Uh, okay. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order uh this Highland Park Board of Education workshop voting meeting. Uh, the New Jersey Open Public Meetings 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 Meetings Act, the Highland Park Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting, setting forth the time, date, and location to be submitted for
publication to the Home News Tribune and Courier News 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.
Dr. Batty >> here >> here. >> Miss Cassell Dunn Dr. Coleman Mr. Maldonado Dr. Pixley Miss Puce here.
>> Dr. Schoolman here. Mrs. Daniel here. >> Miss Bardman >> here. >> Uh, okay. I move that we recess to executive session. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> I.
>> All right. >> Okay. Uh, we will now reconvene to regular session. >> I move that we reconvene to regular session. Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Mr. Mel
>> here. >> Here. >> Daniel >> here. >> Uh, and we'll now stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, we uh received a um number of emails. Um, one seeking clarification on busing, one uh a formal withdrawal of
students for homeschooling and uh considerations for upcoming exterior lighting projects. Uh and then a number uh one around the high school graduation
class of 2026. Uh and then a number regarding an issue at Irving. Um, now we have the approval. I I move approval of minutes. >> Dr. Batty, >> yes.
>> Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Puce, >> yes. >> Dr. Skullman. >> Miss Staniel? >> Yes. >> Miss Vardman? >> Yes. Uh, and now we can move to the
student representatives report. Starting with Irving, their K and one students enjoyed the petting zoo and met a lot of cute animals. They want to thank their Irving PTO for making this possible. Their first graders also visited Turtle Back Zoo and were thankful for an enriching experience. And they welcomed 47 new preschool
families at their orientation. They celebrated uh their staff this week with a breakfast, a lunchon, and fun through for teacher appreciation. and I look forward to their rescheduled whole school picnic on Wednesday and then grade level shows.
>> Thanks. >> Okay. >> Um, okay. So, for Bartle, they said earlier this month the students had a blast at field day at the high school. A huge thank you to Mr. Roy and Mr. Stark for planning such a fun event. Uh we
would also like to thank Miss Lane and her peer leaders for helping run stations at the event. To celebrate mental health awareness month, students are participating in coping skills fair. Every class has the opportunity to rotate through stations featuring coping skill activities. BTO boardwalk and art
show will also be held on Wednesday, May 27th. Thank you to the Bartle PTO and Miss Tomasino for planning the event. Yeah. Down to the middle school. NJSLA pep rally on May 8th. Everyone got
pumped for the test and they had a rematch of the faculty student basketball game with the faculty winning 11 to 8. But they want to note that the students did give it their best shot. They started science NJSLA testing on May 6th and 7th and ELA testing on May 12th and 13th. They're set to take math
on the 19th and are crushing it so far. We had a wonderful teacher appreciation week where staff participated in a clue game and retreated to a full course dinner as part of the murder mystery throughout the week. They want to thank the PTSO who provided lunch and dessert and the many gifts that they raffled off. It was a fun week for our staff and
who they adore and love to celebrate. June is packed with awesome events for all of their students. The eighth graders have order forms due for t-shirts uh for the eighth grade trip to Dorny Brook on Friday and for the picnic at Dson. Picnic picnics and field days are also coming up for sixth and seventh
graders. Sixth graders have their picnic and field day on June 10th and seventh graders have their picnic on June 11th. And they would like to emphasize the following message from the PTSO. As we begin planning for the upcoming school year, we invite you to consider getting more involved in our school community by
serving as a PTSO officer. In accordance with PTSO bylaws, they're accepting nominations for officer roles until June 1st for president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and other supporting roles. They warmly encourage both parents and staff to either nominate someone they believe would be a
great fit by sending an email to ptso.hplgmail.com again by June 1st. Serving as a PTSO officer is a rewarding opportunity to shape school initiatives, strengthen connections between family and staff, and contribute to a
supportive school environment overall. They finally, they want to invite you to attend their last PTSO meeting online or in person on Monday, June 8th at 5:30 p.m. on room in room 112. They'll be able to vote and shape meaningful, engaging activities for the school
community. Uh if you would like to learn more about roles or submit a nomination, please reach out or be prepared to participate in the meeting. They want to thank everyone for their continued support. Lastly, for the high school, they said May is another b busy month at the high
school. AP testing as well as NJSLA dominated much of this month. And um they held junior prom in May 21st and the band concert will happen in 2 days, which is May 28th. Um, and they're excited to look forward to what's happening in June with a lots of
activities for the seniors, including prom, senior trip, senior BBQ, uh, cap decorating, send off, and more. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. Well, thank you so much. And now we can move on to the superintendent
report. >> All right. Good evening, everybody. Uh, we have a packed full report. So, first I'm going to start off by introducing Miss Caitlyn Brady to highlight and showcase a very wonderful um and meaningful occasion for our student
spotlight. So, Miss Brady, good evening. So when I was calling teachers for the perfect person to nominate for this award, I got a unanimous response of Nijia Wilson. I could not agree more
with them or be more honored to speak about Nija tonight. So I asked the teachers to contribute a little bit uh from their personal classes and then I'll speak on my own behalf um because Nija is just such a bright star in our school. So for Miss Takis and Miss Ali,
she they said, "Nay is incredibly thoughtful and hardworking. She brightens our days by always greeting her teachers with kind good morning. In math, she shows remarkable perseverance and determination. Even when faced with challenging concepts, she never gives up
and continues to push herself to improve. Her positive attitude and strong work work ethic are truly admirable. Beyond academics, Naya is kind, respectful, and supportive to all of her peers, making her a wonderful
presence in the classroom community. Miss Hawthorne said Naya has made incredible strides academically and socially through hard work, determination, and perseverance. This year, she has grown into an engaged, independent learner who asks questions, advocates for herself, and pushes
through challenges with positivity and grace. Nija's kindness, bright smile, and thoughtful nature spread joy wherever she goes. She has a special way of making others feel seen and valued. Often sending thoughtful emails to her teachers simply wishing us a great day.
At the middle school, we focus on five core character traits: perseverance, respect, integrity, determination, and empathy. And Aaya demonstrates each of these every single day. Miss Aorio said, "Nay is one of the kindest students I have ever had in my
classroom. She is a caring and respectful student with a contagious smile. Naya is always putting her best foot forward, even on days where she doesn't feel her best. When given a writing assignment in class, she worked on her essay for homework and asked me
to provide feedback. She went above and beyond so she could practice her writing skills before the NJSLA. I can see that Nija is a motivated student and is striving for growth. She is always giving 100% in theater even when activities are new. I am so happy I was
able to have Nija in my class this year. Miss Luxa who I believe Miss uh Nija has for a few classes. Nijia says that Nija joined us last year and from that point on has become such an important part of our HPMS community. She's kind,
generous, giving, determined, and takes pride in her work. She perseveres through any challenge no matter how long it takes. She is willing to put forth for forth effort even in her free time. She has not only become an excellent academic student, but she is caring, a
caring community member. She checks in with her teachers and encourages positivity. She asks others about their day, shows empathy when needed, and is such an incredible role model to all. And this is from me, Nija.
Nijia is one of the happiest and warmest students I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Every single day, she brightens my day with an excited Miss Brady followed by a hug. I am incredibly fortunate to see Nia several times
throughout the day, and her enthusiasm never waivers. Each interaction brings the same joy, positivity, and energy. Nija consistently shows up and shows out every day. She is enthusiastic, ether eager to learn and always willing to
contribute in class. She encourages her classmates, leads with kindness, and brings a genuine warmth that makes coming to work an absolute joy for both me and for her teachers. Her positive attitude and caring spirit have an incredible impact on everyone around her.
I don't think that the students realize the impact that they have on the adults in our building because the truth is it's the adults job to have an impact on the students, right? But it goes both ways. Naya, you make coming to work
worth it every single day. On the days that are tough, I can count on your unmatched spirit to lift me up and it always works. So, thank you. Thank you for being the beautiful person you are inside and out. Congratulations.
This is such a well-deserved honor and I could not be more proud of you. Well, please join me in congratulating her again. What a great honor. >> And next um up, I would like to actually introduce uh Miss Ashley Raywood to introduce herself. Ashley is on the
board agenda tonight for approval of our next uh supervisor of educational services. So, Miss Raywood, >> thank you, Dr. Skisa, and thank you to the board of education for appointing me to this position tonight and for providing me with an opportunity to
share a little bit about myself. Pull this up. That's a little bit easier. Um, as Dr. Susett said, my name is Ashley Raywood and I am very excited to be joining the Highland Park School District. Uh, with 14 years of experience in education and as a mom of
a preschooler and a kindergartener, I understand both professionally and personally the importance of strong schools. My commitment to supporting students and families has also led me to serve as president of my local board of education. So, education is my life all
around. Um, throughout my career, I've worked in the past as a special education teacher and currently as a supervisor of special services. I'm very passionate about ensuring that all students, regardless of their individual needs, are provided with a high quality
education that promotes growth and success for all learners. So, I am truly looking forward and I'm honored to join the team here and to support the staffs uh through student- centered leadership. Thank you again. Okay,
>> thank you. Okay, so I also have a little bit of an audible. I was going to save it till new business, but I'd like to do it now. So, we have uh two amazing student representatives that are not going to be at our meeting next month where we do our celebrations. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to take some time
to celebrate you both. Okay. Um so, I'd like to celebrate Bri Zavala and Lami Lee. Um, as neither Bri nor Lami will be able to attend next month's meeting, I wanted to make sure we took the opportunity this evening to acknowledge and thank them for their service to the board of education and our school
community. On behalf of the board, thank you both for your dedication, your professionalism, and your commitment to serve the students their voice throughout this year. Your presence at our meetings brought important important student perspectives to the table and helped strengthen the
connection between the board and the students that we serve. Bri and Lami consistently came prepared, engaged in thoughtful discussions, and asked insightful questions that reflected both maturity and genuine care for their peers and our schools. You represented
our students with integrity, confidence, and pride, and your contributions were truly valued and appreciated. Thank you for your leadership, your time, and your willingness to step into this important role. Your contributions have made a meaningful impact on our board and
school community, and we wish you both success in all that lies ahead. Congratulations. Oh, mommy. Oh, you like it? Yay. Oh, hold on. So, congratulations um Bri and Lami. Bri who is going to be attending TUS in the fall and Lami
Ruckers. So, congratulations. And again, thank you again. I know that you both can't be here next month and I didn't I'd be remiss if we didn't celebrate you. So, thank you and congratulations. Okay. Um, so at this point, I'm going to move on to the two formal presentations um of our board meeting, but I know Miss
Brady and um our student uh spotlight, you've had very long days, so if you would like to stay, you're more than welcome to. If not, please feel free to excuse yourself, take some more pictures um and head home. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce Miss Lisa Saka, our supervisor of curriculum and
instruction to come up. And Miss Saka is going to present on our math pilot program adoption uh with much anticipation. It's been it's been a long go, but we're very excited for tonight. Uh so Miss Saka, the floor is yours. Good. Good evening everyone. Um I'm Lisa
Saka. For those of you that I haven't met in person, it's nice to meet you all. Um like Dr. Susa said, this has been a long process, but I think we got to the right spot. So, I'm very excited to be here tonight. Um, before I start clicking ahead, I do want to thank
everyone who has supported us through the process. I want to shout out Miss Rodriguez who really like kind of taught me how to do this and has been my sounding board. I'd just come into her office and whatever she was doing, she would stop to listen to me. our principles, Miss McN, Miss Snap, and
Miss Baldazone for their logistical help because it required a lot of professional development for our teachers and it's not easy to take our teachers offline to do this type of work. So, we need to thank our teachers for their flexibility because they were asked to basically stop what they know and start something they don't know in the middle of the school year. And as a
teacher, I know how daunting that would be and how much I wouldn't want to do that. So, I really want to thank them for their dedication and the same to our students and families because it was a change in their routine as well. So, here we go. Okay. So, we'll start back with this
process that's taken a while. Um, what was the need? And so, for elementary math, the need was a fully aligned and articulated elementary math program that was sort of the full package. And that means teacher materials, student materials, and standards aligned
assessments. And so for our process, we looked at four programs. Um that came down to that each grade level, one of them per class. Was there duplicates? Yes, absolutely. But that was the the model we followed. And
as we started in February, each grade level did one unit or module of a similar topic. So we found the most common topics that we could do so that there was a similar experience at each grade level. teachers and students had all the materials that they would have had as if they were doing this from the beginning of the year. So to really have
that full experience, um all the teachers and the administrators received professional development. Throughout the process, there were observations, meetings, walkthroughs, um just so that we could all see what this looked like. We were all in the classrooms and at the end there were
debriefs with the groups of teachers. We use Google Classroom as a way to house all of that data. Um, feedback through rubrics, open-ended questions, student performance. Um, we also sought feedback from students and families.
And there was also a much larger review of the digital and print materials, assessments, and all the program offerings beyond that one module of study. So, these were our programs of interest. We looked at Clear Math from Carnegie
Learning, Envision Math from Savvice, Eureka Math Squared from Great Minds, and Into Math from HM. And we chose these programs. They varied a little bit each. Um, you can see some of the highlights that brought them to our
attention, but all four were that complete package where they had student, teacher, and assessments. Some of the rubric criteria and look fors with the programs were what you see on the screen here. Um, obviously we wanted a program that was aligned to New
Jersey math standards. We focused on different understandings and skills in math. Um, we looked at differentiation and accessibility for all of our learners. Um, the assessment package was really important to us. Something that offered all types of assessments,
preassessments, formative assessments, post assessments, progress monitoring. We looked at technology and the type of support it gave teachers, what it looked like on the student side, the engagement and motivation. Um, was it a culturally diverse and inclusive program, and how
did it provide materials to our parents, families? All right. So, we looked at those four and we collected a lot of data. Um, but one thing that I wanted to share was a question that we asked teachers. We said if this program was the only option this
or nothing for next year, would you want it? And so this data is pretty telling on two programs that stood out amongst our elementary teaching staff. So we move forward with Clear Math and Eureka
Math. Eureka math squared as our two finalists that we had to make the decision between and I'll tell you they they offered great things individually but were very different. So I'll give you a little brief overview of the strengths and the areas for
improvement for both programs. So this is our holistic view of clear math. the strengths and the areas for improvement. Um so with clear math um looking it through the larger lens some of the things that really stuck out as
strengths was uh differentiation and re-engagement days and I'll explain more about that and progress monitoring which um gives us a look at how our students are progressing towards the full year standards. Um, one of I would say one of
the biggest considerations is that this program is relatively new to the K through five world, but Clear Math has a long-standing 6 through 12 program and Carnegie Learning is a very wellrespected company. Looking at Eureka Math Squared, similar
what are the strengths and what are the areas for improvement. You can see that um one of the things we noticed and the teachers agreed upon and what it's very well known for is really uh very high quality lesson materials and um something that stood out was also
that fluency practice was built into each lesson. And so while the everything in the strengths stood out to us, there were some areas for improvement. Um and we did feel that it was a bit languageheavy. um and that PACY might be difficult to
keep up with. And one of um another big consideration was that our assessments that they provided did not look at the full year of standards. Um and I'll explain a little bit more what that means in terms of progress monitoring. Okay. So, we move forward saying clear
math is the choice for Highland Park. Um and here are some reasons why. Um, we feel that it works well in classrooms with varied reading with varied readiness. Reading and language would be less of a barrier and it's looking at clear math compared to all four
programs. Um, it encouraged hands-on learning and allows time for student discourse. Um, formative assessment was used or is used um at the end of a series of lessons to plan re-engagement days which are built into the scope and
sequence. And these re-engagement days include differentiated lessons and activities which include reteing, reinforced practice, and enrichment activities. So this really aligns with differentiation and enrichment as part of our strategic goals. Another reason, and this is where I'll explain progress
monitoring. Progress monitoring assesses students on the fullear grade level standard. So regardless where students start at the beginning of the year or midway through the year, we can see their growth as opposed to assessments that purely test the most recently learned material. We don't know what
they know now that they didn't know at the beginning. Digital resources were abundant for students and teachers with fuzzle pacing, but they were not required. So, the program focuses very much on student workbooks and student discourse, students working in pairs, independently with the teacher, and
hands-on learning. Carnegie Learning provided us with some of the research that they've done. um and they worked mostly in in the Midwest and they did a research study with grades three through five looking at
four groups and all groups saw some increase compared with the previous year where none of the third through fourth graders used clear math as their program compared to the next year of third, fourth and fifth graders who were utilizing clear math. Specifically in
fourth grade they saw significant or not significant but increases in all of the groups all students economically disadvantaged black students and Hispanic students um where there was an increase in their performance compared to the previous year.
So now I want to take you on a little bit of a tour of Clear Math um some screenshots directly from the company because they are very excited to be working with us. So, as I said, we were looking for a full package, which means student digital and print, teacher digital and
print assessments that come digital and print so that we have everything at our disposal. We're not required to digital, but it's there for us. They have a unique instructional sequence um that involves, you know,
activating student knowledge and student learning, sparking interest in whatever the topic is, exploring through hands-on discussion, in-depth activities, and then ending each lesson with a reflection that involves an assessment, a very clear assessment for the teachers
that they can use to then plan future learning. differentiation is built in with this re-engage engagement. So what they pride themselves on and what we have found and believe in is this power of the pause that after two lessons or
three lessons where there's a new concept and then another concept that builds off of that and then possibly a third concept here there's only two. There's a day that's built in to re-engage all learners at their level and their readiness. And so if we go on
to the next slide, you can kind of see what that pause day, that re-engagement day would look like. And you can also notice that every move on involves using data to decide what happens next for all our learners.
So on this re-engagement day, we have these explore centers. And for some of our learners, that's going to be clarify where they need some additional work and possibly reteing on what the previous lessons have been. For other students, it might just be the opportunity to solidify and do some extra independent
par p practice. And then for other students, this is where we'll see the enrichment, the stretch center. And it provides students the opportunity to extend their work, but connected to what they've just learned. And then all students would have the opportunity to do review or practice with um online
lesson aligned games. Um and so here you can see that yes this is the full assessment package each module so that's a unit of study has a preassessment formative assessments are built in there are topic assessments within the module and then module
assessments and progress monitoring. So, we have a really robust assessment package that we can work together um as a whole math unit and on grade level to see how will these best fit our needs. Carnegie Learning and Clear Math believe in the power of engaging the family and
learning outside of the classroom. So, they provide a lot of resources to caregivers to support students outside of the classroom. Um, sometimes it's just a it's not just it's a word wall or an anchor chart for the recently learned materials, ways to support students, um,
enforcing math vocab as well. And it provides our our caregivers with a summary of what the learning looks like and what students have been working on. Okay. So, next year will be year one of adoption and we will continue to develop
our relationship with Carnegie Learning. Like I said, they're very excited to be working with us. Um, we're going to order and distribute materials. We'll launch with professional development that all teachers will receive. Yes, a handful of our teachers have already, but now it's time to train
everybody. This will also involve um inclass and in-person coaching with professional developers from the company. So, it's one thing for teachers to be in a room together and learn the ins and outs of the program and how to use all the components, but there's power in having these experts from the
company coming in and co-eing, giving feedback, even model teaching what these lessons look like. Um, they'll also provide us with office hours. So, if I'm a fifth grade teacher and I have an upcoming unit on fractions and I'm a little concerned, I can schedule office hours with Carnegie Learning and the
professionals there to sort of alleviate my fears or get some feedback on how to best approach this. And we plan on offering family nights so that families in the community can learn more about our new math program. And that's all I have for you. So, thank
you. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Saka. And uh I want to reiterate and thank Miss Rodriguez um you know our teachers, our students and and our families uh for this process. Um I was thinking about that when you said that Miss Saka about having to stop what I was doing sort of
mid year and teach something new. Uh so kudos uh to everybody and and thank you endlessly for their their support. So I'll open it up to the board if they have any specific questions um or comments. >> Miss Saka, just a quick question. And I know that you mentioned that at the beginning that it has digital
components, but they're not necessarily required. I'm a little concerned about homework on the computer and stuff and if it's possible to avoid that there, it sounds like the materials can it sounds like this system can sort of operate without the digital components.
>> Yeah. So digital is absolutely an add-on and actually would be more of a focus for teachers outside of the instructional math period. the power to have digital assessments and analyze results not just as a percentage that students get but looking at which questions are commonly missed, what
standards are they aligned to. Having quick data to build those re-engagement days is really the power of the digital here plus any support outside of the instructional math period. Students would have access to it outside of the classroom as well. Tucker,
>> I just I just wanted to add to to that point. I think a couple things that actually having a curriculum really strengthens is that students will be bringing home a workbook so parents can actually see kind of what students are working on. We haven't had that kind of
structure before. Um and there there the digital tool in the teacher side and and progress monitoring analyzing things is really that's really the teacher side. There are some digital tools that say can supplement uh student learning and
they're actually very educational games. They're not uh sometimes you worry about some of the digital tools that get attached to a curriculum uh because they can be fun but the learning is really low level. Um and it seems like this is this the the digital tools that are
actually kind of games more for supplemental kind of learning are actually really engaged in substantial learning. So, I think that was something we at Bordon we talked about. Um, >> I thought better than I did. It is absolutely an add-on. You won't really see it used in the classroom. The work
will be in the workbooks and hands-on materials and there's a lot of student discussion involved. The and any sort of games are very lesson aligned and I'll tell you some of the students felt they weren't as fun because they were much more serious. I I think the important part too is it
allows for the differentiation and the enhancement, right? So you you've got the the curriculum and and it's you've got the paper and and it gives you an opportunity when you look at the differentiation and where individual students might be. So there's opportunities for those across you know all performance levels. So and I also
just want to say what an amazing job you all did um in going through this process. I know we've touched on it a little already, but to pilot 4, you know, we went above, I'd say, the benchmark to do something really special to make sure that we feel really confident. So, I just really proud to have observed the process and you guys
did great great job. Yeah, I just want to uh agree with that and say the amount of teacher data, student data, parent data, going through the curriculum, going back and talking to the companies and I think once it was down to these two, it was really figuring out which one kind of really
met our needs the best because we felt like there were two really strong options. Um, but both the differentiation both on the because we use that word a lot in education. um both on the side of meeting students who aren't at the standard yet, but also
enrichment activities for those who are kind of beyond. I think this is a really strong kind of program for that and the progress monitoring kind of well the the digital assessments inform the teachers about on those pauses kind of how to respond and where students are at and I think that piece is a real strength here
um and aligns with our district goals around differentiation and that kind of stuff. I think provides some tools and some curricular kind of supports for that which is a real strength. >> I have one question. Um pacing is always so difficult. Um especially when you
have distributions of performance and and and um at grade level or not. Uh the fluency not built in. I'm I'm when I think about it's it's a opportunity to really think through next year and how you'll um fit that in because it's going to be really important to kind of to do
that. And so that's on my mind. But I think overall it meets all the goals and and and all that. Just being thoughtful about how how we're going to build that in because pacing is an issue for sure all around. So if you have any thoughts on that, I'd love to hear. If not, we'll continue to discuss it. I think that's
the power of the pause, which I told myself I was going to do. I was going to pause, but I think this is the correct response here. This is so unique that if we're in a a mod module one topic one, lesson one is X. Lesson two is Y. Lesson
three is not Z. It's re-engagement of lesson X and Y. That I have not seen that in any of the programs out there. Those are definitely days to build in fluency and it just becomes a matter of perfecting time. All of our teachers next year are going to say they don't have enough time for this. I think we
know that's going to be pretty common probably the first couple of years. So, it's looking at what fluent activi fluency activities are most necessary for reinforcing what we just learned and what's coming up and then using those re-engagement days to really
like make that so powerful. >> I have a question as well. Um, so first I I'm actually pretty excited about this one. I I think it sounds really good and it sounds like it's going to cover all the student needs. But I did have a question if you could just clarify a
little bit for me um with the varied readiness and the language and reading. You said that's not going it's going to not affect the child if they have like struggles with language and reading and or how does how would that work? >> I won't say not.
It will be less of a barrier. Um, I'm not going to mention which program, but there was one in particular where we're like, is is this assessing a student's ability to read these words and understand them or their math? And that's important. Like on our state test, we do see high language usage.
Teachers overall felt that that would not be a barrier to assessing student progress in math. >> When you say high language barrier, can you just define that for me? Yeah, I mean I I'll probably just jump
in here. I think it's it's really about um probably the amount of words that are there and the level in which the the language is used. So is it like grade level type of language or is it more advanced language of the words that
they're using? Um and how much of that? So obviously word problems and and sort of languager rich um richness is is part of that but sometimes things get so incredibly wordy and so heavy that it becomes a barrier like students um shy
away. like it's too many words. I I you know, and all of a sudden you're like, "Oh, I I don't I don't even know where to start." >> Appropriate and simple, >> right? So So I think what what they found in Clear Math was that um our students that struggle with that might not have as much difficulty
accessing it because it it it was more grade level appropriate uh versus so rich heavy text that um our students would really struggle with that, right? To say like is it is it a problem that they they are struggling with reading or with the math? And if that be if that's
the concern, then we have a big problem, right? We want to make sure we we're assessing the math. >> Thank you. >> To write the assessments that all students could take to look at overall student performance. Some of the questions were worded in a way that you
would say with some of the programs, why was it worded that way? So, I have I have an example. It was a second grade test and the question was, which is the number of pennies in a quarter? And then it gave four multiplechoice responses. And I'm like, I don't I don't know why
it couldn't be worded as how many pennies are in a quarter. Are we really like if we want students to answer the question, why are we asking in a way that's so confusing that we're trying to get them to dissect what that means? >> I have another question. So, how or is
this going to be implemented with students who have like learning disabilities or other uh struggles? The this is going to be in all classrooms next year. Okay. The pilot was not in all classrooms, but this we have the numbers for every single
student and every teacher that teaches grade level curriculum K through five. >> Any other questions? Oh, go ahead. >> Is what you're trying to get at. So, this would be the core instruction and then the progress monitoring could be and other tools would be used to identify those that may need additional
tier 2 and tier three supports. >> Oh, absolutely. This is key. The the assessments that are that come with this will become what we use to help our students and meet them where they are. >> And of course with all of us students
that um require any kind of individualized education plans that may require uh instruction around um their own uh goals and objectives or need a modified curriculum. the teachers will then have their training to be able to that with with the help of our
administrative team be able to work around that because um some of our students do require a more modified curriculum. Uh so they would they would get that but still under the same umbrella of of what's going to be um presented in clear math. And did I understand correctly, and
pardon me if this was covered while I left, that there's kind of two days of instruction and then there's a pause and then there's kind of an assessment of where the student progress is during that pause. It's it seems like it's fairly regular assessment checkpoints as
to where the students are. >> One of the wonderful things about this and it's very explicit to the teachers. Um, so in this model, actually go back one more. This is kind of the sequence of a daily lesson. So lesson one, lesson two, sometimes it's three lessons and a
pause, but that's the relative pattern. When we get to the reflect part, there is a question or questions that is highlighted as this is your formative assessment. Grade students on this, enter in a recording sheet. So the teacher does that lesson one, lesson
two, possibly lesson three. And then once all that's entered, it actually colorcodes so that teachers know based on this sequence of learning, this is where this is what's most appropriate for this student. And what's great kids,
get him in bed by now. This is this is fluid. So students are not stuck in all of his words in a group. It's not just based on a preassessment. It's not based on I know this student. It really is every couple of days students have the
opportunity to get what they need. So if a student consistently needs the red, they're getting what they need. And teachers are not creating it. They're not trying to figure out, well, what do I do with everyone else who doesn't need the red? There are activities and the enrichment is aligned to the learning.
It's not something that they have to learn on their own or try on their own. It's based on it's an extension of what they just did. And this is something that that's why these companies exist because this is really hard to do. >> So it sounds like the tech is really the tool for the teachers to figure out how
to help best how to best help the the students. >> Not to be said, if you have the child who's K through five, they might show you what they can do online, but really in the classroom it's it's there, but it's not utilized. >> So I just have a question. So if you um
so you know during this pause so it's red that means that you need like additional instruction is I'm sorry I don't have my classes on. Um so then if you are if you've mastered it and it's enrichment at that point is that then the computer program or like what is
that down here where it's math adventure? I honestly don't know if we would see a lot about the first year. Um I think like Dr. Dr. Pixley said it's a lot of learning pacing and there's not a ton of time. So, I don't um foresee that
happening a lot the first year, but it could be it could also be move on to the solidify center. We've just you've just worked in a small group with the teacher to do some retach initial practice. You're getting it now. Go and see if you can do this on your own. I don't I can't
anticipate what's going to happen on a given pause day. Um the movement might be a student who in the beginning of the year was in the red a lot might then move to the yellow and possibly to the green as the year goes on. >> So I'm just asking about the
differentiation aspect like that's the >> I think the the enrichment is still like textbased enrichment. You can also use the Nafasia, right, for >> Yeah. This the enrichment is not going to be is not
>> it's not like if you're if you're enriched, go work on that computer. It's not like you're going to be pushed to the side. Wait. >> Yeah, that doesn't hurt. >> So, I guess the answer is >> no, it's not the computer. >> I think the important thing too is a pause day could be spent any which way.
And so there's maybe teachers will do some experimentation with instructional models on how they might want to use that data where they have small groups and then they assign different kinds of work depending on where different students are. There's suggestions on how to use that time. Um, and you know, it's
a little bit of of I think learning that's what an implementation adoption year is going to be on on how to really and I'd imagine there's some uh there's differences in how teachers will use that time, but but there's there are some guidelines I think in how to use that time. And that's also where the instructional coaching and the site
visits come in really handy when okay, it's one thing to learn how to do this when you're sitting in a room with just teachers and there's no students in front of you, you've never done it to having an expert in your classroom and saying, "Okay, here I am now." I don't know. I don't know if I'm really enriching these students. What can I do
with this green group and help them use this activity? That that leads me to a little which is you know the first year this is the first time we're doing such a large adoption and so it's going to be a big learning curve for the teachers even how they use that time. And so I'm just
thinking about looking forward um you know coming back into the fall, you know, what kind of look for things that that will let us know, you know, just thinking about that in our minds that'll let us know if it's going well or not, if we need to intervene, do we need more professional learning? And so just curious about what that plan might be um
to to be able to tell us if we're kind of on course or need some some additional intervention because this is this is a big, you know, exciting thing, but we haven't really done this before. There's a lot of coaching built in and that's why we're not going to do six
days of PD and then say go and do it. it's one one and a half at the beginning of the year and then typically these programs then have an extension one maybe mid-occtober like okay you've done it for a couple of weeks a month but the real impact is going to come in individual classrooms and then bringing
that back to our grade level meetings where I worked with the with the consultant and they showed me this to work with enrichment or they showed me this is the best way to do the clarify centers >> it sounds like um like there's going to
be you know the first year it's going to be the learning curve the adoption part of it then it's going to be the next year a little bit more growth and then so it's going to take some time to see some real like actual changes or results >> I yes let's stick with that yes because it's not going to happen overnight and
this is very new for our teachers I mean they're excited for this but they've never had anything like this >> yeah I was going to comment on that usually with a new curriculum adoption you see a drop in the first here potentially since we don't have this structure maybe we missed that which
we'd be really fortunate in but I think we really want to think about this as like a three-year adoption right this year it they're going to be figuring this out with a different kind of sequence of lessons and and that kind of pause is is pretty unique to this um if
we can get them up and on board and figuring out kind of how they implement this and and what works for them this first year that's That's a win. And then second and third year is solidifying and kind of perfecting it, right? And so it's going to take more kind of coaching
in year two, but it can be much more refined and kind of high level. This first year is probably going to be more like no, we're not using enrichment enough, right? Or no, this is how you use the the um kind of progress monitoring more effectively, right? And
uh so it's probably going to be a little bit more broad strokes, but this I would say it's going to be helpful for us to think of this as like a three-year implementation and this is year one where teachers are experimenting figuring out how to work with this. Um if we're if if we really give them time
and kind of freedom to kind of do that and support, then we'll be in a really good spot, you know, this time next year. And then it'll be much more kind of building from that base. I mean, we're really listening to everybody. And by the way, you know, um, Lucy, you and Michelle did
an amazing job and keeping the curriculum committee updated is over the course of several meetings, we heard how we didn't get a sort of sneak peek into anything. We heard how things were going. Um but it is but it really it does is sounding like a you know a culture change for the students for the
parent for parents and for the teachers that you know we're moving away or we're trying to move away from uh you know from teaching where there was a lot of it done on the Chromebook where the Chromebooks were potentially used as a sort of you know tool to
occupy students who were kind of finished with the lesson. you go home, you open your Chromebook, you do the lesson. You know, parents don't really can't look over someone's shoulder and help and you know, the students aren't learning how to learning, you know, to read a workbook and and potentially get
that could help with with uh so I I just think it and I think that is really could be challenging as Dan was saying it's it's you know, it's not just learning a new curriculum. It's it's a new approach teaching um you know, managing student time. Um, I think if we
approach it that way and it's really a battleship that we have to turn here, you know, once you turn the battleship and it's going in a new direction, but it is going to take, you know, a while to do that. Maybe, you know, Dan knows this much better than I do. Three years, you know, get it going is probably right, but I
know we can do it. >> Okay. Any other last minute questions? Okay. Well, thank you, Miss Daka. Again, thank you. So exciting. Okay. And I'm sorry that that you miss your son's um bedtime, but feel free if you're more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but I know you have
to you have to get home to the little one. So, so, so thank you. Okay. All right. So, we're just going to do a quick change up and uh I'll get get to my presentation. There you go.
Yep, I'm good. I got the clicker. Thank you. Okay, so speaking of our math adoption, I'm actually really excited to share some results from a winter feedback form that I did around a goal of trying to come up with a shared definition of rigor at the elementary
level. We use that word quite often when we talk about rigorous instruction and what does that mean and are we all on the same page. So, I'm really excited to present uh some of the um information that was gathered around that because what I'll share is that we actually used this shared definition as a way to
identify a new math program. So, it already came in handy. So, uh like I said in the uh in the winter, I did some feedback forms. So, we looked at um what the students thought about um rigorous instruction, what parents and caregivers
thought about rigorous instruction, and what staff thought about rigorous instruction. So, uh a feedback form was sent to students in grades three through five. So, I worked with Miss Baldazone and Miss Nap uh to kind of look at what grade levels were really appropriate to to ask them. Uh so in all of our pre-K
through five uh grade levels, we thought third through fifth was a good uh a good barometer for um looking at feedback. The uh feedback form was administered during their morning meeting and we collected 197 student responses. So I'm going to breeze through some of the
slides. It'll all be available tomorrow or in the coming days in the board bulletin. But uh some of the questions that we asked the students, my teachers expect me to do my my best work. The majority of students, 80% said always. Um, and what we're looking at just for uh for color purposes, uh, the blue was
always, um, red is often, yellow was sometimes, green was rarely, and purple was never. So, what we're really looking for in a lot of these responses is these always, often, and at least sometimes. So, that means we're we're trending in a good spot with some of these questions. So, my teachers expect me to do the the
my best work overall. Great stuff happening there. The school work we do in class makes me think hard. again um predominantly always, sometimes or often, which is good. Good stuff. I'm asked to explain my thinking, not just give the answer. Again, majority of that
pie is in the um often uh then sometimes and always category. So again, uh really positive. We work on problems that can be solved in one in more than one way. Again, the majority of that pie is is trending in the positive, which is great.
The work we do in school helps me learn new things, not just repeat what I already know. Again, majority of the pie in the positive. In Highland Park schools, teachers believe I can do challenging work. Uh really awesome that the half of the students said always and then we have,
you know, a good chunk there often. And um sometimes when I don't understand something, my teacher encourages me to keep trying. Again, the good chunk of the pie there in the positive. In my class, I learned how to explain my answers in writing or
by talking. Um, so we had a good chunk there in often and always. And then, um, another piece coming in sometimes. Uh, this was a very interesting slide, uh, data point which I wanted to highlight. Uh, work feels too easy for me. So, the majority of that pie is in
sometimes. 47% of the students said sometimes. Now, we didn't break it down asking by content area or anything like that. It was just general questions, but they said sometimes. then followed up with often and then rarely actually. So this was a really good indicator slide that was sort of a flag for me to say,
okay, if students majority are feeling like their work is too easy for them, something that we should consider and need to take into account, especially when we're looking at program adoptions and and our resources. I know what I'm learning and why it's important. Again, really good positive uh feedback from the students on that.
My teacher shows me how to make my work better. really great um reporting around that. And in Highland Park schools, teachers believe all kids can do hard work. Um majority said always, then followed by often and sometimes. So again, really good positive results
there. And so that was the student results. So again, that piece of like that work seems to be too easy is something that we really want to to to hang on to. Uh the feedback form was sent to parents as well um at uh the caregivers and parents at Irving and
Bartle because this was about elementary rigor. Uh and we got 48 responses. So here are some of the responses from the parents. Schoolwork should challenge students to think deeply, not just memorize facts. So good news is most of the parents really agree with that um
always or often. So a good chunk of that pie. Rigorous instruction means that students must explain their thinking and show how they got their answers. Um, again, really awesome results. That means majority of parents really agree with that definition of rigor, which I love. I believe students benefit from being
challenged, even if they make mistakes at first. Amazing results here. I'm I was very very pleased to see this from from our caregivers. Rigor means that students are pushed to think, not just finish work, which is fantastic because in a traditional way um that we've seen in the past, people
automatically think that rigor means more of it. I need more reading, more work, more problems. Uh so it's great to see that it's not just um finishing your work or doing it quickly, but to think about it. Rigorous learning helps prepare students for the future. Great
stuff there from parents often and and always. I would rather my child be challenged and learn deeply than only get easy good grades. So again, really great results. That means that our caregivers and families that completed the survey really believe that uh learning and
being challenged is really uh very critical for their learning. Uh an interesting result here, my child is challenged to think and learn at high levels in school. So we have uh some differentiation. against the majority of the pie um we are at um often and
sometimes then coming rarely and then coming always. So this was an interesting data point. So there seems to be some uh perception issues in terms of how they think that they're challenged to learn at a high level. Uh for the parents teachers in Highland
Park ex expect my child to do their birth best work. So majority were um always or often and then sometimes. So that's good. I'm glad there was never. So that's that's positive. Uh assignments and projects at my school's my child's school encourage deep
learning not just completion. So this was another interesting data point that I sort of bookmarked um and flagged which shows that the parents uh predominantly said sometimes that assignments and projects um encourage deeper learning not just completion then
followed up by always then often then rarely then never. So, the fact that we weren't trending one way or another um just means that there's definitely some room around that somewhere and we'll get to that in a little bit. I feel the district values rigorous instruction for
all students. Um the parents at 42.6% said sometimes um then followed sort of equally by rarely and often and then always coming in and and then never. So again, very interesting that they felt that we don't value rigorous instruction
for all students. So very interesting data point around that. My child is encouraged to try difficult work even if they make mistakes. Um again good good results here with um the pie often and always and sometimes still making up a good chunk of that pie.
Teachers in Highland Park uh public schools challenge my child to think in new and creative ways. A majority of the parents said sometimes followed by often and then always. Still making up a good chunk of that pie. My child's assignments and projects go beyond
memorizing facts. Uh parents felt majority. Sometimes that happens then often than always. And the district values high expectations for all students, not just some. So this was just a very interesting data point that um the majority of the parents said sometimes,
then followed by often, then always, then rarely. So very interesting around uh our value of high expectations for all students, not just some. Another interesting data point, I am kept informed about the ways my child is being challenged at school. So, this
again shows that rarely and then sometimes were the bigger parts of that pie. So, that was concerning to me um around just being kept informed about the challenging work. I believe Highland Park schools balance challenging instruction with appropriate supports for students. Majority of the parents
said sometimes, then followed by often, and then sort of a tie there from rarely and always. So that was a little bit uh concerning to in in terms of the balance of instruction um and support which I believe uh Miss Saka highlighted as areas that we were kind of looking at to
say you know is there you know are we meeting all the students? So the the differentiation is important. Parents had some open-ended questions. So when I looked at the feedback from the open-ended questions in their additional comments, a basic summary, the parents
said um that uh they were looking for ways to get increased academic rigor and mastery expectations. uh that there was a need for stronger differentiation for advanced learners, improved literacy transparency and small group instruction, clearer communication
and parent visibility, a balanced on technology use and consistency in instructional implementation. So overall, parents are expressing a strong desire for high expectations, differentiated challenge and transparency while also affirming their respect for teachers and the importance
of maintaining developmentally appropriate practices. Uh the staff were uh Bartle and Irving staff were administered the feedback form as well. They did this during their PLC time to encourage participation and we received 33 responses.
So from the staff that responded um in instruction in my classroom where the school challenges students to think critically. This the staff that responded majority said often and then sometimes and then always. So again, a a good chunk was in the positive, although
you know, always would would I'd love to see that be a bigger part of that circle. Students are asked to apply knowledge to real world problems. The majority of the staff that responded said sometimes, then followed by often and always. Teachers consistently hold high
expectations for all learners. So of the teachers, 50% said always, then followed by often, and then followed by sometimes. Again, a little bit uh concerning data point for me. Our curriculum emphasizes deep uh depth of understanding over memorization. So very
interesting data point for for our team here. Um which is majority said sometimes then often then always. So again still a good chunk of the of the of the pie in the positive but a little concerning that it was sometimes. So where are we you know what are we
thinking around that I think is is something to explore. I regularly provide feedback that pushes students to improve their work. great results always and often. Students are expected to use evidence to support their answers. Um 49 about 49%
said often then always and then sometimes. So that is uh very positive. Instruction regularly includes tasks that require higher order thinking. Uh the teachers predominantly said often followed by sometimes and then the other two pieces of the pie um are are a
little bit more minimal. I give opportunities for students to struggle productively with challenging material. Majority of the staff said often followed by sometimes and then always which is really good. So the teachers believe that they are providing um opportunities uh for productive
struggle. Lessons allow students to connect new learning to real life situations. The majority of the staff said sometimes followed by often. And then there was a tie between always and rarely which was very interesting. Students are encouraged to ask questions
and explore ideas deeply. Majority again all really positive between always and often and then sometimes. I differentiate instruction to maintain rigor while supporting diverse learners. Uh 54 or 55% of the teachers said always
followed by often and then sometimes. And students in Highland Park are given learning tasks that match their definition of rigorous instruction. So this was very interesting. The majority of staff said often followed by sometimes and then rarely. So another very interesting data point.
Our school supports teachers in designing and devel and delivering rigorous lessons. So the team already looked at that um and I'll talk sort of about our next steps for that. But this is a very interesting um data point too where the majority of the teachers said sometimes they get support for designing
lessons that are rigorous then followed by rarely then often. So, you know, really interesting um data around um the support in uh designing and delivering rigorous lessons. Instructional rigor is a priority in our district's
professional learning. Majority of the staff said sometimes and then often and then followed by rarely. So again, we didn't break it down by like content areas. So like if I'm an elementary teacher, I might say yes in ELA, but no in science or something like that. So the these were just general questions.
The district's curriculum provides materials that support rigorous instruction. Um the majority said sometimes followed by often and then rarely and then never. So again, we're sort of all over the map with teachers perceptions of um rigorous material.
Our school encourages teachers to hold high expectations for all students. So the majority of the staff said often, then followed by always, then sometimes. Um, but what is concerning is that that some of the other rarely and never was even clicked off. So that was concerning
to me. Again, our school culture encourages teachers to hold high expectations for every student. So that's something we want to we want to dig a little bit deeper on. Professional learning helps me design rigorous learning experiences. The majority said sometimes, but then everything else
there's still then there's rarely, often, uh, always, and then never. So again, there's some work to be done around professional learning. That's why it's really exciting to hear that programs that we adopt and ways that we look through that lens also um align to best practices in professional
development and androgoi adult learning theory that it's ongoing and embedded in their practice. So hopefully that PD we can shift the needle there. Families understand and support the district's goals for rigorous learning. Um the teachers felt majority sometimes but
then the next piece of that is rarely. So there may be a disconnect on what staff perceive that families understand around rigorous learning. So very interesting data point. Staff were also given open-ended questions for additional comments. Um so across the responses staff consistently indicate
that the primary barrier to increased rigor is structural not philosophical. Interesting enough. Um so some of the things that they highlighted in their comments was an absence of cohesive curricular systems, insufficient staffing for differentiation and intervention, significant foundational
skill gaps among students, increased behavioral and exe executive functioning challenges, chronic absenteeism, disrupting instructional continuity, initiative overload without adequate training or time, limited materials planning time, and aligned professional
development. So the prevailing message um is that rigor cannot be sustainable uh can cannot be elevated without so this is from the staff that they felt that the message that rigor cannot be elevated without adopted vertically aligned curriculum programs and ELA and
mathematics was the ones that they commented on predominantly um that it's embedded uh that there's embedded comprehension and writing instruction that there's structured handwriting development in early grades dedicated intervention and enrichment staffing, behavioral and executive functioning
supports, attendance accountability systems was a very predominant theme, um, and time and training for proper implementation. So, in summary, staff feedback reflects a strong willingness to provide rigorous instruction, but a clear belief that systemic infrastructure, meaning curriculum,
staffing, training, and student readiness, must be strengthened before rigor can be consistently implemented across classrooms. So um the goal was to develop a do we all have a shared understanding of uh rigor and rigorous instruction. So
across all groups I'm very excited to report that rigor is not un understood not just as hard work but as a combination of high expectations deep thinking and supportive infrastructure. So it's really exciting that we all actually have a shared understanding of
rigorous instruction. Um so understanding of rigor for students it's defined by explaining their thinking and solving complex problems. For parents it involves mastery and differentiated challenges and for staff it's a systemic uh systematic goal that requires
specific curriculum and support structures to be successful. The readiness gap uh was another uh sort of summary of the findings. So a major theme is that the gap between the desire for rigor and the readiness to implement it. Uh staff point to foundational gaps
and behavioral needs as hurdles while students and parents both indicate a need for more new learning and differentiation. Uh and there was a call for consistency. Both parents and staff highlighted the need for consistency in instruction implementation and curriculum across the district.
So the road ahead, what comes next? Great question. Uh so a couple of things. One is in July I'm going to be presenting a corrective action plan. So we've been highlighted by the state for our chronic um absenteeism. And so as a result of that we have to do a
district-wide corrective action plan. Actually each school has to do it. So the um and then we have to give it to the DOE. You have to adopt it and then we have to give it to the DOE. So that will be in July. The team has been working hard at the school leadership team committees to produce their corrective action plans. a survey
feedback form went out to families um inviting you to give us feedback on what would help us with our chronic absenteeism problem. Um so we're hoping that by putting in a corrective action plan we'll be able to do even more to try to encourage student attendance. By
encouraging attendance hopefully some of those issues um will will close in terms of being able to provide uh the rigorous instruction. Um we're looking to apply the shared understanding to the adoption of the K5 math program which Msaka did very well. Um so that shared
understanding was used also to implement it when uh Miss Saka and Miss Rodriguez came and said we have our top two. I said okay let's go to our definition which one meets our definition and it was it was made very clear it was clear math. So now we um are able to apply our shared understanding collectively to a
program which is great. Uh we want to continue the professional development and coaching around the check for understanding framework for datadriven instruction because there's that need and I think uh clear math does a really great job of that. Um putting in lessons and then embedding within there what we call the check for understanding
framework that we've approved on several occasions through Janna Lee um and and associates for her consulting to come in to do a lot of coaching and PD around that check for understanding. So, how do we do a quick check and then from that how do we know where our students are at and differentiate that instruction
moving forward so that we can provide those enrichment activities um are critical. We're going to pilot the use of linkit for assessment management data analytics and intervention support solutions. So, we're using some of our title funding um to pilot linkit. So,
that's a warehouse that we put all of this data. So once we can put that data in, we can really look granularly at our subgroups um at at at very uh very granularly student data to look at what supports
are needed. So I think that's sort of been missing in that is I think that people want to do the rigorous instruction um but it's sort of like how do I know where to to take the students? So by having a more robust assessment system to house that to be able to to be
able to create reports very easily for the team I think is going to be very beneficial. Uh we also want to increase our explicit communication around enrichment activities. So we heard that very clear that parents are like I don't even know if it's happening. And it's interesting because when you talk to the teachers they're like no that's an
enrichment activity like okay well do parents know that that's the enrichment activity? So something like clear math is going to be really helpful for us because it's very clear here is your enrichment activity or here is the next step in in the progress. Um and like Msaka said that people get paid a lot of
money to to do that type of work. Um you know so I think helping our teachers um be able to one create those enrichment activities but two explicitly tell parents this is the enrichment activity or these are the enrichment activities I think would be helpful around that. So
increase communication and adopting and implementing a modern version of the teacher evaluation tool. Um so we did that at their last board meeting. So we um are doing a modified version of Danielson 2022 uh version which is really great. Um
we've been using the 20 2007 version which is a little antiquated. Um, and I think the new um, evaluation tool really helps us um, focus when we go into give walkthroughs and feedback and evaluation around instruction in domain 3. Um, we
can really look at ways to support rigorous instruction because it's really embedded in the new Danielson um, uh, framework. So, we're really excited. I think all of those things um set us set us up uh really well uh to move forward
with our our shared definition. Um so obviously the shared definition is the foundation, but consistent practice is the goal. So I think we have pockets of it clearly, but definitely some areas for improvement. Thank you. All right, I'll open it up to questions or comments.
>> Uh well, I just want to say and thank you. Um this was very in-depth. Um, and also I just wanted to say that when we started talking about this project, we were talking about it as a concern that
these different groups would not share the same definition of rigor. And it turns out that that's not what we learned at all. Um, that there is this shared definition. It's just that are we getting there? And that does not seem to be the case. Um but I want to just thank
you because that's you know like you know the first step is already taken. We don't have to do education around what rigor is >> and come up with a shared definition because we have one. And so now it's moving toward h how do we deal with the
real life issues within the school in order to provide a rigorous education. >> Right. And I think that the the plan ahead like I just said will really help us get there from the teachers perspective in terms of like really having that data robust ability to to look at data granularly to make
decisions adopting programs and resources that really meet our definition but also explicitly communicating. I think that's been a missing piece of that when you look at it where it's like maybe they are maybe they're not right. So that's why I highlighted very specific data points that were very interesting. Um that
really gives us a roadmap on moving on on moving forward. So it was a really great project and uh I think it's really helpful. So some of the things that you know I'm didn't really wasn't asked for recommendations but beyond what we're doing as our next steps you know it would be really interesting to look at this from a secondary level. You know my
assumption would be at the middle high school it should carry on and be the same. However, when grades actually come into play, do people really feel the same way? Right? In elementary, you're like, "Well, what is a grade?" Right? Versus at the high school, what is a grade? It's a really big deal, right?
It, you know, so is that perception still the same or once you get to, you know, harder content or now you have differentiated pathways with um higher level classes, you know, is is our definition of rigor still the same? And
if not, what like what what changes there around that? So that would be interesting to continue to pursue at the secondary level. Um and then following up on all of these pieces to making sure that we're um implementing some of uh the changes that are needed to move our
vision forward. Um on that note, uh just uh thinking about a new curriculum and adoption and and K5 and and maintaining rigor and making sure that there's curriculum aligned training so they both know how to implement it with fidelity
but then adopt it as needed. Is there budget for additional professional learning to have curriculum aligned to to really help teachers kind of feel comfortable in um leveraging it as intended? And then also is that included in next year's budget? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, we included Yes.
So, if you look, we did include uh some professional development um in particular like I know Ed services particularly budgeted for that and around the co-eing model because part of that co-eing models that we're doing with John and Associates is with the check for understanding framework and to decide like if you're in a co-eing
classroom, which model am I using? Why am I using it? How am I meeting all the learners in the classroom when I have two teachers in in the classroom? And then uh Janna Lee and cons and um and associates are continuing to do that work with the check for understanding framework. Um so it's basically just
data driven instruction. Aside from the coaching that Janna and her team do in the classrooms, we're actually scaling that work up to the high school is um work in PLC's. So our teachers participate in professional learning communities a couple of times a month. Um Dufour does a lot of research around
uh professional learning communities, but it's looking at data. So you bring student data sets to a a community of teachers and then what you do is you look at that data and it helps to inform decisions around your lesson planning or you know um enrichment activities or
things like that. So um the teachers have been doing exceptional work around data dives in each of the different buildings under different topics. So each of the buildings have kind of set aside their topics of what they're looking for and then they do data dives with within that. So, it's not just
coaching in the classroom, but we have people come in and work with our teams and PLC's to make sure that we're honoring that what a a PLC really should be in terms of data uh driven look fors versus just um another faculty meeting or time to complain or something like
that. So, we we're really um very specific and thoughtful about all the times in which we are looking at data to improve instruction. Hello. Can hear me? Just to follow up on that. I think sometimes when you're in the classroom, um when you're observing
if it's going okay or not, it's so curriculum aligned. And so making sure in the fall, in the spring, that that u it's the things that you're looking for actually aligned with the curriculum that's being adopted to be able to identify early on. So to me, it it seems like there just needs to be extra
attention as we roll out specifically a new curriculum. >> Absolutely. I was going to make a comment when uh during Miss Saka's presentation that I think you know ways that we could look at this now is monitoring right like what is that data that we're going to be what are those look fors um and and monitoring both uh
quantitative and qualitative um in terms of you know is this going how we want it to go right the student data in terms of achievement might take some time but I think there's data that can be collected um you know in in that space you know ahead of a couple of years of the state
testing data um local bench benchmark data uh some of the data we see under the teacher evaluation model our informal observations uh some feedback from the students from from families and from uh the staff um administrators and things like that uh but also again looking at are we aligning this you know
looking at that saying are things rigorous are we seeing that and I think that will be a helpful lens when we look at um using our new uh teacher evaluation tool I think that'll come come in super handy with that so all the stars are aligning with this
Um following up on that along those lines, um you know, one of the concerns that was uh highlighted from the teacher specifically was a tendency to do initiatives without uh appropriate followup and support and followthrough.
And so I mean I think this is going to be important to the administration and the board moving forward. You know, we have made this investment or we're about to make this investment in this new curriculum. Um and so investing in the appropriate professional development and
followthrough is going to be extraordinarily important as we move forward. >> Absolutely. And and to that point, initiative fatigue is a real thing. And so I think hearing that sometimes it's like it's another thing. It's another thing. So the team and you know, we've already talked about that in terms of, you know, what does that look like? Is there something that we're taking off of
their plate to put something on? Especially for our teachers that are going to be implementing a new math program. So we've already talked about those things to say here's here's what we can take off their plate because this is going on their plate. So we are very mindful of that uh to make sure that they um you know don't don't feel that
weight of initiative fatigue. For sure. I think I mean like a lot of districts I mean you uh there's been so so many issues so many things you have to tackle before you get to rigger you know if there's behavioral issues if there's you
know safety concerns if there's just you know um uh just um getting into school right I mean you have to get through that really first level stuff and um I think the district deserves a lot of credit and for taking a hard look at
itself here, right? And some of this data, uh, we're really pat ourselves in the back. We're a great community. We value rigor. Some of it says, you teachers and parents are like, "Yeah, but our kids aren't always being challenged enough, right?" Um, so it'd be easy, you know, not to have taken
this look and continue patting ourselves in the back without getting a real not really understanding situation. But now we do understand that there are some, you know, gaps here and there's some ways to go. Um but I think that everything that you we've heard over the past, you know, year in terms of you
know the new curriculum and uh you the accelerated learning program, you the interventionists. I mean it's all about elevating the rigor of the instruction and I think this um data gives the district a lot of cover to say our parents want it, our students want it, we want more support, we value this in
our curriculum, this is a major thing we want to go for. So now we just have to really go for it and it will be you know multi-year process. Uh but just like we've seen I think really encouraging improvements in discipline data uh you know in the ELA scores in particular you know we can keep we can keep pushing
forward always trying to do more. >> Thanks and I just want to highlight and um just shout out that one of our strategic plan goals is to elevate student voice. So I'm really proud of this work because I think that came through in both uh the the students giving their feedback on a mo math program and also providing I mean that
was a really robust u data set around the the the students and that's why I said there was some things that I I pointed out that were a real concern for me from the student voice that I want to dig deeper in. So I just want to also say that these were really great things around really elevating student voice that we're here to serve them and so making sure their voice is heard and
that we're we're acting on that I think is is really important. So, all right. Well, that concludes my report. Oh, no it doesn't. Hold on. >> Can we do this survey like every other year or something? I would like to see the same the same numbers the same
question. Maybe not the full battery, but like but like like a, you know, more concise version. Be interesting to see how things change. >> Yeah, I think that another another data point. What I'd like to see is maybe scale it up and try to look at perceptions for the secondary as a a next step. But but you're right, maybe um you know, every year, every other
year or something. just kind of putting out some questions about that on on our feelings on on some of these would be uh you know very interesting data points. I I'm just always weary about feedback fatigue, survey fatigue that sometimes we we uh we put out a lot like please take the attendance survey feedback form
would be great that's got to be used to help us uh with our corrective action plan. So sometimes it's it's just a lot. We're asking for a lot of feedback but but the but your voice matters and we make decisions around that. So so thank you. All right, that concludes my report. Thank you.
>> Okay. Well, now we are moving on to the first public comment portion of our evening. The Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments. >> Correct. Um, and just to remind you, if you are a student, you only need to say
your name for the record. You do not need to record your address. Hi everyone. Um, my name is Joseph. I'm currently a junior at Highland Park High School. Uh, I wanted to talk about Clear Math. Uh first I'd like to say that I really appreciate a pilot program for
helping uh students in mathematics. I'm personally very passionate about mathematics. Uh I really like math. Uh and I think it's really great that our school is doing more uh to help kind of equalize um and help forward students
who might not be doing too well in math. Uh I do want to ask about learning uh clear math. Um first of all for students that might be a little more advanced. um in math uh in these kind of primary education uh schools. I know when I was
in Irving and Bartle uh I personally was um ahead of my peers in uh many ways in math and I always felt kind of bored in class. Um but after you finish all the material there's not much to do. Uh and I wanted to ask about how the pacing of
clear math could maybe adapt to that. Um uh another thing I was uh I just wanted to talk about was um clear math and its involvement with artificial intelligence. Um Carnegie learning claims to be a leader in AIdriven
learning and uh learning. Uh I'm personally very opposed to AI. Um I don't like it at all. I think it poses not only a very large existential threat to us but also a very large environmental threat overall and I' I'd
just like to ask um if it be possible in the future. I know it's already uh I think happening for this year or next year uh but maybe in the future to look uh to a um math program that maybe doesn't uh utilize AI quite as heavily
as Carnegie learning. Uh I think you know as a high schooler it's it's kind of disheartening to see AI so much around me. Uh you know every time I I use a Google search there's always an AI overview that's first and it it feels
kind of uh I feel kind of trapped sometimes right there's almost no way to escape AI. Uh and it's something that I I I'm very personally opposed against. I know a lot of my fellow students are opposed to also. I understand that clear math is only for students for uh grades
K to five, I think. Um but I I would just like uh to ask if it would be possible um in the following years uh to take a firmer stand on being anti-artificial intelligence uh both for our students and for our educators.
Thank you. >> Thank you, Joseph. Okay. Uh, hello. I'm Maya. I'm also a junior um in the high school. And this is something that I think is going to be touched on a bit later in the presentation. I mean, both presentations I saw um seem pretty promising for our
um I guess younger students in the district, but um I know that with our last um meeting, you guys voted and said that a um social studies teachers would be um like removed and that we would move one of the high school teachers.
And so I kind of just wanted to ask um with this teacher that voluntarily chose to move, how specifically would some of these new classes and clubs that he specifically advises look? Um I just want to make sure that a lot of the clubs that I'm a part of that he runs
actually um end up surviving this change. Um I want to make sure that they're actually protected and will run throughout my senior year and for years to come afterwards. So, I kind of just wanted to ask how specifically we're going to make
sure that these clubs stay in place. Um, because I know that we said that nothing uh curriculum wise at least would be changed. Um, so yeah, that was like my main question. >> Thank you, Maya. >> Um, hi, my name is Ardan. Sorry, I'm a
little sick right now, but I'm also a junior at Halen Park High School. And I want to talk a little bit about like the last thing that we touched on regarding potentially expanding the survey to the high school or secondary schools. And as a high school junior and as someone
that's been around Highland Park curriculum my entire life, I would actually fullheartly emphatically support that. I think the data points that were touched on were extremely helpful in actually gauging what individuals view as hard work. Um,
personally my philosophy when it comes to learning is that it's not just about the act of doing your homework or doing a project. It's about actually being able to apply those skills in later life. And I think most Highland Park teachers do a very good job in that even when they see limitations with chronic
absenteeism and other things that not just our high school is facing but or middle school is facing but like let's be honest most schools after co 19. So, I definitely support efforts to address chronic absenteeism, but I will say it
would be really important to at least maybe consider a annual or every two-year um I guess use of a new survey for secondary students to see where that lies. Because as an AP student myself, I also noticed that as people get more
into high school, I sometimes think the motivation or initiative to fully be able to do everything with the idea of being becoming learned by the end of it can sometimes peter out. And teachers need uh some support and guidance and infrastructure to be able to
continuously spur um more interest in like content material in different and new ways that keep students engaged and help them actually realize that learning is something that doesn't just stop in the classroom but can continue for their entire life which I think is a switch
that could be really powerful for many students at Highland Park. But overall I think we're doing a good job as a district in doing that as shown by the data points. So I would say thanks to you guys for doing that. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Is there anyone
else in uh in person who would like to speak? Okay. Uh how many people do we have online? Uh would anyone online wish uh wish to speak? Uh so
raise your hand. going once. Going twice. Okay. In that case, uh we will end the first public comment portion of the evening and move toward uh board
committee reports and recommendations. Uh Dan, you want to start with curriculum? >> Yes. So, um, curriculum instruction met on May 21st, just last week. Uh, almost our entire meeting was on the math
curriculum adoption, uh, except for maybe two minutes. Um, I won't, uh, reiterate everything that was presented. Um, I I do want to, uh, comment on two things. Um, I think one of the things that uh, just want to make sure was
clear as we were talking about enrichment activities. we were talking about how the curriculum adapts to advanced students, right? So that is exactly what was just asked about. So when we're talking about enrichment, we're talking about how the curriculum
is advancing. So those pauses not only allow for the curriculum to uh be responsive to students who aren't at uh at the standard yet, but also those who have already learned the standard. Right? So when we talk about enrichment, we are talking about the advanced
learners. The other piece is I think every curriculum uh I just looked at uh two of the other curricula that we were looking at has some AI kind of portion. I didn't find something for the Carnegie Foundation, but I'm sure Carnegie Melon in particular is uh has a lot of AI
going on. Um but I think every curriculum uh uh company is going to have some AI component. there isn't any AI component to that I know of that is part of the curriculum as far as what students are are learning. Um and I
don't think we'd want that. So um so I just want to make that clear. Um and then other than the math curriculum uh in responding to those kind of two points uh we talked briefly about field trips uh mostly there were uh issues of
adding chaperones and whatnot. Uh but it did want to highlight a couple things. The high school glow is going to the Menllo Park Mall, I think, to kind of study uh business and kind of customer service and those kind of things that are part of uh that program. Um and then
fifth graders are also visiting the middle school to support their transition in the fall. Um so a couple uh points about field trips and my report is quick. Um, oh, one thing, uh,
I don't know, uh, the curriculum adoption, are we not are we voting on that year? I didn't see it in an item. I don't know if it's under CNI or >> No. So, we'll do that next month. So, the point was to hear kind of conversations around to hear it. This is what we're proposing and then next month we'll be that way that if the community had some input and wanted to give that
as board consideration. >> Okay. I just want to make sure. Um, okay. So then uh items for voting we have approval of field trip requests, approval of HIP reports. There were four um uh reports. Uh three were confirmed,
one is unconfirmed. Uh approval of abolishment of a job description. That's an assistant administrative uh secretary. That's because the next item is approval of revised job descriptions. Um, approval of summer college boot camp for
the high school, approval of middle school welcome academy, uh, approval of university graduate uh, students and interns. We have a few of those. Uh, all from Ruckers. Um,
and approval home instruction for one student. Any questions? a clarifying comment for the conversation earlier. Just important to note that um while Carnegie in 612 has more of a studentf facing component that
does include AI, you can implement with integrity fully a K5 program that's on print that involves that doesn't involve um the computer. So I think that's an important part to note. It's a different different program uh that does not require a studentf facing software.
Um Sarah, so we we sort of talked about oh well maybe if this goes really well we think about adopting something similar the six the upper level schools could say a bit more about what like a student is that something that students have to engage with that has to be part of the six to eight curriculum or is it
an add-on do you know much about it >> that right now I think we would need to do some research I mean there's a lot of great 612 uh programs that we would want to evaluate >> right Okay. Uh I just want to say I'm really happy uh to see the students here
who are still here. Last uh last month's meeting got a lot of attention. This one is a little quieter. So I just really appreciate you guys coming back and telling us what you think about various things. Really appreciate it. Thanks. >> Okay. >> Equity and excellence. Nikki
microphone. Yeah. So for equity and excellence um we met on uh May 14th and in attendance was myself um an Dr. Susa Jen Nath and Tara Young.
and we had a few great discussions. One of the first discussions we had was about um ALP, what it is, the accessibility, closing the opportunity gap there. Um we went over what the advanced ALP is. It's the advanced learning program. Um it's Highland
Park's version of the gifted and talented. Um the p the students there participate in collaborative work, but there is an independent option for those who do better independently. um testing. Let's see.
So, there are multiple measures that are used um because there's multiple ways of a student being gifted and talented. Um one of the ways that they are recommended are teacher recommendations, um their academics, their creative abilities, behaviors associated with
gifted students, etc. And then later on was uh testing was um was added to all of that. Um we also discussed how there used to be everybody was universal testing for everyone but because it
started causing a lot of issues and test anxiety um they changed it to an opt in rather than an opt out. Um some of the concerns or discussion points that we had were um there was a low participation rate um and how um if
we're missing uh kids because of the opt out or opt-in structure um the parents may not be aware or it may not they might not know what it is um or they may reluctant to opt their child in due to the rigorous testing. Um, and AOP is
also presented at back to school night, but it's often overlooked because it's lumped in with all the other specials. Um, so some of the solutions that were discussed were teachers um can send home information for parents to parents for recommended students to enforce partic
reinforce participation. Um, like personal email from the teacher as well as a general email um for information. um more advertising for it, giving paper flyers, um highlighting AOP at back to school night, not using acronyms so
people can know what AOP is, um giving detailed explanations of the program, peer-to-peer presentation so students who have taken it before, either from the middle school or in fifth grade, can talk to other students and explain the
um share their own experiences with it. Um, and the projects are usually updated on the website and there's a usually a new newsletter that goes out, but they're looking into fixing that and making it more prominent on the school web page.
The next topic we went over was the resolution for rising health care costs. The concern was issues around the state plan and private market premiums going into the double digits or increasing in the double digits. they're going to continue to grow and far exceed infl in
inflation and state aid. Um putting um fiscal stress on local taxpayers and strain on students and uh teachers and administration and the district as a whole um because taxes are having to be
increased um programs are having to be cut um and it does affect the their quality of education. So some sol the solution is to and it's in our agenda the resolution to sent to the governor legislators and New Jersey state board
of education calling on local legislators to work on reform and figure out a quick solution and reform the rising hair health care costs. uh calling upon the governing legislators to provide immediate short-term relief and asking for real sustainable
solutions to rising costs um and urging the governor to engage in meaningful dial dialogue with all affected stakeholders to develop and implement practical long-term reform. Um another thing we went over was the program evaluation
commeno. Um there's nothing yet. It's still in the works, but we're going to get information soon. Um but with whatever information that they have given us so far, um we've worked on uh professional development and made
changes as needed. Um and then the discipline report you have from March. Um should I list it all down? Is that okay? So let's see. Uh
oh, and another thing and this is an exciting thing. Um, parental controls for Chromebooks are being explored. So, parents can control um they can have parental controls on the Chromebooks at home.
Not yet. It's being explored. the district is aware and so I already talked about the resolution. So that concludes my have any questions or discussion?
Okay, in that case Marilyn F facilities and finance. >> Uh hi there. Um I'm covering for Allison tonight. Uh we met on May 12th and it was Allison, myself and Dr. Susa and Mr. Rosa and John Flanigan. Um we always review the action items first under
finance as you'll see in a minute. You know our typical reports for April. Um there's going to be a we're purchasing additional playground equipment for our preschool because of our increasing size. That's on the agenda.
uh lots of uh contract renewals for the 26th 27th school year, all of our vendors that we typically use. Um we had a conversation about uh we will be renewing champions which is our afterchool program and um they shared an
end of the year summary with us um which indicates that um overall they've served 300 they've had 310 students enrolled um averaging about 200 and something a week. We have 32 students who got subsidy were uh they were able to get
subsidies for 32 of our students and there is no wait list for our afterchool program and they shared some of the highlights with us um the fact that they did a winter break and a spring break program that they're going to have a summer program as well. Um so based on
the report from champions it seems like um for as a first year um things are are have gone well overall with obviously bumps along the way. Um other things on our agenda today is our is the scheduled tax payments we're
going to be approving and tuition rates. Um there's an agenda item about uh um joining the interlocal purchasing system to give us more options um for uh trying to get uh more vendors and pricing for projects that we need
done. Um facilities, there's a PSE and direct install to replace two boilers um and a new door in the business office. Um that's due. We lost an egress when all that uh Bartle uh work was required.
So now we need to get one more door in there. Um other v variety of things here on your facilities, but I'm going to cover them when we do the agenda. So I don't need to do them twice. Let's see. Um we did have a conversation once again about the negative student lunch balance which
continues to be a concern. Um we had the conversation about whether we should be using general operating funds to um pay off some of these balances. The committee um at this point was not
uh in favor of doing that um because it won't solve the problem. We'd like to ideally solve if we if we were to pay off this balance, ideally we want to solve the problem so it wouldn't just come up again. Um so there is some type of a um community eligibility provision through the
department of agriculture that Denise is looking into that may uh give us some information on on this uh on solutions for this and for the glasses and um looking into grant programs to help us pay off this
lunch debt for particularly for our free for our free and reduced lunch families. John reviewed our facilities project. The uh baseball field, they're all done. They're in the process of beautifying the entryway. Um and Bartle structural
repair is really going along well. We actually when I was on the tour the other day, we saw that they're working on the retaining wall. A lot of brick works been done. A lot of work's been done there. Um it's not done yet, but it's moving along. The bottle bathroom is done. We saw that on the tour. It was
very lovely. Um, and also the prek classroom, um, we got to see the other day. And it's going to be a great room. And really the cafeteria also looks, you can't tell, I couldn't tell that you took away space from the cafeteria because it's >> My third grader is thrilled with how the
bathroom turned out. >> Only 11 more to go. That's my comment. I only did one, but one nice one. Um, and for that prek classroom, they're working on flooring and air conditioning. That's coming along next. um the environmental
sustainability project. Uh let's see what we got. Still looking for furniture and some quotes and um so that's still a work in progress and John updated us on that leak that's in the geothermal field at Irving which is like right near where
the um portables are. Um he's hired a vendor to kind of figure out what the what's going on there. So, more to come on that and the agenda for finance facilities. Um, we've got all of our usual reports, treasurers, secretaries,
do transfers, travel and related expenses. Um, a group of contractors for professional development both for the remainder of this year and for 2627. Um, you can read through those. A couple of them are passroughs for the
non-public schools, not necessarily. So, they're not for us, but we need to vote on them. There's three of them, I believe. One uh four that are non-public. Um was an ESL uh professional development Orton Gillingham readrite those that's
also non-public for readrite we have a group of uh professional services all again for 25 26 and 26 27 for athletic training services um another sports for athletics another
system that we're required to have Um and uh the living room is for therapeutic services. Um in our behavioral mental health day program that is uh we have one out of district placement, one additional out
of district placement. We have three students requiring bedside instruction. one student that we will be we're voting on accepting as a tuition paying student to our autism program from grade four.
Um and then two additional students would be coming here as non-residents and also paying tuition. We have two students two Mckenni Vento contracts that we will be um paying to Franklin and Scatteraway to educate our
students. Then we have a lot of a number of items on coordinated transportation approving contracts for coordinate coordinated transportation with the hopes that if we work with any of these uh other districts we could save some money and streamline some of our transportation. So at least we have it
on the books that it's avail it's a possibility. Um I'm up to 23. 23 is the schedule of payments um that the borrow would follow to um so that we collect taxes, we get the taxes that we need to run our our district. Um and then
there's bond services and software. These are these are those renewals that I talked about. Um our substitute services, um phone support, our before and afterare champions is on this list here.
um some um contract extensions for cafeteria equipment, continuing our contract with uh Rucker Behavioral Health Care for mental health services, um our preschool social worker.
The uh tuition rates that are number 34 are those are state approved tuition rates. Um state state sets those numbers. We have a donation of children's books um from actually one of our high school teachers. So, thank you very much. Budget transfer for
preschool. We're getting down there, ladies and folks. We're almost there. That's at PSENG. Um about the two boilers that we're sharing the cost with with PSENG. Additional playground equipment for our
preschool. removal of two warts water storage tanks at Bartle as part of the structural repair um project. Surveying for a high school water service line uh roofing services
uh for part of the high school that needs repair and another cooperative uh Bergen County cooperative pricing system. Again, looking to connect with anybody that we can that will help us with getting vendors and getting good prices for projects that we need.
Um there's a uh a approval of an additional proposal for lighting in the mechanical and utility rooms at Bartle. And then I have two readins. I can find this here. Two more readins. One is the approval of
a exterior door to Bartle as I was talking about as the additional door um as part of the structural repair and relocation. And number 45 is relocation of uh sprinklers due to the Bartle structural repair. Do I need to actually read these two? 44 and 45.
>> Um >> no, don't believe so. >> Okay. Okay. Um and that's what we've got for finance. Okay. If no questions, then I'm going to go over the agenda for personnel. Uh we have the approval of employment of our
school business administrator and board secretary Denise D. Roza. Uh gonna vote no on that one. Uh approval of employment of the superintendent and approval of the representative assembly of the
educational services commission of New Jersey, Dr. Christina Susa. Uh we have uh approval of leaves of absences for medical leave, maternity leave, um etc. Two resignations, one um
Mrs. Medine for reasons of retirement uh and an administrative secretary who uh for job abandonment. We have approval of some transfers having to do with um administrative secretaries and also
social studies and middle school teacher. We have approval of appointments uh so that we will have one job title for uh administrative secretaries. Um, we also have a very exciting
appointment of Ashley Raywood for supervisor of educational services. Um, and Kevin Robinson is interim principal at Irving Primary School. Um there's also a number of appointments having to do with translators at advent
um event monitors band camp uh responsive classroom summer freshman orientation and summer book boot camp to assist students with essay writing. Um, we also have approval of staff
training uh in the middle and high school uh and approval of bo board appointments which would be Ashley Raywood uh to be appointed as the district's homeless liaison and the educational stability
liaison and we have no policies and regulations to go through. So, um now we can move on to our uh second uh now we can move on to our second uh
public comment section of the evening. Uh is there anyone in person for public comment? Okay. Uh do we have anyone online? Okay. If you would like to speak, please raise
your hand if you're online. Going once, going twice. Okay, then I think we will close the second public comment section. Um, so now we move on to approval of
resolutions. Uh, I move that the board of education accept the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the following resolutions for the 2026 2027 school year. >> No. >> So, in a
uh we are resolving that Denise D. Roza uh is a qualified purchasing agent. Um, we're resolving that some organizations are designated as providers of services. um having to do with health care and uh
pension etc. Approval of New Jersey state bids and contracts for goods and services. Approval of participation with the following purchasing cooperatives and bidding programs. Uh again to try to lower our costs.
um authorization for the district to purchase certain goods or services from app approved Federal General Services Administration contract vendors. Uh recording and award the insurance broker proposals
um and a professional services resolution. So moved. Well, no. >> Second. >> I will second it as well.
>> Okay. >> Um, Dr. Batty, >> yes. >> Miss Cassaldon, >> here. >> Uh, Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Cruz, >> yes. >> Dr. Schoolman, >> yes. >> Daniel,
>> yes. >> Miss Vardman, >> yes. >> Okay. And now uh we're going to move on to uh approval of board appointments. I move that the board of education accept the recommendation of the superintendent
to approve the following appointments for the 2026 2027 school year uh A through AA. >> Second doc Dr. Batty.
>> Yes. Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Pruce, >> yes. >> Dr. Schoolman, >> yes. >> Stan, >> yes. >> Sparkman, >> yes. >> Okay. >> Um, for curriculum instruction, I move
items 1 through eight. >> Second, Dr. Batty. >> I am a yes except for 7A. I am abstaining from >> 7A. >> Mr. Maldonado,
>> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Puce, >> yes. >> Dr. Skullman, >> yes. >> Miss Stanio, >> yes. >> Miss Bardman, >> yes. >> Did I? No, no, no. It's you. >> Yeah. Okay. So, uh, for equity and
excellence, I move that, uh, the approval of the resol resolution for urging relief from rising public school employee healthcare costs. >> Second, >> Dr. Batty, >> yes. >> Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes.
>> Miss Pruce, >> yes. >> Dr. Stoman, >> yes. >> Miss Staniel, >> yes. >> Miss Vman, >> yes. >> And finance and facilities. I move items one to uh 45, last two being the uh the readings.
>> Second. >> Dr. Batty, >> yes. >> Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Pruce, >> yes. >> Dr. Skullman, >> yes. >> Miss Dano, >> yes. >> Miss Bardman, >> yes.
Uh for personnel, I move numbers one through nine. Second. >> Dr. Batty, >> yes. >> Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Pruz, >> yes. >> Dr. Schoolman, >> yes.
>> Miss Dano, >> yes. >> Miss Vman, >> yes. And congratulations, Miss Raywood. >> Thank you all. Okay, we can move on to board liaison reports. Does anyone have anything to report?
>> I do. Um for the human um human relations commission. Just a reminder that there will be three flag raisings coming up in June. The first one will be June 9th at 5:30. uh is the Caribbean
Heritage flag raising. That's going to be they're all going to be in the community center. The next one will be June 17th and that will be for Junth. Um and the last one in June will be June 23rd and that's going to be the pride
pride flag raising and they're all going to be at 5:30 at the community center. Anyone else? >> I mean, I'm the I'm the um the board leazison for the Highland Park Education Association. Uh no, Education Foundation
rather, sorry. Uh which helps pay for the Camp Mason trip. I chaperon that last week and it was fantastic. I really want to thank uh the education foundation for helping that and the district as well. And I really want to thank all of the the teachers uh and
staff that that went along on that trip. It was a really special experience. I think for all the kids and all the parents that went. I think a particular thanks to Miss McManis, I think, for putting that together and for uh Miss Soka um and all the other I can't name everybody, but it was a really great
experience. It's a wonderful trip. >> Okay. uh in if there are no more liaison reports uh we move to the president's report of which I do not have one uh and so then we move to old business
I actually want to rease one of the concerns that was expressed by one of my peers in the public comment I was wondering if there's any sort of plan for how the classes will be allocated now that the one of the high school social studies teachers are moving down
So my plan was to follow up with this student in particular. So I would connect the student to Dr. Donovan to speak about it. In terms of extracurricular activities, the middle and high school start and end at the same time. So there shouldn't be any conflict with any staff members wanting to continue any extracurricular activities. Um because the start and and
end times are are the same. And I believe Dr. Donovan has a great plan for making sure there's continuity of things like our global citizen program, which I believe is what the student is referring to, but I'm not really sure. So I was going to follow up with the student to um just talk about what this very specific program concerns were so that
we could address them accordingly. >> Okay. >> Apply for the classes as well. >> Yes. So all the classes um there's no shortage of classes. So all the classes have been um uh uh attended to for teachers. Dr. Donovan
has this schedule. So it's uh been preliminarily shared with the teachers although um the finalization of that goes to the teachers ahead of August 15th. So that's the deadline. So we kind of give them a preliminary um knowing that sometimes over the summer we have some changes with influx of students and things like that. So that it might
change but um it's it's all been distributed and um none of the classes were cancelled or anything like that. Yeah. Anyone else for old business? Okay. Uh, new business. >> I have a new business.
I have two new businesses. One of them I'll start with is Happy Birthday Denise. And the other one is it's a curiosity that I have and it's more for curriculum and curriculum and instruction. Um, so I think the last meeting we learned that typing, formal typing doesn't start
until sixth grade in the makerpace class. So, I was just curious as to why we're not implementing a formal typing class at as soon as they're getting a Chromebook. So, they're not
already developing bad habits before they have to be corrected and just, you know, start off with the good habits. So, I will look into that because we actually have curriculum around that and it starts as early as second grade. So, in um the media space, they're supposed
to be learning typing when they go to media. So, if that's not happening, I want to make sure I talk to Miss Nap and address why that might not be happening at Bartle, but that's actually part of the curriculum for Bartle media. So, I'll look into that and get back to you. >> Instead of moving typing back, we could
always move Chromebooks later. >> Whole business that ever knew All right. >> Okay. If that's the end of new Oh, is there any more new business? Okay. In that case, I move to adjourn. Second.
>> All in favor? I. >> All right. Good night, everyone. Thank you.