Do notice that this meeting has been provided to the retrospect and the courier host as legal ads on September 30th, 20125 to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. >> Minsley here. >> Mr. Co >> here. >> Mr. Stazzy >> here. >> Mr. Kendall >> here. >> Mr. L >> here. Madison. Mer >> here.
>> Miss Williams. Miss Single >> here. Moving into section three on our agenda. These are the minutes. Can I get a motion to approve items 3.1 through 3.3? >> So move. >> Second.
>> All in favor? >> I. All right, moving to section four correspondence. Is this all that we have in each? >> Yeah, we need that. >> Okay. All right, moving into section five. This is our public comment section. This is the first public comment section of the evening and is for members of the public or the board
of education on items included on tonight's agenda. If you have comment, please stand, say your name and the street you live on. Okay, seeing none, I'm going to move us to section six, our superintendent report.
>> Great. Uh, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. Welcome everyone. A lot of good business on tonight's agenda. We appreciate everyone coming out for your participation. Uh, first I'd like to begin uh with the donation. Uh, earlier this evening I was
handed a letter from John and Amy Foley. Miss Foley's here tonight. She's had three children uh come through Hancaster School District and we will graciously accept a cello that's being donated to
our school district on behalf of >> Thank you very much. You want to share want to say a few things? Go ahead now with Donna. >> Oh, okay. Well, thank you very much. Um you know, thank you all for having running such a wonderful school
district. Our three daughters had a great experience here and our youngest daughter is the one who cello from fourth grade through 12th grade full time and always said when she graduated high school that she wanted to donate
the cello um for kids to >> thank you next for my superintendent report we had an extremely valuable and powerful event happen our school district a short time ago And that was the capital exhibit
that was uh made possible for our school district from Helen Kirb from the Esther Rob Holocaust Museum in Goodwin Education Center who uh provided us with the resources necessary to host this
counterpart. Um uh which was a powerful experience for many of our senior students and our eighth grade students who saw a little bit different of a great presentation. Uh but I personally sat through the presentation. It was extremely powerful, extremely rich in
align with everything that we're doing in our school district in terms of character education and um you know I commend Miss Kirch this organization when Rob Center and uh our district administration freeway was a big part of
that for bringing that here along with Mitch McC and and the rest of our district team. So that was excellently excellently implemented and believe it's going to be in other school districts to follow and I give my highest
recommendation. Next on the agenda tonight, it is a uh a pleasure to introduce our two of the three student representatives that are going to be with us every month alongside the board of our student reps. And this year is a little bit different.
you know, instead of just choosing from existing school leadership, um, we actually put out a application to our 12th grade students and students could apply to be, uh, board of education student reps and I read
through each of the applications and then we did personal interviews and I asked them why they wanted to go forward and what they thought they could contribute and I selected three individuals to participate. Our first individual is Libby. He's not here
tonight. He has a football game. Um, but Lily Steel is here. She's going to introduce herself in a few moments. And Ariana, these two individuals um have been role models in our district, not only respected by me, but have received
the highest recommendation uh from their vice principal, Mr. Allen. And it's a pleasure to welcome them to this board. Uh welcome uh to our meetings. We know that we can count on you for important updates. You're going to be
the voice of the high school and um in past years we've had a great we've had great success with those three steps. Uh so board's looking forward to getting to know you and really why don't we start with you. Why don't you share with the board who you are and why you're
interested in this role and what you're gonna what information you're looking forward to providing. >> Okay. son. Hi, I'm Lee Steel. I'm a 12th grader at the school. I've been in school district for ever since kindergarten. I was elementary school at
Strawbridgeidge and I had kindergarten in Edison and I went to middle school here. So, I just know about everything about the school. Um I'm in clubs like Interactive Club. We do a bunch of volunteer services and I play girls
tennis. We just ended our season. um the sad defeat in the final, but we had a really really good season and I managed girls lacrosse varsity girls lacrosse team this spring. Um I'm really happy I was chosen and I'm very grateful and I'm really excited to get to know all of
you. Thank you. >> I'm Ariana. I same same as Lily. I've gone since kindergarten and I went to I went to Edison and then I went to middle and high school here. Um, I play field hockey. We're still in our season. Playoffs should start in like the first
week of November, so we still have a little bit left. Um, I'm hoping to manage girls basketball and lacrosse this spring. Um, I worked at Breadboard in Havfield, and I wanted I was I originally passed the application because I just wanted to be a voice for
the rest of my like class. I feel like there's a lot of people in our grade that like have such good ideas or like want to see a change, but they just are too nervous or just don't want to speak up because they think that they could be wrong. So, I want to be able to like take those ideas and be able to like present changes.
>> Thank you. We're so excited that you're here. It would have any questions for our student reps about their experiences from the first month or so of the school year, how they experienced back to school or anything particular as the Holocaust Museum that I had discussed or
the construction, the dance, anything they'd like to know from the student reps. >> He teed us up earlier, so he he walked us through this one. The cell phone policy, do you like the cell phone policy? How's that? >> Um, in my personal experience, I don't really have a lot of trouble with it. I
try to stay when it comes to time and just being outside. I know a couple people in school have been kind of hard, but I think it's a good adjustment. It's not as hard. It's
not as um like difficult as people. We were all just very anxious about it. Change is new and it's scary, but it's going to change. >> Yeah, I I agree. I feel like I went to the sportsmanship neighborhood for sports a few weeks ago. We were sitting
with people from college and their they had like phone pouches and it was like locked all day. They didn't touch the phone all day. I feel like that would make people a lot more upset if you get it like every 45 minutes when the period ends and then you have it all lunch. So I Somebody had brought up about the dances
not being as popular as they used to be. Any comments about that? You like the dances, you know? What's up with the dances? >> I think Well, we've had one in the series before and it was a spirit dance and I think it was mainly just like girls tennis and field hockey that I
know that day the boys and girls soccer team had a game at like 6:00 and so it was like 5 so they had like just gotten home and I know specifically that day girls had like a pretty bad loss. So after like the loss, nobody, none of them wanted to really go and after getting home at like 6:30, they had like
30 minutes to get ready. So they played a big faster, but I've heard a lot of people get ready for home for our homecoming dance and that's in like the beginning of December. So I think a lot of people will go to that. We already know that there's no sports scheduled for that. So people have time. Yeah, I think that sports were definitely a big
factor because like she said, they had just both girls and boys had soccer and both teams and it was really only girls tennis and field hockey when it's kind
of difficult to explain, but I think it's kind of just like this big deal is now like I feel like I love I think the idea is so fun and very much a femin experience. But I think because we had
the addition of homecoming spirit dance like it was loses how special it was because like that is our new version of homecoming and because we have that in December now it's kind of just one more question what do students do
nowadays like in their free time they're not going to a dance like you say. What do you what do you guys do in general on a Saturday night? It's like Friday night these days. [Music]
>> Basically what it is um our town as you know is very very small and we have so many good like opportunities here but again it's only so much you can do in a small town and we're really lucky. We have Philly right next to us and other towns to go to. So it's really I know what I do hang out with my friends all
the time and I'm not hanging out with them like I'm playing >> I was going to say just kind of either at someone's house or now that a lot of us can drive food there and maybe like go back to someone's house. So I was
>> and I am interested in your experience or what you've heard of other students experience with that cattle car holocaust exhibit. you'd like to share. >> Um I know that my class I had it last period so I was at the end of the day. So like it was like 20 minutes in the
paddle bar and then there was a classroom set up with a bunch of like um like primary sources from it that were like framed and the the person the speaker in there that was like talking to us since he had experience in the whole day. you just said that like a lot of people were telling you how like moved they felt cuz you did the panel
part first and that was like that was pretty like powerful and then going right into primary sources and seeing it all like firsthand. I I thought it was really it's hard to like replicate that and I think they did a really good job. >> I agree like obviously the Holocaust is
successful to learn and we learn every as we should but I think a lot of the times kids just kind of get very bored of it. they're used to the same talk of everything that happened and it's actually so just something new and I think it
impacts a lot of people I know cry um but I think that most in general but um it was really important like I saw like our classmates I don't think I've ever seen them interested in what happened like ever
the fact that like you You're not just reading off the text, but you're not having a survival feel like those. >> I have a question about the referendum
and all the stuff that's going on in the building. How is everybody adusting to different is not being accessible or under instruction. >> I think um for I think it's part of it is a struggle and the other part is kind of a blessing. Like the blessing part
like our tennis courts were extremely cracked. We had coaches before like claim that some like weren't playable and stuff like that and our turf wasn't really the greatest. to the fact that we have all these new coming in that boost around that we love our sports now it's
not just us it's on them it's other people it's adults children it's private lessons so I think overall I think the only issues that I kind of see are just the girls locker room not really being open because we've had to get
dressed in the bathrooms but I think honestly for know that a lot of us I don't I people that do swim and they have this big issue at the pool they swim in is that everyone's in school but there's not a lot of showers. So the fact that our locker rooms do have
showers is a huge deal to all the swimmers and so >> locker rooms will be open next week. >> Yeah, I would say the biggest issue the locker room is open is just a big change in the bathrooms cuz it's like girls
tennis, girls soccer and field go hockey and there's only so many bathrooms. So like even like if you just go like outside of the stalls, it's just it's so it gets so cramped so fast. And so I would say that's really the only issue. But as far as like parts of the school being blocked off, it's really just like
the media center and then like the auditorium. So it doesn't really affect I mean the media center is not open, but it doesn't like it's not like it's like the hallway. We have to make like a big detour. They're kind of just like the one part of the school that's like already separate anyways. So I think that the construction inside doesn't
isn't really making that much difference. I never like hear like machines or anything. I only thing I ever hear is when I'm last year I hear like them doing the turf. >> All right. Have you girls actually seen the new girls locker room yet? Have you been inside yet?
>> I've seen pictures. It's really cool. It's really nice. >> Okay. Um, next is and this presentation actually goes back to last spring when we started to, you know, I started to inform the board much before that of
the progress that we were making at the middle school with, you know, the new schedule. Um, we saw learning increases from the school, you know, the data had improved at the middle school. Disciplinary referrals had decreased at the middle school board started to ask.
let's hear from the principal principal office that principles and then you know we were faced with that budget deficit in March and you know we pushed later to the spring and then we had it in June and we had another issue so we said let's push it to the fall so finally I
have Mr. Swisigi here tonight and um because of the budget reduction force that we had uh Mr. Greenway was reassigned as the principal from the middle school, as the vice principal, the assistant principal of my high school, as the new assistant principal
at the middle school. So, um, they've done a terrific job opening the school. They're going to present to you about not only uh what has occurred last year, but some of the new things that are happening this year in the middle school. So, I'm going to turn the floor honor a thank you guys for
>> Thank you, Dr. M. Farrell. I'm going to start by saying that's going to be a tough act to follow. I never got to meet Ariana or Lexi or Lily, sorry. Um because I moved to the middle school, they moved to the high school. But I can't believe how poignant
you are at your age and articulate. That was really impressive. Also want to thank the board. Um, originally this was supposed to happen in May. I know part of it was budget crisis. I also had a family situation come up. So I really appreciate uh your
understanding and uh grace in allowing us to do this in October. Uh, and also originally Dr. Pero asked me if we could do it in September and I said well we're trying to get the building settled. Um, so I appreciate uh all of the kind of understanding all of that. So a little
over 3 years ago, uh I moved to middle school and our team there really started to um just look at how we could have the best possible student outcomes. That was really our northstar. Uh we wanted to see so we looked at where we were at the
time and uh with the staff uh we we had a lot of conversations about how to get our kids where we wanted them to be. Uh all of you that are in the community know how wonderful having matching kids are. Uh we really are blessed to be a part of such a wonderful community and
we wanted to really see how far we could push them to get to their potential. So what we're going to talk about today are the action plan. We're going to present the action plan that we came up with and then we're going to tie that to the impact that it's had on our students and
our community. Um, so you do have the presentation in front of you. I'll also share it out after the presentation. Uh, and feel free to jump in at any time. Uh, Kevin has been gracious enough to also present. He's been here for 4 months and he jumped right in and said,
"Yeah, I'd love to be a part of this." So, uh, so we're going to we're going to get kicked off. Um, if you look at slide two, I know there's a lot here, uh, but I'm going to kind of distill it down to a couple of things.
Uh, if you look at the top, our four pillars are really engaging instruction, student well-being, family and community, and fostering a safe environment. So that was those were
the principles that we really wanted to zero in on and our action plan is beneath that. Uh we wanted to have rigorous instruction that can meet the needs of all students. So we wanted to be able our our our educators we wanted them to be able to differentiate and
I'll talk about how we supported them in doing that. uh we wanted to be innovative and you guys have supported a number of initiatives that we have put into place including a couple this year with Maggie Math, New Jersey tutoring war. So we'll talk about that in a
moment. Uh and honestly uh this these last three years have been really an exciting time for me as a leader. Uh and it's it's because of our staff that we have some success to share today. Uh we
have 68% tenured staff, 32% non-tenured. We have 31 teachers at the middle school. So we have a nice blend of new teachers and teachers that can really support them and the collaborative environment that comes from that ratio
is really positive. Uh our student well-being, uh the first bullet there is probably what Haden County Schools is all about. It's establishing a strong connection with one another. And um you know, Kevin's in here the first week. I think he knew every student's name in
the middle school, which was really impressive. It took me a little longer cuz I'm I'm getting a little older. Um but we we know our kids and uh we care about our kids and we're there for them when they show up and we show up for them. Uh we have counseling. If 1.5
counselors, which is for 442 students, not ideal, but they really must survive each day to set up individual, small, group, and schoolwide wide programs. Uh we're going to talk about some of them. Uh we have programs outside of school
that you guys support. We have 18 clubs. Uh I call Jen every year and I say, "Hey, we got an idea for a new club." And she's always supportive. Um, this year we have tabletop gaming club. Uh, we have a number of other clubs that really meet the needs of all students.
Uh, we have some students that take advantage of our athletic programs, our visual performing arts programs, and then there are some kids that, you know, they're just trying to figure out where they fit and we have programs. I mean, chess club, uh, we have a lot of, you know, robotics club. Incredibles is our
literary magazine that is I mean the issue in in the spring I think was 200 pages long of art and writing composition that was that just blows your mind. Um so we also have embedded character
education. Um going over to family and community we have uh we started community gatherings uh or at least we adapted them a bit. Uh we have every at the end of each marking period we have a time where we all come together the performing arts uh students get to
perform in front of their peers which is actually something that's very scary to them. Uh when they have to perform in front of their peers it's it's a moment where they get to they'll play in front of us but when their peers are sitting there and just to see them overcome that
challenge and now they embrace it and love it. Um Mr. Kathy has been great with in getting them to that point. Uh we have a number of events and activities. There were some of you sitting around the table that were part of our PTA and that was a great
partnership from the beginning. Uh we really brought some great events to connect our our families, our students and our faculty. Um one of the things that you know I think you picked up in Hag Township is we have always on communication. So, email, phone, in
person, whatever works for a family, we're willing to do. Um, and then I I touched on the incredible PTA support. Uh, and then really this could be the foundation is we want to have a safe environment where everybody feels
comfortable. Uh, so we, you know, I remember the first week we conducted some walkthroughs and we found some spaces. We've created a vestibule at the entrance so that there's an additional safety procedure in place. Uh we now have uh we have a raptor system that's
checked IDs. Uh we've transitioned to a new system now that does basically the same thing. Uh and then there you can see some of the updates that you're supporting with our additional classrooms. Uh everybody knows John is probably on the board, but we that the
last referendum that you know the school our our population has grown and the middle school is smaller than you know originally anticipated. So we've needed some additional classrooms and uh we've been lucky this year to gain some
additional classrooms. Um and they're great spaces. Um, other than that, we're excited to have state-of-the-art media center and a counseling and wellness center very soon. All right, so we're now just going to
we'll drill down a little bit. So, here are some of our initiatives that we're really excited about. Last year in 2023, 2024, um, or I guess wait, that's Yeah. So two years ago we we partnered
with CHOP. So it's the CHOP program but the program is called HOPS. Um and that helps students who struggle with executive function support. So we had um people on our faculty trained in the program and they're now doing it on
their own. So they support students who have trouble with organization um which is very typical uh particularly among boys in middle school. Um but we work with them and it's a it's been a really successful program. Magma Math uh today
in the sixth grade classroom uh there was a magma math class uh problem that everybody was working on and everybody in the class got the wrong answer. They were the conversation started and you know kids were talking to each other and they figured out that
there was actually an error in the the system and it was really cool how they kind of problem solved it. Uh the teacher emailed Magma Math and it was changed within a minute. So just to see that and and that happens in all types of um academic settings. Textbooks have
mistakes in them. Um, but it was just really cool to see and the kids learn it was so cool that they had found the mistake and uh they thought it was so cool that it was corrected within a minute because textbook you can't correct it. Um, so it was a really cool thing to see. Our teachers
are very excited about that and it's re it's receiving great reviews so far. Uh New Jersey Tutoring Corps, we have uh an individual at our school that's helping support uh math students in math. Uh Amplify, we introduced uh we're in our
third year and um this is a great example of how we really developed an action plan together as a staff. our ELA department got together and they basically said, "Listen, we want to standardize the education in our ELA
department, but we don't want to lose our creativity." So, they adopted Amplify, um, which really gives them the best of both worlds. There's a 100 day plan within Amplify, which also allows you to infuse some teacher creativity
into the lessons. Um and really what we liked about Amplify was when we looked at the data that from 2122 our students really strugg struggled in writing tasks. So Amplify gets them writing every day. And sometimes it's a
simple journal entry. Sometimes it's a it's a persuasive essay. uh but they're writing every single day, which is a really important um is a really important thing in in all of our classrooms for students to be writing and communicating. Uh and we have Quest.
Um Quest were isn't new per se, but we are really trying to enhance our gifted and talented program with the resources we have. So, we've come up with some creative ideas. We'll talk about that as well. >> Mr.
So, as as Andrew said, I've been at the middle school for four months, but three of those were over the summer. So, this has really been the last month is really been me getting my orientation at the middle school. And while it's great seeing Lily and Ariana tonight, I miss everybody at the high school and all the
kids there. Um, it's been great getting to know all the middle schoolers like Andrew said. Uh, and that's really one of the strengths Andrew and I worked together for so long. We taught together at the high school and then we were both assistant principles at the high at the high school together. So now we're working together again. So our philosophy, we already know they align
and we work really well together. But I know it's Andrew already mentioned it, but one of his emphasises and mine is getting to know the kids and establishing real genuine relationships with them. And as you said, one of my things is trying to learn their names as quickly as I can. But that's really a
strength of of all of our schools, but now I'm learning that in the middle school between Andrew and me and the office staff and all of the teachers that they really try to build genuine relationships with the kids and then that permeates through everything else among the school community. Uh Andrew
mentioned our fantastic counseling staff and the resources they have available to them to support the whole child. We do have character strong curriculum that is embedded in all grades in sixth and seventh. It is done as a cycle class in leap and then in eighth grade the
character strong curriculum is delivered during their win or what I need period. Finally learning what win and leap are now that I've been here for a month. I I have them differentiated. Uh Clayful is an online resource that middle school students have available to them if they
ever need any uh social emotional support, somebody to talk to that that's you know perhaps in a unique situation. Uh there's an app on their iPads that they could reach out to somebody for support. Andrew mentioned the community gatherings and uh we are a no place for
hate school again this year at the middle school. I was a big part of the high school no place for hate program which we've since moved away from just because the hope club has become so robust that we felt as though hope was driving its own programs for antibbias
education. But now that we're at the middle school, uh we're gonna I'm gonna be taking high school students to the ADL conference in a month. Um but we'll be doing our activities to help combat, you know, judgment, antibbias, uh kind of educating the whole child on appreciating each other and trying to
establish that, you know, walk a mile in each other's shoes before you make any judgments. And that's coming from my experience as an anti-bullying coordinator. You know, it's way better to be proactive than reactive and trying to educate uh younger children on how to
appreciate one another's differences. >> You don't want to share those quotes. >> What's that? >> I'd like that last. >> Oh, yeah. So, yeah. Sorry. And Andrew put these on here. The quotes from the student climate survey about loving the school. Um the last quote there about
needing vending machines in school. Um, that was in response to if you could change one thing at RMS, what would it be? Which I thought was great cuz I'm, you know, they're not when you looked at the responses, they were really funny, you know, um, they weren't like, you
know, bored. I, you know, it was it told us a lot about about our student experience. >> Uh, so community engagement, um, we are right in the middle, we had our back to school night. We're in the middle of our teacher conferences. We had our first night of teacher conferences last night.
I I'd say what I'm learning through teacher conferences, our teachers are so accommodating in that it's different than elementary conferences. We only can do so many in a night and and middle school teachers have 80, 90, 100 kids on their on their roster. So they can't
always meet with every teacher, but every single teacher if they were filled up on their conference roster, every single one said, "Please email me and I'll give you all the information you want." basically do an online or phone call conference. So, our teachers have been super accommodating in terms of giving parents updates on their kids and
if they weren't able to then I would encourage the parents to reach out with any questions. Uh, obviously all their grades are available in all course as well. Uh, PTA, I know uh shameless plug for the high school PTA. They have their trunk or treat coming up on Friday, but uh I'm getting to know the middle school
PTA as well. And just like the high school, we have a great relationship with them and they are so generous with their time and energy and money and putting the programs together for our kids. We're grateful for that partnership. Uh it was great meeting the sixth graders at their uh orientation in
the spring, but then we in our locker day uh we couldn't do locker day as we would have traditionally done it. We had to do an outdoor one, but it was still great. The kids getting there, getting their schedules, they're still so excited to be there. So that was a great day. Uh, in terms of communication, principal bulletins go out once a week.
Our website was newly revamped, so there's a ton of helpful links, including for parents homework links on there. Uh, they can go on the website, click on sixth grade homework, and it gives any sixth grader what their homework would be that night. Seventh grader, uh, same thing. Uh, as I said, staff is always available. And we did
just start recently a Word Middle School Instagram page with some updates and hopeful hopeful just to get more of our of our our school out there in terms of all the great things that are happening at at Middle School. Um last thing I have and again I've only
been here for a month so uh but one of my main roles and when I say my main roles like Andrew and I work so well together that we really take on a lot of the responsibilities. Um Andrew has great relationships with kids that are there already. So we we tag team a lot of the attendance and discipline issues.
As you can see from the statistics, obviously we're coming out of CO, but our absency rates are going down. We are trending in the right direction there. And like I said, that comes from getting to know the kids, trying to find out what each kid needs and getting that connection to the school through all of those things like community gatherings
and and fun events for the kids. In terms of uh discipline, you can see our discipline referrals have gone down. Um, I I can comment on this year the 49 just from my personal perspective. When I look at 49 in a month, I would say that's high. But I like I like data. I'm
a I'm a data guy. So, I like recording if a student has an infraction. I like making sure it's in the system. Even though the student might not be getting consequences, you know, we we do restorative in terms of, you know, just talking with the student and making sure that they they learn from whatever
mistakes. Um, so I like just having that documentation in there and and saying, "Okay, you made a mistake, then we want to learn from that mistake just to make sure it doesn't happen again." Um, so a lot of those 49 discipline referrals, they could be for some latency or perhaps like safety. You know, we're big
on that. Just making sure that students understand, um, you know, that there there's a set of rules and we want them to follow that, but it's not always, you know, a punitive consequence. There is the time for that, but it's more about the learning experience with the child. Um so that's in terms of our
disciplinary referrals that's kind of the trend that's going in that direction. >> Great. >> Uh so one of the additional data points we want to share with you today is uh some testing data and you know I always take
testing with a grain of salt. It's a snapshot in time. Uh but this year we kind of want to show uh some of the gains we've had and uh I have some data. Let me make sure I have my notes. Uh I want to compare this to where we were 3
years ago, which is hard to do with data because it involves different kids, uh different cohorts of students, but uh you can gain some semblance of what's what's happening. Um, but all of those initiatives that we just threw at you
have kind of led to some of these gains. And uh, you know, that's not a scientific study. We can't say we deal with humans and they're complex beings, especially middle school human beings. Uh, but you know, we can see that there's trends going in the right
direction. Um, so I'll boil this down for you as easy as I can. >> You're good. >> Okay, I'm good. Um so this in this column this is the states numbers this is our students and this is our
students from the previous year. Okay so you can see in grade six seven and 8 we are above the state eighth grade well above the state. Uh I can tell you that um these numbers are almost double where
we were in 202122. Uh I'll share that in a moment. But what I like is even when we compare our students to themselves, we're still seeing gains of a pretty significant amount. 5.8% 8% 7.9%
and 9%. Um, in 2021 2022, grade 6 was at 50.4%, [Music] grade 7 was at 45.1% and grade 8 was at 41.4%.
So, um, those are pretty significant gains and, uh, I'll tell you all the credit goes to the staff. uh they've come up with new initiatives. A lot of the ideas we facilitate they come up with. Um do you have any questions on
the ELA data? Okay. Matt data uh again state us last year and our students the previous year. Um this you know we're about 15% above the state. or above uh uh schools and I'm
sure Shantel touched on this in our district factor group. Uh it does this is a little misleading because this says minus 1% that was as high as minus 19% uh throughout these last three years. Um and one of the things I'll point out is
that grade 6 is often a difficult transition. uh they go from 60 minutes of math to roughly 45 to 50 minutes of of math a day. Uh at ELA they go from 90 minutes to 45 to 50 minutes. Um so uh
we're really happy with those scores. Uh grade seven gains. Uh grade eight. I'm still trying to figure out what is going on with the grade 8 test in the state. Uh we don't get get to see the test so I don't know what's on it but every year
this is really low in the state. Our kids obviously perform better. Um but there's something going on with the grade 8 test. I'd love to talk to somebody in the state and figure out what's going on there. Our students in algebra uh do very well. Uh we can't compare
data here because our kids are separated into uh math and then algebra. So it's we can't compare that to the previous year where they were all together. Okay. So any questions on the MAT data.
Okay. So this is our closing. Uh but I do you know we have the students at the center. I wanted to thank the board because I I tried to give back last night as I was kind of just preparing in my head for this um of a time where I asked the
board or our uh board of education for something and was told no and I I couldn't think of anything. So um there have been times where they say are you sure you know can you can you share some information on the rationale and I always appreciate the opportunity to do
that but uh wanted to thank you for your support. Our faculty deserve a ton of credit. Uh they came back this year to a building that you know was not in great shape and they rolled up their sleeves and got ready for the kids. Uh I was
really nervous. I was nervous about how they were going to, you know, what they were going to think about things uh and how they were going to react. And we just said, "Hey, we got to get away from the kids." And and we did. Um our maintenance staff was great. Uh our families here are absolutely wonderful
and our community uh you know, I've been here for 24 years and uh hope to stay as long as I can. So, thank you. >> Just a couple things I want to say while Andrew is still up there. Excellent presentation and you were very humble in
your uh delivery but I want you to just highlight a few things uh because you this is your fourth year as a principal. >> Yeah, this is into my fourth year. >> So, so talk about um one of the things unique about Andrew is that when I go over there in the morning most of the time I find him standing up in the
hallway even when kids are in classroom learning Andrew standing up in the hallway at a mobile desk. So talk about like your approach on being visible and that type of what's your strategy there and how do you lead? Uh I mean to be
honest one of the things I was at the high school for 19 years and uh you know greeted the high school students every day and you're you're lucky if you get like hey what's up? Um at the middle school I go out front hey m how you doing? Like so I get energy from them
and then sometimes I can't sit down. I just go into the hallway and I see them. Uh we don't have home monitors so I like to see them in between classes. Sometimes we just, you know, Kevin and I will walk into classes and join classes informally. Uh but it is a uh it's a
great environment and uh the kids really kind of set the tone uh and and our staff is just uh meets them where they're at. And I can't tell you the number of times where people will come to me and say, "Hey, you know, I heard this family's going through this or uh
this student's having trouble getting on this field trip. How do we make it happen?" And those little things go, you know, they're minor things for the organization, but they're huge things for the individual and it it really kind of boosts morale overall. >> I don't know if I answered your
question, but yeah. >> Any questions for Mr. Speaker, your comments? Well, tonight I think you guys did a great job. You really did a great job. That kind of summarizes the whole thing about adding township. Excellent families, excellent community, the
board. And you know, I've known this board a long time and I constantly when I see new board members come on, I say, "Oh my god, what a great group of board members that we haven't had in town. They're all smart, great people." And uh
it reflects on the schools, how well the schools are run. Kevin, I knew him when he was a student back in watching Guy and Dolls or whatever the play was. But it's just something about Haden Township and I appreciate, you know, what you
guys are doing and the success the students are having. So um it's just a wonderful thing being school board member here. Everything's usually very positive. You guys are keeping up the tradition. Thank you very much,
>> John. You're right. I We had an incident. We had a bicycle accident the other day. This is just a a perfect example of how Haden Township works. So, I called the chief of police. I said, "Hey, it's kind of hard when parents are making a left because there's people
parked on the" And he said, "Okay, thanks for letting me know." know within like a couple hours his guy called me and said, "Nick, how many spots do we need to remove?" And you know, so it was it's it's very functional right now. Um and I hope that continues because it's a
nice place to work. So >> both amazing things happening. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Excellent job. Uh Mr. Sweetie, we're thankful for your leadership. Um
Mr. He's been in this role now for four years in county. Um, as he said, he was an internal promotion. He previously served as an administrator at the high school. Um, and we're going to have another internal promotion in our buildings and grounds department
starting J in January. Um, and I'd like to thank Mr. uh Butch Bruner for three years of excellent service. Um he also has developed an excellent culture in our custodial department, our maintenance department. That team is
also clicking on all cylinders. Um without that team, we would have never gotten our schools open for the first day of school in September. Uh and I knew when Butch came here that he was going to be here for about three years. and um Mario Casades who was on the team
when Butch entered uh and him immediately you know they had not known each other and they developed an excellent rapport and uh just within the first year Butch came to me and said you know when it's time for me to go Mario is going to be ready and I said well if
you really think so you have to start including him you know dayto day on all the things that you do and really uh did that over the last few So tonight we're not only accepting which is retired for January 1st. We approve Marios for another internal
promotion. Uh so there's no break in service. Mario was able to get the ground running uh January 1 and uh I think it's important for our school district to have continuity, culture, continuity and leadership and uh it's a
place where promoting internally has proven which is why Ziki has shown us to be a successful model. So we're fortunate in that regard. All right, at this time we're going to continue with the data presentation. turn over to assistant superintendent. This is
shorter to talk the full scope of what's happening in grades 3 to 12 in test school. >> Yes, thank you everyone and I'm there are a lot of slides here. I will also share them out. I'm just going to go through the highlights. I do want to
thank Mr. Kway that was wonderful and you are absolutely right. We have a phenomenal team. such a team that Mrs. Gold led me. I don't have a distance glasses. I'm not going to be able to see that. I only have my readers. She let glasses. So, we have a wonderful team.
So, I can actually see um and I didn't need these last year. So, I'm getting older. Okay. So, as um Mr. wise like you said we like to look at our data and you
know it is a snapshot but compare comparing ourselves to ourselves comparing ourselves to the state and then district factor group so this is a highlight of those things um and I'll talk about strengths and any improvement opportunities that we have and feel free
to stop me as we go so we are out before me in the state but that's never been our pulse we want to make sure that we're out of performing ourselves. And district factor groups for those who may not know are other districts who have similar demographics than um as us and
we compare ourselves to about nine districts. This is not something that is actively done anymore, but we still try to go through and the data is about a year old for the district factor group specifically, but we still like to look at it and see how do we compare to other districts. So we have demonstrated
grains in almost all grade levels and we have demonstrated grains in all subject areas as well. So this is as Dr. Carol and I talked about the best data that we've had in um several years. I'm super excited about it and it takes the entire team. So all the stakeholders, students,
teachers, um administrators, community, everyone. And that's why I'm here today and I'm really excited about the data and I'm a little bit earning. just you know I'll go with it but our benefit that I think that we have are I ready which is our personalized math
program amplify which is the program at the um middle school which is a science of reading based program and we do have individualized approaches with our tutoring that we had we had New Jersey high impact tutoring um a couple of years ago and now we have New Jersey
tutoring core and our acceleration um quest program our student cohorts were seeing increases in our math as well as um we've had growth needed last year informational text, literary text, writing conventions and
written expression and we we exceeded and closed those gaps. And now our area that where we need to work on is just a little bit of our reading vocabulary and our context clues. So looking ahead, we were continue to analyze our data, target our
support, and then what's cut off there at the bottom is um science group, which we normally do not have. So looking here, and I know this is going to be hard to read, so I'll just give you the highlights here. This is um math in 2025
highlights. So last year we were looking very closely at grade six. Um, so as you said, our lowest was like at one point we had a 19 percentage um 19% gap there and now we're down to 1% gap.
Grade five, which is last year's fourth graders performed. When you look at this category over here, this is where we focus on meeting and exceeding. So we want to see that we are meeting and exceeding and these are the percentages of those students. So in grade five, so
last year's fourth graders, we are at 72% meeting exceeding versus last year's 7 67%. So we are showing gains in so many different areas. So I'm going to highlight those and I'll let you know if we have improvement as we go. Um, grade
seven, which is last year's sixth graders, you will hear me keep saying that because I'd like to compare the students to themselves. So grade seven we have 53% this year whereas last year those students were performing at 44% in that meeting and exceeding. So we have
significant growth there. Geometry I'd like to highlight is 81%. Different students are taking geometry this year than took it last year but last year our geometry group was at 59%. So and this year we're at 81% meeting and exceeding in geometry. And again I
will say this probably a few times throughout. I will tell you that we are outperforming the state across the board, but that's never going to be our gauge because we want to see how we're comparing to ourselves. And then within those district after groups, any questions about math before I go on,
English language arts for 2025, um, grade four, so last year's third graders, we're at 62% meeting and exceeding versus last year's 60%. Um, we're up in seventh grade, um, sixth grade, eighth grade, our eighth graders.
So, last year, seventh graders for ELA are at 77% meeting and exceeding versus 68% last year. Um, we've seen significant um, gains, I think, through our Amplify program. It's a science and reading based program. It's focused on
um, textbased evidence like Andrew said, bringing um, I think the library 700 titles in it and they write every single day. Um, and we have had significant budget cuts. So, we started Amplify as a pilot and then Andrew and I got really creative and like do you think they'll
give us a pilot for a second year which most people do not. I'm like, what's it going to hurt? Let's all They gave us the pilot for a second year because we we had a budget cut. Um, and we were able to actually sign on with them this year and have them as one of our our vendors because it is um, something that
the teachers love and the students really appreciate. And um, grade five, we're slightly down there and that could just be, you know, like a little pickup with transition um, in a particular cohort. Last year's fourth graders, we were at 70 um%
I'm sorry, 70% this year versus 73% last year. All right. So, if we look here for the proficiency comparison, we're closing our gaps. Um, we had previous concerns last year when I presented in October. We had concerns in
fifth and sixth grade and we we already spoke to um the math um difference with those 19 percentage points and closing that gap. But in seventh grade, last year, sixth graders, we were at we're at
53% versus 44%. So, we're seeing significant growth in fifth grade, seventh grade, um, across the board. So, I can't speak highly enough about our students and all that, all the gains that we've had in English language arts. Again, we had
significant improvement opportunities last year in fifth and sixth. We closed those gaps. So, grade six which is previously grade five, 66% is where we are meeting and exceeding versus last year's 60%.
And seventh grade, so last year's sixth graders, we are at 63% versus 55. I could go on and on. Like the point we are showing significant gains. Um, and it's really just due to the dedication and the programming. We spoke a little bit about it in work session. We're
trying to be really purposeful with our data that we are collecting. So we're not just trying to just continue to test the student because that's what we've always done or that's you know why change it it's a purposeful piece of data we want to collect it obviously we have to do the state
testing but other benchmarks along the way we want to collect data that's going to drive our instruction so um for example this year we're doing encourse assessments as we did last year but instead of doing math and ELA we are going to really focus in on ELA because
we already collect the I rated I reading data. So we're trying to not test our students to the point where their like test exhaustion sets in and I think that is really helping um the teachers and and the students.
All right. So this is 2024. I'm not going to spend time here. This was what I showed you last year. And then this shows you by school. So these are the same students and how they're performing. Um I'll just highlight one thing here again our improvement
opportunity in grade six. These students now um grade seven 53% performing in math versus last year's 51%. So what we saw last year as areas of concern. What do we need to do to help our students?
We implemented those things with small group with um targeted instruction with New Jersey high impact tutoring um and we have after school instruction that helps our students. So those things we're now seeing the gains from those things.
English language arts, this is 2024. Again, we were questioning it at the time. Is Amplify the way we want to go? Is this going to help our students grow in the ELA world? And I'm so thankful to say that it is. Um I already shared some
of the highlights with you, but again just to reiterate one point like grade 8 last year 7th grade students are at 77% this year versus 68% last year. So we're going to stick with that program. We've gotten positive feedback and it's
working. Okay. Now this part is this cohort of students. So this is a more rigorous test. So each year, you know, it's going to be more challenging the, you know, mastering the standards and the um
content is going to be more rigorous. And this is the cohort of students and how do they compare to themselves. So as you can see here, yes, we're out of the state, but 23 24 versus 2425 in
all content areas or categories, I should say. So within math modeling, mathematical reasoning in all grades including algebra 1 and geometry, we are outperforming ourselves from last year. So I think it's small group consulting,
tutoring, self. Um and somehow as Dr. Piper I think mentioned mentioned it in work session, I think he mentioned it here as well. we're doing more. Um we are showing significant gains with less staff and I think that's really a testament to the dedication of everyone
who's pouring it into the work that needs to be done. >> So Shantel and that's an aggregate. So for all grade levels 3 to 12 in all the strands we're demonstrating gains in each. >> So three through um third grade through I guess who that algebra one and
geometry component whoever is in those courses. >> So 3 to 10. Yeah, >> that's the aggreate. >> Yeah, >> that's excellent. >> Mhm. I was really excited about that. Um, and I believe it was last year where there were a couple dips um in here
compared to the prior year. And you know, good, bad, or indifferent, we have to report the data and the numbers don't lie. So, I was super excited that I could share this um and show that what we are doing is working and um everyone's work working really hard, but
we're all coming together to make it happen. and I can't say enough great things about the students and the teachers and thankful to all of you. And then in ELA, um again, this is the cohort comparison. So, more rigorous test. Last year, we
had a lot of um focus areas. We wanted to improve informational text, writing conventions, and written expression. We worked to close the gaps in all of those areas. We still need some we still have some work to do in um
reading vocabulary. So which is context clues which is right here. So last year we were at 61% and now we're at 59% which um we will figure out but we closed the gaps across the board and everything else
questions about so far. Okay. All right. So we have to report on subgroup performance and I'm going to just scoot this is 2024.
Um so what this shows you is within our varying populations the bottom line that I want to share here is that we meet all of the students where they are to provide assistance. So regardless of what group we um are providing 504s or
after school instruction or summer programming and Andrew and I prior to Kevin joining um the middle school we created a summer school program that we think is helpful. they might not want to come, but I think once they get there, they do show up the next day, right? I
mean, we haven't had to go pick anyone up. So, I do think it's helping. And what I did want to highlight here is these areas. So, it's a small subgroup um a small sample size, but in like
grade seven, 53% of is this? Yes. 53% of our seventh graders who fall into this subgroup um who have a 504 plan are reaching 63% meeting and exceeding. So it's a small
subgroup but here we are as a district. So our students who may have some additional needs are reaching the level of meeting and exceeding within their task. So, I do feel like when a student or parent says, you know, here's something that I need to be successful, we are um going above and beyond to make
sure that those needs are met. And that's for math. And then that's 2024 for ELA just for comparison. And here's um ELA 2025 subgroup data. um
if you have any questions about this. Okay, now this is where a little bit of my nerdiness will come out. So, where is Renee? Rene's a Okay, Rene teaches math and science. Science typically in New Jersey that assessment doesn't ever get like, you know, starruck results.
However, this year, um, yes, we're outperformed in the state, but we have diff it is different students, but fifth grade, so last year we were at 43% of our fifth graders were meeting and exceeding, and this year we're at 52
52.3%. Which is I meant to change that just to 52%. But 8th grade we're at 30% versus 26% and in 11th grade 43% versus 41%. So we are seeing
that we are yes perform outperforming the state but we are getting better on the science end of um the spectrum and science I think is a little tricky when it comes to professional development. I've asked at my consortium meetings I've spoken with the science department.
We're always looking for some robust you know profound science professional development. It's hard to come by. So I am happy to see these gains um just by what we're doing within the district. Okay, questions so far.
All right, district factor groups. I'm just going to give you the quick and um I won't say dirty because it's really very exciting. So district factor groups um is when we compare ourselves to other districts. Now they a lot of time is not
poured into this from a data standpoint within the state anymore. So it's always in here behind and I I don't know why but um I still like to dig into it and see how do we compare. So we compare ourselves to nine other districts who are similar to our
demographic. And so yes we've outperformed the state. I think I should get a shirt that just says that. >> And but we have outperformed all district faculty groups who we are comparing ourselves to and that goes from um the surrounding counties. And I
think that is very um it's just very telling because if we look here it goes ELA grade three math grade three. So I'll just use this as an example. So within the other districts who are similar to us, they are meeting and
exceeding at 47%. And we are at 60%. And then you can just read across and you can see there 68% for Haden Township versus other districts at 53%.
And again, just a little fun fact here in So we looked at this last year. So remember it's always a year behind just for this particular these particular two slides. So in 2122 we compared that to 22 23 and we saw
okay our ELA students grade 8 we um went from 41% meeting and exceeding to 49%. Okay that's I was excited. So 23 24 now our grade 8 students are increasing from
58% to 59%. grade nine um we're at 60% versus 49%. So we are going in the right direction and then I'm like well is it just us right? Is it something we're doing? Is it the amplify? Is it um and the answer is yes
I think plus all the other factors that we just talked about and the district factor group decreased from 57% to 54%. So whereas we're going our trajectory continues to excel. Um
the DFG it has decreased. I don't know if um what program they're using or if they want to switch to NFI or you know similar staff. Um, but it is I I usually like to only say with the positive like I'm glass half full, but I did want to
share that because that is something to say like okay we are doing something right and I I appreciate everyone who is diving into this pool with us. Our multilingual learners, our ELLL students, our MLS, um we assess them as
well and our students, we have 25 students and the average score right now is a 3.2. you need a 4.5 to kind of graduate the program. And the point that I wanted to highlight here, most of our students are in the developing stage,
but we exited a lot of students last year due to our phenomenal ELLL instruction that takes place at the elementary and high school. But we get new students every year. So the new students who come in, you know, have to we meet them where they are to grow them
from from there. But uh that program with only two people um is as far as um instructional are really um doing a lot of great work in exiting students and growing them. This is for special education DM dynamic
learning maps. So students who cannot um take the state test take this uh different assessment. They have five students in that category and they are all within that ELA piece emerging approaching a target or at target
and the same for math and for science they're approaching the target again that's a little bit more of a challenging test. All right. Now this is all high school and I wish that you know I could say please come do it but um so PSAT
this is every year since I've been here and I think I don't know Dr. know probably even before I was here. I think this is just the the trend for how to count it. Um we are performing higher than the state um and national level for
PSAT data. Our SAT data is the same. So if you look at 23 24 um at the bottom for math is um on the bottom, ELA is on the top for reading and writing. We outperform the state and we outperform um nationally. I think last year you
said doctor's care we were second >> in the county >> in the county right um so this is a very stressful time for seniors juniors and seniors and whether it's test optional for college I'm sure Lily and Ariana can attest to that like do you send your
scores do you not send your scores but this piece of data um you're in a good place if you're in head account because you're in a good spot where we have some high performers AP courses Total students enrolled in AP we have 324
total tested 261. It's an option if they want to test multiple students take multiple AP test. It's their choice. Um we have 91% of our students with a score of three or better and then 66% with a score of four or better which can help
you if your college um accepts you know the score and you you know shave off some of your college credits on on that end once you get to school. Save your save your family one day. All right. AP test. The gist here is um we are here
are all the students who tested in these courses, biology, calculus, etc. And then over on the right hand column, you'll see the percentage scoring free are better. Um you can see 100% in calc
and English lit and it's the same for German as well as history AP US history and AP physics 2 and AP stat graduation data. This is math and this
is ELA and this is saying are we going to be graduation ready? And what you want to focus in on here is right here for math. In New Jersey, 58% are graduation ready. Um here's Hen Township, 65% graduation
ready for math. We will get them graduation ready. We were at the same similar juncture um last year and they will be ready to graduate and you know continue to work towards um those requirements.
For ELA, we're at 87% versus the state at 81%. And I've never had to do this before, but we don't have a graduation rate from last year, which because the state doesn't have the report ready, you can't run the report. So, as soon as that is available, they switch to a new system,
so we don't have that number. Um, soon as it's available, I will let you know. But last year, we were at 95% and I um would imagine that it's going to be very similar. So, my highlights I've already shared with you. I'm not going to, you know, um
read to you, but we are outperforming. Um we're very excited about our data. We're competing against ourselves. We're continuing to increase the rigor and um our PD and look at data with purpose, measure our goals. Um daily practice for
students. I do not like the um concept of teaching to a test, but our students do practice every day. they have devices in Spencer and the whole technology department where they can practice taking assessments or working on devices and that's how their test um those state
tests and other assessments are provided so they get that practice so they're comfortable. Um our district we're going to continue to have engaging learning environments, small group instruction. We're going to continue to goal set and as Dr. Carol mentioned earlier to focus
on the objectives and control what we can control. In high school, um we're going to support everyone's ability to reach those graduation requirements, tailor our math and literary experiences. Middle school, uh Andrew
and Kevin are scoped to so I won't um repeat what that what was mentioned earlier. And then elementary, our program for math is I write is a personalized math program. So every student gets a personalized learning plan based on where he or she is performing at that time. We're
continuing that. And our general education students as well as our students with special educational needs use that program if um if you know if applicable and if they're ready to use that program. But it really does help the teachers and the students. We have
guided math groups. We're doing our in-person tutoring as Andrew mentioned with uh New Jersey tutoring core. We're using math and math as well. grades um four through eight. And then in language arts, we spoke about that already. We do have mystery writing which is a request from the teachers. It's very similar to
mystery science and they really like the writing program and we just uh expanded that to second grade. And um professional development we ex uh extended foundations to preschool and now our third grade teachers are also asking for. We're looking at that um to
see what we can do there and just looking at our individual special education data to make sure that our students are growing in that um against themselves individually when we look at their data >> and that's it. Is that any shorter than
last year? >> My only question is do I still want to be a board rep? >> Oh my gosh. both of us together. >> Does anyone think it was a little visual? >> We got Spencer, you can go back and look
at YouTube. >> Very thorough. Excellent job. The best thing about that presentation is almost all the all the data is going in a good direction. That's not just the accumulation of one year's work. That's a rolling accumulation of the years of strategic planning, setting the right
goals as a board, putting the right resources in line with the right goals, paying attention to the right things, hiring the right people, and then year after year, day after day, consistently with an eye on the prize that this is the results of multiple years of work that we're seeing this results. So,
great job for tenant data, but also kudos to the whole team. Thank you. >> And the only other thing I want to share which is not part of the presentation is that our intervention team works tirelessly to make sure that those who
need extra support um get that support and we have less students in those groups this year because they have kind of like graduated and we're able to go down another level to provide support for students who may not have you know may have been on the test before. So it
is working really really well for all students. >> Can I ask one question? You don't you don't have to go past the line but in one of the breakdowns for the elementary schools it would have forgive me say it was like fifth or a third fourth or
fifth grade right so there was two two examples there a third and fifth were at 70% and the fourth was down like 30%. What would be the anomaly that would drop down that much in one grade year difference? Is it and I I don't want to
pick on each but is it is it the students taking the test or is it the combination of the thing? Because it seems odd that you have 270s and a 40. >> Was it science? Was it >> I can't I don't remember which one it was but it was just an odd I don't want to go through it because I don't want to get anyone in trouble but
>> but is it also because the test changed too? >> I think it might be that science test. Well, they just didn't get right further back. I should have asked you what that was. It was just something that just sat out there. I was figure out why it would have been like such a
weird area. You know, so that if you look at the stroke, there's one 71 46 76 like it's a very odd >> for grade four. >> Yeah. >> But it seems like that's they're random or there's no >> So So when we get when we break down
Okay, I'll get it this way. When we look at high school data and middle school data, it's more reliable because the sample size is large. You're looking at hundreds of kids. >> But when you break an elementary school, it's reliable when you look at all the elementary schools together. But when
you start teasing apart individual elementary schools, the sample size goes remarkably low, especially story uh Jennings and Edison. They're one class sections. So two different kids have absent or two different kids, you know,
you get huge swings um for kids that you know have a day here or something swing that data a lot faster than those situations with numbers too. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Again, not and I I appreciate that
that's a better example, but you look at the the 40 to 91 like how do you this huge swing, right? Yeah, you know, so again just more of a question on why >> and then you also there's multiple grade levels. I mean multiple classrooms at
hand skyro so that's a bigger >> no but 71 to 40 is that a 40 in the middle >> 46 >> 71 to 46 is 76 >> that that just could be a matter if there's 22 kids in that class or if there's actually 44 kids in that class.
It just could be a matter of seven, eight kids not passing it or passing it could swing that that much. >> You also have special if you take the special ed kids out too that drops the number >> and it's helpful when you up,
[Music] you know, you're looking at it that macro level. >> Yeah. And then but then you do have and then like I said with multiple classrooms at one school at that grade level versus you might have one class at another school. So it's a difference in
the population. >> Well as Bob said it's a matter of pride. So, um, everybody great job, administrators, great job, teachers, everybody. Uh, it's music to the ears of a schoolboard member. And, uh, says,
"Remarkable success of this district. Thanks for your presentation. Excellent job." >> Sure. I sure everybody everybody feels the same way. again, too.
She just had the >> Oh, you know what? You see that t-shirt, please? >> I'll pay for it. You know, [Music] >> is the I understand
this spring. And we're going to get test >> I'll report to the board on the changes in state test in future meetings. We're supporting the change not the matter change from what I've seen real testing.
I like what I see testing. All right. I think ready to get into the rest of the meeting. >> All right. So moving back into our agenda. from our presentation section to section 8 financing facilities.
And I have a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.15. >> So move second. >> Oh, no.
>> Yeah. Um, any questions? Mley, >> yes. >> Mr. Cook, >> yes. >> Mr. Josie, >> yes. >> Mr. Kendall, yes. >> Mr. Lux, yes. Mr. Ser, >> yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Moving back to section seven
presentations. We have one more presentation. >> Mr. Tyler meeting with superintendent assistant superintendent master class on how to focus. >> All right. You have to leave the clicker for All right,
>> guys. Why don't you click it? >> I'll tell you. Uh, so my role here is just to summarize on the student safety report. The board gets this every year. Go ahead, Spencer. And what we're really looking on here is
the HIV trainings and the HIV alleged incidents along with suspension. Go Spencer. Um the board is aware of the programs that are in place and the monthly reporting system requirements that the state has for us to present this data.
put the slide and this is period one incidents by reporting category and period one is from September of December of last year and typically you know you'll see here this a very low amount
of incidents that are leading to uh removal from school uh with the highest being at the middle school there with four incidents in the high school 16 and on the right hand side you'll see the amount of trainings and HIV programs,
the proactive steps that we take as a school district um to prevent bullying uh in the beginning of the year. And then you know the next slide you'll see period two where we typically will have an uptick in incidents that will require
uh uh suspensions or removal from school. um and and and and we're a lot higher there uh in that area, but you'll see on the HIV alleged incidents, there was only two incidents uh districtwide uh which is extremely low.
The board is aware of all the inschool and in district programs that we have, all the counseling services and the comprehensive programs that we offer. This is not a negative SSDS report. Um school culture and student behavior uh
is it's positive in our district. We have teenagers uh that make mistakes, but I think you do a good job having resorted discipline and you know we're satisfied with the school. >> Any questions for discussion?
>> Miss sorry. Okay, we are moving to section nine, construction and program. Can I get a motion to approve item 9.1? >> Second. >> Any questions? >> Roll call. Mley, >> yes.
>> Mr. Cook, >> yes. >> Miss Desi, >> yes. >> Mr. Kendall, >> yes. >> Mr. Le, >> yes. >> Miss Ster, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. All right, moving to section 10. I said 9.2. I had to 8.7 and I logged out. >> Oh, so I did that before because I was
still accidentally in minutes. I had to go back out everything. It's okay. >> I was agenda it. >> Oh, okay. That's what I I just had to log out. >> All right. Thank you. Sorry.
>> Had a hard time switching between those draft minutes and >> Okay. >> Uh do we do roll >> nine? Yeah, we did. >> We did. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Uh section 10 personnel. So before we jump into the items on the
agenda, um you all may remember at one of our summer meetings we talked about restarting our personal policy committee. And so that has officially happened. The members of that committee are myself, Mr. Lex, and Mr. Cook is the chair of that committee. Um and so Mr.
Cook, I forgot to ask if you wanted to do a committee update tonight. We haven't added it back on the agenda, but would you like to share an update from our meeting? >> There really isn't anything. There's we talked about a lot of personnel issues that would be appropriate in public anyway. The only thing that and
everybody policy related is the amendments to the policy. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, can I get a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.17? Any questions?
>> Miss Billingsley, >> yes. >> Mr. Club, >> yes. >> Stassy, >> yes. >> Mr. Kendall, >> yes. >> Mr. L. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. I do have a resolution for item 10.1. Uh, so whereas Howard Cochr Jr.
Township school supervisor of buildings and grounds has for the past several years been dedicated to the board of education in Haden Township. And whereas said Mr. Bruner has faithfully represented the Haden Township Board of Education in his role as supervisor of building grounds since 2023. Be it
resolved that the Haden Township Board of Education recognize the excellent and dedicated service that Mr. Bruner has rendered the said township of Haden and the said board of education as well as the services rendered to his many co-workers over the past two years and that the said board of education does
sincerely appreciate his efforts in their behalf and also in behalf of all the students had to come and therefore be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of this meeting and a copy be presented to Mr. Berner. We will miss Butch on the team. Uh but
still we're in great hands to the role. Okay, moving on to section 11, student services and activities. Can I get a motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.11?
>> Second. >> Any questions? >> Real quick, 11.10. I didn't know the answer to this. Anyway, the seems like a it's a $24,000 sling or is it just because of the student needs? >> Yes.
>> If you look uh under there, one has a 3 to one and one has a 3 to1 is cheaper than one that got >> right. So, it's a difference in the rate.
So that's the we have to pay the >> Any other questions? >> Roll call. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cook. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kendall. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lex. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes.
>> Yes. Moving into section 12 policy. We have no items, no policies on for approval in item 12.2. So, we'll move right into section 13, public comments, the final public comment section of the evening. This is for comments from members of the public for the board of
education on any topic, whether or not it was on today's agenda. If you have a comment, please uh state your name, uh the street you live on, and limit your remarks to three minutes. Seeing none, are there any final comments or
questions from the administrative team or the board? >> Just a small comment. When we hired Dr. Carol, one of our biggest weaknesses was the middle school. So, it's nice to see that it's being addressed. >> Yes, I agree. Thank you for all you've
done to support that >> to you about that. >> Yeah, I'm lucky. I mean, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to really pass it right to Andrew uh and the teachers in the middle school, but not not only that area, you know, leadership
with facilities. You've seen Miss Gold's work in the business office well there. You see Mr. Shor's work, test performances, students see the bond referendum projects come together and it's it's a collective energy that's really good in
the district right now. So, I want to just refer all that all those compliments to the team here and we're fortunate already. >> Yeah, there have been a lot of comments tonight and some jokes about how we have
a great team, but it is really and the the collaborative spirit is really strong across the district and the way everyone works with one another does not happen everywhere. >> Fantastic. And we're going to have
[Music] All right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> All in favor? Thanks