##VIDEO ID:Ay-6_OB0fBE## see that is right we call to order the Highland Park Board of Education hybrid voting meeting on this Monday November 25th 2024 the New Jersey open public meeting Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in compliance with the open public meeting act the Highland Park Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be set forth the time date and location to to be submitted for publication to the home News Tribune and Star Ledger and posted on the board's website at least 48 hours in advance of this meeting members of the public who wish to address the board will be given the opportunity to do so before the board adjourns for the evening roll call please Dr batty here miss Cassel done here Dr Coleman Dr Pixley here miss puce here Dr Swan Miss Daniel here miss vardan Miss Vorhees here we are now going to recess to Executive session be it resolved pursuant to the sunshine Act njsa 10 4-12 and 13 the Highland bark Board of Education will now meet in closed session to discuss the matters related to hibb and discipline these exemptions are permitted to be discussed in closed session in accordance with njsa 104-113 information regarding the board's closed session discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists I move that we recess to Executive session second all in favor I e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e hey um we're going to reconvene to regular session I move that we reconvene to regular session second roll call please Dr B here M here Dr Coleman me yes here sorry here miss pce here Dr schan here miss Dano here miss bman here miss bgi here we'll stand for the pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we had one communication since our last meeting regarding our board bulletin um we're going to move to approve the minutes from our last hybrid regular public meeting and executive session I move that we approve the minutes from the hybrid regular public meeting and executive session of October 28th 2024 second Dr B yes yes dran yes Dr Pixley yes Miss Bruce yes Dr Swan yes Miss Danel yes Miss vman yes missg yes and we'll move to our student representative report hi everyone for Irving um we look forward to our Thanksgiving Fe Fe and show for our kindergarteners and their families our first graders will showcase their balloons Over Broadway just in time for Thanksgiving this week we thank our generous families for their support at our Irving PTO Scholastic Book Fair last week all funds directly support our students and another huge thanks for the Thanksgiving food donations that will go to a handful of our Irving families and to Emma Shannon for her thoughtful efforts and collecting warm codes for our Irving students parents are so appreciative so for b December 5th is going to be fall picture makeups and the Winter concert is going to be December 19th at 700 p.m. that's all we have for ble this week at the middle school the Winter concert is on December 17th at 7 pm come and join them if you didn't already know the Highland Park library is open back up from their Renovations they've all they've got all sorts of new books graphic novels and online resources available with the help of the library Mr deigle would like take a sixth grade ELA classes to library to browse and obtain a library card with this C they will have access to the library and what it and all that it has to offer if your child has Mr deigle as a sixth grade ELA teacher and you would like to opt out of your child obtaining a library card please let Miss Brady know the only questions that the library is asking return for a card is their name address and phone number and their school email address Mr disly can collect this information there's a Planned fundraiser being organized by an awesome group of parents all of the money raised will be used to run a dance a Winter Dance please find the order form in Miss Brady's owl outline and thank you to the parents behind this wonderful initiative and lastly for the Middle School Arts High has extended their application deadline until the end of Thanksgiving weekend on November 30th and now for the high school um this week on Wednesday is service day and some examples of workshops being run are the Red Cross Club is doing a presentation about why giving blood is important the Asian Culture Club is having people write a wish and then fold it into a crane for an art installation additionally this month is DECA month so check out the DECA Instagram to get get to know the members of the club and see what they've been up to um this past weekend the Highland Park Model un team competed in the Ruckers University model un conference with great success um the play she kills monsters premiered thank you to all who attended and the HP robotics team visited Irving this past week to teach them about Robotics and show off some of their robots the high school Winter concert is on December 12th at 700 p.m. and the Middle School winter concert is on December 17th at 7:00 p.m. both concerts will be in the auditorium and we hope to see you all there and finally we're having our annual blood drive from the Red Cross Club on Friday December 6th in the high school gym um if you're a parent of a Highland Park student um ask them for information on how to sign up great thank you so much any questions for our student reps thank you no thank you very much we'll move on to our superintendent report that much better good evening everyone uh tonight I'm excited to um introduce two uh amazing people but first I'd like to start with our amazing Irving principal Miss MCN tonight we're spotlighting two fantastic students so miss MCN I invite you to come up to the podium all right good evening everybody it's always a pleasure to be here and I always say this every time it's definitely one of my fav favorite things to do I love recognizing our little ones because it's it's not easy to receive these recognitions so everyone thank you for being here this evening um and again I am Miss MCN I'm the Irving principal so it's beyond academics when we choose to Spotlight our students at Irving we're looking for character we're looking for students that go above and beyond what it means to be a student in school I look for students that Embrace others differences school's not always easy and being a friend is not always easy either and we also look for friends that make positive decisions we all make mistakes from time to time right as people it's okay to make a mistake but when we're looking for student Spotlight students we're looking for those students that really really en embody our school philosophy of kindness so I'm going to start with Rebecca Gabriel would you like to come up with me come here all right and I know Miss p is here tonight too you want to come up there all right so from Miss P you are an absolute joy to have in class your laugh is contagious and you brighten up the classroom you love School you follow directions you're attentive which means that you pay attention and you love to learn and you always try your very best you participate actively and you love to add to class discussions and you show growth in all academic areas that means in reading and in math and science and social studies you always think of your friends and you're loving and caring you're a wonderful friend and student and Miss P loves having you in her class she is so proud of you and so am I and a little bit about Rebecca from my vantage point and what stands out to me about you Rebecca is your kindness and your empathy which means how you treat others recently when I was in the cafeteria you saw that a classmate was upset I think it was just last week do you remember that you made it a point to try and calm him down and you called other friends over to help him you are a genuine student and you really care for those around you Rebecca you embody our wh School expectation of kindness through your actions what you do your hard work and for being a role model mod at Irving so congratulations Rebecca thank you for being here we appreciate it next up I have my friend Garrison would you like to come up and stand with me okay all right Garrison so your teacher Mrs Parham Raves about you she said you are kind you're respectful you're thoughtful and you love to participate in classroom activities is that true you're always the first to participate and you like helping your friends she can count on you to know what's going on and if a friend is having a hard time she can count on you to help them understand what those expectations are in the classroom you also take your learning very seriously and your smile can easily brighten someone's day I agree definitely so from the way I see you Garrison you always ask how my day is going I always see you asking friends how their day is going and when you come into the main office you'll always say Hi how are you that goes a really long way and I'm super proud of you for that because it's not always easy and you show a genuine interest like you you really do care how people feel and you get along well with your classmates and you have really awesome manners I have seen you on the playground being a good friend and you embody our whole school expectation of kindness as well you help others you model what kindness should look like and you truly care and you're really an awesome kid so congratulations Garrison thank you everyone again and thank you for coming thank you Miss MCN and another round of applause for our amazing Irving dragons to the families and students you're more than welcome to miss papatakis and miss mcnell you're more than welcome to stay with us at the duration of the meeting however I know that uh you probably have other other to get to so if you need to excuse yourself please do thank you okay so moving on to the next part of my uh report so I know we've been talking a lot about a special Pro special ed program evaluation uh so something that has been on our radar since probably the fall of last year uh for those who understand our budget cycle we have to budget in the fall for things for the following year so for example this year we're working on our budget now for next year so last year um we had begun discussions on looking at uh our district goals and Department goals for our students in special education making sure we're providing our students um in a least restrictive learning environment that includes more inclusive education so recently we passed we were approved for Irving to be part of the inclusive uh project through the N Doe so we're all uh looking at that in addition um there are many moving Parts in special education and I know I've talked about this uh several times in terms of the big buckets which is programming Personnel budget compliance classroom and office spaces and resources and so I know that uh especially our facilities has been on our radar too in terms of making sure we can meet the needs of all of our diverse Learners um so we are looking at having a fresh set of eye on the special education department um for those buckets to make sure again like I said we're providing our students with the best resources and the best programming possible so what I did was uh I reached out to the middle sex uh County Superintendent uh group as well as other um colleagues around the district uh special education directors special education teachers other superintendant uh Boards of Education to find out you know what are some highly recommended um organizations or groups that are used for special education programming evaluations it's an expensive evaluation that we want to get right uh sometimes just hiring a general group that does program evaluations in general what we found is that if they don't really know the content for which they're evaluating sometimes they they miss the Mark um with with what it is that we're really seeking so this is a really expensive project that we want to get just right because we want some of the information to inform our program in in our decisions so I reached out to colleagues and I got a couple of referrals uh cpad gave me two referrals so I reached out to the one that uh would probably be the best um in terms of what we were looking for um so I reached out to all of them uh of the four uh groups that I received um information on only three gave me proposals so of those three they went through my eyes uh the my special ed um administrators and the Board of Education and we talked about it probably for the past month and a half to two months again reviewing everything to to get it just right uh So based on that we came to a conclusion the kenno Education Institute um was the best uh proposal that that would meet our needs and service the district so I'm pleased to introduce the kamno Education Institute uh they have come to join us tonight to introduce themselves because like I said it is it's a big ticket item that's really important to our district um with our evolving needs so I'm grateful that they're here to introduce themselves so I will pass the mic over um you can either go to the podium or if you want the wireless because I know you you know like to move around and stuff like that so it's up to you and your team would you like the podium or the wireless we come to a stal me whichever it doesn't matter decision fatigued okay thank you John thank you for that kind introduction it's always dangerous when you give an attorney who's also o a singer a microphone and tell him he can have the floor which that's the question not whether or what uh good evening members of the board uh good evening members of the community and administrators who are here uh my name is John kamgno with me from The Institute are my brilliant and accomplished colleagues Doran babis Dr Sarah Botti and I have to say I don't know how many board meetings I've attended in 30 years of practicing education law you closed your eyes when I said that and I feel that I want to close my eyes when I say that meetings that begin honoring students and spending time talking about students and elevating student voice and talking about their accomplishments tell me tell us tell the world what kind of place this is so congratulations and I am and my colleagues uh are very pleased to meet uh Rebecca and Garrison tonight uh I particularly enjoyed their principal's comments uh about who they are as people uh we'll talk a little bit about who we are we'll talk a little bit about what our goals are your service on the board into this community is aligned specifically with what we do and why we exist and that is to cut to to the very quick we're here to assist in improving instructional practices broadly there is nothing more important today than public education nothing and frankly there's nothing more important than the accommodation of students with learning difficulties nothing I've dedicated my entire career to special education in Section 504 accommodation and most recently mtss and intervention and we look through the lens of different laws and different labels when we talk about disability accommodation but the goal frankly is the same and that is enabling learning and enabling learning as intuitively and as richly and as broadly as we possibly can two of the most significant laws passed during our lifetime first the education of all handicap children act renamed the idea the individuals with disabilities and Education Act and two years before the law that gets overlooked always which I was lecturing about today is the Rehabilitation Act in 1973 which ensures access and accommodation for students that are not otherwise eligible under the idea whether we talk about 504 accommodation or idea modification and special education the goals are the same and that's enabling learning and that's why we're here and we'll talk a little bit about our proposal we'll talk a little bit about what our goals are but again bottom line we're here to assist and to ensure that student learning is happening most effectively and intuitively as it can be my practice for 30 years as an attorney has concent uh concentrated in education law I've lectured Coast to Coast I've lectured in 25 or 26 States but it's best to be home here in New Jersey I established the comegno log group about 20 years ago and we began as a special education Boutique actually we began as a special education Boutique representing both parents and schools over time because of positional conflicts we focused on uh school work and institutional work and we've grown to this point where we represent about a 100 Schools across the region The Institute the Consulting side of the house is multidisciplinary attorney lens and focus as well as practitioner Focus special service directors superintendents we even have a former commissioner of the State Department of Education uh in our ranks and our goal multi-disciplinary is to look at how we address learning difficulty not to save a nickel not to reduce Staffing to ensure that we are doing right by our students and enabling learning through whatever lens that we are gazing again be at IEP be at 504 be at Mt SS or inrs or RTI whatever we might want to call it that's a little bit about me and my goal and my perspective a little bit uh about the Institute I want to introduce Miss Doran babis she's gonna make a couple of comments about her experience and then I'll talk more broadly about our proposal good evening everybody it's so nice to be here I really appreciate the time to be here in Highland Park and to get to share with you my experiences so I am currently working in pcak Valley Regional High School District I am the director of personnel and pupil Services it's a new position for me I have been the director of special services for the last almost 10 years in two prior districts Summit Public Schools K through2 district and the Clark Public Schools before that I started in Clark as a special ed teacher and I moved on to the child study team as a learning consultant and then as a special ed administrator and then moved to Summit uh six or seven years ago I am in this field because I care about students first I am a strong advocate for students and as John said it is not about saving money it is about for me what's right for kids and that means that we look at data and we use data to drive our decisions we consult with our teams our teachers our parents and we determine what the needs are of our students I've created many different special education programs over the years I have had other districts come and look at our programs I have had other districts pay money to come and have their students come to our programs and that his always been some a source of Pride for me because what is better than that than my colleagues coming and saying your program is doing it right you spoke about inclusive opportunities I have brought Unified sports to both districts that I worked in before so Unified sports allows an opportunity for students with disabilities and general ed students to play together soccer basketball bowling I know in pasak Valley we have this same thing it's an amazing experience for all who participate also involved in inclusion p uh pilot in Summit with the new with the New Jersey Department of Education so brought that over a few years ago love the um the right of students whenever it's appropriate for them to be learning with their peers learning with their gened peers I've been very involved in intervention and referral services in mtss over the years and I feel that I we can bring so much value to districts to just share our experiences and to look at programming what's going really well and where there might be some uh suggestions recommendations that we can share based on on our experiences um to your District so I thank you for the opportunity and I look forward I hope for um future work with you thank you so much does anybody have any questions okay Dr bot so I want to just briefly mention to um piggyback on that um uh what I'm bringing uh to this process primarily is using a research lens to look at developing protocols to make sure that every voice is heard and so that includes board members that includes administrators that includes parents I see parents on both sides here um and that also includes students and so you know helping to think about how can we make sure that um voices are heard that we are taking into account um maybe voices that are otherwise sometimes quiet making sure that we're reaching all Learners all parents and all stakeholders in the process uh to ensure that we have a very well-rounded um picture uh of the special process and programs and also the process and programs leading up to special education including uh intervention referral as well as 504 so just wanted to kind of make a mention of that and talk a little bit about the importance of that stakeholder feedback in that Pro in this process um because it's uh it's a combination of um on-site and document and archival reviews conversations but it's also a formalized protocol looking at stakeholder feedback to get that information from everybody um as to what's uh what their perspective is on on the programming here so thank you thank you our proposal which sounds like has been reviewed very closely and thank you for that thank you for your kind words about it is not looking through the narrow lens of IEP it's not looking through the narrow lens of 504 or mtss it is a broad Rich proposal to look at instructional practices it's to look at how we accommodate difficulty how we enable learning and to my colleagues comments to permit data to drive that process so that we can come back and share with you what our thoughts are what is working phenomenally and what ideas we have to improve we will uh host stakeholder meetings both live and zoom we'll have face-to-face meetings we will have surveys we're going to look at documents we're going to provide a re Forum we can so that uh as Dr bot mentioned voices do not go unheard I'd like to begin uh by meeting with parents by meeting with ceg in particular uh and hear their thoughts uh but again we're going to look broadly uh at various stakeholders so that we can come back to you and offer our suggestions uh we are flattered that uh you are uh validating our our voices and our thoughts and our proposal we look forward to uh working together together together to elevate student voice and to ensure that we're addressing difficulties as effectively and as intuitively as we can and I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any thank you so much John um and your team for introducing yourselves and giving us a broad outlook on your proposal this a pretty long introduction wasn't it wasn't that bad yeah we've had longer ones um so uh we have a unique board in that three of us are special education teachers or have been involved in special education five of us currently work in education that's awesome several of us have students with disabilities that receive or have received Services um and all of us are committed to um creating the best learning environments that we can because we want our students to have the most access they can to this Rich um you know uh rigorous learning um that meets their needs right um so we have a very critical eye um when we're looking at this and um we were hoping that you could give some um examples of work that you've done with districts um through the program evaluation work that you've done um that kind of um illustrate how you've been able to help districts enhance practices um or you know improve outcomes for students there what a great question I'll offer my thoughts and then I'll I'll I'll turn to my colleagues I think it's important to keep in mind and the Educators on the board I think will will recognize this that when districts Silo resources there are winners and losers and it's important to look through a broad lens making sure that all are resourced as readily as they can be some of the work that we've already done here in Highland Park with regard to MT PSS I think is an example of that looking at and getting on the same page with what resources are available across the different buildings at tier one what is the difference between between tier one and tier two what what does tier two mean different from tier three reinforcing that inrs is not a so-called life sentence but making sure that we're resourcing faculty uh to know what Services programs are available for students uh is important I think that's that's one example uh Miss babis and I are working on a project right now in another County where we're looking at some disparity in service with regard to eligibility and a misunderstanding of what eligibility means and is can lead to odd results and unfair results and our Chief educator talks about least restrictive environment least restrictive environment is not just here students have certain rights that are protected under federal law to receive services in the classroom again getting to this thought of siloing and Doren and I are working uh to address that disparity as we speak in another place right now I think those are a couple of examples anything you want to add so one of the one of the first steps of the process would actually be to um meet with these various stakeholder groups to identify the why I like to call it the why but really we're identifying sort of what are the problems that people are seeing whether real or perceived and then we would actually focus our prior focus our um process around some of those priorities and so what I mean by that is that um sometimes uh what will come up and what will surface through some of the surveys or some of the um inperson sessions or Zoom sessions are um thematic problems that are stated as a problem and then we would sort of use that data to look to see what's the problem behind that statement um and I'm I'm you know I'm kind of shortcutting like a very big process but really we're we're thinking about there's perception there's reality and then we want to make sure that we're prioritizing both the perceived and real problems that are sort of identified by the first step of the process which would be the larger Gathering of stakeholder input um so I just wanted to kind of uh talk about that as how we would set our priorities um and part of that would also be with talking with your senior admin team um with board members and then um looking at you know all of the stakeholders what what are the comments that are coming up um from there and so then looking at making recommendations highlights because the other thing that we will include in our uh final executive summary would be highlights of the district that we've found through the process as well as looking at various recommendations and um uh suggested outcomes so those priorities are going to be really driven by the conversations that we have right at the beginning that's a good question anyone else have a question Dan so um thank you for the presentation thank you for coming um I I really appreciate your proposal um I think um just hearing from parents and not I think we're really comfortable with the legal side of it um with the kind of reviewing the processes and whatnot um can you give us a sense for how you evaluate programming Educational Services instruction and in the quality that that's provided absolutely and and I will respond and then I'm also going to look to uh dorine to respond further our proposal notes probably two or three dozen best practice issues which are not just I would refer to as compliance but practice and when we talk about special education and I don't want to focus too much on special education because this focus is Broad the analysis is Broad but special education is driven by federal law and regulation which then informs practice as you know we talk about an eligibility criteria which is set forth in law but what are the measures that our child study team is using that are consist consistent with that criteria and how readily are we using them what do they look like what do those assessments look like when we're reaching out from not just an annual perspective but a much more regular perspective in capturing progress and feedback as you know those words have legal connotation but they're driven by practice so law regulation compliance really goes hand inand and our analysis is going to climb very practically and specifically into the day-to-day life of disability accommodation across these three different Vehicles so we're grounded in law and reg but really informed by practice to make sure that that practice is consistent would you like to offer some more please please so not to continue to uh to drive this point home and beat a dead horse but it really is um about talking to teachers and parents and child study team and administrators are are people happy are people feeling like their students are making progress do we we look at that when we try to when we want to evaluate the success of our programs and and that's the big bulk of that work it is looking at data it's not just about um you know are are the teachers happy and our parents happy but are the students making progress can we can look at students who are moving from restrictive to less restrictive environments that's progress to me we can look at are students uh getting Declassified or is special education uh their lifelong uh Journey which sometimes it is sometimes students need those supports for for their academic career but when we talk about progress we look at how they're moving forward on that uh on that path and so that's one of the things that we would look very closely at when we're evaluating the programs here at Highland Park and I'll follow up on that with with just a couple of comments and and I mentioned this in a 504 webinar that I delivered today and and that is I I often ask practitioners who knows the Disabled Student best who knows the Disabled Student best parent and student who knows the educational impact of those difficulties best likely teacher who spends hundreds sometimes thousands of hours working with and accommodating that student student we look for the lens of person process progress regardless of the vehicle person process progress we can put different labels on vehicles but when it comes down to it and the most important practice issue is what are the needs and how are we objectively capturing needs how are we objectively identifying needs what to my colleague's comment data is reinforcing what those needs are because if we don't begin from the point of needs everything we do thereafter likely maybe going down a side road and not the main road but if we're addressing the real need then plugged into a compliant process a consistent process which is important and we're going to look at that building to building and building because we're not a Regional High School we're not a k to six to a k to8 right so we've got transitions objective need into person compliant process and then that third point which I touched upon and Dorene touched upon progress is the word of the day how do we Define Fai US Supreme Court defines fape as progress consistent with circumstance that's the specialed fape how do we Define that with 504 how do we Define that meaningfully with inrs progress which is where I began my comments tonight it's about learning right progress is just another maybe more sterile word for learning learning person process progress what else I have a question uh thank you for your presentation and I do feel like what I'm hearing is a very comprehensive holistic approach that you take I think my question is to sort of um add a little bit more specificity to Allison's question and that is I'm sure you've done your research on our district we're a small District but highly diverse in terms of our um racially um socioeconomically um what is our percentage of students now on freee and reduced LGE 40% um so we have students in our district that are you know multiply dealing with multiple identities right they may be impacting their experiences here and so I don't know the extent to which you have experien that experiences with districts that are similar to ours in that respect if you do I would like you to speak to that if you can a little bit in terms of how and if not how you would factor in this context into the you know outstanding work that you already have done respectively the answer is yes the answer is yes and I'm gonna look to Dr bot to uh to further answer and thank you for that very informed question sure so I think that really going back to the idea of student first and looking at how are we making sure that voices are heard and um one of the first conversations I think we would have when we're setting up the surveys and the stakeholder groups would be conversations with um uh Dr going to make sure that we are um appropriately accommodating um parents who maybe don't have English as their first language looking at how do we make sure that parent voices are heard who maybe are not inclined to be able to jump on a zoom um if they're working we'll do you know and typically what we would do is look at scheduling for different times we can work with the administration to see if we even want to do we're working with the district right now where they offered um they actually offered transportation and um babysitting Services um as well as snacks for the kids um so looking at for the kids yeah that's why it was like for the kids I mean I guess there was maybe there were snacks for the adults but specifically snacks for the kids um but really kind of trying to think about what could the community need be and how can we not just assume that um a parent is going to make themselves available at our convenience and really thinking about how do we um uh reach those needs um I imagine that there are already processes in place school by school to help um communicate with and address um parents we would we would capitalize on those existing Pathways and then we would brainstorm um on ways to make sure that those voices are heard the other thing that we would be looking at is um you know 40% free and reduced lunch very diverse student population um it still comes down to are those students needs being met and um how are we showing that and so part of and this is also a little bit of an answer to another question earlier part of this also is looking at um what outcomes are being measured how are they being measured and how are they being communicated back um so sometimes uh some of the outcome of a program audit like this are really looking at you have these great things going on here but they're not being appropriately I shouldn't say appropriate that's a bad term um they're not being adequately uh communicated either back to staff back to Administration back to the board or back to parents so some of it could actually be um you know looking at outcomes as well as communication um but really kind of coming back to uh you know students like this is all about addressing student need looking at whether or not student needs are being met and whether or not those outcomes are being um measured in a way that makes sense uh for the uh for the community is that what you were kind of getting at or is that a followup or okay thank you Sarah did you have a question all right I have a question um so H just saying I really did appreciate reading this as someone who gets to look at program evaluations all the time it's part of what I what I do and I I I will say like I really enjoyed um the level of detail that you had that is kind of appropriately I think balancing um that what is needed to kind of articulate and so I'm I think it it's good to speak to that for those that are less familiar with um kind of what would go into a proposal like this because because part of the the balance is understanding kind of high level what the goals are but then going through your Discovery phase to really customize it to meet our needs and so I think you appropriately balance that so if you could speak a little bit more for those who don't get to read program evaluation proposals all the time I think that would be helpful for those listening thank you and you think it would be helpful for us to talk about steps of our process or Identify some of the issues we're going to be looking at you know I think a little more about um potentially the process part um uh just to say you know we have a proposal yes and there's a process to kind of take that and make it your own so we can kind of achieve our go goals collectively so how do we get there and and what does that look like I think that could be helpful makes sense sure and we have identified across these three different categories three phases so there's nine steps overall if you will we've identified practice issues and again I mentioned there are several dozen in the special ed context and the Section 504 context various issues that we want to look at uh with regard to mtss there are not dozens because we've already done a fair amount of work and we're really looking longitudinally and I'm really proud of myself for pronouncing that word correctly at 10 of8 on Monday night of this holiday week so I'm not going to say it again we're going to look at where we are after a year and a half of work up to this Point Special Education we have identified those best practice issues we're going to begin by talking to folks we're going to begin by establishing uh as both Sarah and Dorene mentioned certain stakeholder groups that we want to meet with we're going to meet with some groups in person we're going to offer as well meetings via Zoom those stakeholder groups are going to be faculty they're going to be staff they're going to be child study team they're going to be at some point the board Administration importantly they're going to be parents they're going to be interested group of parents and perhaps some select students uh if there is support of parents to meet with students uh we've had recent student meetings in another District uh where we're doing some analysis and frankly it was the best part of our time up to this point meeting with students and hearing their voice we're going to meet with those stakeholders we are going to launch surveys across those stakeholders with specific question question s that are going to drill down into those best practice issues we're going to collect documents that may shine a light into those issues those documents some of what I referred to before may involve protocols may involve assessments may involve IEPs and 504s may involve progress reporting may involve other information that will assist us in understanding what implementation is and is not how consistent it is and is not what a referrals look like what is reassessment trienal or otherwise look like and then when we collect all that data that's phase one phase two we're going to look at it and analyze it we'll we'll look at it both quantitatively objectively as well as subjectively that may lead to some additional followup that will assist us also then going into the third phase which will be our recommendations perhaps involve some assistance in creating new process sharpened process development of forms if needed and we're going to complete this with professional development and I think that's important because the task here as I mentioned before is not to show up here a certain month number of months into the future and say this is what you need to do we're here turn keying with a comprehensive prop proposal to be part of the implementer as to our recommendations and suggestions and then to land that plane with professional development involving whoever might be involved faculty staff Administration Etc phase one phase two phase three that's what it looks like for idea IEP and 504 with regard to mtss inrs we're going to see where we are longitudinally and and we then uh May provide some additional follow-up PD uh we may provide some additional meetings we're going to make sure that we're achieving the goals that we set out before yeah that's really helpful I think um one thing I'm curious about to T of drill down a little more is this kind of mixed methods approach really holistic but what happens you know in a situation where you're getting differing kind of inputs and how do you reconcile that and maybe this is kind of theoretical but I think that from the research perspective um I'd be curious about about how you handle that kind of information when it doesn't quite um when it's not consistent or or there's differing kind of viewpoints when one person says X and another says y a person or a data point or you know there's a lot that you're going to be reconciling both on the quantitative and qualitative side so I fascinating so um I'll respond and then I'll let you give the right answer the researcher uh uh we we we will staff this with at least two of us uh so we have legal lens and practitioner lens throughout if not three of us uh which I think at times gives some U validity to the process and gives us some sense of what to put weight on and perhaps what to put less weight on but I will turn to you Doctor to answer in a more sophisticated way that was that was a good answer thank thank you very well done uh what I was actually going to say also to add to that because that is an important component in the past when we've had discrepancies we try to go back to the primary source and so for example um if we can look at things like IP documents if we can talk to building leadership about what they're seeing in their formalized observations if we can talk to um students about what their uh actual experience has been um so it really I I think a lot of times we can come to um an understanding um by kind of trying to figure out where that primary source is identifying the primary source and then evaluating that Source um right from the start because invariably there will absolutely be different perspectives on this um and so it's really looking at um what those perspectives are but I think sometimes when you see differing opinions or differing um uh I don't want to say perspectives again but when people are coming at the same issue from very different sides sometimes that in and of itself is a problem that then we would look to actually identify the root of that problem a lot of times it's communication um but you know looking at what what um how do we better Define what that problem is to help people be aligned because one of the outcomes of this obviously is student achievement but also is um making sure that um those perspectives become more aligned would be one of our our goals of the process but that's a great question thank you so much any other questions all right thank you so much thank you for those great questions and thank you for the opportunity thank you John and thank you to the team we really appreciate it um that concludes my presentation okay we're going to move on to public comment the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments board policy number 0167 establishes and regulates the right of the public to participate in public meetings we'll start with people who are in person for public comment and then we'll move to people on Zoom for public comment is there anyone who would like to uh make a public comment in person hi I'm Kristen Springer of 423 Dennison Street hi I'm Salma B 433 we'll write it down from here um we're the co-chairs of cpag and we're really happy to be here as cpag Representatives um we have a whole thing we were going to say but I also want to reflect on what you presented so I really um I appreciate your presentation it was um thoughtful and thorough and I we both really appreciated that um and as I think you all know we're excited about the evaluation we think it presents a great opportunity um to strengthen the services here and to also think about areas where we could make improvements and we're really excited about that um we um were a little bit worried at first um because it seemed like uh Kango focus more on the law piece right and you look at the uh kind of the website it looked more kind of litigation focused and we were uh more concerned about that but we're delighted to hear more about the educational piece um and so you know we would love to hear even more about that kind of what your education background is I think that would be really useful um and also thinking about cases where we might need a specialist like one thing that a lot of the parents in our group have struggled with is dyslexia and so I don't know in those cases it would be interesting to hear if you bring in a dyslexia expert for example if that's not something that you guys are particularly qualified in I think that would be an important thing for us to you know for people to know kind of what experts do you bring in if we need that um um yeah and uh we appreciated you talking about work that you've done before but it would also be helpful to see if it's publicly available other reports that you've produced I mean we've uh you know they uh Dr frisa said that we recommended or we've referred to some other consultant groups that had reports and part of it was useful for us to see kind of the outcome and that's nice it's good for us to see that just to understand but also it it helps us get a sense of what's going on you know we're parents we we don't necessarily understand how it's supposed to look and it's in some ways easier to understand that when you see it from the backside until it comes forward so um I don't know if that would be if you had that from other places but I think that would be really useful information for everybody to have um it would also be really great um and I think you did this but I can't quite get my head around it talk a little B about the parameters of what you're looking at I mean are there are you instructed to only look at certain areas are you told let's look at everything special ed what leeway do you have to focus on certain areas or are you restrained to certain topics I think that's really important and we and I should say you know we say this as wanting to be collaborative Partners in benefiting the kids and we know that the board does as well so we we're offering these ideas and questions in that lens um we also were um noticed that a substantial portion of the proposal focuses on 504 accommodations and that kind of uh prior process and we were curious about that because we had understood from prior conversations that special ed did not include the mtss and inrs and the 504 that was a distinction that I think was made and so curious how much of the focus is on special ed because part of what our families are struggling with is that the special ed piece once you're classified or getting classified and not the piece before that and there's um there's some concern among some of the parents in our group that part of this might be to shift kids from the special ed classification to the non-classified kind of earlier process and so I think it would we were surprised to see that a a good portion of the focus was on on the PRI the prior special ed piece and I think that would be useful to talk about and to understand um we would also love to learn more about the results and when they would be made public and what access the public would have to those um and related to that the proposal references the findings and recommendations from the you said I think a year and a half long mtss program evaluation are those results available and if they're not publicly available why are they not public L available and what does that mean in terms of the parents and the community's confidence that we would be able to get access to the results when this evaluation is done um so I think those are important pieces of information to have available as well um and it would be interesting too given that you're a lawyer to understand what part of if there's any attorney client privilege in play here that you don't have to divulge some information because you're a lawyer working with the district as them as your client so I think that would be useful to think about as well um and then you touched on this and we really appreciate it you centered parents and that was beautiful um and I guess we would love to and we'll learn more about kind of how parents are involved in the process and also you know someone brought up a question I think Sarah did about what happens if you have different viewpoints you know and from a parents point of view you know you wonder what if the parents say one thing and the district says another how do you adjudicate that you're not paid by us you're paid by the district and so I think that's an important part for us to think about and it would be useful in terms of you know full collaboration for us to understand that as well um and then finally we wanted to uh bring up the possibility of possibly um having a community listening session with other parents I mean we didn't find out about this uh proposal or the choosing of this group until Friday at two o'clock um that's not a lot of time to get people together to think about this we talked about how we have 40% of our population are multiply marginalized right the people here we got cpeg a good group of cpag people here but the people who can be here on short notice and get stuff together are a distinct group and I think for this to really work for our our diverse population and from an equity perspective I think it'd be really useful if there was an opportunity before a vote before this is solidified to have a place for um a larger group of parents to be able to have a communication with you and with the board about what this entails um you wanted to add okay so thank you very much and uh thank you guys for taking this so seriously thank you okay um our next yes go ahead no I tried to write and talk last time and that okay um thank you Bard for um allowing me to comment and thank you to the presenters it was a very helpful presentation um just a couple of comments firstly on transparency which you know everyone I'm sure recognizes that's really important we heard a lot about the process the proposal talks about some of the outputs being written summaries and recommendations so I'm interested to know more about that actual process of drafting a report and then it becoming final so I actually think I'm looking to the board who would have to ask the question but um there'll be a draft report I assume that will go to the superintendent maybe special ed Department um I'd like to ask will the board have some visibility of that draft and I asked because I wouldn't want a draft to get any change in emphasis something elevated some things removed um strongly urge that the board insists that you have visibility of any drafts and until it gets final and perhaps that could be one board member who is designated to sit on any any reviews of of drafts so that I guess that's a a question idea and a request there anyway um then um I'm interested you know I did a little bit of online looking at your Educational Institute um and so I am interested how you keep that separate from the um law practice um I understand um Dr Botti and Dr Barabas you have full-time jobs I think so this is presumably um just extra consulting or something so um I I I'm trying to understand so I'm putting words to it but I'd rather you say um is it all Consultants that you use for the educational institute or do you pull on some full-time staff from your law practice as needed to do some of the work um I think um I'd love to hear from Doc um Mr kamango or if you guys are able to ask thank you um let me think if I've got anything else um no just again um I do appreciate the presentation and I appreciate that the board are you know looking to um get this uh evaluation uh up and running thanks thank you I think what we'll do is we'll just um I'm going to take a list of simple things that we can have um Mr Kango uh you know quickly address at the end of public comment um and then anything more lengthy Dr n uh oh my gosh Dr sisa um is taking extensive notes that we can share and um they the team can reach out to you to address the questions as well okay anybody else in person so I've never done this process but Alisa's a Kowski 314 montney Street um so uh I really appreciate your presentation um I'm both a parent and a member of cpeg and I'm actually really enthusiastic about the opportunity to improve our special education services I really appreciate that this is something our district is taking so seriously and we're making such a big investment in um I do have some concerns about the process that we've gone through to select this firm um not not your personal process but just the lack of transparency I feel like it's a big investment it's a $50,000 investment that we've done with no RFP and um basically as a group we found out about this on Friday because we saw it in the board uh agenda and there's really been no time for parents to ask questions or for us as a community to engage in more of a dialogue about this so I think that was a really missed opportunity to create more transparency and have a more inclusive process um and I think that's really important for our community just as a value um I also know that the proposal and today's presentation referenced this mtss evaluation um but I've never seen any public findings or reports from that evaluation um so I would love to hear more about what recommendations were made um any changes that resulted from that work I think would really help us understand this process more um and also just Clarity on the district's plans to release those findings whether this project will be different and the community will be able to hear findings from this project and how things are changing but again I would love to see if we move forward with this firm that we might have a more transparent process going forward and things shared um I really appreciated how much you guys talked about your educational expertise and background because I personally found like there was a lot we could find about the legal side and obviously a lot of us as parents really care about that educational expert um I would second kind of what Kristen said that it would be great to hear like are there times when you bring in outside expertise um like with dyslexia or there areas where you really find kind of Masters in their field who really know these areas better how do you address them when things are really specialized um I'm also interested in I know as I said when you look online we can see a lot about your legal work there's a lot less about the consultancy work um and I know when we looked at other districts and other firms we could find reports so I would be really interested in seeing examples of reports that you've done for other districts um and the types of recommendations you've made uh and I'd also be interested to hear um are there ever times when you recommend an expansion of services so I know you know sometimes it's like five fours and I know you reference this idea of oh people are becoming Declassified that's that represents progress but I could see another scenario where students progressing and being Declassified but then not getting Services they need could be not progress so I would just love to hear about other kind of evaluations you've done and and if you have examples where you've actually recommended expanded services or different kinds of services um I am was really pleased I will note that parent how much thought you've put into how to include parents um so I definitely want to highlight that and I really hope that if we move forward with this firm that both the firm and the board really ensures that we get more parent engagement going forward I know one thing because I know we all have a huge commitment to equity the idea that this being released so last minute I know it's sort of like more advantaged parents that are able to come in the room and respond and give their thoughts and obviously a lot of us have children in special ed that's why we're here but there are lots of parents that AR aren't as advantaged don't have the same kind of access to input don't know about like reading board agendas or finding this stuff and so I think it's really important that however we move forward we make sure that there's real Outreach even Beyond cpeg like we are one group of parents but I think there's a lot more parents that are affected um by having children with special needs and so that's really important Outreach um I would personally request that we pause on the vote and actually take more time to get community engagement and give the Community a chance to ask questions um and I believe moving forward that there are more transparent better ways that we could really collaborate um either way I'm really excited that we are undertaking this work and I'm really excited just as a member of cpeg but also as a parent to really collaborate and participate in this project thank you okay um next member hi um Abby Stern Cardell I live on Harper Street um I'm not sure that I have a question for anyone as much as just like highlighting something that could be a challenge and just kind of looking at all of this um I don't have kind of anything specific prepared but um something that a couple people have said is that in in my experience and what other people um have also shared shared is special education as a term at least in this district and I don't know how it works elsewhere is only referred to only uses IEPs I believe and I could be wrong about certain terminology but um you talked about silos and I think you're incredibly right about that um as parents it's incredibly difficult to Navigate to navigate kind of the different areas where there's certain people that deal with I APS there's certain people that deal with 504s um and obviously there's also an irrs team um I don't know much about mtss but um presumably I don't know if they're the same people or different people and so uh one big concern I have I have and again this isn't really a question it's just highlighting a a kind of big issue in this area and um you know the the report or the the um proposal kind of talks us about it holistically which is great but I don't really understand how it can be looked at holistically in the structure of the district as it exists when the district is so siloed as it is so when we speak with staff teachers and staff and they provide such a distinct um you know they they won't speak Beyond a certain line and you can't get people in the same room who are from two different areas how do we go forward with a proposal or any proposal not this one but any proposal that has them so integrated when when there's such a clear distinction in this district and I believe in other districts but I I don't know for sure um you know in terms of like a personal example you know if we're asking for something from one like they say that's not my area and then the other also says it's not my area and so how are we going to get people to work together to look at this holistically as you've said all right anybody else in person okay um we're going to go to zoom comments how many people um Angelo do we have on Zoom is anybody on Zoom for public comment you can raise your hand no hands okay um Mr Kango if you could quickly just uh clarify the Law Group versus the consultant see um for us oh yes yes so we're gonna close public comment thank you for the reminder we're going to close public comments um do you want to do the rest of the meeting oh we do have an extra mic yes yes yes sure yeah may I thank you first of all thank you for your incredibly thoughtful and smart comments and also the very courteous and respectful way in which you shared them which frankly I'm not surprised uh from the meeting up to this point in our time here in the district to date uh there uh is boundary between kegal Law Group which is my law firm and comegno Education Institute which is our consulting firm and the firm that is uh being appointed Ed tonight is the consulting firm not the law firm just so that we're clear so there uh is an attorney uh who works for both happens to be president of both proudly uh but the the board is entertaining a proposal from the consulting firm which contains an attorney and many many educational practitioners not a law firm number one uh number two if I can I loved your comments about about progress and what is uh progress uh progress is learning progress is not being Declassified or receiving this versus that progress is intuitively e efficiently and is close to the moment enabling learning that's our perspective that is our perspective with regard to mtss inrs it's our perspective with regard to IEP and 504 as well uh the comment about what is MTF SS versus inrs mtss is inrs so you're spot on mtss is just an acronym that says stands for multiple tiers of student support and intervention and referral services does that with regard to the questions about uh disability specific expertise uh yes we have individuals within the Institute that have different areas of expertise such as dyslexia uh where we could look at certain scientific research-based methods of learning we could look at certain supports we could look at what's scientifically research driven validated as far as by whom that support is delivered in in what frequency and what duration at what level and to the extent that we need to bring those folks into the analysis we will the same uh holds true with autism and various methods to uh provide analysis as to what are the functional impacts of autism or when we look at in uh individual students that uh might have the disability label of multiple disabilities the same the same with behavioral difficulties so we've got those folks and to the extent we need to bring them to the table uh we will there was a very Frank uh question about whether or not our task is to look at declassifying and that's not our task that has not not been stated to us to be frank similarly uh there have been no parameters given to us in this review other than to look at instructional practices and to look at how disability vehicles are used in the district which is why we speak so-called holistically and that is our perspective Madam president anything else you'd like me to address I think that covers most of it um if you have additional questions obviously you can send them um if you want to send them through cpeg um we did talk about at the cpeg meeting having another round of questions um submitted for uh for Dr cisa to send to the team um or you can also email any follow-up questions to the board and Dr Cisco will also go through her notes and pull out any questions that maybe we have missed um and we will get to those as well so thank you very much we appreciate um your uh I don't I don't know I lost myself appreciate you adding on to your already extensive presentation um we're going to move on to committee reports I'm going to start with curriculum and instruction um curriculum and instruction met on November 14th um it was a very big meeting we had Dr Susa Miss Rodriguez um Dr Donovan Miss asima um me Dan Jen and Sarah so we have some exciting news um we're going to have new courses in science um at the high school so astronomy for space science is a new course that's looked um it was presented for review this one we're going to table for now we're going to look at it in a little bit um and that is because we may already have an existing course that covers some of that content so they're going to look to see if those two courses could perhaps be combined um and to be um a new course to be astronomy and space science we're also looking at AP Computer Science principles the committee reviewed a proposal for this course designed to attract underrepresented students in stem Fields Dr Donovan discussed the success of this course in Princeton where it was offered to nth graders as an introductory computer science option the committee discussed the importance of intentional recruitment strategies and collaboration with school counselors and math and science teachers there are also going to be two new um Spanish courses up for approval culture and civilization 1 espania and America delor and culture and civilization 2 Mexico e America Central and the committee reviewed those proposals and they are focused on oral proficiency and cultural aspects and this is really to kind of broaden um how students can access language instruction for the students that may struggle with traditional grammar FOC focused courses um so some of our students with disabilities or dyslexia who may need to explore a language through oral comprehension um while also looking at the cultural aspects of different nations and regions um so these courses would run um every other year so one year would be um one set of area like countries and areas and the next year would be another set um but they would not be consecutive so we asked them to remove the one and two from the names we discussed the history of midterms and finals at the high school which were discontinued during the pandemic some staff members support re introducing midterms and finals to better prepare students for postsecondary assessments While others expressed concerns about the impact on pacing and the need for more engaging and knowledge building assessments the committee supported the reintroduction of midterms and finals but agreed that any reintroduction should be really carefully implemented and accompanied by study skills support for students Miss Rodriguez shared feedback from staff on the use of AI in education noting mixed opinions and interest in platforms like chat gbt Magic School Ai and co-pilot you okay oh yeah okay um the committee discussed plans to offer a session at The District's January professional development to introduce Ai and its potential uses in the classroom we looked at curriculum revisions for health Miss asamoa discussed updates to the health curriculum including the integration of lgbtq related content and the expansion of personal and mental health topics the group suggested adding references to resources on lgbtq plus topics such as Garden State equity and Gilson the committee Express concern about the lack of a sexual health unit in seventh grade um there are sexual health units in six in eth but for some reason not in seventh um and the need for comprehensive coverage throughout Middle School um the committee also Revisited its discussion from earlier this year about prioritizing intervention during the school year and the possibility that the district may not be able to fund ship unfortunately due to budget constraints ship will not be funded this year the committee decided I'm sorry the committee discussed connecting with the library and Town recreation program to um discuss how these programs could respond in their programming to this information we want to be very clear this does not affect students receiving extended school year services this is only for the ship program so any extended school year Services as provided through special education department will continue over the summer we also looked at our field trips so I'm going to switch over to our agenda items so we have several field chips as per attached on the agenda some examples include the Rucker geology Museum um Super Fresh to look at organization of a grocery store um the Keen University for the DECA District competition and the Atlantic City state competition um so those are some examples of some upcoming trips we also have the approval of two Hip reports hs2 42501 which is unconfirmed and HS 24252 which is confirmed we have the approval of uh graduate student or students for teaching internship or Junior practicum or observation for Miss Dana Collins from seatan hall for spe to language we have the approval of courses for AP Computer Science principles cultural and civilization for uh the two World Language courses and that concludes my report are there any questions quick question about the language courses so did they remove the one and two that's in the agenda that way great yeah I realized I should have checked before I talked about them and left that out but I forgot all right finance and Facilities Excell Excellence what Finance facilities is my time oh there's a question I didn't say it fast sorry I just had a question about the language courses will they actually be teaching like in Spanish or is it Spanish it is it's Spanish not just Spanish like learning about it no so they're going to learn oral to learn Spanish too okay that's so it's more about the speaking and listening um conversational Spanish so if students were like planning to travel and things like that like what would get them through the uh you know the trip and things that they can use in everyday life I have one more comment too I'm sorry um is it okay to bring up the class trip to the library or I'd really like to highlight that if that's possible and I can yes and actually I think one of our student reps did too right yes I'm just very excited I'm very excited about yes we do have a class trip going to the library to get library cards which is great that's where I got my first library card on a class trip to the library any other questions okay equity and Excellence yes equity and Excellence met on the 21st uh and the bulk of our meeting uh pertained to the uh Rise program evaluation uh report that was recently completed um in two parts the qualitative and quantitative part um uh portions of the report and we uh had a special guest Dr Aaron Gregory who met with the committee to answer our questions um and to share her perspectives and thoughts on the report uh just through through the lens of her being an experienced um uh researcher and evaluator in the area of restorative practices and around discipline um in schools so very another very robust discussion so it's going to take me a little bit to get through um these thorough notes we have here um I think the initial feedback that an um had for us uh as she reviewed the report was that she found the use of the word restorative in our program rise is restorative in School in school what's the E for restored scho experience sorry restored in school experiences that's what the acronym stands for so and you know had some concerns about the use of the word restored in the title of the program just based on her read of the report and the fact that most schools who have a restorative program have a more comprehensive model not just in in school suspension um model so she emphasized the importance of um just making that distin distinction and understanding that the bang for the buck when it comes to restorative practices is in prevention so really focusing on prevention um she talked about the best way to prevent and reduce School discipline inequities which is um you know something that we struggle with as do many districts um around this country um and these are discipline inequities that disproportionately impact students who receive special education services black students Hispanic Latino students and cisgendered males um she emphasized the important um the importance of prevention when it comes to addressing those disproportionality issues districts who Focus solely on kind of the higher end of restorative conferences and still find profound racial discipline gaps for example um find that you know what happens is race becomes still or actually continues to be a predictive factor in placing students at risk for suspension so she just kind of gave us that context um again based on her experience as a practitioner and a research in restorative practices um so her view of report was that it was a report on our suspension data not necessarily a report on restorative practices as a fully um functioning sort of program she um talked about good things that are happening around uh harm reduction social emotional learning and therapeutic approaches in our program um but the concern is that uh you know when the word restorative is used in programs um and districts don't see the kind of reductions in um discipline the number of suspension incidents then restorative practices kind of becomes the bad guy and the Fall Guy so she really just wanted us to be careful and be aware of that and we I think we've experienced that we talked about that in the meeting that we have experienced kind of this perception I think in the community and at in the district level around um restorative practices not sort of living up to what we had hoped when in actuality as an pointed out we really haven't yet implemented a fully robust uh restorative practices program so we talked about what that means in terms of the bottom line and just financially what the district can afford in terms of improving our program and that is really kind of what we all want to see um she talked about uh an talked about thinking about the goal of the program really talking about um if we do want to be serious about implementing restorative work fully how can we better tie it into our tier one um level of supports School climate um the work we're doing around that oural learning um you know all of these kind of tier one level um supports and how we can uh make it more consistent with restorative practices so we um talked about I guess you give just a little bit more context about other districts and use some really helpful examples of some of the districts she worked with um who have fully implemented and kind of done deep training around restorative practices and have put in a lot of resources towards their programs she talked about um the data showing the restorative conferences do show that for very serious kind of safety threatening incidents they've had success with reducing recent recidivism um but again these are a she knowledge programs that have people that are dedicated as at the central level and who go out to the different schools in the districts to really support School building level staff um so they really have a robust comprehensive program or programs in place to support the restorative work so um one of the recommendations that an um uh sorry one of the recommendations in the report that an kind of also pointed out that she was a little bit concerned about was just the recommendation to kind of rotate um volunteer teachers around to um to uh kind of supervise or monitor our Rise program um and the fact that our teaching force is already really stretched thin uh so just thinking about kind of the human resources that we have and how we want to be careful to um not spread those resources any thinner than they already are um and that led to a conversation talking about kind of the relational component of um a restorative practices program and how it is really important to find the staff who um have the ability to engage and diffuse um you know conflict um teaching being able to teach these practices and how important that is she's like we know that we have those um teachers in our buildings and it's really just identifying those teachers and really leveraging their skills and assets as we think about ways to improve our use of RP um she found that uh struggles with teacher training and classroom management came through in the report as an area of need um are teachers uh again who are very skilled are they being motivated and um to really take leadership roles and leveraging their skills um she talked about also being careful to do this well shaming or blaming but there's Nuance into that as well but the importance of really again leveraging who we already have here in our buildings um and that sort of led to talking about um buyin and how important that is um uh and pointed out there is absolutely accountability when it comes to restorative practices it's not just um kind of quote unquote soft on accountability or ineffective um but there is a lot of accountability that goes into kind of that face to-face restorative work of acknowledging harm working to repair it um and that deep work that it takes um so getting to there's a lot here I'm going to try to summarize it I'm sorry it's just so much and I don't want to leave out the important details um one of the I think key recommendations um that we talked about first and talked about making sure that we're clear that we want to be care careful about pairing traditional discipline approaches with restorative Pro practices that is something that came out in the report um you know we should really be focusing on accountability learning growth and repair those are kind of the pillars that Ann emphasized and so really focusing on those pillars is something that I think we all would buy into um so it's just building around that at that tier one level um so thinking about the fiscal restraints um and where we are where that's concerned and acknowledged it and but she also said that again impactful RP programs are the ones that have typically hired a full-time or part-time Dean in each building to support this work but thinking about budget conscious things that we could do um that would have a high impact we talked about um uh let's see first what not to do and said do not focus on just doing districtwide trainings often posttraining excitement is there but then there's a lack of follow through so really trying to um kind of not take this kind of districtwide approach when it comes to just having full out of oneoff trainings or even a series of trainings and thinking that's going to carry the program um so really thinking about um finding ways again to make this a part of our practice on a day-to-day um building level and looking at culture so one really useful suggestion she gave us was to think about perhaps um picking a grade level or two grade levels and doing some articulation work around RP at an intense level with that grade level and see um almost as a demonstration project and really grow from there and using that um particular demonstration project quote unquote to share out sort of the positive results what's working really well highlighting kind of the shares and the sharing and glowing share and glows spotlighting what's working well bragging about the good we talked a lot about that and and really provid us some helpful context in terms of other schools that she's worked with who have really found I think it was one um principal in Los Angeles who said that they had a and this is a primary Latino Community there were somewhere around 110 or so um suspension their average suspension rate was around 10 something under 115 for the year and after um developing a really robust RP program but one that really focused on just highlighting their successes they were able to get down their suspensions to like under five in a year which is just amazing um but Ann really talked about how part of the big part of there was said success is really talking about the successes um highlighting that and engaging families so they really Incorporated families and and um utilizing the relationships that the families had and and and capitalizing off of that um so we talked a little bit about that um when it comes to professional learning opportunities professional learning communities came up in our discussion and how that could be leveraged to focus around discipline and Equity um building trusting relationships um diffusing relationship problems taking a strength-based coaching model is another suggestion that Ann had really thinking about again using those um teachers and staff members that we already have to really um boost and leverage um the skills that we have in our buildings already um and then again of course leveraging student agency and their voice and really incorporating their voice in when we're thinking about our programming and how to improve it uh so really again very comprehensive approach here we found her insights to be very helpful um a heavy focus on culture and climate and really allowing that to even when we're analyzing our culture and climate data to help us assess what's going well and what we need to improve um let's see uh I think this is this is repetitive so I'm just going to pass here I think I covered most of it um I will say at the ending here and acknowledged as we all did there are kids that we know need real skill building and that's what this is ultimately about is trying to um work on developing skills in in this process of repair and restoration and growth and learning um so she just really emphasized the important need for everyone in our community to develop those skills in that process so we're looking forward to more conversations around this I think we had a really robust conversation and opened up a lot of questions and will be um I think important for us to really consider how do we um take some of these suggestions into into our practice in a way that we can afford to as well so yes any questions I know that was a lot and um I I Chris Dr cesa are you going to be providing um a a a presentation on the report here I felt like we were that was supposed to happen maybe I got my you did a great job of presenting thank you yeah context and I thought about that so I'm sorry because we didn't really give that broader that's okay so I have I will be putting together a whole presentation actually I'm going to couple them couple it with another um program evaluation that was done on our school guidance um departments so I figured both because it's all about student support and services so I'd like to couple both of those together so I'm waiting for a revised version of the uh School counseling um program evaluation that was um done under uh with um uh a consultant under Elizabeth asoa um and under her leadership that she uh managed that with this so that we can look at um a a broader picture also of all the things that we're doing for student support and areas that we want to continue to improve because I think you know for example the school counselors do play a role in supporting students during Rise um so it's interesting some of that sort of dynamic of what came out in that other program evaluation to say well if if our school counselors for example are um conducting our Hib investigations and running inrs meetings and things like that do they have the time to be able to provide other students supports and and where areas can we kind of look at our school counselors and better utilize their strength for student support so I think they mirror each other really nicely so I'd like to combine them both um in into a a larger presentation that I'm hoping to give next month if I get everything in in on time and put it together um because I'd hate to wait for the end of January that's so far away when we in the grand scheme of things because that that would be the next meeting after so my plan is the end of December you're welcome question very good summary please that was great okay uh we're going to move to finance and Facilities so we I reported out on our meeting at our list uh public board meeting so I'm just going to look at the agenda and only comment on the things that are bold or new um on the agenda which which there is many as I predicted last two weeks ago um so under uh approval of Professional Services we have an extensive additional list one of them is the the uh program evaluation that we talked about tonight with Kau Education Institute and then the others on the Professional Services list is for um hiring of invo Health Care to provide uh related Services as needed for occupational therapy Speech Pathology Physical Therapy uh behavioral and CBA uh support and social work so this would be on uh as as needed we would have them uh it hopefully able to provide um those uh Services when we need them um and then we have the approve looking at number four approval of the bill list for October 29th to November 25th in the amount of 3 million 87 $887,000 about um approval of the treasurer's report uh as of September 30th approval of the board secretary's report um certifying that as of September 30th uh no budgetary line item has been overextended uh approval of the Board of Education certificates i f which one this one is um again uh uh affirming that there are sufficient funds available to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder of the year um approval of budget transfers for the month of September approval of travel and related expense reimbursements uh for the 2425 school year approval of contractors oh this is for H Camp NADA which is a a PD workshop for nurses um and then QBs um so we T we um this is to uh bring in additional training for what we typically use Handle With Care for for deescalation um and put to to help students with deescalation and potentially restraint should that be needed so um this is a um train the trainer model so we'd be training um administrator in housee who would then turn around and train um staff in um in their um the escalation strategies uh so that's the QBs then the next on here is approval of submission of the pre kindergarten projected enrollments for the 25 26 school year which as we talked about last two weeks ago will be um the segments we have this year approval of submission of health and safety checklist statement of insur assurance for 2425 um approval of waterproofing at Irving Primary School in the art room and in the music Music Room uh via WTI trco is the company approval purchase of a compact cab tractor through our um pred equipment uh budget approval of steam tables oh this is in the uh uh the cafeteria at Irving I'm thinking what was that not like steam like this actually electric hot food uh things that you heat food in right um I was thinking educationally uh through love disposal of cafeteria tables earlier in the year we um approved the purchase of new cafeteria tables and now we have to approve disposal of the old ones um the next two items are donations uh one is for a prechool program uh for the preschool program a climbing set and the other one is um classroom supplies for our high school science department so we are appreciative of donations um approval of bedside instruction for one student at Princeton house and the last one especially not least is approval of a DMR proposal for Professional Services this is for the ble structural repairs we talked about a lot two weeks ago um this is uh really for the uh architectural work and construction Management Services in the amount of $176,100 any questions question uh so just be clear it's QBs LLC the safety care so they they are including restraint training or not is it just the escalation with no restraint training or sorry Q QBs can you explain Sor it's getting cold in here so my not is running I'm it's getting getting they're like chilling me out here I'm getting cold sorry um it's it's a combination but what we like about their model if you look online is that the focus is more on Crisis Prevention and proactive strategies for deescalation if if a restraint is needed um proper it's a it has to be a combination um for certification so that is there but their focus what we like is that it's more Crisis Prevention training where Handle With Care focuses more on the restraint less not less but like equal parts or something like that like if you do a full day training it's like half day half day but in this approach it's more focused on the prevention and proactive measures and then my uh this question I think just uh so on the kamu in Education Institute uh a vote here if I'm not mistaken we did not include a discussion on this in our last work in our Workshop is that correct am I or did I miss something in terms of B anything bold oh it's bolded because it was added to the agenda we've been talking about it but we didn't add it um as an agenda item so I mean I do kind of hear the concerns that were raised about this being added and such a big item being added at um what appeared to be relatively short notice for families so I'm wondering if you know I would certainly be open to saying to table the vote if we need to get allow the community to have more time to um really get an understanding of uh what we're what we're possibly um going to be accepting in terms of this uh evaluation um so I don't know if anyone else is feeling that way but I kind of feel that way so again I'm just putting this out there as something to to see if we can open that up thoughts do anybody have any thoughts on that would it impact the evaluation in any way if if we voted on it in December instead delay it delays delay right but would that delay somehow impact the evaluation report in a significant way I didn't hear that can you repeat your question would would delaying the vote and obviously delaying the evaluation and Report um have some major impact on the report or like moving forward I mean it just delays it for time so it just you know this you know I would assume my My Hope Is that I mean it's for the remainder of the school year so um it's long as they can get done within the budget year of so June 30th is the end of our budget year I mean we can encumber funds I guess if it goes into the next year but that I would defer to my chief over here on uh on how all that works from my for a budget standpoint if we're using this year's dollars for something next year um I don't know how that works because we're paying for that service so you can encumber the funds now to pay for that service if it extends into the next school year it's still coming out of this year's budget it's just considered a roll over not okay so that's good to know I think that um I see the intention but we don't have any meetings between now and next meeting correct um so we would still the only way the public would be able to share feedback is through email um with us um I think that the kenno has made it very clear that they're willing to entertain any and all questions and any all feedback um so I feel like my decision would remain the same um regardless of any questions that were asked um because they have been so f in terms of how they have been responding yeah I mean I I my decision would probably be the same too I don't think that's really my my reason for saying why not I think my reason for saying that is just to give the public an opportunity to have more time to um uh do their kind of do dilligence as of public right whether that's asking us questions or just feeling like they feel they feel like they've had enough time to process this that's all I'm saying again not that necessarily will change anyone vot here at the table but if we're not this isn't a program evaluation this is not something that is um we're being constrained by time right we're not trying to read us reach a certain deadline and it is a very costly evaluation so if I could add if the evaluation starts earlier and we have information that changes the programming which could impact the budget we would be able to implement that sooner like put that in the budget for next year you know the budgets do comes together by March so I'm not sure how long valuation takes um but if that information could filter back and allow Dr sesa to make educational decisions it would impact the budget for next year otherwise we would have we may have to wait another budget cycle in order to implement the changes that suggested my my thought you know I think it's a very you know Fair Point my my thought on this being really intimately intertwin in the process from the beginning and seeing the other proposals um and to me it's it's quite frankly a little bit of a risk in that we want to get information that's going to inform an our opportunity to actually you know Implement some changes so aligning with the budget to to me seems really important um you know if I had questions about you know some of the proposal or you know I think I think that would you know I I would say something different but what are the when is our next mean I'm trying to figure out because again I let me December 16 16th 16th 16th so my understanding is that they're just doing an evaluation they're not changing anything for us and at the end of the evaluation we make that decision whether or not we do want to make those changes am I correct so and if and if delaying still wouldn't change our minds of voting um I don't see the reason to delay when we can always still answer questions openly and honestly absolutely I think we've also done a pretty my understanding is a pretty extensive review of the proposals through act equity and excellence and through U meetings with uh with ceg in terms of including questions and so forth so I feel like it's pretty extensive and I'm not hearing any concerns about the proposal itself at this point because we've gone so far so I would be comfortable voting on it tonight anybody else yeah yeah I just just to just to really really put emphasis on it's it's only as good as you know they're going to have great suggestions and we really want to have the care and the time to think about what they're telling us and and be completely methodical and how we incorporate it into the budget and you know a month these program evaluations take a long time they do and so I I I personally you know missing that window uh that to me concerns me all I'm saying is I don't think I'm missing a huge window because of the holiday season so that I mean I think the timing doesn't make it as huge of a window but again I'm just putting this out there and I I think I hear everyone and I think I'm in agreement that at this table and amongst ourselves we've had you've had rigorous conversations with um cpeg but I think these are valid points that were raised about perhaps some families feel like they were not um um made aware of this in a timely manner and that transparency I do want to clarify that seeb was emailed Thursday morning with the agenda and attachments so the regular agenda was mailed out on Friday but Dr Susa did send that out Thursday morning um so there was previous access it's not a lot of time I agree right um but when this is on a committee agenda from a Thursday night um because it was on your agenda for Thursday that was kind of like the earliest time I think because of the equity and Excellence because the equity and Excellence committee but we've been discussing the evaluation for for many months um and it always been on our agenda not the spe not their specific uh Noto specifically but right you know just in general disc the the coming of this evaluation well thank you everyone I just wanted to open up I think conversation I I will outnumbered and it's good it's it's helpful though you're forcing us to think carefully oh um Personnel in communication personnel and communication um has not met since our last Workshop meeting but there are some new items on the agenda that I'll go over um starting with number one approval of appointments um there's a couple couple new ones here we have a new school nurse at Bartle being being proposed tonight um in addition to quite a few others including a new acting principal at the middle school to cover a leave and that'll be Mr depay um mix Perez as the interim assistant principal at the high school and then bunch of other some new student AIDS which I that was new to me Stu actual high school students who will be aiding um at the after school program um number two we have approval of leave of absences there are three maternity leaves and a medical leave um approval of resignations um a site assistant at the after school program and then another school change approval of a transfer of Mr Richardson um from the high school assistant principal to the Middle School um also to cover the leave then oh except his um sorry his start date has changed it's um effective 1225 to 4182 five uh see then approval of volunteers we have a new one for the science Bowl club and approval of professional development um and I'll just go over some of the topics they some of them are really interesting empowering green actions a guide to completing District Green initiatives um a Hib what you need to know preschool pyramid module 1 and two nurturing and responsive relationships uh and module three and module five of the same address in challenging behaviors that's it for personnel any questions no questions okay policy um also uh nothing new to report since our last um since last time we met as a board the two policies that are up for first three that I spoke about last time uh revisions to our ations on field trips um and um and revision of our procure procurement procedures for school nutrition programs and I discussed both two weeks ago so they up for first read okay um hold on I have to find the okay uh we're going to move to the second public comment the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments board policy number 0167 establishes the and regulates the rights of the public to participate in public meetings is there anybody in person for public comment is there anybody online for public comment Angelo how many people do we have on zoom and is there anybody on Zoom for public comment okay we're going to close public comment um we're now going to go through our board action items for curriculum and instruction I would like to move items one through four second Dr baby yes M Sal yes Dr colan yes Dr Pixley yes Miss Bruce yes Dr scholman yes Miss Danio yes Miss bman yes Miss B yes uh uh equity and Excellence I don't think no okay finance and Facilities uh I move items one through 20 second Dr batty yes Miss calun yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Miss stano yes Miss bman yes Miss Bor yes personnel and communication I'd like to move items one through seven second sorry the change to number four Jason Richardson correct with the change to number four Jason Richardson Dr batty yes Miss Cal yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Miss sto yes Miss bman yes Miss bores yes and policy and regulations I move uh number one A and B second Dr V yes Cel yes Dr Coleman yes Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Danel yes Miss bman yes Miss Bor yes all right um we're going to move on to board liaison reports Ed Foundation is meeting tomorrow night I yes okay that all right um I do not have a president's report um except to remind everyone that we do have a special meeting scheduled for December 5th um at which point we have our um representative from njsba Maryann coming to talk about us about committee structure um and to entertain the idea of reorganizing committee structure for January Ary um and uh reorganizing well and re or adjusting the calender to one meeting per month which would be the combination Workshop voting meeting um so that is open to the public it's called a retreat it is not the kind of retreat you want a retreat to be we don't get a spa right we're resp but you know it you guys can come in um or on Zoom watch um but there is no not no decision making no committee reports nothing like that um it's all going to be um information from Maryann and discussion and then some decision making on our part just forgot about that put that in your calendar on your calendar please harass everyone for the doodle pole okay um any old business so I think I have an old business I don't know if it goes on Old or no but I know I've spoken to like Internet safety before and asked many questions and I was just wondering if we could discuss or bring up um there are a lot of issues in many many schools uh with posting videos and social media and I was wondering if we have any kind of programs or resources uh to educate our students on how to keep themselves safe from that or properly used social media or any kind of Internet safety so we definitely do the very specifics I don't have but I can follow up um with the curriculum documents that's posted on the district website and available from our media center Specialists that have written curriculum over the years um from K through five and then at the middle level through our maker space classes and then with Miss poio um at the high school so I'll follow up with very specific information there um I a thought just based off our previous conversation as it relates to followup with the uh I don't know if if I could bring it up now is that okay so one of the things that this really got thinking um in you know timing for uh you know for the actual work that's to be done and I wonder because it's going to be so important to integrate findings into the budget if if we could follow up to just see the timing and we may want to ask them if it's not going to be done by critical moments that they do some kind of intermediary check-in so we can at least get some information that could help us because that that to me is actually like which is also why I I feel a sense of urgency um you know just can can we create some Milestones depending on the timing that'll really help us um in in bringing this report to life and integrating um it's great recommendations so I had to think about what you were Circle back to the kenno Institute proposal I was following Dr pixley's Chain of of thought but just to re just to piggyback on that um so one of the things I did do was um that I already sent an email to um John and Sarah and the team to say that I was the point of contact for that reason that it's really important first and foremost um Miss teer and her group are incredibly overwhelmed right now with a bunch of other um uh reports that they have to do this is a very report heavy time of year uh for everyone in the business office and in special education um in our data department so being mindful of that I did want to hit the ground running really quickly um so that we could get those key indicators relatively soon so that's why I'm going to oversee it out of my office um and and to manage it that way it takes a little bit of the weight off of the the heavy work that's happening in the special education department now um that myself and my amazing team can uh help with whatever they need to um uh to get started and that way that information can flow back to my office so that we can make very important decisions um in a timely way great thank you all right any new business you want another report on where we are in our uh education system what what what might be coming down the pike maybe I'll wait for the next meeting we just hanging like that yes I will on the edge of seat I don't have any juicy Intel but I do think we need to again and it's something I raised at our last meeting just kind of be mindful of um kind of the threat we have to our public education system as we know it at least at the federal level and just I I really want to know what our um Schoolboard Association is doing not sort of at a county and state level you know State let are really um be mindful of monitoring this process and sort of what's going to be coming down the pike so we're not reactionary but we're really preparing and yeah I agree and that's kind of also I think one of the reasons behind um like me just really being excited to get this program evaluation going um is to just know right right um so you know I I don't want to have to run into obstacles um if anything comes down federally um in the coming months and um that's a concern for I think a lot of us with uh students that receive services and a lot of us that provide services to students as well and our Equity work I mean we talked about and our issues around that and I mean we know that that's not favored kind of by the incoming um Administration and what they're thinking about for our schools so I happen to talk to uh a rep from New Jersey ASA this morning actually about about this situation and they're watching it very very closely monitoring it um I have some information but I just don't have my notes in front of me but I can Circle back to the board on some of the the work that they're watching from a legislative perspective and changes at the federal level that may impact us so I am monitoring that very very closely and I'll Circle back with my notes that just came out this morning I didn't have time to put it together but yeah no thank you I think we need to be doing that incredbly mindful of that y I think holding school board's of accountable to do that for us right to be that's yeah exactly I've been watching their page like waiting for something to come out there their next meeting is December 12th okay um is their next like uh program it's about budgets um but you know hopefully somebody will ask a question well is part of it right they're G they're getting rid of the federal funding then how does that impact local funding herec decision making yeah it's ultimately budget and that's going to affect policy and programs and so forth absolutely well one of their Solutions is hey to tell superintendent and and boards to to the the the tax levy go from 2% to I think they're proposing up to 9.9% and those that's just not sustainable for communities in general so I I know the whole point of their um the school finance and figuring out how to budget that their equation for figuring that out with S2 was supposed to level the playing field uh it didn't exactly do that no to finance schools okay to be continued thanks for bringing that up yeah yeah um all right I move to a journ oh second second all in favor Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving everyone