Alison said she might be late. >> Okay. I would like to call to order this Highland Park Board of Education hybrid workshop voting meeting. Um, 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. Uh, roll call. >> Dr. Batty, >> here.
>> Miss Cassell Dunn. Dr. Coleman, Mr. Maldonado >> here, >> Dr. Pixley >> here, >> Miss Puce >> here, >> Dr. Schoolman, >> Miss Daniel >> here, >> Miss Farman >> here.
>> Okay. >> Um, >> after you read that, >> Yeah. Uh be it resolved pursuant to the Sunshine Act, the Highland Park Board of Education will now meet in close session to discuss matters related to personnel and legal matters. These exemptions are permitted to be discussed in close
session in accordance with NJSA 104 through13. Information regarding the board's closed session discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Second.
>> All in favor? I. So moved. Okay. >> Uh, I move that we reconvene to regular session. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Dr. >> Here. Dr. Coleman.
Mr. Maldonado >> here. >> Dr. Pixley >> here. >> Miss Puce >> here. >> Dr. Schoolman >> here. >> Miss Stanio >> here. >> Miss Bark >> here. Uh and now we rise for the pledge of 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. Um okay, we received uh a few emails um around uh error in board material
regarding the number of children with type 1 diabetes in the middle school. Uh a recognition of Christopher Bzowski and uh the recent uh bus funding decision. Um, I move that we approve the minutes
from the June 22nd meeting. >> Second. >> Dr. Vy, >> Miss Cassaldon, >> yes. >> Mr. Maldonado, >> yes. >> Dr. Pixley, >> yes. >> Miss Puce, >> yes. >> Dr. Skullman, >> yes.
>> Miss Staniel, >> yes. >> Miss Bardman, >> yes. Uh, and now we can move on to the superintendent report. Good even Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for coming. So, I'm going to begin um my report tonight by
introducing Mr. Justin Grossman. We're really excited after hopefully you all read my uh message that went out to the school community. It was a very lengthy search, very thoughtful search. Uh but we're really excited. Um I'm really excited to recommend Justin tonight. Um I just wanted to share some brief um
responses that I got from uh Justin's references. And so this is a first for Justin as well. Um the quotes were brilliant educator, phenomenal educational coach and is able to balance sharp intelligence with a
warm approachable demeanor. Looks at data anal analytically. coaches teachers empathetically and inspires students enthusiastically. So, I am really excited to uh welcome Justin Gman to share a brief
introduction. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Justin Grossman and it is an honor to stand before you as the next prospective principal of Irving School. Becoming principal of Irving is a responsibility I do not take lightly. It's a privilege to lead a
school entrusted with the education and care of our youngest learners. And while I know it will take time to learn the traditions and unique strengths of the Highland Park community, there are three promises that I can make you today. First, I will work to ensure that every
student, staff member, and family feel seen, valued, and that they truly belong at Irving. Second, every decision I make will be grounded in one guiding question, and that is, is this in the best interest of our children? And
finally, we will never stop growing. Education is constantly evolving, and while we will honor what makes Irving special, we will also embrace thoughtful, intentional growth that helps every child and every educator reach their fullest potential. I want to
thank the board of education, Dr. Susa and the entire Irving community for placing your trust in me. I'm excited to listen, to learn, and begin this journey together. I look forward to participating with all of you as we build on Irving's strong foundation and continue creating an exceptional
experience for every child. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I'll move on now to the more formal part of my uh report tonight, which is our chronic absenteeism corrective action plan. All right. So, um the Department of
Education put out a uh blast to all districts uh that fit into a criteria um that have data that suggests um significant issues with chronic absenteeism. Highland Park, like many districts in New Jersey, actually fall
in this category. So, uh, the NJ DOE is requiring us to put together a corrective action plan, not for board approval, but for QAC, uh, purposes. Um, so as part of our CQAC updates and as part of our ESSA accountability, so
all of the uh, corrective action plan items that you see in here are in the school's um, ESSA reports for their title funding as well. So, it uh our plan is to address chronic absenteeism and promote regular school attendance.
So, a couple of things about the state statute just to sort of reorient that the department of education would like me to share with everybody. Uh if 10% or more of the students enrolled in a public school are chronically absent, the school shall develop this cap. So, because we fall in that, we are
developing our cap. Uh in developing the corrective action plan, the school shall solicit input from parents of students currently attending the school. and you'll see that a little later in my presentation. At a minimum, this will include a parental survey. The school shall present the cap to the board of education, what I'm doing for you all
tonight. And the school shall annually review and revise the cap and present to the board until the percentage of students who are chronically absent is less than 10%. So, you'll get updates and then we will continue providing updates and monitoring our cap and redoing it as much as we need to until
we um hit our target. So, some facts about chronic absenteeism. Uh, per the New Jersey Department of Education, it's defined, uh, a student is chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the days they're enrolled in school. And this includes any absence.
A student is chronically absent if they have missed as few as two days of school beginning in September. So, it starts, you know, right away in September. And a student is chronically absent if they've missed as few as two days of school. Um, oh, I'm sorry. That was a duplicate
again. Two days of September. So, does chronic absenteeism include locally excused absences? Yes, it does. Uh, chronic absenteeism is defined as having missed 10% or more of those school days for any reason. This includes excused or unexcused absences.
And I know that's been something that we've been talking about for a while because this isn't the first time that we've talked about our chronic absenteeism problem. uh that's been a reoccurring theme in our state report card. Um so it's important to note that although we have some definitions of
what we uh collect locally as excused, uh it doesn't matter. So I will there's a slide that's coming up that will reveal what the state will determine as actually being excused. But being sick or a parent note, a doctor visit, things like that um don't fall into that
category. So it doesn't matter. It's 10%. Uh so chronic chronic absenteeism is a primary cause of low academic achievement and a powerful predictor of students who may eventually drop out of school. Attending school every day increases chances of success in school
and in life. And by the sixth grade along with the gradepoint average, absenteeism is a top predictor of that dropout. So obviously coming to school is really important. Uh again, can a student be locally excused and still be uh considered chronically absent? And the answer is
yes. So um they the department of education does give us some leeway in terms of local decisions. Um but it again so the district uh discretion is to determine which absences constitute as excused or unexcused for local purposes not for
state purposes. So there is definitely a difference and decisions pertaining to promotion, retention and grades are made at that district level. That's why the state gives local control because we can decide. So chronic absentism is a state definition but locally we can decide
excused or unexcused and how we use that information. So the board could decide in policy to say if a student is chronically absent uh you know unexcused or something like that we might not want to promote them to the next grade or uh we could retain them things like that.
So, um there's definitely some local control uh from that, but uh you know, just for reference, the data um suggests that retaining students as they get older um is not beneficial for them socially and emotionally. So, we really only kind of look at that information
really at um a granular level, more at the primary level. A student is considered chronically absent when they're not present 10% or more um what they call days in membership. Um, this includes locally excused and unexcused absences. And here's that list that I
was referring to that are state excused. So, the following list are the only time that the state says that a student can be un can be excused from school. That's a religious observance and the state puts out a whole list of what those dates are. Observance of Veterans Day,
Board of Election membership activities, take your child to work day, college visits, but there is a limited number for that. college visits, um, closure of, uh, busing school district, or one civic event for students in grades 6 through 12.
So, I just wanted to I'm not going to go through all of the data in particular. It'll be available for view uh, when the board bulletin comes out to the community, but again, this is information that if you go through our uh, school performance reports, you'll see that. But some of our data for the
high school data. So what our corrective action plan has to include is the last couple of years of data. So you can see going back to 2324 uh at the high school 16% of the students were um uh chronically absent
absent. So 84 students and then you can see the breakdown. 33% 9th grade uh 24% 10th grade 19% uh grade 11 and 12 uh 24%. Um, and then the 2425 school year, 128 students were chronically absent,
which was 25% schoolwide. And then 25 uh 2526 school year, 77 students were chronically absent, which was 15% schoolwide. And we just included some notes for the the cap um that uh right now we have 15 parent notes can be used for excused absences, extended
vacations, and medical. So this is above and beyond the um percentage of the uh 10% Middle school data again 23 24 76 students were chronically absent which was 2020 20 22% of the school uh during
the 2425 school year 77 students were chronically absent which was 25% schoolwide and this past year 2526 79 students were chronically absent 25% schoolwide at Bartal during the 23 24 school year
100 students were chronically absent which was about 23.4 course percent schoolwide. Uh 24 25 83 students which made up about 20 and a half% schoolwide and 25 2667 students were chronically absent making up about 16% schoolwide.
Um again with the same information for nodes at Irving um we only included kindergarten and first grade since we don't have the preschool data to go back. Uh preschool is a bit of a moving target because if students are um absent they lose their spot because there's a
wait list because we only have so many spots. So we did not include preschool uh for that. So kindergarten and first grade uh in 23 24 55 students were chronically absent which made about 23% schoolwide. 24 25 it was 77 students
chronically absent about 24% and 25 26 53 students chronically absent at about 25%. Um so a couple of things in terms of identifying students at risk for chronic absenteeism. Uh chronic absenteeism affects students across all demographics. So when we looked at that
data, what we found was um it although it it did impact um it affects all students um particularly students low-income students and white students represented the largest share of our chronically absenteeism students. So when we dissected it by our different um
demographics, we actually found lowincome and white students uh represented the largest share of our chronically absentee population. Um the three-year trend data showed that uh the demographic composition of chronically absentee students has remained relatively consistent. So you can see
that with the data the percentages are about the same um with some decline in the share of Hispanic and black chronically absent students over time. So we've seen some great growth there. Um there were some reporting contribut uh contributing factors including transportation barriers and family
working obligations particularly for low-income students. So when we put the survey out we found that that was some of the information that came back to us and at the building levels being used to target interventions and monitor progress under the district's corrective action plan. So in terms of the development uh we did
the parental survey. So, a survey went to parents and caregivers through Thrillshare, and we used our new survey uh platform, which allows families to select their language of choice. Um, and it gives a whole range of of languages.
So, we were able to target everyone with that. Um, we received 57 responses, so unfortunately quite low. Um, but we're we're not going to stop. So, uh, so we had 57 responses. of the 57
um 33% of the responses came from Irving, 35 came from Bartle, 35 came from middle school, and 31 came from the high school. So, the good news is we did get a a good share evenly distributed uh amongst all four buildings, which was good.
some of the responses that came from the parent and caregiver survey. The data suggests that illness is the primary barrier to attendance with 66.7% of respondents identifying it as the main reason for absences. Several other factors were reported by roughly one quarter of the families,
including anxiety, lack of interest or engagement in school, sleep habits, indicating that both student well-being and school engagement played important roles in attendance, um, and travel and family schedules or child care challenges were other notable
contributors. And that was by the percentage. Um, there was some open-ended comments, a lot of information that came from that. So we uh the the uh principles and I synthesized that into a couple of key uh bucket areas. So the some of the key
feedback was um and they needed they would like to see an increase in student engagement. Um so that student engagement that kids didn't want to go to school because they weren't engaged. Um providing more support for mental health. So although we do offer really robust mental health support um
districtwide, uh it seems like we could probably do better in that category. Uh parents would like to see improvement in school climate and safety. Uh transportation and child care barriers. Uh school schedules uh was a reoccurring
theme as well as well as strengthening communication particularly around attendance. Uh attendance initiatives and recognition and maintaining flexible flexibility for legitimate absences. So that was some of the feedback that came out of the survey.
So what I'll review now as part of our corrective action plan are the tiered strategies that are currently in place. So these are the things that we're currently doing around chronic absenteeism by school. So at the high school as a tier one
strategy um there is so tier one meaning that it's universal. So tier one is just schoolwide uh universal strategies. tier two and three that I'll get into um in the coming slides for each of the schools are really more targeted for those
students that are presenting with more uh more concern. So, so schoolwide for the high school, they do uh some positive school culture and climate, the high school uses the following strategies to support students in wanting to come to school, restorative practices, positive behavior
interventions. They do the Golden Owl Awards, um morning greetings for all students. If you go to the school, uh you see Dr. Donovan or Mr. Deain there greeting every student with excite excitement coming in to to learn um and culture celebrations. They use a
team um who are able to research and access barriers to attendance as another tier one strategy. So, they use their INRS meetings, intervention and referral services meetings, and their school improvement/school leadership team meetings that focus on up-to-date research on promotion of attendance as
well as early interventions such as having teachers make phone calls when a student is absent to say that they were missed in class. So, really more trying to use that um the teams that we have in place to really support a more positive culture of saying we miss you, come in, we miss you, come to come to school.
Uh in addition, they seek resources for support such as a mentorship program. Um so there's uh they reach out to community partners to see what supports they can provide to students based on needs such as transportation, mentorship, healthc care support, mental health supports. They ensure these
resources are known by all students and then targeted for those that have early um attendance indicators. So five absences in the first 45 days. So we have key indicators that kind of let us know when students should be on the radar. Uh another tier one strategy for the high school they discussed the
importance of attendance with parents at back to school night morning announcements and about the importance of attendance. I think uh Dr. Donovan has her three A's uh attitude, achievement and attendance. I know attendance is one of them. I know attitude is the other. Um and this is a
good practice and allows for students to hear multiple times throughout the year about the importance of attendance and keeping the students and caregivers aware of the attendance. and then an automatic call home um for uh attendance that has to be uh so attendance need to be accurately taken during the first
block to ensure all students are accounted for. So we take attendance and then phone calls go home if we're missing some students and I think that's a theme in all four of the buildings. At the tier 2 three strategy uh they have teen center attendance groups they started this past year. So 19 students
were targeted in this in this support group and assigned counselors that discussed reasons um for absences. Uh data was collected and supported and support was provided to the students and caregivers. So perform care, food pantries, referrals for mental health support and career or vocational career
resources. Uh they have letters generated to give caregivers through genesis as well as conversations with the youth safety specialist and vice principal. Um they said that this was a good effort. Uh they don't know how much it um it changed the outcome. The youth safety
specialist continuously has conversations with students each day and plays a big role in their attendance review board. Um they have a uh credit recovery tiered support program. Um their reflection on it was the tiered credit
recovery credit recovery program provided more opportunities for students to gain backseat time um related to absenteeism. The program provided reflection opportunities with staff and time to get assistance with work. So they were trying that. Um the residency
checks and wellness visits done by are you safety specialists and the district residency officer. Uh so we need they would like uh for a reflection some more support from the board policy and uh courts municipal intervention once students are chronically absent. Um we could think about having teachers meet
with students as attendance mentors. So they're trying to be reflective on like some of the things that they could still continue to do um moving forward. Uh so some of the high school's areas for improvement um after their reflection of all those strategies um
for tardies to school. Um so uh some of the factors contributing towards that chronic absenteeism. They said there are an excessive amount of tardies every day. Every three tardies is converted to one unexcused absence. So every three equals one absence. With a 7-day
rotating schedule, students can acrue multiple tardies, daily tardies, but the effect does not have the same impact on their classes because of the way the schedule is set. Credit recovery reports are generated through Genesis in October to keep track of students who are going to lose credit or lost credit and caregivers are given notice for each
course. In addition, a contributing factor they believe is uh policy. The policy allows for 15 parent notes before we start marking absences as unexcused. It'd be helpful if our policy aligned with state in terms of how we record unexcused absences.
Uh so some of the action items that they are going to do as part of their corrective action plan for this coming year. Um so a universal strategy is going to be continue working on climate and culture in the building through targeted measures to hope decrease in um in the tardinesses and absences. So you
can see the people involved and then the title of those people. Uh another universal strategy is to continue working with intervention or referral services and their school improvement plan, school improvement teams and um school leadership teams to research best practices and assess barriers to
attendance. Uh leverage community resources to find supports that meet any barrier to attendance concerns. Um continue working with the attendance review board. So, every uh building has an ARB, an attendance review board to review those absences. Continue working
with their student accountability time. Continue with student a student accountability time SAT as a result of missing seat time. Um having more structured and regular student meetings about attendance as students acrew more. Um and then individual, excuse me,
identify atrisisk students and assign a point person to develop personal connections like a teacher, a counselor or a coach at the individual. So, a small group uh and then an individual action item. More individual action items that they'd like to do this year. Call students and parents into team
meetings to discuss attendance concerns and goals. Uh write individualized plans for students with absence issues and have parents sign off on that plan. Um and have family liaison meet with students and parents after school to review the importance of being in school.
For the middle school, here are some reflections on their current strategies that they are using. For the middle school, uh a current strategy they use at tier one is discuss the importance of attendance with parents at back to school night class meetings to discuss the importance of attendance. And students under the age of 16 meet with
the vice principal once they acrew four unexcused absences. And their reflection, they said it's a good practice um and allows for students to hear multiple times throughout the year about the importance of attendance and keeps the students and caregivers aware of attendance. They also do automatic phone calls home as well. Uh they said
that attendance needs to be accurately taken in the first block to ensure all students are accounted for to to do that. Uh the tier 2 three strategy they send letters home in Genesis and there's meeting with a principal or assistant principal. They said this was a good effort but they don't know how much it changes the outcome. They need
consequences for excessive lates and absences. Uh they also for a current strategy do grade level call uh grade levels call parents at grade level team meetings and they have attendance initiatives and they said that also a good effort but they don't know how much it changes the
outcome. Um they can make more incentives for individual students versus like whole class or whole grade. I think they had like a a dodge some sort of dodgeball kind of game in the gym for the grade level that won or something like that. The counselor meets with individual
students as they appro are approaching chronic absenteeism. Uh they said that we can celebrate students more on an individual level to see if that inspires others to be present. And then another current strategy that they do is they have the residency uh they have the res we have the residency officer if there is a connection between residency and
attendance. This helps we use our family liaison to do wellness checks. We also seek help with municipal intervention when necessary and they would like to see more support with board policy. They think that having teachers meet with students as an attendance monitor might also assist in that as well.
So, uh here is what they say about um factors contributing toward the chronic absetism. They um noted the tardies to school as being a big issue as well. Um there excessive amount of tardies every day. There are no consequences for being tardy to middle school and policy again
the same allows for 15 parent notes. um middle school areas for improvement. Here are their action items at the universal level, tier one, form a subcommittee of school leadership team to meet with and work with the court uh the courts about attendance issues and consequences. The idea for that for
municipal intervention is that they have access to resources far beyond what we have that we can't access unless we initiate something with them. So it's not a penalization, it's actually a way for us to get more support. So what we do is we exhaust all of the options that
we can do locally and if we've exhausted all of those and they have um very comprehensive notes that they take on that um after they we feel that we've exhausted all the options then we seek municipal intervention because they're able to provide more resources and
support beyond what we can provide. Um and I know I've spoken about this in the past even so much as we get our social workers involved. We've collected items to give people for winter coats, rain boots, um raincoats, umbrellas because people will say they can't come because
of the weather. So, we try to we try to do all of those interventions um to to get people to come when they have are facing barriers. Um they're looking to maybe implement the student accountability time. Uh so, they've seen some great success at the high school. So, the middle school was thinking about
maybe doing a very similar initiative. Um have more structured and regular student meetings about attendance as students acrew more. Uh call students and parents into team meetings to discuss attendance concerns and goals. Write individualized plans for students with absences absence
issues and have parents sign off on them as well. And then having the family leazison meet with students and parents after school to review the importance of being in school. For Bartle, here's what Bartle shared as some of their current strategies and their reflection on their strategies. So Bartle has classroom morning meetings to
form relationships with peers and they say students are able to have a soft start reducing the amount of tardies. So they have a little buffer time um in the morning so that they don't really mark tardies um until after that sort of morning meeting time. Uh there's
automated calls um home when absent and then parents often call to document for reasons uh or parents often call to document reasons for absences and there's schoolwide incentives for attendance percentages. students engage in activities. However, at this age, the ability for students to get to school is
more of a parental responsibility. In some of our cases, at a two three level for for tiers, when students acrew five or more unexcused absences, a letter is sent home. Their reflection is parents often call or email in response to letters to seek clarification on the
absence policy. When students have 10 or more unexcused absences, an email is sent home to parents notifying them of the attendance policy and um offering support. their reflection as parents often call, but many share that the absences are due to illness or transportation concerns.
In-person attendance meetings called when there are a high number of absences with no documentation for reasons of absences and their reflection is parents often don't show up or respond to the meeting notifications. Uh and another strategy is the assistant principal calls home to families with consistent absence to offer support and
many parents share that absences are due to illness and or transportation concerns. So that's sort of outside of what we can provide. Uh some of the factors that Bartle is reporting that factor toward their chronic absenteeism. They said parental understanding of school district uh policy, the school
and district policy. They said that parents often are confused about the differences between our district and state policies. In the survey, many families indicated the child's absences are primarily due to illness, medical needs, family circumstances, or educational opportunities. Families asked for reasonable flexibility and
understanding and attendance policies including tardy procedures and documentation requirements in accordance with law versus policy and regulation and they set us the same for the policy uh for the 15 uh parent notes beyond the 10%.
Some of their action items uh for a universal strategy there this year they're going to try additional in-class programming related to the importance of attendance and the impact on both academic and social uh and social growth. They're going to try to continue a subcommittee of the school leadership team to meet to identify attendance
concerns and supports. They're going to have more structured small groupoup student meetings about attendance and supports in small group and at tier three call guardians into team meetings to discuss attendance concerns and goals. Include students when appropriate.
Uh at Irving, all of these were determined uh under our previous uh leadership. So maybe under new leadership they might change, but this is what we're we're going to put in place. Um so at the tier one level, some of their current strategies that they used this past year included um discussing the importance of attendance with parents at back to school night
morning announcements about the importance of of attendance. Um and they said this was good but not effective for chronic absence students because they're not there to hear it. Um they do an automatic call home after 10 absences and they reported it was partially effective
at the two uh three level getting more uh small group and individualized letters home in Genesis and meeting with parents. They said this was a good effort but they don't know how much it changed the outcome um and they would like to see consequences for excessive lates and absences. Uh for preschool students staff reach out to parents and
caregivers frequently to explain the importance of school attendance. uh they said this strategy works well for preschool. Um if they don't attend, they lose they potentially lose their risk their spot because there is a wait list. So that was like kind of a really good incentive for preschool uh to attend. Um
which is great. And they have a residency officer and then again a connection between residency and attendance. Um they use the family uh liaison as well. We have one district-wide family liaison, Mr. Harrison, who uh supports all four buildings in that capacity. And they
said that was a good effort as well. The two areas that they saw uh were the same uh parental understanding of district and school policy and then the policy as well. In terms of action items, what Irving would like to do potentially, although this might change for next year uh for
this coming year is form a subcommittee of SLT to work with um the municipality about attendance issues and consequences, implement attendance incentives for parents and caregivers. Uh because that's that's the issue. They you can't incentivize the students because they don't walk themselves. So
maybe um incentivizing the parents um to get their children to school and get their children to school on time. Uh have more structured and regular parent meetings about attendance as students acrew more and that was what Irving put together. So a look ahead uh our
recommendations. So a couple of the things that the leadership wanted me to share and communicate that we think is really really important especially from a board's perspective. Like I said the corrective action plan isn't anything that needs approval. It was something that we had to present. it stays on file. So when QAC comes, they're going to ask us for our report. We'll share it
with them. And like I said, it's a continued work in progress. It will be continuing to be shared with you until we decreased our chronic absenteeism. But a couple things that particularly for the board to look ahead is recommendations uh to regulation 5200 specifically on unexcused absences that
count toward truency or excused absences. In particular, it's section C. So we really unpacked that regulation. Uh the the the regulation was last updated in 2019. Um and includes parent notices for up to 15 excused locally and
then an additional 16 unexcused. So that's a lot. That's way beyond the 10%. That's why if you look back at each one, that's a what what the leadership team in conjunction with our school leadership team. So these are our staff
that are creating this um these um corrective action plan items and their perception is that okay so 10% 180 days 10% is 18 days right so but we have a policy that goes beyond that to say you can do additional ones and that's okay because it's excused because you're
writing a note so that is that's a lot more so if if we combine both of those you're way beyond the chronic absenteeism. So that's what we're interested in maybe particularly looking at that regulation. Uh the state says 10% and that includes both excused and
unexcused, right? Because excused to them are just those particular ones that I outlined, right? Religious observance, veterans day, take your child to work day, college visits, right? Civic engagement for 6 through 12. Um so the state doesn't care if it's locally excused or unexcused, right? That's
really more for the board to determine retention and movement from grade level to grade level. Um and then uh the recommendation is to follow the state guidelines and maybe tighten that up a little bit more would be uh would be great. In addition, uh recommendations
on changes to regulation 5200 specifically on denial of course credit in particular coming from the high school. This is section G of that same regulation. Under denial of credit section G part two, the denial of credit is for unexcused absences. Students are
permitted up to 15 parent notes for excused absences under section C.2. If you are denied credit only when you have reached 10% under unexcused absences, this in theory means that a student can accumulate 31 absences, 15 excused plus
16 unexcused before being denied course credit. This is a significant portion of class time. Additionally, it builds a lack of um uh really should be inequity of parents or equity. It's a really an equity issue um for those that know to
write a note or don't. That's one of the things that Dr. Donovan and the team at the high school came back and said, what they're actually finding in their attendance review board is that the parents that know about the regulation and know to write notes, write the notes. We have students that go through attendance review board that have the
the uh issues of their product absenteeism, but their parents don't know to write notes. So now we're telling them write the notes so that they can kind of be waved from their obligation of any kind of credit recovery. And some of those parents uh
are just really hard to communicate with. So now I have a student sitting in credit recovery and a student that doesn't because a parent knows to know write the notes and does it. So it really does cause a little bit of an inequity. That's a concern for the high school uh staff. They wanted me to share that with y'all. Uh another
recommendation is students have been denied credit at 10% of any absences instead of unexcused absences with the exception of the state allowances. So it would be nice that it was denied credit at the 10% mark and not well above that at 31 absences. Um at the high school
level, another issue that we want to do as a look ahead is taking a deep dive into alternate pathways to graduation. And I know that we reviewed that um more updated policy and regulation that came out which we're really excited for and that's something that Dr. Donovan has a strong background in is providing more
alternate pathways to graduation because not some of our students have struggling are struggling get to get to to school. Some of them work um have to care for for for younger siblings and things like that. So we really want to explore alternate pathways to graduation um
because maybe some of our students can take advantage of that. In addition um as well as the impact of teaching and learning which is culture and climate. Some of the concerns we have is if a student can be absent and miss 31
classes which is a significant amount but they're still doing well what does that say about the class? Right? The idea really should be if you're missing all of that class you shouldn't be doing very well. So we kind of want to look at that in terms of a more of a teaching and learning lens um to really look at
what kind of learning opportunities in in the regulation as well. It does say that teachers are required to provide missed work. So uh are we then really providing hybrid courses because we're providing work through Google classroom so they can make up the work but they're just not doing the seat time but they're
still passing a class but they're in credit recovery because they've missed 31 plus classes. So, the high school gets a little bit more complicated because we're talking about um really required time for graduation. There's very specific regulation and and law around graduation requirements. It gets a little bit more nuanced at the high
school. That's why we have uh a look ahead not only about the policy and ragg uh but uh specifically at the high school um because it is is very nuanced. Okay. Well, I guess that's it then. All right. So, that is my presentation. So,
again, uh you know, nothing for formal adoption, just a presentation of the work that the principles and their school leadership teams have done. Um and we'll report our updates and then every year we do a corrective action plan until our numbers our numbers drop. So, I will open up to the board for
questions or comments. >> Hi. Hello. Can you hear me? Yeah. Um two things. So one um I was surprised to see how much existing things were going on at each school actually to try to combat this as an issue. And so one thought I
had was when you show the data about the reason the reason by school, it might be useful to segment that by school because one thing is the reasons for being um absent um uh might be very different by school. And so we want to make sure
whatever we do introduce is really targeted for the root cause of the problem. And so when you showed the data it was it was across all. So I was just curious if you looked at anything >> the parental survey data. >> Yeah. Segmented it. >> Yeah. Um the new software we used is kind of a little clunky like that. We're
still like learning how to use it. We can certainly work to with the company to sort of unpack that. >> Yeah, I was just thinking that might be useful given all the work that's existing if you can kind of be targeted with a specific group cause the data might help you. The second thing is um it sounds like we're doing this until we
get the numbers down below correct 10%. >> I'm wondering if we have any internal goals at different time frames so we can see and make sure we're tracking. I'd love to know that rather than, you know, wait to the end of the year or see if there's, you know, we can see if we're on track or not. We might need to modify and use kind of a monitoring system.
>> Yeah. So, we do and those are on the district's um ESSA plans for their title one funding. Um so, uh if you those are interested that are attending um uh Miss Rodriguez's committee meetings, she can definitely present that information there.
Those are the targeted smart goals. Yes. I had a couple questions. Do we have a sense for how much the credit recovery program is kind of bringing students back in or like how many students it like I'm just wondering the impact like
in terms of this chronic absenteeism and whatnot. >> So, well, the student accountability time is more like once they lose. So, there's two things. You have students that um are losing credit because they're failing. Um, but then there's the credit recovery for like they passed
but they don't have enough seat time. So those that are those that are not getting enough seat time are then just making it up in the SAT time, >> right? And and are we capturing like a good portion of
students? Like is that like meeting? >> Yeah. So the so they're finding really good success with the student accountability time of trying to target them to say you know if you've lo um you know to that you have to make up that that time. Um the the SAT time has been
um from what I have pretty pretty good. The students don't want to say and make up the time. So they've you know that's been a little bit more helpful. Um I think that's why the middle school wanted to try it as well. um versus the um the credit recovery program that provides a little bit more like
reflective um alternative pathways to meet course requirements. >> Okay. Um, the other thing I I noticed on the high school plan that I was talking about different community resources and community organizations and I don't think I might have seen it in one of the other schools but I don't think I saw it
in one of the other schools and >> okay >> that um I may have also been looking at a couple papers and recommendations from research base which is really thin on this but um uh that was actually one of the recommendations was to get kind of
community partners uh on board with this and I was just thinking about, you know, community centers, churches, and having that message, but I was also thinking about because uh transportation, you know, to to some
degree is out of our hands, but some of those community organizations can manage some of that um sometimes. And if they can be strategic and pairing parents or or or even child care issues, that might be something uh that we can't manage. that they can
manage in ways. Um >> yeah. So, so we we try that. Our issue that we have is that we can recommend to a family, reach out to um you know to this resource. Um for example, I know Seth has been really helpful to us um at the reformed church. So, we'll say reach
out, but we can't give that information to Seth. So, we can't tell someone like Seth, hey, this family needs help with transportation because that's confidential student information. But we can tell the family, hey, if you need some support, reach out to these people. But then it's really on them to do that. >> I guess I was thinking about something a
little different, which was reaching out to those community organizations and saying, "We're having chronic absentee." If you have members with children, you you could plan transportation for them, right? like uh >> oh to say like ask the church to plan
transportation because we're not you said we can't talk about individual things but we can talk to those organizations and saying this is something that's really impacting student success and schools um and we could really use your help in like partnering around these kind of things
right so >> less individual kind of targeted family and more like >> I don't know I mean >> uh I'm also thinking I think the other piece that was really consistent through here was, you know, finding teachers,
finding counselors who can develop like personal relationships, which I think is really important because if they have good relationships with their parents and students, that changes things, but it's also a big load on on people, you know, given how many students are absentee. So, I think that's important.
But I think also we can hopefully leverage some of those relationships out outside of our schools that we think are really important and some of these families might be participating in and just kind of let them know and uh if they hear something they could feed things back to us like well they're
saying there is no coordinated transportation so we're going to do something or you know I don't know I mean they might have ideas too about >> uh what we could do >> piggy back to piggy back off of what Dan said, um
the community organizations that we have here also can help with incentivizing attendance. So, we have a lot of students that go to well, what used to be the cave, which I don't know if there's going to be a cave next year, we also have um zone six, right? So, having
those community organizations on board to say, "Hey, we're, you know, working on attendance plans with some of your students. can you you know talk to your students about the importance and kind of run an attendance incentive sort of plan. Um
now I do think it is once you get into like more specific case management where you're kind of looking for those wraparound opportunities. I do think there is some sort of like information sharing that can happen if the parents allow it. So I'm wondering if like
that's you know we could potentially ask permission to share or I don't know like there has to be some way that we can refer families. I mean we do now for things like perform care. So um we'll say you know do you
but we say do you want the information for performed care and then we give them the information. We don't call perform care. The only time we could do those things is if parents release uh and there's a release of records form that they could fill out um that allows us that that ability. >> Okay. So like broaching that record
release form would be good. >> Yeah. Um the other comments that I had and and full transparency I um I've been working on CAP now for like six weeks for the state. So I like just chronic
absenteeism. Um and and to say that one I was able to provide Christina some feedback prior to today which was really about integrating parent um feedback into the um strategies and then but also like this is a big statewide push um you
know the the state is going to be rolling out um support uh through PDS and cohorts and things like that. So, um there's going to be a lot more focus on this moving forward. Um but in regard to the the parent aspect um there there's
like that one degree where we had parent surveys and I think you know speaking to what Sarah was saying where you have the survey data it might differ from each school but the way that we can really dive deep into that qualitative data is through personal interviews or
focus groups or things like that where maybe we you know what reads as transportation on paper may come back as something as quick as like making a phone call to a bus company, right? But we don't know that until we dive deeper into it. So, having more um
opportunities for parent voice aside from the survey to kind of really dig in. Um and even having parents on the team um or having students on the team could be um you know helpful to kind of thinking outside the box or addressing
some issues that maybe you know you didn't really [clears throat] entertain before. And then finally, I wanted to just comment. I was when I first saw the presentation, I was excited because it looked like Bartle's data is getting better, but there's also that um time in
the morning, right, where there's like iffy time, like a gray area. Um so I don't know how true that data is if we are allowing buffer time. >> Yeah. Um, so I, you know, I would
encourage taking more like understanding that you do we need a buffer. If we need a buffer in order to improve our attendance rates, then we have a problem. >> Right. Right. Right. Right. >> Uhhuh. >> So that's just something that I wanted to to you know bring to our >> I will say Bartles that reflects their
big biggest issue now is tardies. So before their chronic uh absenteeism came from actual attendance like missing the days. Um so and they've really worked through their incentives to to get that in a better place. Um so that's been
really good. It's just now the tardies because again three tardies equals one absence. >> Okay. So I see what you're saying. So it's kind of shifted from whole days absent to now I'm coming late and those absences are >> Yeah. So, so even Brooke said Brook's like, "I'm really excited." Like, we're excited that that the students are
coming and we don't want to um you know, make make light of that because that's a really big accomplishment that they're coming, but now they're coming late, which is great because they're coming, but now three of those equals one one absence. So, that's
that's where we're at. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Get it real close. the policy stuff should be something that we can easily do as a board, right? I mean that I know we've talked about it in the past that all that sounds really familiar from. So I mean I think if you want to if you
would bring that back to committee with a proposal you know the wording that's that schools schools are recommending I think we could easily within a month or two of committees bring that up for first read. I don't, you know, I can't imagine that there's many board members
that would oppose tightening this up so it matches more of the state. Whether that will help our our problem, I don't know if it will, but the very least we can do that for them. >> Well, I think part of it is, you're right, is it going to be the fix all? No. But I think it will definitely help put everybody on the same page because I
think we've had these conversations over and over where people are like, "Oh, but it's excused, so it doesn't count." But it does, right? And so whatever the language is, if it's the number or the the wording, I think the whole thing is I I I know I've said this before, but
you know, for for parents thinking about the 18 days, that 10% are your PTO, right? Your children get 18 PTO days, right? The paid time off, right? They get those days off. How they use them, how they use them, whether they're sick, they're vacation, had a bad day,
whatever it is, that that's their time off, right? And once they exceed that, now we're now we're chronically absent. Um, so I think you know what it doesn't matter whether it's excused or unexcused. And I think there's been, at least since my understanding of, you know, the regulation dating back to 20
predates me, 2019, I believe 2019, um, has been like, well, because it's excused locally, it doesn't matter. And it does matter and it does count. I don't know how else to to convey that. Um, I appreciate that there's a larger than normal audience today and I'm not sure how many people online hear it, but
again, the more that we can communicate and share this out and I think that is one push in the right direction because as you can see there's a lot of great things happening at the building level that they wanted to convey and there's probably even more that we couldn't get down. We were on a tight crunch. The state they didn't give us
much turnover uh for doing this especially if we're entering a QAC year. So, um, so there's a lot of great things happening there, but we we need to work in tandem together to do this. And as you can see, there's more that they want to do. >> Yeah, that's
parents should be writing. >> I just wanted to bring up something I saw. I was a little uh flumxed by in the Irving um under current tiered strategies um you know letters home in Genesis meeting with the principal um we
need consequences for excessive late and absences. What on earth would consequences in kindergarten and first grade be? >> Yeah. again I so in in all transparency when I opened up to put my presentation together Irvings was not fully done and
I think that was the transition of our previous principal leaving things um not quite finished so Dr. Robinson and I uh through you know put some things together. Um so in full transparency like I said I I believe under new leadership that we'll probably
uh morph and change a little bit. So um you know I'm excited uh for that. So in full transparency I earnings was uh something that we had to kind of piece meal together. And similarly for the middle school there there is a lot of talk about
consequences for being for excessive tardies which >> um you know is not really something that we saw in Bartle or the high school. >> Yeah. which I thought was um in the the middle school has the
large has a problem that has not been improving and you know some of the other schools it really has shifted or has gotten better and the middle school hasn't and it seems like there's this idea there that it should be consequences and I'm
just not is there any evidence that you know moving in a punitive direction is the way to Yeah, I'm not really sure they're thinking consequences like it's not like a detentions or things like that. I think what they are thinking of consequence is that at the high school there's a consequence because you if you
were not there you lose credit, right? There's a graduation requirement. That's the consequence at the high school when you hit those numbers. At middle school, there isn't. So, we could have students miss 30 CL 30 math classes over 30 ELA
classes, right? And there's sort of no consequence for that because they get promoted to the next grade which they should. Middle school students should not be held back. It is not a good social place for them to to do that. So there they move along but yet there is a gap in their learning and the middle
school has been middle school and upper Bartle has been an area of big concern for our achievement gap. So the consequence isn't that it's like punitive so much in the way of like I'm going to give them detention. They don't they're not coming so detention isn't going to mean anything, right? It's it's about the idea that they're they there's
no like they get a grade and they move on. Like there's no there's no carrot there or incentive because middle school the I mean from the state perspective it's not a there's no graduation requirement, right? There's no graduation requirement for middle school
to move on to the high school. You're promoted, right? So that's I think what the state is trying to say that local control comes on. you deem when students are promoted and how they're promoted. What does that mean to move on to the next grade level? What does it mean to
to be promoted? What does it mean to be retained? Is there a certain amount right of of how that of how that works? So, that's what they mean by by consequence. So, maybe the term isn't exactly being utilized in a way that conveys conveys that, but um but what I'm excited about is that the middle
school really saw the high school some great success they're having and to try to to do that work. I spoke to Dr. Donovan who's done a lot of this work with the American Association Pediatrics Association. Um, so she's done a lot of work with uh chronic absenteeism with
that organization. So she's going to work with the middle school particularly to turnkey some of her resources and and work with that. So we're hoping that because the middle school is seeing some of the that success, but that's that's I mean there's no if they aren't here, they're not here and then even if they
pass or fail a grade or a class, they still move on, right? So I could be in sixth grade be chronically absent. I could fail math and I'm still going to seventh grade. So that's I think what they mean by consequence if that makes sense. >> So just to follow from that, it sounds um what you're what you're identifying
is they're missing a lot of learning. >> Correct. >> And and that's a problem. Yes. >> And so what I'm hearing when I hear consequences is is that they would maybe do additional work or something like that's what I'm hearing. >> Right. something like a so at the high school again they have SAT which is student accountability time and then
they also have a credit recovery program uh where depending on if they pass or not pass the class uh there are um requirements around that for some of our students who don't pass they have to retake the class because it's a graduation requirement middle school we
don't have that um they were uh working on they had a wise connection so that was uh I believe Sarah you reported that out uh under curriculum instruction the the one month about um a title funded program wise connection after school to really try to connect with adults and
culture and climate. Um but again you have to be here and and opt in to you know we we call everybody but not everybody wants to participate in that in that program >> that sorry go ahead. Well, yeah, that was something that that popped out to me a lot from the feedback.
And what are the consequences? And I guess and I guess in high school after you miss 31 or you possibly have 31 absences excused and unexcused, the consequence that kicks in is you don't get credit for those classes. and and okay so one
question I have is like okay well if we decided we don't want students be missing you know 31 days and we tighten that to the state level which is 10% it probably shouldn't be we tighten the belt all at once because we'll have a whole lot of students out of compliance
because the the culture is not there yet so I think one question we have to think about in committee as we're as we're looking at that regulation is you know how you know uh how do we sort of gradually ratch ratchet up the expectation as opposed to going from 0
to 60 or 31 to 10. Um, but I agree we we should get it down to where the state state's own regulation is. And then the middle school, yeah, I think the question I had like what is the consequence? What is the consequence? You know, if you're getting passed up and I understand there are social reasons for that to happen. Well, then
you hit high school and you've, you know, not really worked done a lot of the work in middle school and it worked for you and then you're in high school now suddenly the expectation is much higher. but you're not academically ready to meet that expectation. So, we're not serving the students very well. We are serving them in some way. You know,
we're keeping them with their cohort, but not in other ways because those are the kids who really struggle in high school. They never had to they never had to sort of um you know, do uncomfortable stuff to get to school on time except for 10% of the days. So, um I think what is what
should should we have stiffer consequences and if so, what what they should be. I remember I was at I was I was on the board but I was in the audience when the board they changed the regulations. So previously this is three or four years ago you couldn't attend
senior prom or something if you hadn't graduated if you hadn't like passed all your classes or something along these lines anyway. And so and everyone sort of said that's unfair. It's you know really really awful for the students. they don't get they miss a big milestone
and okay you can pat pat pat yourselves in the back and say that's true but um should we look at participation in extracurriculars um in athletics right what are the things students really look forward to and say okay you want that thing that's really awesome that that
then that you really enjoy and you sort of you know you go to school for okay you have to do the thing that maybe isn't as fun which is getting to school on time um maybe we should look at that as Maybe we're being asked in the feedback
to look at that. >> So to piggy back off of what Allison had noticed with the Bartle um with that buffer system, we don't really have real numbers there and how many absences there actually would be if we were actually looking at the tardies if we
were going by the start time. Um so there possibly could be more absences technically because there are more latenesses. Um, and the fact that we do need a buffer is indicative that maybe it could be time to rethink the Bartal
start time as well to help these kids out to get to class on time. Any other questions or comments? Well, that concludes my report. Thank you. Okay. So now we are going to um enter
the first public comment uh period of this meeting. Um just so everybody understands we will have two public comment sections. Uh one now and then one after um board committee reports and recommendations. Um so the Highland Park
Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments. Um, board policy 0167 establishes and regulates the right of the public to participate in public meetings. Um, so we will, if there's anyone here in person who would like to
speak, um, you can go first and then we'll move to, uh, anyone online. Uh, and please just uh give your name and if you are an address. However, if you're a student, do not give your address. >> All right. Um, hi everyone. I'm Joseph.
Uh, you guys might have remembered me from a few previous meetings. I'd just like to give uh some of my opinions on um attendance. I know um I'm in an AP period class in the high school, which means I have to get up earlier than a
lot of the rest of my peers. Um, and it's a bit difficult sometimes. I think um, you know, we sometimes we as high school students, we have a lot of different responsibilities. We're not very good at managing our our time. That's kind of a skill that um, we kind
of learned through high school. So sometimes it's it's kind of difficult to have say like a set bedtime that's early. And it's also a bit difficult to have a a set wake up time to always be on time at school. Um, so
I think um if uh something I think that might uh work is having a bit of a later starting time and a bit of a later ending time. I don't know if that's possible, but um I think when I think about the biggest reason that I'm late
to school, it's always cuz it's kind of just difficult um to wake up uh and then get to school on time every single day. So, I think uh if a later starting time could be implemented, uh it could definitely be beneficial to getting
students to school on time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joseph. Is there anyone else here in person who would like to speak? Okay. Do we have anyone online? Okay. Uh, is there anyone online who
would like to speak? >> Okay. >> Hi, this this is Abby Stern Cardell. Um, I live on Harper Street. Uh, two quick things uh related to the absenteeism and just arriving on time. One was I was a
little confused by the percentages in the parent survey because um I don't know if there were duplications but it added it up to over a hundred. So I was just confused on the demographics there. Um, the second thing I wanted to mention
that I um talked a little bit about at um one of the parent uh forget what they're called, but at at Bartle. Um that could help with kids getting to school would be some setting up some uh walking school buses. And you know, it
is walkable, but it can be hard. Not all parents can walk their kids to school. There are people who walk their kids to school anyway. and having um connecting families together. Uh especially at the younger years, it might be harder as they get older, they have their own, you
know, friend groups and they're more able to walk themselves. Um but I see a lot of people helping each other with transportation in the morning. But if you don't know, um you know, if you don't know the people, maybe there could be some organized walking school buses
or at least trying that out when the weather is nice. So, I just wanted to make that suggestion. Thank you, Abby. Uh, some who's next.
Um, I'm Can you hear me? I'm Anna Haley. >> Can you guys hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Wonderful. So, I am I live on 32 Lincoln Avenue. Um, I've had two kids that have graduated from the Highland Park Schools, one in 2019, one in 2022.
I really appreciate several of the board members trying to gently unpack this, but I I have a few questions. The first is I'm wondering um to what extent any of this these data or the um what seems
like kind of generally proposed solutions are at all different from what was done when my kids were at school? That was that's that would be my first question. The second, I guess, is more of a comment that I am admittedly really
struck by the the the very what feels like a very quick and thorough focus on disciplining the students and trying to seek an individual level explanation for tardiness and absenteeism as opposed to and some of the
schoolboard members absolutely raised the following. What else is going on that is preventing kids from being there? What is it about the fact that the district doesn't is not able to provide transportation to all but special ed and other um kids?
What is it about parents work schedules? What is it about students not wanting to be at school? What are the other structural, institutional, climate, environmental factors that may be getting in the way? What do the students
say and what do more than 59 parents say? I I feel like I'm I'm I'm really I haven't been to a schoolboard meeting in years. My older kid was a schoolboard rep for several years before they graduated from the high school. And I I
I'm just really struck by the lack of in response to this presentation, board members saying, "Wow, we are just hitting the tip of the iceberg and we need to collect a whole new round of data talking to our students. the ones
who are absent, the ones who are tardy, the ones who aren't, all of their parents about what is going on here. I and to attempt if at all possible to resist a lowest common denominator focus
on let's discipline the kids and help them understand the importance of going to school. Maybe there's something that they know that we don't. We really need to know what that is. Thank you. And do we have anyone else? >> Hello, >> Rob. Are you on?
>> Yes, I'm on. Hello. I'm Robert Scott. I live at 25 South Second Avenue. Uh, and first I just wanted to uh welcome uh I guess it's Mr. Grossman, our new principal uh to Highland Park. Um, and I
just wanted to say I've lived here 19 years. I had three kids graduate from our schools. They had lots of good experiences and some mid ones. Um, Irving has always been a wonderful place. I remember when Nancy Romano was
principal when we started. Uh, when we moved here, my neighbor said to me, "New Jersey is a diverse place and Highland Park's one of the most diverse places in New Jersey and it's a wonderful town." And that is true. And so I just wanted to say welcome and I know that the
parents of Irving and the folks in this town are anxious to hear about your vision for our our youngest students and creating opportunity for them. And I know that everyone's going to want to work with you. Um and then I guess I
just wanted to uh follow up with some of what's already been said here about uh the issue with absenteeism. Um, it really is the case that as uh Joseph uh Lou said, a period is a problem in the
high school. You have to get there earlier. If you're in band, um, you're late. You're tardy. Three tardies is an absence. Uh, I think all three of my kids ended up in some form of uh, attendance jail, credit recovery,
attendance review board, detention. Uh, I don't think it was called student accountability time then. and that was because they were banned kids. Um, and it's just harder to get to band on time. So, that's something that people pointed out over and over again. And I'm also glad to hear um talk about rethinking
that uh insanely early uh Bartle start time. I know um many of us pointed out that this was going to be one of the consequences of that early start time. Um, and finally, uh, again, this is a supportive a supportive community, and I
think we can do a lot better than punitive consequences when people miss school because of sleep, early start times, anxiety, illness, um,
and the sorts of things that just happen to everyone that sometimes make school impossible. Um, so I I hope we will steer a course uh clear of the punitive consequences. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Rob. Is there anyone else with a hand raised? Okay. Okay. Well, in that case, uh we will close the first public comment section of the evening and move on to uh board committee reports and recommendations.
>> Curriculum instruction did not meet this month uh due to different schedule issues. Uh we will be meeting next month. So, I'll just go over the items we have the vote on. Um we have approval of field trip requests. Um a couple
field trips for robotics. um couple for nutrition science uh to the farmers market and superfresh. Um we have approval of uh curriculum textbooks and mandated programs for uh across uh prek12
um that includes gifted and talented uh guidance and counseling, substance abuse and all um textbooks and instructional materials. Um we have approval of a job description for a substitute secretary.
Um approval of university um graduates uh for student teaching and internships. Approval of um the high school and middle school athletics emergency action plan and then the uh approval of the
action plan related to heat related illness and sudden cardiac arrest. Um, we have approval of schedule B uh intercolastic uh athletic schedules for the middle school and the high school. And that is it. I don't know if there's
any questions. There's equity and excellence did not meet and we have no agenda items. So awesome. >> Yes. Uh finance finance and facility did meet. We met on July 14th. Uh the first
thing we discussed was the preliminary uh transfer and treasurer reports. We also discussed the approval of IDA and EA grant allocations. So overall, there was an increase in IDA and ESA
allocations, including about a $14,000 increase in IDA basic funds and about a $400 increase, a little bit more in preK funds. Um, and ESSA increased overall except for a loss of title three
immigrant funding and that is due to a decrease in um the numbers of students enrolled. So we had I think it was about how many more last year? I think it was like 10 more last year than we have this year. Um we also discussed the approval
for athletic transportation. Um there was one bidder for the athletic transportation which was ABC transportation and the rates are similar to last year's rates. There is a small weekend and uh holiday hourly increase of about $5.
There are going to be there were two change orders for the structural repair coming in at around $9,000. Um there was additional change order for cafeteria alterations for the prek classroom. They needed another quad receptacle and that was about $1,400.
Um we also uh on the agenda tonight is the approval of the district-wide asbestous removal quotation. Oh no, I'm sorry. District removal bid. Um, we were quoted about $25,650 for that. This is required under AHEAR,
which stands for, hold on, I looked it up, asbestous hazard emergency response act. And basically, every, was it every year someone comes and reviews and says, "Oh, you need to fix that tile or you need to address that paint over there." So, um this is going to be a
district-wide um move to address the uh and abate the asbestous. Um this has already been budgeted before. U Mr. Flanigan knew that this would be coming. So, this is not anything um unexpected. We also have the approval for the
renewed application for the multi multiple temporary instructional spaces for next school year. Those are the modular classrooms at Irvings. This is um not the lease. This approval is something that we have to submit to the county to have these modulars as spaces.
Um the actual lease is up next September or up for renewal. So we will begin discussing um kind of whether or not we would need to renew those modulars moving forward. We already have the um
is it called the assess the long? No, not the long range plan. I have it here. Strategic assessment plan. Okay, that is >> the master plan. Thank you. I'm like, what is the master plan? Um Oh, it's
right there in my notes. Um from Speedel that they are working on that already. So hopefully by next budget season, we'll have a good idea of how we could perhaps restructure some spaces um in order to maybe not have to have the modular classrooms and still address the
universe that we have. Um okay, we also Oh, that's not discussed uh Hungry Minds. So, Hungry Minds is a nonprofit that assists school districts with lunch debt payment. And so, we have to thank
Miss Baldone and uh Mr. Rosa because they worked uh Miss Baldone let Mr. Rosa know about this program. Um and we had several graduates who could not receive diplomas due to unpaid lunch balances and Mr. Rosa got in touch with Hungry Minds and Hungry Minds contributed
$4,800 to help reduce those fines. Um there will be other opportunities to continue working with Hungry Minds. So um uh Mr. Ros is kind of like trying to figure that out. We might maybe try a fundraiser with some matching from
Hungry Minds. So all of that is still up for discussion. Um but it's really wonderful to know that we now have established this relationship and hopefully we can address some of the lunch debt. Um the structural repair at Bartle is nearing completion. Uh the fence was
partially installed and they're waiting for approval on the fireproofing. Um the prek classroom renovation bid is progress. I'm sorry. The renovation is progressing. The floor is leveled. Tile is ordered. Lighting and duct work are
all done. Um they're waiting for an AC condenser, paint, and more bathroom construction to be done. And the target completion date is early August. It must be completed as per the grant by um August 31st. We're also waiting for some updated quotes on that HPEF environmental
sustainability project. So that's still a work in progress. Um that's the um Kushner grant money that we were rethinking for the middle and high school to use for sustainability and uh centers. And then we have an update on the geothermal link at Irving. This is
repaired. Um this was a job that was originally quoted, get this, for $95,000. Um, John or Mr. Flanigan worked with the folks who helped with the baseball field to dig and find the leak and fortunately
it was located next to two modulars and next to a modular and could be repaired and the contractor of the reimbured some of us some from the bill because it probably happened while they were installing that. And so the final cost was $4,800.
So, a very special thank you to Mr. Flanigan and um the folks who helped us with the baseball field. Um at the time of our meeting, the statewide audit a state is it state your audit regular
district audit was happening. Um so we will update at the next audit presentation. Um which I know is everybody's favorite. Um the student activities is being transitioned to schooly accounting system. So everything
will be in one place. Previously this information lived in three district QuickBooks um three different QuickBooks. So someone at high school was using one and someone at Bartle was using another. So now this is going to be streamlined in SchoolFi and
everything's going to be organized from the business office and Muros is very happy about that. Um, coming up in August, we will be doing a deeper dive into the athletics budget in order to more thoroughly examine the impact of
the assistant director position on um the budget both district and as district budget and the athletic director budget. I'm sorry, athletics department budget. Okay, now for agenda items.
Number where am I? Oh lord, here we are. Okay. One is the approval of a supplemental bill list. Two is the bill list. Three is the treasurer's report. Four is the board secretaries report. Five of the
board of education certificates certifications. Um six is the approval of budget transfers. Seven is the approval of travel and related expense reimbursements. Um eight is the approval of contracted service providers and related services
and this is from to HUDL for athletic supplies. Nine is for the approver approval of contracts for professional development. We have all-in for inclusive education handle with care. Um right to know or hazard communication training youth
science for college and career readiness. uh developmental for administrators on development for administrators on the evaluation process, linkit training. Um there's two non uh non-public transfers
uh for professional development. No, actually three and that's the end of that. Um number 10 is the approval for McKenna Vento students to attend Edison Board of Education. And then 11 is for McKenna
Vento students to attend South Brunswick Board of Education. Um then we have the approval for the membership for the New Jersey State Interscolastic Athletic Association in the amount of 2500. We have the
approval of the renewal application for the temporary instructional spaces aka the modulars. Um we have number 14 is the approval of submission of the idea grant application for next year. Number 15 is the approval of the
submission for the ESA grant application. [clears throat] Number 16 is approval to change to a a change order. Um that was the for the uh prek classroom. Number 17 is
the asbestous abatement. Number 18 are change orders for the structural repair. Number nine is the approval of the number 19 is the approval of the conditional gift agreement for the renovation of the high school baseball field. Thank you so much athletic
boosters. Um number 20 is the approval of nonpublic allocations. This is something that we have to do as a pass through. And so there you'll see the three um
schools listed and their allocations for nursing, secretary, security, technology and textbook. We have the approval of a settlement agreement. We have the approval for the uh transportation, the athletics
transportation from ABC transportation. Uh number 23 is the appointment of outside counsel for investigation. Whereas the board has received a complaint requiring investigation by outside counsel and whereas the firm of
Hatfield Schwarz Law Group LLC has substantial experience in conducting such investigations. And whereas the board has reviewed the matter and determined that engaging outside counsel is both necessary and appropriate.
Now therefore, be it resolved that the board approve the engagement with Hatfield Schwarz Law Group solely for the purpose of conducting this investigation at the rate set forth in the proposed legal services agreement. Number 24 is the approval of the revised
prescription plans for oh this is actually this is changed. So I'm going to read in the change. Um so this is the approval for the revised prescription plans for the month of July and August. I move that the board of education accept the recommendation of the superintendent to as advised by its
group insurance broker of record Brown and Brown metro to maintain prescription coverage with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for weight loss anti-obesity medications July 1st through August 21st 31st 2027 due to the delayed
implementation of the RX Save card until September 1st 2026. Yeah, I'm sorry. There is there's a typo, right? >> It could be just for July 1st, 2026 through July 31st. All right. 2020, I
caught it, too. Um 2026. So, sorry. The extension for HB uh Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield will be through August 31st of this year. um because the RX safeguard plan which is what we entered into um for prescription coverage for
weight loss and anti-obesity medications um is delayed. So at the rates, benefits, terms and conditions presented in the represented in the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield initial renewal proposal. Um that is all I have. Any questions?
uh the the conditional gift agreement for the baseball field. Um I I'm just always struck when I walk by that that area of the of the back of the high school, middle school that it's just closed off and used to be open. Um,
but I understand, you know, it's important not to let people run around, too many people run around, you know, with their dogs and boots and whatnot. But, um, I'd just be curious to know if it was part of the agreement that the, you know, that the giver of
the gift said, I'll I'll, you know, donate this money if it be closed off and protected, or if that was independently determined by the school district and the athletics department, this is actually the best thing in the field. I do not have the answer to that question, but I will follow up and find
out. >> I I think there is I I don't know if this is the same issue, but this is something I think we discussed in central leadership team around people passing through during the day. So, I don't think it's necessarily the same issue, but I think it is community
members thinking it's okay like during the day, during school hours to actually pass through the high school and middle school. >> Well, they're two separate two separate things. So, the the item on the agenda here is for the amount left over from
the Kushner grant. So, the HP boosters applied for the IDA Kushner grant. They received that grant to renovate the baseball field. And any of the renovations that you see on that baseball field, the new fencing, the beautiful grass, the beautiful dugouts, and all of that came from specifically
from that grant. So, they were very deliberate on exactly what they wanted. And we worked really closely with um the members of the booster clubs to put into place exactly what they wanted uh because that was the condition for using that money. What you see on here is the leftover of that funds. If you remember
a couple of meetings ago, we approved for uh the landscaping to make that area to try to hide the um uh garbage bins so that actually walking out to the baseball field area was a little bit nicer. So, we took down the tree, we
blocked out the cans so that it was like a nicer entrance. And then the sign up for the IDA Kushner uh baseball field, um the money here is for that leftover money of that grant to be able to help sustain the field. So that's sort of independent of that. So that's I believe
that's what you're talking about, right? Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Okay. In that case, I'll move on to personnel. Um on the agenda, we're going to have um an approval of changing amending a parental leave. um approval
of appointments which includes uh some pair of professionals at Irving and Bartle uh a kindergarten teacher at Irving, a special education teacher at Bartle or couple or no and sub long-term substitute. A new uh nurse for the high
school uh and uh Dr. Gman as the Irving Primary School principal. Uh we also have uh a schedule B position um Rebecca Takis as robotics at the middle
school. We also have a number of hourly positions having uh event monitors, genesis training, um responsive classroom, uh closet organization, um audiovisisual,
uh counselors, prek teacher and intervention specialists, um instructional coaches. We also have um a number of volunteers. Thank you very much for volunteering um to help out with various sports team in
including the girls varsity basketball team uh the middle school wrestling, middle school boys soccer, and uh high school boys basketball. Thank you so much for volunteering your time. We also have um approvals of transfers and um
promotions having to do with um pair of professionals moving buildings. Um and we also have uh approval for um extra compensations for paraprofessionals
uh for next year and uh approval of toileting stipens for pair of professionals. Um for policy and regulations, we have one policy and regulation for first reading, which is the updated use of
internet enabled devices, um which is an update to align the high school's policy with state law. Um Highland Park passed our um cell phone ban uh before there was state
guidance on how to do so. And so, uh, we need to update our, uh, only the high school's regulation in order to fit with the state regulations. And, um, you know, we can discuss that. Um, and then we also have a number of policies and
regulations for second reading, including notice of board meetings, legal notices, superintendence duties, family leave, curriculum content, equity in school classroom practices, guidance counseling, non-resident student choice school district, high school graduation,
high school diplomas, use of physical restraint and seclusion techniques for students with disabilities, reimbursement of federal and other grant expenditures, Federal awards, funds, internal controls, mandatory disclosures, contracts for goods or services funded by federal grants,
procurement procedures for school nutrition programs, non-resident students choice school district, federal federal award funds, internal controls, allowability of costs. Uh, and that is the policies and
regulation. Um, any discussion there? This is the >> Oh, yeah. So, I just wanted to to talk uh briefly about uh thank you uh Miss Bardman for uh bringing that up specifically about the electronic use of
devices uh specifically for the high school. So, uh just to let everybody know, just in case they didn't read all the attachments, um we will align with the state's um uh law now that says that high school students are not allowed to have them anytime um during
instructional or non-instructional time. Um, but they did put out a caveat uh for those districts that have open lunch that students are allowed to have them during that period. So, we've been sort of going back and forth a lot of what this looks like. Um, I think what we
settled is that the the same rules will apply for students uh that they currently have in which students are supposed to keep them in their backpacks or bags or purses or whatever else they pockets, whatever they have. Um, they're just not allowed to be used now in the hallways. They're not allowed to be used
during study hall. Um they're not allowed to be used at all. Um because we felt that open lunch would still be something that uh we felt the community might still want their children to have access to. That's why we're not locking them up. Uh but we had considered doing
the same thing where the middle school had, which is like locking them up for the day. But it would be too cumbersome for potentially three grade levels that h have access for open lunch to unlock them. get them, go to lunch, then come
back, lock them up, and put them back. It It would just be uh uh too much people power to be able to to navigate that. Uh so we're going to try it um with Dr. Donovan feels that some very more strict rules around um you know, uh
making sure that students are accountable for keeping them on them and not using them. Um she put out a communication. So because it's um uh there's legislation around that now there just like there is legislation around not smoking in school, not vaping, um drug use, things like that.
It's those are that's contraband. So um students devices are now contraband because there's legislation around there. So uh there are definitely more strict consequences now that you'll see in the regulation. Um so in the past it was the teacher would take it and that would be sort of a first line of
defense. Now, if they're seen with it, it goes right to the main office and parents have to come get it. So, um we're we're going to try that out uh and see how it goes. We're hoping that it'll be successful and that high school students will oblige um and and you know, be able to to to follow that. Um
if for some reason that doesn't happen and we have to about face, we'll make a recommendation for a regulation change where we will purchase um lock devices and they won't be able to have them for open launch. But we really we want to we want to honor that because we think it's important. um you know, but but we're
hopeful. One of the things that central leadership team did discuss a lot was that we didn't want the uh the board specifically said was they didn't want the onus to be on the teachers to have to manage it and regulate it. Um so we're hoping that the students can do a good job of of doing that themselves. Um and staff just basically, you know, it's
like um same thing like that's why we're treating it as contraband. Um if there's vaping or things like that that the staff, they don't deal with any of those consequences. they're sent to the main office and the main office deals with it uh through the assistant principal or principal. So that's sort of how we're we're treating it in hopes that that
will work. Um if it if the the data is suggesting and and we get feedback from central leadership team from the high school that it it might not be working then we may have to adjust the regulation to include uh open lunch. We just wanted to try it out this way first. Um, I just want to clarify. I my
understanding was that the the current policy in the middle school that they turn their cell phones in if they bring them to school in home room, they don't have them the rest of the day bell to bell. They pick them up and home room on the way out. Yes. >> I I thought then that in high school they have like little boxes in each
classroom. If if they have a cell phone, when they enter the classroom, they drop the cell phone in the box and they pick it up on the way out. That's still what's going to be in the policy, right? So, the high school used to have uh the shoe racks on the like, you know, those little shoe racks. They used to have them, but when we uh updated all of
that, we sent some of those shoe racks down to Bartle to be able to be used because Bartle wasn't going to lock them up because they didn't really feel like it was a problem. It's been like oneoff. So, we've had sort of th those collection devices for the high school. I don't think the high school are using them anymore. I could check with Dr. Donovan. There's been a lot of it's
really just been on the students to keep them. If I've been in the high school, um, you know, the the students have had it on them. They keep them in their their backpacks, which is their current that's what they were currently doing this this past year. >> That's not the regulation. I thought the
board voted on that it's they're supposed to be in boxes in the classrooms when they're in high school. I think that's >> No, I think we've done any policy that we've
had the high school And the reason we're not having students put their cell phones away in home room in high school is so they can talk on their phones at lunchtime >> so that they have access to them. They have access to them at lunchtime because
we have open campus lunch. They leave campus during lunch. So, we felt that um you know uh parents and guardians and caregivers might you know if if a kid is leaving the if they're leaving the property for lunch they're off property they're outside of our control. And so
uh we just felt that parents might want to be able to ensure that they're um safe or that right because if not then they're leaving lunch without without that theoretically. So I mean again if if if if we don't get much push back and and parents would support that I mean we
can certainly do that. The the issue is we can't collect them in the morning give them back at the beginning of lunch send them out for lunch with them and then come back and collect them back for the rest of the day and then give them back at the end of the day. It that's just uh the the sheer amount. I mean we have three grade levels that that
theoretically can go out for open lunch and it would just the people power. we just don't have that that people power to be able to to staff that um to to be able to do it. Uh because they all already have to sign out, right? So like there's a sign out that they have to do and a sign back in. So to have an
additional step to that. So either it's they come in and they do uh they do a home room. So Dr. Donovan's ready for that. She had a home salute. Um had a home room built built into that. Um, so an option can be that the kids come in, they have home room they do with the middle school. They lock them up in the
same little bin. So there's a in their home room there's a little cart. They open the cart, there's a bin, they drop their watches, their earbuds, their phones. They put that in there. It's locked by the home room teacher. And then at the end of the day, they go back to that home room teacher. They collect their stuff and go home. So that means
open lunch anytime during the day. They do not have access to their devices. or it's that they hold on to them and they don't use them at all. Not during passing time, not during study hall, not during instructional, non-instructional, except when they leave campus to go for
lunch. >> And you really think in the bathrooms in front of their lockers, they're not texting, they're not meeting, they're not calling their friends, they're not, you know, surfing the internet. >> Again, I completely agree. I completely agree
with you. It's that's why I wanted to have the conversation. It's a first read, so we will have a second public comment. And my hope was that if there are public comments or if people are watching this after the fact and want to email myself, email Dr. Donovan or email the board with their suggestions. I
mean, ultimately, again, if if the board feels, again, I'm I'm trying to lean on the the the team at the high school um to give their recommendation because they're the one that has to put the regulation into place. Um, but I mean if if parents and guardians and caregivers
are okay with us having them even for open lunch, we have the we already budgeted for the device storage facilities and uh Dr. Donovan is ready to go with a home room and a schedule that will work for this. The the what happened was at the last
minute when the when the state came out with the update, they then said, "Oh, we changed it. if your if your school district for high school allows open lunch, they can have it for lunch. Before, if you remember the original roll out was all day doesn't matter. And
then more recently, thank you to the state for doing this ahead of that we have now two months before September one start or you know thereafter, right? So um they they kind of did an abrupt change and said if you want >> is is there is there a do students
register to for open lunch at the start of the year? Yeah, it's in Genesis. >> So, there can't be like a separate box in the office for open lunch kids. They can go and get their cell phone, bring it. I mean, it seems >> I mean, I don't have the office stat. I mean, you're talking about hundreds of kids that go out for open lunch. It's three grade levels. If there's, you
know, let's say if 75% of the grade goes out for lunch, 75 times three, you're talking about 150, 200, 300 kids that are going out for lunch. Theoretically, like that, I can't I'm not sure that one secretary in the high school can manage that. nor is it in her job
description to do that. >> So, I understand where Ethan's coming from on this one because I I do feel similarly. However, I'm also open to giving them a year of responsibility and see if we can do this. And if you don't, oh well. But [clears throat] I mean, I
also understand the whole thing with open lunch. There's no such thing as payoneses anymore. So, if something does happen, they don't have a way of contacting anyone. So that is a cause of concern for me that I do want them to have access to it. However, I know high school kids,
but you know, like I'm willing to see where this goes and let them know like you guys are the ones who are going to, you know, make the mark for the rest of the uh school. [laughter] You hear that high school students? So that again part of the reason was I wanted to make sure we had an open
dialogue um and then hear from the public as well for this on on the sort of their opinions so we know how to best guide this. >> Yeah, Ethan's not the only person who thought uh they were being locked up during instruction because I thought that because that's actually what we talked about at central leadership team.
So I left there thinking that was how things were being implemented. So finding out the last year that wasn't implemented or they stopped using lockers is is uh is new information uh to me as well. Um I'm looking at the
regulation and didn't mention it but I but that was the strategy that I heard a central leadership team the high school one to do to take it out of teachers hands. I don't think >> I still think it's in teachers hands right now because you're asking the
student to put it in their backpack and The student is the one that disciplines other students. The teacher is right. So the teacher is going to have to be the one that take it. So this does put it in teacher hands. >> The the new the new updated regulation wouldn't the teacher sends them right to the main office and then the main office
the the principal or principal, >> right? The teacher sends him to the main it's in the teacher's hands. They don't necessarily have to take it or discipline in the classroom, but they do have to send him to the office. Right. the [clears throat] teacher is policing that and that was something >> that was really consistent on central
leadership team want teachers to do that >> central leadership team that I went to they actually had put this on on pause because they were waiting for the new outcomes of of the law so they didn't want to have to buy all this stuff and find out they didn't need it and I think
that's kind of where we are right now >> for our policy last year I'm talking like last time we were meeting last September and that kind of a thing that that that was or well before that that was the plan right so I understand they didn't want to commit until we heard the
state policy this time but but that's everything I had heard of and central leadership team before and I I haven't made all of them but I've been pretty good um so yeah so I think it's going to be interesting to
>> to um hear how things I guess go this year uh given we don't I guess >> I mean Dr. Donna just seems really confident that she can um she can manage this. But >> I I mean I I feel like if you at least had the
lockers in the classroom, you are addressing use during instruction and anybody leaving to go to the bathroom texting like meet me here, right? And then you know you get them and you go to the next class. And you know, I know they're not supposed to be out in the
hallway, but in terms of reducing access, I think lockers in the classroom, you drop it in the locker in the classroom, you pick it up when you leave could work. I'm especially concerned for the freshmen who are now have had one year of, you know, having
their cell phones locked up and maybe they'll be, you know, uh, the stars of the show, right, at at following this or maybe having access to their devices
might be too tempting. Um, I I also like I want kids to shape the policy. uh which obviously they can't because the state made one. Um but I want them to shape it as much as they can. So uh my concern is just in order to take it out
of teachers hands, you have to reduce the opportunity for them to get into power struggle over this. And yeah, go to the main office. What if they're like, "No." You know, it's like the same it's it's the same argument that you're going to have with any policy um that's
not reducing access from the moment they're in to when they leave. Well, and I guess um just another concern is I don't think that we've had a full account accounting of how this
firstear policy has gone um in the high school yet or in the middle school. I mean we had um early data on the middle school which showed you know some dramatic incre improvements in um
discipline and we haven't you know if we and that's where we took the most dramatic action was in the middle school and we saw the most dramatic results and in the high school I haven't seen any accounting of how the policy went this
last year. Um, and so then we're talking about a kind of minor change, which is we're doing the same thing we did this year, except now it's all referrals to the um, administration. But I don't know, we I we haven't had like a
specific cell phone related discipline, you know, tab in the high school discipline reports. Um, we haven't needed it in the we haven't done it for the middle school and I know there's cases where it has come up, but it's been pretty minor. >> Right. Right. Um >> well because I wasn't able to attend the
last central leadership team meeting because I know every meeting they were trying to bring that data. Um did do you know if they brought that data I'm sorry I wasn't I don't have my notes. It's on my computer from Mr. Pressy. I don't know if that data was there. I didn't find it. I know he sent to report out. >> I mean I didn't I wasn't at the last one
but but there were ones before it and they from from my memory >> Yeah. >> questionable. um things look better like across every school, right? So much better. >> Um but I didn't know >> the high school reported out positive things too.
>> I think high school but I I assume this this other strategy is being implemented. So I mean if if they're managing it and it's not a major issue and so it might be it might be good to specifically at the high school. >> Yeah, I'll look back at my notes for that. See what you're talking about the
last CLT but that would be informative. >> Yeah. Yeah. I don't have anything on that. >> Uhhuh. Yeah, I'll look back any any of think of the outcome, but it was a lot of disc um discussion on the guidelines and how we're going to implement that moving forward, not knowing what the guidelines were going to change to.
>> I I don't understand what the diff uh what the difference is. Okay. So, like students were never supposed to take out their cell phones in class, start texting people, right? So, now we're saying, well, now you now you're really not supposed to do it. Keep it in your pocket. That's not a new regulation. That's just doubling down and saying
don't use your cell phones. And Dan, thanks for the memory check. I during our conversations in committee and curriculum instruction didn't meet last month. If they had, we would have gone over this this regulation. Um the policy in the high school was supposed to be boxes in the classrooms,
drop the drone in the box, pick it up on the way out. Um maybe, you know, the leadership of the high school didn't see it that way. I'm I'm sure there's an honest misunderstanding, but that's how it was communicated to me. Um, so I think that we need to revisit this
policy and write it in black and white. You know, what we want uh the the school's approach to cell phone should be. >> Uh, no, I just just just one other thought and this might be the worst thought um ever. But I I was just
thinking about what Allison was saying. Um because if we're dealing with this policy specifically in response to open lunch, why would freshmen not have their phones locked up? That that might be because freshmen are
also in a lot of other classes, right? So it's like you can't it's not classroom based. >> Yeah. um because they could they might be taking AP bio with a bunch of juniors and seniors, you know, >> much harder have like just a regular home room
system. >> Have home rooms, but they're not every day. It's like twice a month, so that wouldn't work. >> Yeah. And like and like I said, Dr. Donovan has a plan for changing the schedule to include a home room if that was the path that you know we would we would want to go down.
>> So what makes sense at this point because we do need a policy for September based on state law. So >> so my recommendation is to go with what um Dr. Donovan and her school leadership team recommends which is what you see in front of you with the idea of closely
monitoring it. Maybe at our first central leadership team, we'll put that up as a specific agenda item in terms of the data. Um, have the high school team uh come with their data and then look at it to see and and and that's what I told her. I said, "Let's monitor it." And if it's and if we see I mean, if I walk through the halls and I see kids on
their cell phones, I said, "I'm I'm not going to be a happy camper. I'm going to want them locked up." But again, I would like to hear also I mean, how how important is this open lunch? Open lunch. >> I think that seems to be the biggest concern is the open lunch. like do we want them to walk out without a phone?
>> The only thing is open lunch, right? And if if there were pay phones, then I'd say, "Yeah, take the phones." But um there's no real way to contact anybody should anything happen. And that would that is really my only concern. >> Other than that, I'm very much
which is what the high school's concern is too is is open lunch quite honestly. So um and closing lunches is is another whole >> Yeah. But I also want to trust the judgment of the teachers that are actually in the school implementing it and knowing their students. So I don't want to you know >> right and again the the the
recommendation is coming from the school leadership team. So it's not being made in isolation that the staff are making it collectively together. So uh again my my recommendation is to follow that and and see where it lands unless there's you know uh if if the community you know we can start implementing if the
community feels if if it's not being successful we want to go with the system we have it ready to go. We can change the schedule. we can order the supplies and and get it going and update the regulation. Uh especially if there's not, you know, if if the community also agrees uh as parents and caregivers of
high school students that go out for open lunch that we are going to have their devices, their watches, their phones, their metagasses, anything that is of that electronic device. >> I have a quick just clarifying question.
>> Can you a quick clarifying question? Sorry. So um is the assumption this all makes sense to me you know in the conversation and and seeing how it goes. Are we assuming that there is also the instantiation of laws we thought that was happening which is that they're
being put in the black boxes because that was >> I don't I don't what was supposed to have been this past year >> is that are we assuming that we're we're still putting the phones in the black boxes? >> I'm never just they never happened.
assuming that because I don't think it happened. But I I think there's actually three options, right? >> Okay. >> Not for not for this fall. I think for this fall it's moving forward similar. But >> you're kind of painting it as we're either moving forward this fall or we're taking away for lunch which there's a
third option which is actually use lockers during instruction which is what a couple of us thought. Right. So that's a third option. >> Right. But again, right? So so something like that. Um, you know, again, just being mindful of maybe not locking them up, but I mean, if there's bins that
they could drop them in, but again, that's on the teacher now to collect them. And what if the kids don't put them in and they say, "I don't have them." They're not searching back now. >> Right. Right. That's I want to >> But I think that would be actually be more systematizing it. Right. Like you
walk in, you drop them in here. Right. >> Right. Right. Well, I mean that was so if you remember though I think the conversation was cuz in the past the U shoe holders were at the high school but we had by the way our regulation before all this came out was that they don't use them during instructional time. So
predating this legislation at the high school was don't use them during instructional time and we had those little shoe things for them but it wasn't being used with fidelity. It wasn't being used constantly. um like some some teachers were using them as their attendance like drop your
phone and stuff in there and then that's the attendance um you know so they were using it all different ways in prior administration and and with our prior policy so regulation so when we updated the regulation we were more strict about it uh we wrote it into observations like
when teachers were observed we had to write formally in [clears throat] there if we saw cell phones or did not see cell phones that was part of a teacher's observation so we were we started becoming more um uh uh more accountability for making sure that went
into place this past year. And then we took some of those shoe things. Um that's what we talked about at central leadership. My recollection is to then bring them down to Bartle to use there. Um so and and for the most part the the high school was incredibly successful. Um I think there was some pockets of
some issues but uh that was you know swiftly addressed. um and you know and and and taken care of. So I think to me the the it's either the students are holding on to it and not using it and they have access during open lunch or we
switch to a home room model and they lock them up in the morning, they get them in the afternoon. We change the schedule a little bit because my concern is doing it every period is just going to take away from instructional time especially if we have larger sized classes. So they have to come in because
by the way not all the kids come on time to class, right? So if they come late, how is that going to work to drop it in and lock them up and then now the bell rings I have passing time to get to my next class? Do I release the cell phones before passing time? Do I release them
at the bell and then by the time they get them and get to class? So that's why I don't know if that's an option that I would recommend. To me, it's either they have them and they get them for open lunch and they just don't use them during the day or we lock them up all day. I'm not sure how how we could, especially with some of our larger class
sizes. I'm not sure how you can navigate that and allow the students to get to their next class to then lock them up in their next class, especially when some of our students have to go to far ends of of the building. I mean, some of the kids have to go into the middle school for orchestra up to the third floor. I don't think
it's all that different than putting them in a shoe like slot really. you have to put them in there waiting for kids waiting for them to put it and >> then you unlock them at >> minute to go instruction like I don't know that doesn't seem like that big a
difference to me but >> I also want to say I know talked a lot about this issue but um uh you know we've been talking a lot about open lunch and supporting that students who go off campus uh have their cell phones you know it it was the case before cell
phones I assume people had open lunch they didn't but it wasn't the end of the world they couldn't call their parents Um, be that as it may, there are lots of kids who don't have open lunch. And, you know, I I see this with with students I teach, right? You know, in the in the
cafeterias and, you know, donut shops, whatever else on campus, coffee shops, you know, groups of kids standing around, sitting around looking at their phones, not talking to each other. And it's not because they don't want to talk or they're they they dislike each other, but the phone is this constant temptation. and you'd rather, you know,
scroll through whatever the feed is showing you. And so by by allowing because we're so concerned about kids who do open lunch having their having access to their cell phones, now everyone during whether they do open lunch or not has access to their cell phones and they're not talking to each other. They're not looking at each
other. They're not interacting during their free time off from class. And I'm sure the same things happens same thing happens in the hallway as well. I think the tradeoff is not worth it. So, I mean, one one suggestion that we could do is I mean, the the hope was
because it has to do two reads was to get this ready for the start of school. I mean, we could table it um and then come back for a first read in August, second read in September, and then go forth with whatever the change is for October, knowing that the month of September would be last year's
I I'm just giving other options. I don't know. I we keep we keep circling here and I don't I don't I don't know. Have to only do it in September. Can we not implement it in January? If we see that whenever I mean >> I mean again like I said you could do you could you could pass tonight the
recommendation we can monitor it and if there needs to be a change we have a two-month window right because it would have to go for an additional first read and second read if we moni if we change it which gives us the time to implement the new schedule and uh buy the resources. >> I mean it doesn't look like it's really
a change from last year. It's just well it's just the change is that it's during non-instructional time which is going to be a change for the high school. The change really becomes for last year the students were able to use it during um passing time during study hall and noninstructional time. I don't know when
else non-instructural time was but lunch non-instructional time um but um this year it's none at all. They can't use it in study hall. They can't use it during passing. They can't use it during lunch. I'm more I'm more expressing concern
about some of the communication around this and and not having the understanding. I don't think you can change this in the middle of the year. I think that puts teachers and administrators in a really hard position. >> Um so I I'm saying more looking forward.
I think I have I think we're implementing more or less how we did last year with really clear communication with students that in passing time, you know, and and in in these other non-instructional times, right, that that they also can be using it, right? And and that's by state
law. Uh so this is more about the schools implementing that. Um and then depending on if this works, if you know, if not, then then looking at something. But I I think removing them from uh open
lunch would be a real concern in the community. Um but then so then it's like what other options are there? And I think there's one but it's not ideal but I don't necessarily know all of them are ideal. So I I'm more a proponent of
moving forward uh that we kind of know what was happening last year um um seeing how that goes and tracking it with data. Um, I would I think it'd be interesting to see some of the data from last year, but but I I I kind of feel
you you don't want to put teachers in in the position and administration in the position of changing this midyear even. >> So, we'll make that the the priority uh agenda item for our first central leadership team that's on the calendar for next year. Yeah. >> Yeah. If this path may just go have to do a I'm sorry, we have to do a second
reading. I'm curious to see what parents actually how parents actually do feel about it. most the majority may not have a problem with their children not having >> their phones on them for lunch. So I'm just curious to see what happens there and kind of base it around that. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. And students, you know, students spread the word that's in the student. >> You can send us emails >> process question. If we approve it on the first reading, does the second reading happen the very next meeting or does it happen whenever we want it to
happen? In other words, you know, uh how much time is there for feedback from parents and community members and students and all that? Like if we approve it now is in the August meeting is that one second reading? >> Yes, August is second reading. >> The state did not give us much time.
>> A subsequent process question. If we approve, >> this would have to go back to first reading, right? Correct. That was my >> any changes now would have to go back to a first reading. So, >> thank you Nikki. >> Yes. Okay.
Um, in that case, let's uh we're going to move on to our second public comment uh portion of the evening. Uh again, if there's anyone here in person who would like to speak,
uh now's your time. [clears throat] >> Hi, my name is Ardan Lee. I'm a rising senior now at the high. Sorry. I'm a rising senior now at Highland Park High School. And given that there's been a lot of discussion debate on whether on
how we should exactly implement the phone policy, I thought I should probably contribute a little of my few cents because I'm a student who actually experiences the policy that's debated and can often seem very abstract and theoretical when considered on a board
level. So the first thing is I do agree with some of the board members and their concerns raised about how this new policy seems like a very similar iteration of the one that was proposed and implemented last year. But the issue with the one last year, and honestly I I
don't think I saw that much phone use, at least in the beginning of the year, uh, when the policy was enacted, was that there wasn't clear communication with the student body, about what the expectations were. And part of that asymmetry across the board
is because teachers were the individuals responsible for um, strengthening the policy. And they obviously don't have a lot of time to do that. they only have like 50 minutes of actual instructional time and most of that they want to dedicate rightfully so to actually
teaching their students. So when you're considering a policy like that, I think having clear communication channels between teachers and board members is important because you want to see what they want to sacrifice. If we do have a home room period at the beginning of the day and if we have check-in times before
the end of school, that time is cutting into the amount of um that we ultimately give to teachers for instructional time. And even five minutes for um the morning announcements is a lot for some people. So, we want to make sure that we're not f they're sacrificing that just to
implement a phone policy that honestly enterprising students will still find a way to kind of circumvent. Um, another thing is I feel like we need to be more aware of how capable and confident some high school students are.
I know we could go on all day about the attention span crisis or how often students are using their phones. But if you actually are transparent and clear with them, I find that they actually are willing to work with you more than you probably think. It's important that we don't put down students early on and
that there's actual discussion with students first when you're implementing a policy that directly impacts them. I think there's a lot of separation that can happen between the board and the student body. But if we're actually telling them why we need a policy like
this, if we're telling them what the implications mean, I think they'll actually be willing to keep their phones and their backpacks a little more. Overall, when you're considering this new policy, whether I can't speak on behalf of everyone right now on whether or not we should be
doing one that's full day where they lock up their phones in the morning or if we should just let them for at least one year show that they could actually demonstrate their capabilities as students. But I do want to put in something that I realized throughout the course of um the discussion
specifically for open lunch. Not only do I think that some parents would have a big concern with it, I also want us to look at how we purchase things nowadays. I personally never bring my card with me anymore, and I know a lot of students don't. We There's something called Apple Pay and cashless um cashless modes of
actually paying for things that most high school students use. Now, that's something that's going to impact open lunch. And even though not everyone utilizes open lunch, it's still something that students prioritize. So that's something to take into consideration as well. Overall, I think there needs to be more transparency
across the board. I hope in this coming year that students are more aware of what this board does. And while I know that I'm the only high school student here and have been for a while, um just be clear with students. Don't put them down too early. Be transparent with all your policies. This is something that
directly impacts them. And there is no oneizefits-all. But I don't think that we should be afraid of adapting, but just believe in them a little more and they'll definitely be receptive. So much. Yeah. Uh is there anyone else here uh who'd
like to speak in person? Okay. Do we have anyone online? I'm sorry. Did So any hands up? Anyone online who'd like to speak? >> Uh, okay. In that case, we are going to
close the second public comment section of the evening and move on to board action items. for curriculum instruction. I move items one through seven. >> Second. >> Dr. Batty.
>> Yes. >> Miss Cassald. >> Yes. >> Mr. Maldonado. >> Yes. >> Dr. Pixley. >> Yes. >> Miss Cruz. >> Yes. >> Dr. Spman. >> Yes. >> Miss Stano. Miss Vardman. >> Yes. >> Oh. for finance and facilities. I move
numbers one through 24. >> Second. >> Second. >> Dr. Batty. >> I'm a yes. Uh except for item 23. I'm abstaining. >> Miss Cassell Dunn. >> Yes. >> Mr. Maldonado.
>> Yes. >> Dr. Pixley. >> Yes. >> Miss Pruce. Uh yes, except a no on number 21. >> Dr. Solman, >> uh no on 21, yes on everything else.
>> Miss Stanium, >> um abstain from 21 and yes to everything else. >> Miss Bardman, >> uh yes. Motion carries. Number 21. >> Um, so then for personnel, I move agenda
items one >> through five. >> Second. >> Dr. Batty. >> Yes. >> Miss Cassald Dun. >> Yes. >> Mr. Maldonado. >> Yes. >> Dr. Pixley. >> Yes. >> Miss Pruz. >> Yes. Dr. Schoolman,
>> Miss Stanium, >> yes. >> Miss Bardman, >> yes. Uh, >> congratulations. >> Yes, >> Mr. Gman. Welcome aboard. >> Come to all of these. >> I was going to say thank you so much and congratulations. I know you have we
talked about you have a very early day tomorrow morning. So if you need to leave, feel free to to do so. Thank you so much and congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Lots of lots of luck to you. >> Okay. And then on policies and regulations, I move agenda items one and
two. Second. >> Sorry. >> Dr. Batty. >> Yes. >> Miss Cassald. >> Yes. >> Mr. Maldonado. Yes, >> Dr. Pixley. >> Yes, >> Miss Pruce. >> Yes, >> Dr. Skullman. >> No on one. Yes, on two.
>> Miss Stanium. >> Yes, >> Miss Bardman. >> Yes. >> Okay. And now we can move on to our board liaison reports. Does anyone have >> I have a report uh for the commission on
universal access. um they have wanted to sponsor a field trip um for Irving students to go to Rock the Gym. Um it looks like that is moving forward. We the district invoice the um in the commission is I think signing their
papers and so that looks like it'll move forward. So they're really excited about that. Um so I think there's 16 Irving students who who will hopefully go on that in the fall if we approve that field trip. um but they're very excited about. They also got a number of cards
from students in the Globe program, Glow and Glow Jr. um that were uh very much appreciated um and uh that really kind of spoke to how the money had kind of supported them. Um and so those are two things that they they've really
supported um uh our students on. And so I just wanted to to mention that that will be probably something in the future we'll be voting on in field trips. for the Highland Park Education Foundation. I was not able to attend the last meeting, but our friend Max Weber,
who was here until recently, was kind enough to give me an update. Uh they had the successful um8s fundraiser in April. They are already planning the next fundraiser. They're planning one for the end of the year and planning some others for next year. So they are hard at work uh trying to come up with funds to
supplement our enrichment activities and we thank them for their efforts. If that is all um I do not have a president's report so I would like to move to old business. >> Sure. So I have something. So, um, the committees weren't able to meet, um, but
it will be going on for August. But I'm really excited. I know I kind of it was briefly mentioned about support for the Chromebooks, uh, and parental support around that, um, for the devices at home to help for monitoring. Um, and I spoke to Mr. Lubis, the tech manager today,
and we're going to, um, working on our marketing roll out for that. But we're really excited um, and I can't wait to share with committee next month. Uh, Linewise is the filtering um group that we use, but they partnered with Oh god, it started with a Q custodial. Thank
you, custodial. Um, and what they do, it's actually a very a free service that will help with the Chromebooks that parents can get controls of the Chromebook at home or outside of the classroom or outside of the school day. So, it'll be set for our controls during
the school day, but in the evenings, on weekends, and in holidays, parents can set those controls um for YouTube, very specific time, specific websites, things like that. It's phenomenal. We're going to be very excited. >> The look on Dr. The look on Dr. Schoolman's face.
>> But plot twist, guess what else they give us? Guess what else? They give us uh for each parent per kid. So it's if you have multiple children, you get multiple of them. But it's for one kid, one personal device. So if I have three kids, I get three personal devices. If I
have one kid, I'd have one personal device. So if you want to do that on your child's personal cell phone or personal computer, you get one free personal device per kid as well. That's 247 because we don't regulate on our our
things of personal devices, but you could use their service uh to um for free for for one one device per child as well that comes with it. Um it's really really awesome. I have a lot to share about that in committee and then we're coming out with our rollout plan. So coming soon, but I wanted to share that
we've been actively working on the technology piece. We hear you. Some things just take a little bit longer, but we we're getting there. But I wanted to share coming soon. So please come to your committee meetings. uh in August. It's going to be fantastic. I have a whole presentation to share with you that shows how to use it. It's very user
friendly. I was on a webinar with them. It is phenomenal. Uh and thank you to the tech department um for uh for that hard work. They found the research. They did the research. They reached out. We made sure there were no strings attached. We dotted every eye, crossed every tea with this one uh to make sure
we're putting a great product out there to to our families that are interested. Um, and it even goes as I mean not that Irving students would have devices, but it goes for everybody in the whole district. So, not just grades 2 through uh 12. So, uh, really exciting stuff coming soon. So, September is going to
be fantastic. So, look forward to my communication regarding all of that. Thank you. >> I have some other old business. Um, I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was in conversations with the folks at the Heldrich Center who were putting together some sort of program to match
folks from the STEM High School in Middle Sex with uh potential educational and and work opportunities at the New Jersey Innovation Hub at the Helix in New Brunswick. Um, they were willing to talk about extending that at the individual district level. have a
meeting with folks at the Heldrich Center on Tuesday to talk about that for Highland Park and hopefully have a roadmap to after that seeing how to plug the district into whatever is going on there uh in the hopes of generating some opportunities for our students with that
project. >> Awesome. Any other old business? New new business. In that case, uh I move that we adjourn. Okay. >> All in favor? I >> Okay. Good night.