your questions Miss Kat so uh as Miss koten had mentioned we are this is a lengthy process that includes timelines that include stakeholder meetings parent groups from the high school um we have done a lot of research there have been site visits of other districts that are using this you've mentioned data we have a lot of that data and the research behind it uh with various research studies around the United States regarding the amount of time and the rotating block and the dropping of block and as Miss kotang alluded to the absenteeism was 100% addressed and in the data that we have presented to the board and we have excuse me to the committee and we have that information and it was shared to that committee that it will reduce the hope that it would reduce the absenteeism right so there are a lot of mechanisms at play Within what was presented to the curriculum committee and again it is just the start of this process that began um just with site visits and discussion of how we could possibly implement this as far as changing most districts in Burton County have shifted to some kind of rotating block um and we would like to see our scores increase as you just saw data presentation and and these are some of the best practices why not utilize them like everyone else also want to thank um Tanya for raising um at the last meeting to make notes available to everyone on on board this I at request for notes from this committee meeting to be circulated to the entire board I'll follow up tomorrow to make sure that it is make available to everyone thank you they should be in the drive on committee reports they always are they have been for years before it appears on an agenda I would just ask that a full presentation on the impacts and the changes and how it intersects with our current delivery of Education be presented to the board this is not just changing a textbook and I don't know if people really appreciate that this is absolutely a major shift in how we deliver education and I just want everyone to be making informed decisions I know I have not made a decision on it it's a very comple at issue and so I would just ask that we get like all the data a presentation not on the meeting we're voting but sometime in advance so that we can point and ask you you know to get us information that would be informative to our voting okay just so everyone is clear we are not voting on this anytime soon this is the first time it was presented to the curriculum committee and Miss kotang is just giving an overview on the presentation and the information we received the high school administration and our central office administration are nowhere near close to implementing this in the high school at all it is still in the works there are many things that still need to be worked out we are not voting on anything anytime soon okay the rest of us Kristen in all honesty we have zoom being removed for comments so we don't know we don't know and so unless we raise it and press and make sure we get the information things do on on the agenda we understand you've said it enough you've exhausted it Miss Byers Kang wants to I'm glad that I did you're acting as if you're not being informed go ahead Miss Byers Kang hi I just have a question about the testing I wanted to say thank you first of all for the presentation I think it was really good um obviously I don't know how you did it without taking a breath um but I had a question on how do we know who is economically disadvantaged is it from the pre and okay that that's what I would assume um another question I had was when it said math 7 does that mean the pre-algebra class or are there two different classes okay so that's the pr math 7 is PR okay um but is there a lower class or then all or or are all students tested on the same thing so there are different class classes in in seventh grade but do they all take the same test it depends so there is an algebra one test so a seventh grader that's in an algebra one course will take the algebra one test all other students will take the math 7 which is free algebra okay okay and then the other thing is I don't know exactly how to say this but um I'll just say it because it kind of makes me feel sad um when you put the up there the the races of the students I feel very sad it it makes me feel sad and and it makes me um I I don't know what to do about it I'm going to have to talk to somebody maybe in like a religious place or something about it but it I don't know I don't know if that if that's right to put that because a student that's in that shows up that that's in that level that's looks lower those students don't feel good about themselves because of of what what it said about them on there I don't think that's very nice at all and then the other students think they're smarter than the other ones just because they got born looking that way I don't like that I don't think that's very nice I don't know who made you do it but I don't like it it's required by the state of New Jersey I don't like it I understand are we allowed to ask questions about the presentation um tests those that test is administered to student with disability correct yes from taking due to their disability so in the nlsa test there's a category for disability different is that a different category than the BLM students yes yes and how how is that disability different it depends on the severity of the disability it depends on the classification of the child and that will determine whether or not they take the njsla or DM is it fair to say that the Doom student would have a more severe [Music] disability each student's disability is inated in their IE and that will dictate what kind of assessment they're given by the state of New Jersey can we go back to slide 37 Jason can you go back to slide 37 I'm sorry the next the next slide so in in that slide we have middle school algebra the third we have 50 sorry that's slide 38 yeah that's a slide I'm sorry that's the slide that's the slide I'm talking about that's the slide I'm so the middle school algebra and the high school algebra are two are two different C right two different groups of students the Middle School includes seven and eighth grade the high the high school is strictly ninth grade correct no it's anyone who's taking the algebra one class in high school SCH but only ninth grade is only taking only the ninth graders are taking the tests not necessarily that's not correct anyone who takes the algebra one class needs to take the assessment what about geometry in in the high school PR same thing student ply high school student that's enrolled in that course takes the assessment and same with algebra 2 that's correct that that's as long as they haven't taken a prior assessment so for example the student in alra one if they're in 10th Grade and they're in algebra one they transfer to us from a state that is not administer the nsla then they would sit for the nsla in Al one to meet the federal math requirement so what about a 10th grade student who's taken eligible one in ninth ninth grade would he take the geometry no as long as he has taken or she has taken the one okay they do not take so for most part it is it is a one time test so the students that are in Algebra 2 wouldn't wouldn't be like would only be taking it for the first time would wouldn't have kids correct across class yes it's a small number the grade nine students and then any student again who's new to this St has not taken the a or geometry assessment so pretty much in nth grade if you take one of those subject you would you wouldn't be taking it in 10th Grade correct because You' met the federal graduation requirement got it got it got it um so I just want to point out the jump in eligible one math the Middle School am I right reading4 to 74 to 91% 54.2 to 79.9 to 91.7 and that is one of the major direct result from our core sequence changes that we made over the last two to three years and same for the G geometry we went from 28 to 30 to 47 right I'm right 28.2 to 30.5 to 45.8 okay um that's phenomenal yes phenomenal congratulations and that has been our Focus for the last two to three years so that we are very proud to see that I understand Algebra 2 is a much smaller cohor you taking it the nth grade level so at most we have is 20 30 kids so the drop is is is is I I can understand that drop is influenced by you can just have a couple students not doing well and you see a large [Music] drop thank you it's very encouraging have any more questions I do want to Echo I'd like to his concern I'm sorry go ahead casy oh no please you can go first um I just want to Echo her concern as well that we do have a disparity that is known to the district um and that um and that I hope we make that a priority and I know you already do but as a board as a board member I want to lend the full support behind um the administration and and and and the teachers I'm grateful for everyone's work um there are area that we can do better there are always area that we can do better this is one area that is leing for question I I certainly agree I love the uh reflecting on the highlights uh you know improvements but at the same time we love to see some sort of action plan you know how how especially targeting these uh these groups um that we highlighted not being proficiency yeah I'd like to say something really quick if possible um about the block scheduling um you know I understand you know I heard very clearly that this there's a long road to it uh that this is we're in the early stages um I think it might be wise though to kind of get a temperature read on the stakeholders before we invest um an incredible amount of money resources into looking into it because if it's something that they just hate then I think we should know that before we invest a lot of resources I think you know it's good that we look into it and that we're aware what other districts are doing um but it's also good to kind of be aware of what our parents are thinking I know that the block schedule wouldn't work for the type of learner that I am um and I'm sure that others that have IEPs and or have similar situations that I had as a kid um could struggle so again you know I'm totally open I know very little about it totally open to conversation about it but I do think we should try to get some input from parents um before we like rush into it that's all thanks for letting me uh speak thank you for your comments so the the administration High School administration as well as central office has an action plan that includes stakeholders specifically at the high school because they would be the first effective to to ask their input as well as a teacher uh scheduling committee to get the teacher input as well uh so we are we and just to be clear again we are not rushing through this we want to make sure all of the stakeholders as you alluded to would be informed with a lot of those questions so the preliminary meeting was discussed there were some questions presented by the curriculum committee we'll be following up with that but we have done a lot of research but we want to share all of that and the best way we feel as you said is through smaller groups and stakeholders who can hear the information and ask the questions and then present the challenges that they see different perspectives and then start to answer those questions and have a full-blown presentation explaining you know who presented those those concerns how we address them um and I think we're going to be doing some more site tours as well to discuss the unit lunch as well are there any other board members with questions before we move on to the public okay I have a motion to open the FL oh I I thought I I have one I thought we were just talking about committee reports the inquiry I made was about a committee report okay okay what questions do you have Miss so I just have a question on 4f I'm very grateful that the eruri church is giving such a large sum of money um I was curious to know if there are any restrictions on the way that that money is spent and if not how the district intends to spend it so every year the UN church has made a donation this year is quite substantial there are no restrictions it's put into our general fund and we'll be using it through our operating budget I missed the end part we will be using it to what in in the operating budget the district for this year this fiscal year and Mr uh Lopez asked the question is this a one time every year they do something uh they are people who rent one of our facilities and they have they take a collection as a donation to The District and we acknowledge them and we thank them very much for Their donation to to our district well in in order to encourage donations of this magnitude is there a way that we could segregate and at least inform them how it was used rather than putting it into a big pot in order to encourage others and the onui church to do this again if they know that it's going to a particular purpose um I think that there's a high likelihood that it could be repeated or other donors would be willing to give but if it just goes into a big pot with no known use um you you diminish the chances that you would get a repeat donation um Mrs KC and board members pursuant to board policy a donor has every right to request and or a condition Their donation on a specific use uh in the absence of that request by the donor the board is free to use the money as a wishes and we spoke with them were they told that they could allocate it and what were the discussions the discussions when they came to Dona the check is there anything specific that you would like to donate to no we just are very happy that the fort Le public schools has offered the facilities that they rent um and we told them where it was going they were very just considerate and they were just happy to make the donation we took a picture um we shared they gave with the check and it was not a big check it was big in in in dollar but not in size uh but they were very polite but we did mention to them that it was going into our general fund or is there anything specific and they said no they were fine they were just happy that they are using a facility Within the community and they are part of the community thank you since we're talking about them I just want to mention um you my my daughter actually goes to attends the Sunday service there at the intermediate school and um and the it's a great program that they're offering for the kids and I think it's great that the district makes that space available to them and I think it's extremely generous of them to give that money so I just want to say thank you we appreciate that very much I do have a question on 3C um it's a mental health program for uh students grades 9 12 all substances is that um that program how is it communicated it go to students stay at schools or is it communicated to parents as well respond parents have to formed uh typically by the stack at the high school um giving the the parent the option to have their child participate in the program and then the program actually requires the own written consent from the parent party for the student to participate I think it's great it does it does it U is it communicated multiple languages as well it's it's actually in person they actually do the sessions in person so they'll come in and work with the students um some of their literature and the resources that they're able to provide are in various languages gotcha so what when it's communicated to parents that this is available is it commun it is communicated in different languages res I would like to mention we did have a program from the 40 grad recently come right Matthew um gave a great presentation regarding lot of thing you about that we did have Matthew um he not actually Port graduate but he's from Portland um and he did for a red week at the high school we had various events um and one of them wanted to have Matthew in and he spoke specifically about opio prevention op Abuse Prevention uh to students in grades 12 and 10 I heard it was an incredible I heard it was incredible it was very moving for many many of the students I was grateful that he you had a lot of positive feedback from that was money well spent and a lot of positive feedback from teachers who were there you know supervising the students uh saying it was one of the most impressive presentations they seen uh in the past 20 years item possible to add a year to dat comparison from previous year so we have some context to the number that we're looking whether Trend isend a concerning Trend where you know just I mean obviously at the mix meeting if that's possible right now we have the year to date number but as a standalone number it's hard for us to make sense of what that number means if we can see a comparison to the year-to DAT number from the previous year that will give us a sense of how that number is trending we'll I'll send some samples and see which ones we can do um and then we had um a number of translators that are being um for the district for oral translation so we have the Japanese translator will there be a Chinese translator as well for the district for this year it's done through an application process so the staff member would need to apply for the position so what happens if no one applies do we not have a translator for that language well we do our best to seek someone in the district that would be willing to do it and then we would pay them a different fee for their assistance thank you any other questions okay so we had a motion by Miss Curry and second by Miss Morel to open the floor to the public again that was a motion by m Curry second by Miss Morel all in favor any oppos or extensions okay we'll hear first from members of the public physically located here tonight then we'll take questions and comments from those participating remotely addition um please um for remote participants raise your hand by selecting the raised hand button Mr rero will recognize each Community member in order of raised hands and unmute your microphone please state your name and home address for the record and begin your comments everyone is limited to three minutes is your name and address for the record please is my microphone on yeah I thank you for letting me ask a question tonight my name is Amit terer uh School number one is where my children go and I'm at to 2050 Cal world so the question I had probably more for you but I'll I'll leave it open for for the board is around the rise of behavior related incidents in kindergarten in school number one um it's specifically involving physical actions and teasing uh and it's something that my child has been experiencing on a weekly basis their weekly episodes but it's becoming weekly more so two months in almost it seems like every week every other day we're getting a call from the school counselor that he's been on the receiving end for um you know physical actions kicking puning so um you know and I'm happy to sort of share with the with with you all the list of issues that at least I've been made aware of from speaking with the school counselor and Mr um you know couple times already so um after having spoken with both Mr re and bomo who the school counselor my understanding is that Mr K you have heard of this issue or has been communicated up to you uh so it shouldn't be a surprise um and you know the idea is to raise it up so I think there is an understanding having sort of two kids in the school that you know kind of gments take some time to settle in but this is probably something that needs your attention because of the repetitiveness of the issue and really where I'm going with my question is is is a call to action from the board here to to to uh help uh do a few things that we think are available because the current process of just having conversations with the kids is not working so two requests for you today and open to to any thoughts or or or you know any any questions you may have with me is thinking of the safety of the kids because the The Heading is now getting to a point where there has been no D so far knock on W but I do not want it to get into that point if we could have access to the occupational therapist I believe is an option the school can exercise considering there are um sort of you know incidents on the rise like we like at least I've been um looking at and or being exposed to and then the second request is um there are certain kindergarten sections that have IAS but the one that my son is part of specifically as only one teacher actually going through a few transitions the teacher who's there is moving on for maternity and there's another 10 and there's another one falling so that transition is causing more aggravation of this issue because there's no continuity so what I would request is the board look at the issues especially in cases where there's a single teacher or there's you know a rotating incident and rotating motion of teachers and and see if there's the option bringing in an IIA for those classes even if it's a temporary um you know sort of way minimizing the show so that those are the asss and I really appreciate the chance so thank you very much for your comments um we can't discuss publicly children but I can reach out to you tomorrow we can discuss it so I have your information and I will contact you tomorrow thank you so much you're welcome also first of all um last month we had a first meeting for school year we had a amazing turnout um with 30 parents said speak I from County C Center um also [Music] had special services and kind of meet and basically and questions want to thank P right just to her know you know at the time of on the I think about six times but you know it was really very well publicized you know all Facebook job say thank you you know for that very excited next me I know about that um I about one p under Comm I see two things I see this school I don't see school two acts is that I guess you have any other questions yeah okay so if you could ask and also students involved in special so I'll answer the the school to question if you want to answer what the committee would look like so the school to Annex so uh according to the state of New Jersey the program that exists there are two programs the 18 to 21 year old program that you're familiar with the Fortress The Fortress Is is a special program part of for high school and the preschool program is part of our preschool program which is predominantly housed at school number two so in essence it is a building with two programs both of which fall under two different buildings so the the program and all the questions regarding the h 21- year old program fall under the high school and the preschool program falls under the School Number Two um offices of the high school the high school anyone related to the high school so that's a high school program right thank you and as far as the committee okay so um the special education committee is newly formed and it is simply to have oversight and review issues affecting parents um and other concerned indiv ual so I have to anticipate that at some meetings there may be room for you know to invite others um we actually have the names we don't have the people on the committee yet but I have the people who are interested um Miss kth I know you were one of the people who spearheaded in putting this on do you have an idea of it wouldn't be every meeting that parents would be included correct I I wouldn't think so because that's just not our committee structure structure as appropriate I think the policy allows it but we would want to certainly intersect with stakeholders like cpeg but I I yield to you on that uh but I think that that's the way it probably would best function viewing it too I just wanted to make sure okay so can I I gu that I get question um well when we normally meet as committees it's just a committee of three board members and then when we have like the curriculum committee just recently met with the High School administration so from time to time there will be individuals at it so as cpag I'm sure you know whoever the committee chair becomes would reach out to you and Keith whenever you know something comes up that we would need more input on okay thank you so much okay and if any of the board members on that note did not enter your name as someone interested on that committee let me know so I will add you to that list and pick commit pick committee members sorry Keith go ahead no worries ke 2185 Le Moine Avenue um T I appreciate I know I'm not supposed to address you directly but I appreciate your passion and your concern with those stats um stuff like that is why I became a social worker to deal with those types of issues and address them and figure out why they're happening so way to see like that even though they're extremely uncomfortable um the other thing I'm not going to do tonight is talk about the cpad meeting on November 20th at 7 pm it'll be on hope you all come very much thank you Mr rer was anyone have raised hands yes excuse me Julene sasu you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hi everyone can you hear me Jason yes we can hi I'm calling um for a few things I'm Julene real quick just state your name and address please oh Julene statu 1156 Inwood Terrace and forly um thanks everyone for coming and being a part of this I really appreciate you all a few things I'm I'm really nervous about this whole block situation as I'm listening to it I'm having like like hives because I know especially um a lot of kids that have ADHD and can barely sit you know for 40 minute classes and and it just makes me very nervous so I I'm glad to hear that there'll be a presentation and stakeholder and parent involvement um perhaps we could start it with a grade or a subject and and kind of ease into it if that's you know the route you guys want to take but um I just beg you to keep in mind the large amount of children with 504s IEPs and learning disabilities um and how this is going to be very difficult for them um and cause a lot of anxiety and stress so I'm looking forward to the presentation um I also wanted to commend um the high school administration and the teachers um you know Miss strum and Lauren cadell and and Mr Lombardo and Mr quo have been just um instrumental and in a very difficult few weeks for us and I'm just really just want to give them a shout out as well as all of Jake's teachers so you are all appreciated thank you I hope you all have a wonderful evening and um that's it thank you Steph kso you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hello can you guys hear me yes please State your address for the record Stephanie K uh Tom Hunter Road forley New Jersey I as a parent hearing about this block scheduling um this would have been the nail in the coffin for my child he would never have been able to proceed with school he is now in college in fact at ruter the first thing they told him was with an IEP they were not allowing any student that had an IEP or 504 to take a three or a block course because they just had so much failure uh of people so the counselors when we sat with them said absolutely not it's not acceptable for a freshman to do a class like that so uh I I just see this as a big problem with ADD ADHD what if you don't like your teacher what if you're stuck for three hours with a teacher that's horrible or one you can't understand and since our school loves getting the opinion of students and children so much I think maybe you should ask the high schoolers how they feel about two or threeh hour classes because it's just wi with the way students are today it's not good and I heard um Amy Kang mentioned tenly tenly where I lived for many years is a very different Dynamic and uh group of parents so I I just think that you know what are the two districts Ridgewood tenly you're putting them in line with Fort Lee no now they're talking about building 400 new lowincome housing units in Fort Lee I think that it's going to be very difficult for Spanish students it's going to be very difficult for anyone with English as a second language I just think it's the wrong move to make and it sounds like you're doing it for lunch periods um maybe maybe with your Advanced student classes potentially it might be a good fit like your very high functioning students that are in these advanced classes but for the general populace I think this is going to be a big huge problem and I don't think it's that much of a great success from 22 23 24 to have our grades go up because of course the 22 grades we're going to be down these children were subjected to lockdowns for almost two years so I just think that what were the what what what is the ratio is my question for Mr Kravitz from 2019 prior to covid to where we are today have we made a great leap or are we start sort of getting back to where we were that that information I would like to get ah hold of if I could so uh as far as 2019 to 2024 I don't have that information right now uh but we can probably if you if you send me an email we see can get you some information there might be some on the website as well the student performance reports that are available publicly as far as the 3 hours it's actually a 55 minute period so I'm not quite sure the 3 hours as far as ruter So speaking from a a parent of a special needs child at ruter University as a freshman who came from a block scheduling exactly the same way it's actually working out very well for my son so I would go back to that ruers person and ask them what they're talking about because he's thriving um oh in a three-hour block class no it's not a three- hour block class we we're not doing one and and I don't know at any counselor in my son's registration process did they discuss block scheduling with us um no those those class excuse me those those classes you're you're speaking to me about something specific those threeh hour classes or the double length classes were not going to be available for someone with special needs so like let's say it was math on a Monday but it was a three-hour class anything that was in a block they said was not available question this is not a back and forth so please stop commenting excuse me your time has exceeded Jason next person mahale you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have 3 minutes um Can anyone hear me yes okay so mi kesu 254 Hunter Road so seeing the results for the IEP classes as a parent of an IEP child in the school district feels uh uh worrisome and disappointing especially that if you're like a parent with a kid that doesn't have a teacher full-time in class uh you feel like the school is letting you down so for example we're starting towards the end of the trimester and my kid is barely starting science classes now uh he was supposed you know according to the curriculum to learn about solar system and the like he's barely starting science uh he was also supposed to have a Spanish class we were told that there's no Spanish teachers and because of that they're only making Spanish classes available to the fourth grade and so on so I would you know I brought it before my question is what's the school district doing in particular in regards to the teacher shortage and the other question that I have is what are you planning to do in regards to catching up these kids cuz they IEP their special needs and um they're not even thought what the curriculum is supposed to be they're like to just you know my kid has like half a day of free time he comes back home with stacks of papers of scrap that he throws on and he chisel words cuz he doesn't even write properly cuz you don't teach him that he writes like a word a day or something like that on one of those handouts and uh it doesn't feel like he's doing much in class honestly as a parent that's all so thank you very much for your concern um not reach out to the principal as we've done in the past as far as when we looked at the scores that presentation was given you'll see a 6% growth with students with IPS in language arts and in mathematics there is type of growth I believe that we're seeing a growth with within our subgroup with students with IEPs that's a 3% gain and in science something similar so just checking my data actually science was there was a drop in 7% but the other two categories math and language arts we've seen it growth so we will address that and as far as kids that are missing anything we make sure or do our best to make sure that all of the standards and that are that required in every grade level to be taught um and there's a concern I know you can reach out to your child's teacher and principle they're as far as addressing the teacher shortage we are actively trying to recruit teachers uh we our advertisements up as many places as we can and just like everybody else we're struggling to find the right teachers but we're doing our best I think we have just a few leave Replacements still any long term we have kind of fail we have uh filed thank you Kyle Sanford you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes okay Kyle we're going to move on pearly you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name in address for the record you have three minutes hi I'm pearly um 332 Lincoln Avenue um first off I just want to say a huge congratulations to high school marging bridan yesterday on bringing home silver medal and best Color Guard we are very very excited um and the next comment that I have is just regarding the um the staff directory so thank you to Mr Kravitz for getting it updated I can see that email addresses have been populated so super happy about that just one minor request if we can also add like the titles of the staff um I noticed like some of them have it and most of them don't so if that's something um that can be done as well it'll be greatly appreciate it thank you thank you K Sanford you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hi Kyle sford 809 Harvard Place for New Jersey can you hear me yes we can okay just uh with this block classes uh now do you guys have a plan if the I kids with IEPs whether you're you have something if uh their grades do go down or if something you have a backup plan on this for the I AP kits or do you not if you could ask all your questions we'll respond after all that's your only question just I just want to know you guys have a do you guys have a a contingency plan with the kids with the 504s and the IEPs is that your only question right now that's my only question okay so just like every other school that's that's created the same program that has IEP students 504 students I I think they're about 35 40 high schools in Burton County doing this we will address it the same way all of the other schools do the same way and their achievements in fact some cases are even higher than ours with lower socioeconomic groups so we should be able to accommodate that and address like every other school in the in the county as well as in the state thanks there are no more raised hands may I have a motion to close the floor to the public motion Morel second Rino all in favor I any opposed or extensions okay may have a motion to approve items 1B through 3B motion second motion Morel second buyers King roll call please M Mars K yes m m Curry yes Mr Knight yes hang yes Mr Lopez yes M Mor yes Mr Rabino yes M rord yes on one and three I'm going to abstain on to be noted thank you may have a motion to approve items one b& and 2 b& motion motion Morel second Rino roll call please miss Myers K have say on vot M H yes Miss Curry yes yes Mr Knight yes M kotang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morel yes Mr Rino yes M RoR yes may have a motion to approve items 1 Cur through 4C motion second motion cang second Morel roll call please miss bars Kang yes M kth yes Miss Curry yes Mr Knight yes M Kang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morel yes Mr Rino yes M RoR yes may I have a motion to approve items 1 F through 15f motion second motion Curry second Morel roll call please is buyers Kang yes is Kat yes Miss Curry yes M Knight yes with a huge thank you to onori church Miss kotang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morell yes Mr Rino yes m r yes may have a motion to items 1 p through 16 P motion second motion Morel second Kang roll call please miss bars K yes Miss colth yes but I abstain as to one name on 14p Chris delov who's being appointed as the uh adviser to the interact club which is uh the Rotary Club um counterpart at our high school I do it he's a superstar but I'm the current president so um he's a tremendous adviser but I feel I should abstain thank you Miss Curry yes Mr Knight yes Miss kotang yes Mr Lopez yes Miss Morell yes Mr Rino yes this yes may have a motion to approve item one p motion motion motion Morel second Kath roll call please miss [Music] bar Miss kak yes Miss Curry yes M tonight yes mang yes Mr Lopez yes M Morel yes Mr re yes is R yes okay just a reminder um anyone who did not yet submit your name for Special a committee if you wish to be on it let me know by this week sometime so that I can form that committee um is there any new business I think so no I just wanted to can I just make a little clarification the block schedule um I know Dr kravits had answer earlier each period would be 55 minutes not 3 hours 55 minutes um so I just thank you so I I also have I I understand in response to Kyle Sanford's question that there are 35 to 40 high schools in Bergen County that have this um including some with lower economic groups I'm not sure you know how that intersect with with our analysis here um but I would like whatever information as soon as possible ra you know not several days before a vote as this topic evolves I think that the board should be kept informed about the developments what's happening where it's headed the investment um I think that this issue is very big and should be addressed as a board as a whole not at a committee level um and again I think that it's significant enough of the delivery of our education at the high school I know someone said we're going to interview or involve High School um parents this affects you know a transition from middle school to high school I don't think it should be limited to high school students so I hope that there's some comprehensive plan that could be presented to the board um and that board members that this be something that is a discussion point an entire board not just a committee making a decision and having this thing uh appear on an agenda even if it's four months 6 months two months a year down the road when we've invested that kind of time and effort um it could be wasted and I think that uh you're hearing concerns and that this should be an ad hoc and and a board as a whole an ad hoc Committee involved in stakeholders and a board as a whole discussion going forward yeah I just want to jump in real quick um just to ensure that when we're when we're talking about stakeholders I just want to ensure that we're also including students I think you know since they're going to be the ones that are most impacted by this I think we need to figure out a way to to kind of get a read of that temperature as well so high school high school administration has actually putting together a survey for students uh we're including some parents including parents and and surveys for a lot of people as I said we have some research that actually was done regarding how much time students can learn uh we have a lot of research into this document that we have creating uh we are creating I should say and have started that process and that will be shared with the board this was the preliminary meeting to just begin the conversation we wanted we felt it was the best practice to inform the board curriculum committee first since they are delas onto the board which is what took place and we were going very slowly step by step to make sure every every stakeholder will be included but there's a process and that first process starting with research um and then Gathering that research and presenting it to the curriculum committee as our first step since this is a board of of committees so yes we will be sharing everything and it will not be last minute at all a question uh no it wasn't a question I just wanted to thank the district for allowing me to attend thej SBA Workshop where that certainly g a lot of insight and best into best practices from all the school districts um along with you know what the future may look like in education the sessions covered um a lot of inative strategies and solutions that are being implemented to address common uh challenges and I encourage in the future so we can ALS informed and be more collaborative in our efforts going forward thank you I just want to Echo um D's comment earlier um I also attended the uh State Board of Education conference and very grateful for the district for all the coordination and support um Holly Doug and I were able to divide up our time there and attend various panel and workshops to bring back in C fertilize our learning um one of the workshops that I attended is the the mystifying school rankings and rating Workshop the presenters were both current um superintendents at at different district one of one of whom is the curent Ridgewood school district and he had caution that there are caveats to ratings and rankings and most recently we had a Community member who posted a screenshot of a graph with a commentary um on a local Fort Le Social Media Group page pertaining pertaining to our schools math and math performance the graph is simply titled subject proficiency and it came with a description of what njls test is the New Jersey um student learning assessment which Dian went into in great length essentially the graphs show a range of 34 to 40% Proficiency in math for the school district and the state and it's and and it is as it turned out that screenshot was taken from the US News and Report High School wanging website the commentary that that accompanied the post um as are these statistics understood correctly and forley high school has a 34% math Readiness and is below the state average when Rock for example has math Readiness at 52% and faon at 72% having attended this Workshop I I am confident to share my learning um these ranking statistics these are not statistics first of all the 34% math Readiness second fortly High School does not have a 34% math Readiness it is also debatable if forley High School is Bel with state average math Readiness and and here's why so let's start with some facts the US News takes our Statewide assessments for from the njsla and apply wait ratings to it and the results from it's wa waiting is called the performance index which then gets published to this subject proficiency that is share by the Community member the subject proficiency certainly doesn't take the res there the results directly raw data from the data that Diane had presented earlier instead it Aggregates various result results and assign multiple different R weightings depending whether the student has met the expectation or if the student is below expectation that that waiting is arbitrary so no these are not statistics they are commercial deviced aggregated and Broad characterization of the student and and and school performance that may Overlook many many many factors it does have a place as a rough estimate as a sounding belt for parents who want you know want a quick website CLI to see where the school stand but it doesn't paint the full picture to look at the raw data which is what that Diane um did earlier she explained the NJ SLA data there's also significant Gap significant gap between the state reading and math school if you remember the reading scool was in the 70 the math wasn't so the more relevant question is what's going on in the data and if you look at the data more closely all the students take the same e ELA test in ninth grade every student takes the same ELA test regardless of if you're in honor English or regular English the math test is a minister very differently it is not taken across commonly across the board students do not take the same math test depending on which math class that the student is enroll in he or she may take algebra one geometry or Algebra 2 so really which take which test a student take matage so imagine a district with fin that would mandate our eighth grade student to take algebra one in e8th grade and then subsequently geometry in nth grade my fellow Middle School parents you probably know this better than anyone I am going through now I'm going through this with my children currently our sixth grade intermediate St school student have to be recommended to take the algebra in seventh grade and subsequently algebra in eighth grade the recommendations are spelled out clearly on our district website they're methodical trans transparent and supportive for the students to be play in the right math level and for family who wants to understand how this acceleration works this puts them on a path of success because students that have been evaluated and ready to take these evalu accelerated Math course well imagine scenario where eighth grade eighth graders are mandated to take algebra and that was what happened prior to drits arrival and that was reversed only two years ago so in the data that you seeing in US News and and and and Report not only is that data two years old it also doesn't reflect the change in our in in in in our requirement so how does that relate to njla njsla doesn't wait who is taking eligible one who is taking geometry who is taking who is you know who is qualified or have is is ready to take these tests so imagine having a large number of eighth grade students who may not be ready to take eligible one in eighth grade but have to take itend it imagine and then when they get to ninth grade they have Benchmark against other students in the state and may be taking appropriate level elgible one instead of geometry and these freshmen already have to deal with a different learning environment and trying to catch up in an accelerated math class what would that do to a test scool you can just simply look at the data that Diane showed earlier in 2021 to 2022 we had 252 8th graders who took the njsla eligible one tests only 51% of them achieved me or exceed expectation care grow the following year where that requirements dropped in 2022 to 2023 we had only 151 students taking it however of that 151 student 76% of them achieve me or exceed expectation that's a 25% jump 25 points this year the data that di had show earlier we have 91.7% of the student who was taking algebra one now in eighth grade achieving that that's a 40 Point jump just by simply changing our requirement so to look at data without context is not a full picture it doesn't tell you what our school is doing in terms of the sequin of math classes are students are taken and understand that over the years the great level in which these tests a minister have changed the as too in the past it's called ninth and 10th grade now it's just the ninth grade the but that has to be accounted and that's not taking into other factors such as socioeconomic learning disability the list goes on and on of known and unknown factors bottom line is we have to take caution when we see these school ratings and rankings sharing a graph without context and deeper understanding may lead to a lot of misunderstanding and unfair categorization of our districts performs they are performed by third party to serve their interest and sometimes that may serve public interests but they are by Design to create losers and winners at least a perception of winners and losers and often these data have a Time lap US news report has a two-year time La Department of Education civil right data is collected every four years so in conclusion I urge parents who have any question to please contact the superintendent's office social media is not an official communication platform tool and it doesn't allow our staff our leadership to respond properly so I urge everyone to please reach out directly to Mr cait here you will and I I've worked with you for the last few month you you do make a commitment to respond to parents so please do that I urge you to work with a district director you have something to add to new business so I I just have a couple of questions in response to that um one are you happy with the current ratings and the district's math scores Paul PA or is there room for improvement Paul I think Amy was just sharing information that she learned at the convention I I and I have two questions in response they're much more succinct than what she just said number one are you happy with the current ratings that you commented on and the district's math scores that's rhetorical you don't have to give me an answer I see I see in getting Lester involved this is a board discussion involv that's number one it's a rhetorical question I'm not happy I see lots of room for improvement so you know she can like uh talk about 2021 to 2022 and 250 eighth graders SLA algebra what happened in our district is that we we have com for new business we are not I do I do and I'm making it and please don't interrupt me you allowed her excuse may I have motion to adj motion I have a second second me to make a speech and I can't make a comment member a mo I have a motion excuse me I have a comment for new business just like went on for five minutes talking about SLA algebra meeting is over good night well was there a motion to close the meeting or are we doing motions who made the motion and who voted because I didn't finish my comments uh Mrs Morel who made the motion and who seconded it and I didn't vote I vot against the motion I'd like to go on the record as voting against the motion please thank you