##VIDEO ID:YQYvenyNeyo## oh okay all right um like to call to order the Highland Park Board of Education hybrid voting meeting this Monday October 28 2024 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 meeting open public meetings act the Highland Park Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting setting forth a time and date and location to be submitted for publication to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger and posted on the board's website at least 48 hours in advance of this meeting members of the public who wish to address the board will be given the opportunity to do so before the board adjourns for the evening may I have a roll call please Dr batty here miss cassal here Dr Coleman Dr Pixley here miss puce here Dr scholman Miss Stan here miss vardaman miss Vorhees here we will now recess to Executive session be it resolv pursuant to the sunshine Act njsa 10 colon 4-12 and 13 the Highland Park Board of Education will now meet in close session to discuss matters related to student discipline these exemptions are permitted to be discussed in Clos session in accordance with njsa 104-113 information regarding the board's closed session discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists I move we recess to Executive session second all in favor I all right e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e right we're now going to reconvene to regular session roll call please I'm sorry I'm sorry a warning uh Dr batty here Miss cassal D here Dr Coleman Dr Pixley here miss puce here Dr scholman here Miss Danel here miss bman miss Vorhees here uh stand for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all for communications we had two one for um the njsla presentation and one for the why forgive assembly um and oh wait I'm sorry I the sorry I completely forgot the other two um we're gonna move uh move for the approval of minutes for the hybrid regular public meeting and executive session September 23rd and the hybrid Workshop meeting for October 14th I move to approve these minutes second Dr batty yes M Cal yes Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Miss Danel yes Miss vman yes Miss warhe yes okay we're going to go to our student Representatives reports so um at Irving our new preschool playground is installed and being used and the students love it um Irving is excited for the new signs on Woodbridge Avenue that they are underway and are excited to see the finished product um the Irving Halloween parade is always a favorite and they look forward to welcoming families to the fun it's going to be 2 pm on October 31st thank you to the burrow for providing the illusion maker assembly to our K and first grade students last week they enjoyed learning about ways to keep our environment clean and Irving appreciates our families attending our conferences and being a partner in your child's education so for ble October 21st to the 25th was school violence awareness week Monday was mindful Monday Tuesday teamwork Tuesday Wednesday was wise words Thursday was thoughtful Thursday and Friday was friendly Friday October 23rd all grades participated in the illusion maker true or false a magic a magical environment quiz show assembly thank you to the burough for providing this to ble for free October 28th and the 29th are parent teacher conferences and the Halloween costume swap October 28th to the 30th is the B ble pumpkin patch epic and PTO um epic and PTO invite each class to celebrate Autumn by picking the perfect pumpkin sign up for a time to visit the courtyard every student gets a pumpkin to bring home um the PTO is looking for volunteers to help with this event and October 31st Halloween is B's Halloween parade come enjoy the fun at 1:30 for the Middle School the first conference night was well attended the next two conference nights are today Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th parents there is still time to sign up if you haven't already International Club hosted their first Fall Festival on Friday the event was well attended and students had a great time the ptso meeting was a great success there's a lot of planning for fundraising events in the Middle School to host a Winter Dance all parent volunteers are welcome reach out to miss Brady if you're interested for Arts High School um Arts High School came to visit on Friday if you're interested in registering for this program the information can all be found in Miss Brady's owl outlines the middle school will be hosting a presentation by local magnet schools on Halloween any in interested student should listen for the announcement to get more information students are encouraged to dress up for Halloween however please keep the following in mind all costumes must be completed at home costumes cannot be violent costumes that promote the use of illegal substances or activities or derogatory sexual or disrespectful are not allowed and teachers will confiscate any accessory that is deemed inappropriate and the School dress code must be followed and for the high school the student principal leadership team and parent advisory group both groups met this week and their focus was on climate culture and achievement um this past week was spirit week Monday was pajama day Tuesday was westerncowboy day Wednesday was dressed like a dad day Thursday was Sandler day and Friday was color Wars also um this past week the high school hosted a Diwali celebration um which was very well attended and well enjoyed um the homecoming game and dance were this past weekend and the football team continues their historic season with a win at the homecoming game uh this past week we honored Amy Herzog Linda peski Beth and Sandra kopinsky in the Hall of Honor and today is parent teacher conferences in the high school as well as tomorrow and um some fun news Deca has um 102 members and is looking for more to uh beat their record of 107 Deca members this year and next week Monday night uh November 4th here at the high school at 6 PM will be the girls soccer first round of States so we hope to see you all there awesome thank thank you so much any questions or um comments for our student Representatives okay thank you um we're going to move on to our superintendent's report I just want to congratulate the seniors their Hall decorating was fantastic so kudos to a job well done all four grade levels did a fantastic job um but the seniors definitely I told uh Dr Donovan I get a million votes that's how much my one vote counts and I voted for the seniors so um but kudos to everybody in the school the the um hallways looked absolutely beautiful and it was great to see all right I have several things on my report tonight um the first one so I'm going to do a and b first and then after that because they're relatively quick um I'm going to pause and ask for a motion to approve both of those and then I'll move on to um item C uh presentation by U missas MOA so first and foremost for a every year the uh New Jersey Department of Education requires that school districts complete a qac report uh District performance report in which we go through all of the items that are required um it's basically a quality control measure everything from curriculum um and programs to Personnel to finance governance and things like that so they make sure so every year we have to self report our results and that is is a so that was for the 2425 school year so our qac committee has reviewed um our self-report which will then be sent to the state um so that is a and that was in for the board to review in uh the board notes um and the documents in addition to B is what I'll be presenting on tonight which is our results from last year so every three years um qac um which which is stands for New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum so I will stick with qac for short um so like I said every year the district completes a district performance review which is our self assessment but every three years a dist the districts are monitored to review the self assessment and compliance in the five areas so like I said the areas are instruction and programs fiscal management governance operations and Personnel so last year um what qac monitoring year so in the winter of 2024 members of the New Jersey Department of Education the county superintendent and the county business administrator came into the district and what they do is they come in and they review all sorts of documents uh our website they toured our facilities so they meet with myself um and Susan and Denise and Lori and John and anybody that has anything to do with any of those categories um Michelle Lisa so they meet with them to review our documents um and a lot of stuff it's you know if it's policies that our policies are on our website that our policies are up to date that we have a plan to review our policies all of those kinds of things and we go through we show them um and then they give us a ranking so our results from uh last year so in order to pass according to qac you need to score an 80% or higher um so as you see our results instruction in programs we received a 77% fiscal Management in 88% governance 93% operations 95% and Personnel 91% so what they do is they will give us feedback for areas uh that we need to improve and you know we're working on doing those in actually all of the categories um instruction and programs is an interesting um area because there are two components for instruction and programming the first part of instruction and programming is based on New Jersey student learning assessment results so the first group of that indicator is not scored by us it's scored by the county based on our state test results only not our internal assessments or anything like that the second part is our curriculum documents so that's the second part of qac and I will say our curriculum documents we scored 100% on for our curriculum documents in fact um the state uh came to us and actually asked if they could use ours as exemplars and models for other districts so I was very proud of the work that uh Miss Rodriguez and her team and Miss Saka and her team are doing to really beef up our curricular documents to be in compliance with qac where we did not score very well and that is the area in which we did not satisfy um our 80% or higher was in instruction programming and that was because we didn't meet the achievement on the New Jersey student learning assessment so our students didn't do well on the state tests and therefore that took a took a lot of points away from us um and landed landed us here with a district Improvement plan I will say I brought it up at the county level at a county meeting and the cohort that was so they don't do the entire County at one time they do a couple of schools each year as part of the three-year cycle so this is the first year of the the the dip for the um state test scores and all the schools that were cacked called a verb now qack this year um all did not pass for instruction programming so I mean I don't it doesn't change our status but we're not the only District facing this of course South River raised their hand and said oh you have the dip too yes we have the D dip which lasts for three years because they don't come back again for another three years so same thing it's actually what I'm going to show you mirrors a lot of the work that is in our um ES grants for title one because we are missing our marks with our um with some underrepresented populations of students of our students not being successful on state tests as well so we didn't satisfy for State Testing so therefore we have to put together a district Improvement plan just GNA go to my notes because that's quite small all right so there are six indicators evaluated based on T state test scores for instruction and programming so the first one is the school school's District's Ela achievement score and overall performance and subgroup performance the second indicator is the school district's mathematics achievement score and overall performance and subgroup performance indicator three is the school district science achievement score overall performance and subgroup performance even though we achieved better than the state um on that we're still didn't meet um their scores the school district's Ela academic progress averaging the the ssgp scores the school district's math academic progress and averaging SSS ssgp scores and then the school district's graduation rate so those are the six indicators that are in that category and what we have to do for a district Improvement plan is put together smart goals for each of those indicators we need to include strategies including budgetary resources if applicable so we create smart go we have to put together strategies to meet those smart goals we have to include in our dip the position responsible who's overseeing the strategies the timeline which are realistic dates for implementation and completion of the goals and then evidence of completion now there's a lot of information in here so I'm not going to um go through all of these bullet points but what I will do is talk about the goals and some of the strategies because I think that's what most important so our goals so what you'll see is a lot of goals a lot of them are carried over from our Title One plans that we have for our building goals um in addition some of the goals hit multiple indicators so by June of 2025 K through one students in each of the subgroups will demonstrate a 10% proficiency and growth from the fall Ela Benchmark by 2025 at least 70% of students in the K1 pilot math classroom will show Mastery of skills based on progress monitoring from the pre-assessment to the spring Benchmark because remember we are implementing and piloting envisions as a math program at the K in1 level by June of 2025 at least 70% of the students in the K1 pilot math classroom will show Mastery of skills based on progress oh I think I may have doubled that one I apologize and by 20 June 2025 students in grades two through 5 will increase Ela proficiency by 3% or more on the fall Benchmark by June of 2 students in grade 2 through five will increase math proficiency by 3% or more from the fall Benchmark by June of 2025 students in grades 6 to8 will increase Ela proficiency by 4% or more on the fall Benchmark by June of 2025 students in grades 6 through eight will increase math proficiency by 3% or more from the fall Benchmark by June of 2025 20% of the students who scored below Proficiency in all subgroups in grade nine will improve by 5% or higher on the njs SLA scores from 2023 to 2024 by June of 2025 an increase of 4% of the students will meet or exceed expectations on the njsla NJ GPA for science from 23 24 and by June of 2025 the graduation rate will increase by 1% for fouryear and fiveyear rates so that uh graduation indicator is for both the four-year cohort and a five-year um cohort and what I will say with a lot of our our test results um we were off by just like one or two students too um and so what we found was that we have a good chunk of students that are in the approaching expectations so we're really analyzing that data very carefully especially at the ELA level and up to sixth grade level for math to see how we can potentially take that cohort and shift them the following year and like I said in my last presentation after sixth grade with math it gets a little harder to to manage the cohorts and um it's very hard to do it for science altogether because there's a three-year Gap so just a summary of our strategies um that we're doing again just a summary uh We've created Benchmark assessment cycles and so they're very very robust uh one of the things that I'm begging for all parents that are listening and and caregivers is please make sure you're encouraging your students to take our benchmark assessments and take them seriously I know for many years uh back in the day there was um a huge uh move to opt out of state tests obviously now we can't necessarily do that anymore because the state has required that for a graduation requirement to even have options of the alternative Pathways however it kind of fell into this local Benchmark too where students are either not taking it seriously um or are trying to opt out of local benchmark assessments it's really important our quarterly and these assessments are very very critical to Our Success that data is so important to help us help the students so we please encourage parents and caregivers to remind students to take learning seriously take assessment seriously so that we can use that data to really inform instruction and how to improve uh teaching and learning um we're going to be using on ongoing data analysis of the benchmark assessments we have a lot of tier one tier two and tier three supports one of the things that we even identifi so we knew this was going to be a problem last year when when they came in to monitor we knew it was coming um and I I applaud the board again and thank them for supporting um putting in the operational budget through the budget cuts the extra math and Ela interventionists um thank you for sustaining that I might put the same request in this coming year uh for that because we're seeing a lot of great growth there we see students going in getting the gaps closed and getting out in fact at the at the grades two and three level and and even fourth grade they're calling it math club and they're very actually excited to be there because they're they're getting a growth mindset for mathematics which is really really a big deal so very excited about about that and want to support those tiered intervention services that we're providing to students we're doing some really in-depth progress monitoring of students in our subgroups um we're still allocate allocating plenty of resources for example geod and we got some more thank you uh envisions uh Wilson like I said in previous uh board meetings all of our teachers are getting trained and certified Norton Gillingham which has been really really helpful for reading intervention uh foundations things like that so we're we're trying to find the best of the best resources that are out there that our money can afford or that we can beg borrow and steal to to get in our students hands and it's been amazing so we want to keep that going we're increasing our vertical articulation especially in science um identifying students in danger of not graduating early so there's reports that they can pull now they can put on what they call a web desk in Genesis so they pop up really early on for our school counselors and our administrators so they can get those students flagged much earlier um to get the support they need and provide resources ort to those high school students some examples that they gave me are to increase NHS tutoring uh there's Counseling Services through are counseling department um working through advisory there's teen center support and an increased communication with families so our next step um after approval of our dip tonight I will send it over to the NJ doe for approval um we will follow the dip hitting the timelines with our data analysis uh we will communicate updates as we receive information from the New Jersey Department of Education and then students take the New Jersey student learning assessment again in the spring of 2025 and they will update the um qac report that I'm submitting now so the one I'm submitting now for 2425 has a big gap in curricul um and programs it may show only 40% uh achievement that's because I can't fill in the rest so the state will give us that in the spring or really in the summer and then they'll give us our results back and even if we do make our gains we still have to wait another two years and do all of this again uh as a three-year process so um I'm hoping that we come out of this and don't have to go back into it uh because we're making some some uh great gains with our students so that concludes my report on our qac monitoring results I'll open up the floor to any questions and then from there um I would um like to see if we could have a motion for both of those items thank you I did have a question if you wouldn't mind clarifying just so I understand what you mean by increased vertical articulation sure so that is our for example our fifth grade teachers talking to our sixth grade teachers our sixth grade talking to seventh grade seventh and eth grade and things like that um what's really interesting especially about the science standards is that that they are the same science and engineering practices K12 like I said in my previous meeting but just understanding that what does it look like to develop and use a model at the K1 level or K2 level what does it mean to develop and use that model now expanding to the 35 level to the 68 and then 912 um is that sort of discussion to make sure that all students so when they have to do that it's not foreign to them by the time they get to middle or high school that they have those experiences doing that at the lower grades as well well you're welcome I had a question um about those six indicators um I'm curious if there's any one of those areas that's bringing us down more um uh there was a slide when you had like graduation rides um yeah here um yeah yeah I'm just curious is there one area of weakness that we're going to put or is it kind of all a little bit below so so with qac it's like all or none when you get your your it's like yes or no if yes you get the points if no you don't get the points so it's not like if we're close you get some points it's we didn't hit the target it's a no we didn't hit the target it's a no and even if we missed it by one student it's still a no yeah yeah my other question too was um so we have these goals and um so I know that there's a kind of a three-year plan but what if we don't what happens if we don't hit those goals set in the next year is there what's the next step there is it I mean is it more of just a budgetary issue of how we want to go after it or there other kind of ramifications for that uh that's a good question I'm not really sure I'd probably have to ask the state because I don't want to speak if I'm hoping it doesn't happen but I'm not really sure I know it's not I mean if we hit our goals or if we don't hit our goals I don't think it changes our status yeah until the three-year Mark is over okay my question was just on the if the njsla so in third grade but yet we have indicators or we have goals for K1 yes what is like why the kindergarten first grade yeah because we don't want to wait until third grade to to really like close our gaps or or do anything like that so our plan is to try to start lower to help because what we're finding in particular so one of the things that I spoke about last time was that seventh and eighth grade cohort that was alarming on that data we actually really took a deep dive into those particular students the ones that that didn't pass and what we're finding because we're like is it are they you know when did they enter the school what like what was what's their profile what is that story telling us um I'm still waiting on some more um deeper dive into that but but on first glance it actually looks like these students have been really struggling for many many years so there like our what I'm calling our homegrown students that have been struggling for many many years um back when we didn't really prioritize intervention uh you know just a historic context um was you know I think we used to have many more interventionists through budget cuts we've cut them in the past you know then we had one and so we're we're trying to bring them back but these are students that have just been um struggling since at least the fourth and fifth grade so that was alarming to us so by hitting students earlier hopefully we can close that Gap so by the time they take their first day test in third grade we're we're like kind of catching them earlier so that it D doesn't become an issue when when now the the test matters for a lack of a better term well and Christina th those two we've introduced this year kind of more of those proficiency tasks and you know being curriculum instruction you can really see how it it gives us a mechanism to Target early on so it's a really good addition to what our strategy is um I have a question about like some of the measurements so we say by like three points by like four points or percent um if we hit if we essentially meet our goal but the state changes the you know raises the bar let's say um does like is that still seen as you know for us a victory or is it like like are they like you know yes you met your goal and you can you know after three years if we keep meeting our goals we can come off of this plan or does it kind of reset each time the well I'm hoping they don't move the bar so as long as they don't move the bar and they keep the bar where it is and where in that growth and we're hitting our goals then we're good which is why I we are not moving toward a teach the test model what we're moving is to try to align our teaching our instruction our assessments to those best practices which is what the state uses and I think that I talked about that for example the the science test in particular is a problem solving test they give the students the content but the students have to do something with that content and if we don't give students multiple opportunities to do that in the classroom then we're doing them a disservice when they take the test so we're not teaching to the test but those are the standards developing and using a model is the standard and if the assessment is having them develop and use a model then we need to mirror that and I think that's what it means so same thing in math and Ela giving students opportunities to do some of those higher level tasks where students struggle a really good example was um we found students was a here's um I'll do very simplified version was um I have 100 cards Miss cassal Dunn has 30 more than I do how many in total and the students were going 130 because they're counting mine plus hers instead of my 130 or myund sorry my 100 plus her 130 and they're missing that and if it's a multiple choice or multiple I hate multiple choice but multiple guests thing they're answering at 1:30 instead of 2:30 because they're missing that language because we're not doing enough of that sort of problem solving unpacking a um an extended constructed response question with the student so yes it is a test question but it's also an understanding of how to solve math more complicated math problems and that's what we're doing through the work with inspired instruction and and things like that is to actually learn how to create assessment questions design instruction that way so our students should be launching with those questions grappling with them using different strategies with them same thing with with Ela so um and what you'll see is the students are actually learning how to assess their own work assess it against a rubric so they understand oh this is what the expectation is so a lot of that work is what we're doing so my hope is that in a couple of years I I understand our students are more than a test scorer I believe that more than anybody else but unfortunately we also to pay attention to this and we do have to take this very very seriously and we do want our students to be successful here so that we can move move forward from this so we have to find a balance right thank you right um I'll make a motion uh to is it make a motion to approve to accept the resolution to approve the qack district performance report from 2425 school year and the district improve Improvement plan monitoring results second Dr batty yes M cassal dun yes Dr Pixley yes Miss pce yes Dr scholman yes Miss Dano yes Miss vman yes Miss VOR yes thank you very much um I now like to welcome up Miss asamoa Elizabeth as M for those who have never met her formally is our districtwide supervisor of counseling health and wellness I don't oh I say is it easier to go up there or do you want the wireless what if you want your computer then yeah kind of go up there that would be good so I'm pleased to to have Miss asamoa with us she's prepared a presentation um with a lot of Rich stuff there's some handout some of the links were kind of acting funny so as she's talking I'm going to hand out a couple of things um and so once we're started here do you want to does it have to go up on that screen yes okay sorry all right just switching over here and then uh then miss asamoa can uh can take over and Miss asamoa tonight is going to be talking about the districtwide character education programming and the vision that we've been working on uh she and I and her team on tolerance and civility good evening um I want to thank all of you for this opportunity um you know Dr Sasa thank you for for working with me and uh and my team okay so I'm just going to talk so I think something interesting that we did as a team was that we decided to align the presentation with the um or to the district's um strategic goals so this is going to be interesting um so first I want to introduce the counseling staff that we have at Irving we have um misso can you talk more into the minut yes thanks so at Irving we have Rob Muka um B we have Tara Young um Highland Park Middle School we have Mark Lano and then also the high school we have um J Gore Melissa Hayes Dana o salivan and we have an intern this year H that's Kimberly Co who's doing very well and uh assisting us so um also the school counseling staff um and at the sorry the twin Center or the twin Center uh we have uh about interns from schools in the surrounding area and um they've also been very helpful uh but at the high school we have Dr Roth who is our supervisor clinical psychologist we have Miss Holman who's our family support case manager we have Miss um Karen Alain who's our sag student assistant um counselor and then we have um Jazz we have Lauren we have Shane and we have Scott who are also um interns then at um Middle School we have Maya we have Angela we have um Chloe and also interns then at bottle we have Nicole and we have Irina and then at Irving we have um Samantha and and and uh um Melanie who have also been very helpful and in helping us achieve our goals so I'm just going to go into um our goal here and uh so we decided to align like I said the district strategic goals with um what we've been doing and the goal number one is culture and climate so to provide a safe inclusive identity affirming Equitable and supportive educational environment that uses its diversity um as a strength so I aligned I put them there and that with the counseling health and wellness updates uh the 1.3 is that we ensure that the character development assemblies and small group lessons are designed with an equity lens providing all students with access to inclusive and culturally responsive content a program should celebrate diverse um identities including lgbtq plus students um 1.7 is research ways to elevate students voices 1.8 providing District ypd on working with uh refugees and Asylum seeking families and 1.9 is conducting Universal screening to assist in identifying highrisk groups and individuals that need mental health support and intervention efforts on 110 is ensuring that bullying prevention and conf resolution presentations are inclusive and culturally responsive addressing the diverse needs and experiences of all students and 112 is researching evidence based interventions for students that struggle with school refusal and attendance issues and one 113 1.13 is developing a district wise substance abuse uh prevention program so what we did here um the character education um inclusive and culturally responsive so that's 1.3 I just want to start by talking about um some of the calendar that we have for the school year unfortunately I think my link is now working but I have um I think you have them in front of you so I'll just go through it briefly um so in August we' had a welcome Academy for our middle school students and then um we also um participated in the freshman orientation with the High School uh so September it was important for the teachers for the counselor to have a meet your counselor or um new students orientation for all students especially for our new students because I think that's how you set the stage for them so that they feel a sense of belongingness in the school it's also September is also Suicide Prevention month um so we were able to go into their classrooms and do those presentations in October um that's the respect and kindness week or week of respect and um also um violence prevention week so we celebrated all that in all the schools and at some point I'm going to talk about what some of the schools did uh also Red Ribbon Week uh or red ribbon month that's is a substance abuse prevention program so our sack went around the schools and made sure that um some of these Services were provided in the schools in November we have gratitude project which I think is very important to show gratitude for the things we have in our lives espe um when gets to getting to Thanksgiving and so um also the team Center has a a Thanksgiving gift basket we used to actually give a basket but now I think we've progressed a little bit so we give gift cards um to our families who may uh need support and buying buying Thanksgiving meal or dinner for their families and we also going to be um talking about empathy in the classrooms in December we're going to talk about boundary setting it's important that our students learn to set boundaries for themselves and also for their peers and and the staff and everybody else that they in communic ation with or interact with on a daily basis but for the middle school and for the high school we're going to talk about sexual harassment because I think in the past we got report that that was very necessary to talk about those um in jary we talking about making good choices um and for the um secondary level is going to be ethical decision making and social responsibility for them in febru we're talking about emotion regulation um for all through um K to 12 and we also have Wellness day um for students so um we've been very fortunate that we have some funding from the municipal Alliance in town and last year uh we decided to do something different so we brought in yoga instructors for students in the high school and it was such a great success uh so we want to do it again for this time so it's going to be like the whole month um for the for the high school and for the middle school but the elementary they'll have maybe one day just to see how it goes and if they like it then maybe in the future we can expand for them uh in March career awareness day um I remember being a kid and you know um I'm sure we all do and having you know professionals come to your school and you can see yourself in them so whatever you haven't thought about us being when you see professionals come to your school to talk about what they are doing you want to be them so we want to promote um career awareness for all our students then there's also National drugs and alcohol facts week so we'll be announcing those too April we have our academic Excellence presentation I think that's my favorite of it all um so each school provides some students that talk about what their school is like um trying to get the the next class or the next grade below them um so that when they get there they know what the rules are what the expectations are and in a way is introducing their schools to them so at the high school it will be our former graduates that are coming back to talk about what college is like almost like college 101 I'm hearing from their peers they knew these kids when they graduated so hearing from them I think it's exciting they can ask questions and also um so um the ninth graders will do for the eighth graders sixth graders will go to B and then uh my all-time favorite the second graders would do for the urban students I think that was last year I I you know there's a reason why we all love what we do and I think for me that day I was like this is this is why we do what we do it was it was so amazing so when you get a chance if you can come please that would be great um in May because of testing and everything we have our managing stress and anxiety and also honesty um it's important that our students you know remember to do all these things when they're testing um and so and um for the high school it will be academic Integrity which is very important and in June we just going to be doing um transition planning so that's what we're going to be doing for June the next one is the tier two support so too so the tier two support is all the groups that we are going to be having for our students I know in the past I've gotten overly ambitious with the tier two support and you know my staff have told me to calm down sometimes so we trying to just make it a bit concise so the tier two support we have um emotional regulation but this is going to be a group for all students and um for students at um um um Irving and B and also we are going to have um social skills group for some of our students so they know to keep their hands to themselves or some of our students who have a hard time making friends that they'll be able to um also do that and then we have um also for um the high for the middle school we have um similar groups for them as well and for the high school we have college 101 um and also um just um setting boundaries because I think it's very important so those are all going to be groups that we are having and um for middle school and high school we are going to have um um life life skills lifelines um curriculum which is a suicide prevention curriculum for our students so uh the team Center also provides individual and family counseling as part of that because I think sometimes you know people act the way they do because of whatever it is that they're dealing with internally by helping them to address those issues help them uh to make better decision and to interact well with others I mean in great three four and five classroom there's LCL lessons every day on empathy kindness self-care coping skills acknowledge your strength and gratitude and um also for the glob students in the high school we're providing boundary setting and sex ed lessons for them so um elevation of student voices this is uh the purpose um of that is just so that students can participate in the programming that we are providing in the school I think you know um often times you know in the past or sometimes we've just introduced things and the kids may not even necessarily um be in favor or like it or participate in it but this give them a voice so the minute meetings so we decided to just do certain things different this year the minute meetings allows every student um to have a chance to marry their counselor at least once or twice in the school year it's not a long meeting just one two minutes that's why it's called a minute meeting just checking on the student to see how they are doing and it's part of the tier one programming support for students the meetings usually last between one to five minutes depending on the kids issues or what a kids brings up depending on Student Response um with a survey uh every student um it has to be done with every student on the on the counselor's case load so the frequency uh September and October um they have to meet all the students and that's the place where the students have to um complete a survey in January they will complete the post survey and in April uh they will talk about future planning with the students so say you pick this you want to be in these classes how prepared are you how can we support you so that they coming back to school in September prepared and ready to to learn um it allows brief checkins face Toof face with the school counselor and can help determine um what if any followup is needed for the students so um so that's what and um that's uh okay so at the elementary level um the primary schools we use the castle student survey for them just so that the students um will be able to they have to fill fill it out first before they can meet with their counselor and I think what that does is it helps them um understand where the students needs are because the students are asking um answering these questions so the counselor feels prepared for it the secondary school level ele middle school and high school because of the testing they are still getting students to this form so at the appropriate time um announce their um the the scores or the um we aggregate what what it is so we can know how to support them um so students responses are used to determine programming needs and their questions reflect the students um sense of safety belonging and self-efficacy with SC U with core social um emotional learning skills so some of the highlights that um in the high school the counselors met with all their students um through um scheduling College Planning and um edify support checkins and general questions 54 meetings ngj GPA and PS PSAT um also the Middle School like I said some of them are still working on getting the numbers and um B they have met with 98% of their students and and waiting to get the um irvan one to but I know the counselor has been working with students to collect this data so they are all working on it another one of elevating student voices it's with the edit edify program so the goal of the program um of edify uh collaboration with them is to test a digital tools that can enhance students High School experience by enabling them to receive personalized guidance from their school counselors so the time frame for this pilot program is from October to December 2024 and implementation so far I mean we focus on 120 student participants and so they are responding to questionnaire such as you know which celebrity would you sit next to on an airplane and other things the questions are not invasive so I it just builds their personality and to see uh what career they are best suited for uh administration of this is may be between uh 5 to 10 minutes and it's done during the PE classes so we have the targeted group that's doing this um the students responses so these are some the first um report that I got from the um edifi Dr Judi and Dr Sinha um so the student responses provide insight into their interest and personalities um and these inferences will be used to suggest opportunities such as electing public lectures internships that may be of interest to them and will also facilitate more effective and personalized interactions with school counselors um it's also part of our part um tier one programming support and allows brief checkins like with all the um student elevating student voices and I we needed student consent parent consent so the parents had a chance to opt out their students and I believe only two parents opted out their their children and uh also the students had to sign an asent form so what happens if a parent opt out does not opt out their child but the child decides they do not want to participate in it we let them um opt out because it's that choice to participate or not um so um also um um the this is what also they sent so it just about desired jobs so the percentage um so you can see on the percentage what students wanted to participate in our what desired jobs they want to do and also their desired electives um if they have um so some of them mentioned maybe um environmental science and art history and Gene editing and stuff like this so I think it's going to help us figure out you know what options what electives to offer in the future um if not soon so um part of that is also the question was about what would you want your teachers to know about you and some students said I'm a procrastinator not that good at taking notes like I like to talk with my friends a lot and I'm not that good at studying um even though I don't always show it I really care about my grace I actually do read in my free time I love to learn but I have a hard time learning if it's not taught in an interesting way I a mentally present most of the time I'm not visibly if even if I'm not visibly present and also the next one was what three wishes would you like to ask your teachers I wish they understand that we have other classes to worry about and validate our feelings patience I'm trying my best cons consideration of my time there are lot of classes here and I may have a big project in another class and do not have time make sure everyone is having a good time it makes every class more fun to believe in me to have a smile on their face and to have fun in what they do and also to be caught up with the lessons I was not in school for to teach slower assign a little um homework every day instead of aot all at once so these are the students voices I'm just expressing how um they what kind of help they need and um ad also going back to the minute meeting highlight we just see um what the graph that they have or the responses from some students so 98% 89 of students agreed that they have a sense of belonging in their school Community um and that's you know I'm feeling safe at school 86% students agreed and having friends at school 94% of students agree that they have friends at school so I think you know we have a wonderful School Community for our students I'm going to skip that so so um PD on working with refugees and Asylum seeking families I think it's very important that you know when um new students join our school from different countries that they feel welcome and they feel that and also our teachers feel equipped to educate them in the classrooms so the purpose is to equip our Educators with the Knowledge and Skills that they need to effectively support these students from Refugee backgrounds or from um other countries by understanding their unique cultural experiences potential trauma language barriers and family Dynamics and thereby creating a welcoming and inclusive learning environment that facilitates their successful integration into the school system so it helps that when the students come in they know that at least we have an understanding of their background and that they can feel supported last year the counseling staff the team Center the school counselors and some CST staff members received this training and this year um we've scheduled it for January 17th for our teachers to participate in that training as well um so provide Universal screening this is a big undertaking um and we are very excited about that um so the purpose you know we are using this to determine um a child's risk of developing emotional or behavioral problems that may require intervention or instructional changes um also use it to identify areas for growth in the students social emotional and behavioral well-being so we are using the Bas three behavioral and emotional screening system which is the Bas Bess age range is from 3 to 18 but we are going to skip B I mean Irving and gold with um a bottle because at irvan if we do it there the way this is um set up we we need their teachers and their parents to also participate in the survey and that may be challenging for some parents so it's going to do um ble students it's 20 questions it can be um administered individually or in groups so what we are going to do we going to go to the classrooms so this will be grades three 5 6 8 and 9 we will go to their classrooms and then um in 15 20 minutes they will finish it on their Chrome books and then um about 15 minutes they will they they'll get it done and um so um measure self-regulation um and then internalizing Risk Index and also personal adjustment uh Risk Index we have um so for grade um third grade we have 10 109 students grade five we had 106 grade 6 107 I'm so grade eight one 128 and then grade nine we have um 111 uh we send parent letter out on um October 18th for parents to opt out their kids if they don't want them to participate in it and then um and then a to do a post survey um in March 2025 the date to be determined um so each student is assigned a login code and then the survey will be linked to um it will be linked to their unique code and after they finish we can see it in real time so the only two people who will see every student score in the district will be uh Elizabeth ASA and Dr Dr Scott Ro that be me and Scott uh we can say it and then we will also meet with the counselors just to make sure because we're trying to protect the students um confidentiality and we'll meet with the counselors and talk about what services that we can provide for these students um some parents had also asked me if there was a way they could share that we could share the test results with them and I said yes if they come in and if they talk to us about it we can talk we can talk about it with them but um intervention will be developed based on a collaborative effort with the parents and um at the high school level I mean they are old enough to be part of that discussion but at the elementary be with the students and their school counselors and possibly their teachers as well so the bullying prevention I believe that um the student Representatives went through that and they talked about what was done in all the other schools so I'm just going to save time by skipping those but all the schools did a great job with the bullying prevention and I I think that was um great so I want to thank them for that so one of the things that we uh agreed to with um Dr danovan at the high school was to focus on school refusal and attendance issues and so looking at some of the curriculum out there um and also some of them provided by DCF uh we we we picked the Leader in Me curriculum uh because I think when you purchase it not because we got it for free but also but if you purchase is about $8,000 or more um but we spoke with them they're doing they're piloting the program for the high school so we figured well it's on the list it's great and it's for free so we are trying that and this year to see how well it works um so implementation is for ninth grade students only and it's going to be from November um to April uh so the purpose of that is to enhance um so the one of the things too about um about um supporting students is a high school peer-to-peer mentoring program we have this program for 9th graders are being mentored by seniors we've had this program for some time um so the purpose will be to enhance the leadership skills of the mentors and also to support incoming freshmen through the first year of high school to develop the academic social and emotional growth they meet with weekly from October to December and then monthly from January to April uh we have 10 seniors and 10 freshmen and we kept it small just so that we can have that Community Building um part of the program so that's um program then the last one will be the um the substance abuse prevention program so um Karen has done a wonderful job of I'm starting a peer leadership at the middle school and high school as a student Le program is J towards empowering students to make a difference in their school Community they provide monthly presentation in sixth grade classes to facilitate a smooth transition to Middle School uh vaping pres uh prevention campaign in their schools and also um districtwide classroom lessons on making healthy decisions substance use prevention education and strengthening umal skills uh we collaborating with the health and science teachers at the high school um to go into their classrooms for the um curriculum um presentation and also collaborating with irvan and B school counselors to identify opportunities to go in the classes to also do that and also um the Highland Park Municipal Alliance provides some funding for us to provide um programming for the community so that's part of what we are doing too and um lastly we con yes that and we coordinating with the da DEA community outreach division to provide a drug awareness program for parents guidance called hidden in plain sight where they set up a room um for parents to see if they can um identify drug pinaria in their class in their rooms or or you know and and figure out a way to talk to their children about substance use and uh we're also coordinating with Wellspring to provide distracted driving program for 12th grade um students in May so I done and thank you and this thank you thank you and this is just half of what we do I was just gonna say I time we will say more yeah yeah that was a lot and that's just just a tip of of the the icing on top of a robust cake that uh miss asamoa the school counselors the PE teachers and um and the Teen and tween Center offer so I thank her for her exceptional leadership in that area and working collaboratively across four schools is a tremendous feat um for that so I'll open it up uh the floor to uh board members Board of school Representatives if you know our student Representatives if you have any questions or comments we'll take comments too I have a question SL comment request maybe when you get um to the distracted driving program I wonder if maybe parents could be involved in that too you know like they could take the class with their senior parents could benefit from distracted driving programs as well yes so what I hear you saying is they also need the educ my gosh my commute is is nuts really every and I don't even have that long of a commute but every time I see something going on I'm like I know they're on their phone I know they're on their phone and sure enough when I pass they're sitting there on their phone it's I don't even understand how they make it from point A to point B but anyway I'd love to see information on that great thank you so that's something we can consider we are happy to do that because I think um even when parents learn they can also help their students oh students can help their parents you know depending which way so we happy so we will consider that and and report back to you thank you I have a question about the best um yes I'm just curious because I think it was three five six whatever grades we're five six8 n n yes um do you do we have do you have an idea of what scores um that you might see that would elicit different kinds of programming have you done yet done that kind of mapping yes so if a student scores um 70 and up um that's highly elevated and so that means that we have to provide some intervention if the score you know maybe 50 60 that's in the within the normal range uh but anything above that then we have to some intervention for them um I remember when we did a program we did a similar survey um maybe about 3 years ago U we able to put some intervention in interventions in place we reached out to parents and uh we put those students in groups and uh and counseling and also for some cases we made outside referrals for the student to receive support outside so yeah is there consistent kind of supporter intervention across the grades or is there something different you know for the middle schoolers versus the elementary schoolers or the ble yes so with that I think it would depend on you know what what they score under and then so we determined based on the students needs yeah but it's going to be consistent yes um missimo I have a question Also regarding the universal screening um how quickly is that turnover in terms of scoring going to be and then linking the student with support I imagine there's probably like a like a tier three plan that's pretty immediate yes um if it's uh but for the other students that are in here too about how long do you think it's going to take to enroll those students so thank you um and and I think you know and that's why we only did five or six classes because the last time we did the entire district and it was a big undertaking um it took a while for us to you know provide the intervention so with this we are looking at I mean we should be done by November 4th with collecting the data and hopefully before we go for um the winter holidays we should start something so it should be within weeks because we can see the scores immediately um it just requires us sitting down and uh just planning and also sending letters to parents um getting you know their consent again for certain services and also meeting with the students uh we already have we are ready to provide the services to intervention reting the parental um consent so that's what might delay a little bit but it should take maybe within by the first week of December we should start implementing an intervention before they go on break yes question on the leader leader and me program yes um is that being is that a program that's presented in classrooms I didn't quite understand you said it was for school avoidance yes so it's going to be um presented in the classroom in the ninth grade classes so all nth grade classes correct we have to take a proactive approach so we're just going to do it in all ninth grade classes yes okay so it's it's looking it's getting a school please excuse the interruption good evening H middle this is Miss Brady it is 8:00 and conferences are over at this time parents please make your way downstairs and outside and let our great teachers go home we have an early day tomorrow as well teachers please stop in for a brief meeting on your way out everybody have a wonderful night and we will see you tomorrow thank you okay so the leader of me is a it's a proactive type of approach should get at that yes it is yes ideally we wanted um you know wanted to make it more of a a tier two or tier three for students that were uh but because the school year just started we are still Gathering data um in the high school so we decided to just be proactive and hopefully um after January we'll have data TOS honing on specific students that require that but for now it's going to be proa what classes is it presented in nth ninth grade in our health in PE classes yes yes in p classes sorry yes sorry are the um so for the edify program is that going to be something where we have like the quiz every week or every um for the rest of the school year no it's going to be from um from October to December okay yes and so um that they have four big surveys that's like maybe 15 to 20 minutes then they have the small checkins uh following up on students responses so it's about four but in all about eight okay thank you and this is something the entire school is doing not just senior class or so it's for um certain classes we have um it's 9 to 12 but we selected certain classes yes so um PE classes and I think it's period 49th and I can't think right now but it's four so know we have about 120 students but if you want to participate in it you know um we can send a letter home to your parent and then you can send the asend form and we can get you in there and uh there also you know students that are participating are getting um little um incentive so I think by the time they are done this we have about $40 so it's great incentive thank you yes we have a a pizza party on Thursday so if you want to join and learn more about it too please do so for that program just to follow up for that program um so what happens after December is there some kind of evaluation to see how successful it was or what outcomes were I'd be curious to know after December for the EFI what what happens next with the program yes so they're going to to send their report and I think um after that uh we will be done with with the with the pilot program and So based on um the feedback or their report we will determine as a school uh what electives what students needs what students needs are and um also how counselors can best support their students I think it's very important that you know that we have they have that connection so I think that's um that's what it's for um hopefully you know um and I think I shared this with them I said if you if if this ever gets successful and you start making all this money that you know at least we get it a year for free so so we'll see thank you for Wheeling and dealing on that yes yes um it seems like there's a lot of different assessments could you talk just briefly about uh how castle castle and yes and edify are um overlapping but maybe doing different things yeah so that so really I think it's all for um just supporting students so the castle one is for school belongingness and so how do students feel about uh about their school Community about making friends and about fitting in uh so it's just a brief one I think it's about maybe 19 to 20 questions and that enables the school counselors to so the students fill it out first then they meet with them and talk about it so if there were any areas I'm a like skill so it's a one to5 one being disagree five being agree um so if they have a lot of um disagrees or whatever then you can talk about what can we do to help you so that's instead of you know the regular going to see your school counselor just sitting there trying to figure out what to talk about I think it's a conversation stter so it helps them build it up um the edify uh what I like about it is also um is the student really just um you know because they all on their phones or on their Chromebooks or whatever so they're using this to determine uh what classes they want to take uh what they want to do so by taking that so I think it's also with a school counselor um mostly and after they fill that out uh the school counselor has access so at the high school we have um the school counselors are supporting this pilot project and um the health and PE teachers so um also they get to see the scores or the students are responses and um some students also indicate that I want to see my counselor about this and that so it's immediate response for them I know they are all it's like it's a lot of things happening but these are all just so that we will figure out what the students needs are and we can better serve them yeah hey thank you missa thank you so much for having me I appreciate it on behalf of my staff all right well that concludes my presentation thank you thank you um we're going to move now to public comments the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has reserved this time for your comments board policy number 0167 establishes and regulates the right of the public to participate in public meetings how many people do we have online okay is there anybody online for public comment please raise your hand all right we're going to go ahead and move on to board action items um oh I'm sorry committee reports uh curriculum and instruction has not met since the last meeting um we presented our committee report at our last Workshop meeting um so there's no new hold on there are a few new things on the agenda so anything in bold is new um we have a correction for home instruction we have approval for two students for home instruction we have approval of the evaluation instruments for the 2024 2025 school year which is for the child study team evaluation rubric um basically what they did was they redesigned their evaluation rubric to align more with um Danielson and the instructional rubric so that is that change um the approval of the affiliation agreement with seatan Hall University School of Health and Medical Science CL clinical education program placement and that is to accept the recommendation of the superintendent to accept the memorandum of understanding between our district and C Hall University the school of health and medical Sciences uh we have approval for curriculum um we have Humanities Ela kindergarten grade one grade two three four and five and under stem um we have Science grades 9 through 12 chemistry and grades 9 through 12 Zoo ology um I should add that these curriculums are revised periodically so a lot of these are considered first drafts um so it may say draft one on the curriculum um that is why but we still approve them to move forward in delivering the curriculum and uh that is it for me so we're going to move oh any questions all right equity and Excellence um equity and Excellence met um on October 17th um we talked through discipline data um there was only one incident in ble um and staff were reporting that um various activities in gaming uh during lunch and recess had really supported um and made much much more positive social interactions um and so reducing some of the unstructured time seemed to reduce a lot of incidents there um at the middle school there are 57 uh incidents involving 35 students um a really important U point in that is that 30 of the 35 students were in um special education so that's something to um really look at more closely um we also discussed that possibly scaling up the model at ble could support the middle school and so one of um the issues around tier one support there is that an administrator steps in so that the teacher can handle the behavior issue and that seems to be really working very well at ble um in terms of incidents dropping last year and even further this year um so that's something to to look into at the high school there are 56 um total incidents um involving 36 students um there were uh six OSS six out of school suspensions and no in school um um rise um coming out of that um and yeah so that's the summary of the um review of the discipline data we also um uh examined um some proposals from from um different agencies to review the special education program um we uh talked specifically about a thorough review um and being really careful through the selection process um we had some feedback on the proposals and um uh those are uh we're I me Gathering that now to go back to the agencies um we also um soliciting um feedback uh about what from cpeg about um what that evaluation should include um hoping to hear back maybe we already did but um not at the time we met um so um we're uh providing feedback to to on those proposals hoping to um to I think address those in in November and um select uh select a proposal to review our special education program which is really important um I'll just reiterate that that I think we are very much not thinking about this as uh a review in the form of compliance with with State um issues and we are really looking for an evaluation that can improve our special education um programming across the board um we also talked about culture and climate uh surveys um and um we're looking at uh different tools um remember this all L um you want me to jump for that it was a great conversation you liked the tool um it's the nji yeah it was great in partnership with Ruck University Department of Education so I think um thank you for that I was looking at some other tools lately so it's all jumble in my head um so I think the uh the nice thing about this um culture and climate survey is that it's already reliable and valid um it's something we can use um that has already been developed um and so it's a something that to that can be really strong in terms of implementation um so letters explain the survey will go out to families um PD professional training will be provided to school teams on how to use the platform and access the data and match um with resources um for a November roll out um but that is um a new development and I think a really strong one um and something that we didn't have to develop on our own but could really latch on to some really good work um which between um from Ruckers and the NJ dooe um and the last um Point discussion was uh a revision to the grading system regulation um so Christina and the leadership team have been um talking about making grading uh practices more equable in the in the district um traditionally a zero to 100 scale um leaves everything below uh um is not particularly equable because and F is over 50 points on that scale um and so one of the the plan is to actually change it to 20 point differentials which won't impact students who are doing well but will um provide students who aren't doing well some access to actually move out of um the F range um and um so um there's more to come on that but that is something in process that we wanted to share um and so um the regulation will updated moving forward um and that is the report for equity and Excellence can I just add to um with that survey that we're uh introducing what's really great about it is there's actual resources linked to it so it's very actionable um whereby we're not just putting it out there's actually things that you can link to it and we can track it over time so I think it gives us a real system to kind of monitor culture and climate and other related factors thank you for that yeah was good gu a question I have is how do we know how that connects to all the things that Elizabeth was talking about is there a connection between the castle and the V and this are they all getting a different information so that's a a good question I'm not as familiar with the surveys that um Elizabeth has put out but I know that part of part of the pieces she's putting out are a lot more with specific on like connected this to school I think Castle is probably there's p pieces of the nji that are about connecting it to school and things like that some of the other work she's doing for Universal screening is more like sort of mental health supports and things like that um I'm not really sure I haven't looked at every single question in there but this is a lot more with understanding just um you know ways that we can improve um overall culture and climate into different buckets so it includes safety and things like that that we maybe don't capture with some of those other pieces um that the school counselors might capture um or team Center captures am I right in saying that this is more about describing the kind of culture and climate across like buildings rather than individual uh kind of Assessments correct yes so that so that her work is more like I the this particular student needs this resource and support right now immediate whether it's you know an component for programming or mental health programming this is just how are we doing in general do our students feel safe in school do they feel generally a sense of belonging do they feel like so that's part of that idea of that character education programming and tolerance and civility um which has come out of the work that we need to do where we look at you know our issues with our hibs and discipline students aren't feeling that connectedness per se um or safety in some way so how do we increase that um and so the resources it gives gives anything from very specific tier one resources to like you know tier tier two and two tier three three resources okay uh finance and Facilities CL out but I'm here uh Finance facilities did meet oh yeah okay here we go finan facilities met on October 22nd um it was Nikki an and myself along with Dr cesa Mr Rosa John Flanigan and Colin McIntosh um some uh uh meeting notes we talked about the before and after Care Program um and we are um at that point we're still waiting for the water test results they may have come in already then we will have State Licensing in hand they're preparing the subsidy process um which colum reported should be easier than um we had anticipated in the past there's no longer spite machines um so attendance will be done by by the school um col will meet with parents um whose F families who receive um free reduced lunch to complete the application there is no maximum number of and as there is no cap on the money that we can get from the state for each of our families and the amount the state would pay us it would be based on what we charge families so potentially could really be very very helpful um with the licensing and the subsidies comes the requirement of additional professional development for um after school staff and actually Administration um there was talk about closing one day a month there was consideration given for closing one day a month to provide that professional development to our after school staff but um through the recommendations of a parent advisory group that Colin has um they came up with instead instead closing at four o'clock um I guess once a month to give our staff two hours of PD uh each month least over the next few so that seemed like would be less Pack full the parents um if I had to pick up by four um so that was our before and after care update we went over facilities projects um as as our student representative stated Irvington Irving preschool is complete the signs the structures are up waiting for the wording to go in um Irving's roofing project will be completed early in November some supplies got delayed High School baseball field Renovations have gotten their zoning permits that's moving along uh the greenhouse project there was a meeting of the people involved in that to move that forward Architects were brought in they estimated the cost to be $237,000 um that's initial and then our uh people here will will review and make suggestions for changes from that size is proposed to be 20 by 20 um and that is within the amount that um the Kushner estate granted us through the Highland Park Education fund camera upgrades to B Irving are complete um then was a discussion uh more challenging than any of those is the ble walkway um we need to move forward on that um because remediation um uh the structural engineers are concerned about continued deterioration of that area um and so uh didn't is preliminary analysis of our capital reserve says we have money on hand we to um for option two which is uh eliminating the walkway and stairwell and closing it off um so first step is for the Architects to draw plans um and the uh I believe the idea is to pay for this through our additional extraordinary Aid money that we just received um so that's so we are going to move forward on that um we really have to um we need to figure out as we go how we're paying for it although Denise has a plan so um and under Finance um we have our comprehensive maintenance plan that's on our agenda that year budget has to go the county um we are um adding a third party administrator The Proposal is to add a third party administrator for our 403b plan for our staff um to increase this is at no op no cost to the district or the employees but it expands the staff's um options for investment and it gives them a portal to make choices so that area of um our uh services to our staff uh can be expanded um we're on the agenda also tonight is improving security additional security to the football field area um that is again not not cost to our current budget the burrow was holding money left over as that was a joint project between the burrow and the uh the district and some of the money that's left over is being held by the burrow we're g if we we vote to approve they will use that money um to upgrade security I know that means cameras or something there's been some issues out in the fields there because they're heavily used um we want to obviously keep everything in good condition out there um our appropriation for Extraordinary aid went up $461,701 students to non-public schools within 20 miles of Highland Park um we try to get the commission to provide that Transportation but um that's not typically the the case and so we are required to pay parents um this current year $1,177 in lie of transporting their student last year that cost the budg that cost the district $267,000 so that is our minutes from our meeting there are no new policies um looking at the agenda we have what also just going over the bolded new information from last since our Workshop meeting we have approval of a bill list from SE September 24 to October 28 the amount of a little over $4 million approval of Treasurer reports um through August 31st as per our final audit adjustments approval of the board secretary's report um as of August 31st I acknowledging that uh no budgetary item line item has been overextended um Board of Education certifications again also through August 31st um for final monthly Finance reports um and the sufficient funds are available to meet the district's Financial Obligations the remainder of the Year number six is approval up some board uh some budget transfers uh for the month of August through the month of August uh 31 a lot of there's a lot of B stuff here uh under number um nine we have two passs for our non-public schools related to professional development and one for our sales um actually connected to what was conversation that um Elizabeth asmo was just having a program working with our to help uh staff work with three settled students and families there's a workshop with Dr Mary Curran that is additional on here uh number 15 is a sidebar agreement that we are current we are tbling so number 15 when we vote will not be uh on there that's uh sidebars discussion is continuing on that uh number 16 is approval of submission of that comprehensive maintenance plan that were required do every year that was attached um number 17 is where I talked about that third party administrator I actually said 403b but it's also for 457 plans um and Omni would be our third party administrator for that um eight is approval of custodial supplies purchases I think when it goes above a certain amount we need to approve it um that security system for the Highland Park wreck uh complex is number 19 number 20 is approval of some change orders related to the roofing projects at the high school and at Irving uh when things deviate from The Proposal we need to approve the change uh 21 is approval of reimbursement for nonpublic school transportation costs um 22 is appropriate approval to appropriate Reserve fund balance for non-public school train Transportation costs uh the 23 is that extraordinary Aid that we talked about we have to uh approve the appropriation of that money um 24 is is um approval to appropriate extraordinary Aid fund balance so that's where that money is going and the last one is a three-year preschool operational plan submission that we're required to submit to the state for 2023 to 2026 and that concludes my report any questions for finan and Facilities I have sort of a related question I have a question okay um who or Christina maybe you might know who reviews the cameras that are at the turf I I don't I don't think I realize there were cameras there oh there aren't uh the burrow would like to work with us to install them so they can with the recommendation and so uh John um and Sten Luis went out there just to kind of look at it because just to remind you the sports complex is not District owned property that is the burrow property and so they came at and they said uh specifically on the weekends especially and after hours when um the school is done with the the turf there's a lot of damage that's done um people walking their dogs on there using bikes leaving a lot of trash and destroying it and bur is it's really hard to to maintain a lot of it falls on like a Monday morning on our staff um to clean up after a Sunday when we weren't using it so the burrow was interested in um using that money to fund some security cameras but they needed our team to go out there and look to say you know from Tech Is it feasible um so they would sort of and we look at a cloudbased system or something that was accessible that they would really help to to manage more on their end because it's their own property um not really on on us to to man that because during the day we don't have problems because we have staff out there um that are you know coaches or teachers and stuff like that but it's the after hours programming that's becoming really problematic for the buau um we also are working simultaneously with the mayor she's been incredibly supportive of potentially working on ordinances and things like that because we don't have any in town specific to that area in terms of making sure people aren't allowed to have their dogs or bikes and um ATVs you name it they bring it out there and it really destroys that $2 million project um which should hopefully be for a 10year lifespan um if maintained well so they're working on some ordinances um in which case uh it gives police authority to act when people aren't being appropriate with that place but right now they're really is no repercussion if people aren't behaving in that area thank you you're welcome any other questions okay we'll move on to personnel and communication um we have not met since the workshop meeting uh we're going to meet next week and I'll just go through some of the newer items there's an update on number two the approval of leave of absences there's an update to um the dates for two of the employees um or actually one of the employees then there's a leave extension for an additional employee um approval of resignations there's one additional employee um Miss fingo on number four um starting at letter O there are a lot of um a lot of new appointments including a new cheer coach um number six approval of transfers three new ones number seven approval of professional development presenters for the PD Academy um mostly new that whole section oh and that's it that's okay any questions for personnel and communication okay and uh policy uh we did not meet uh since our last Workshop meeting and policies here are all up for second read so there's nothing new here okay um we're going to move again to our second public comment the Highland Park Board of Education welcomes public participation and has Reser reserved this time for your comments board policy number 0167 establishes and regulates the right of the public to participate in public meetings um how many people do we have online if there's uh anybody online that would like to comment publicly please raise your hand okay with no hands raised we're going to move to our board action items for curriculum and instruction I would like to move numbers one through seven second Dr batty yes Miss calan yes Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Miss stano yes Miss ban yes Miss Vorhees yes on numbers one to six abstain on number seven oh a finance and Facilities um I move items one through 25 with uh number 15 being tabled second Dr batty yes Miss cassal dun yes Dr Pixley yes Miss Bruce yes Dr schoolman yes Miss stano yes Miss bman yes Miss Vorhees yes personnel and Communications uh for personnel and Communications I move items one through seven second sorry Dr batty yes Miss Calon yes Dr Pixley yes Miss cruce yes Dr scholman yes Miss stel yes Miss bman yes Miss Voris yes and policy um I move uh for second read um a through n policies second Dr batty yes Mr Cel done yes yes Dr Pixley yes Miss puce yes Dr scholman yes Miss staniel yes Miss bamman yes Miss War yes okay um we move on to board liaison reports does anybody have a report I do oh great from Michelle Rodriguez she would like to share from the Highland Park Library the grand reopening of the library is coming we're very very excited this is the official save the date on November 10th 2024 and just in case you forget I will put it in the board bulletin uh November 10th 2024 from 1: to 5:00 pm the address is 31 North fth Avenue in Highland Park and we're very excited for the grand reopening so please come join I was drove by the other day and they were taking out a whole lot of stuff and and working Fally to get it done so we're very excited thank you any other Le song reports all right uh for my president's report tonight I'll discuss um a CLT meeting so the central leadership team met um about two weeks ago give or take maybe a little bit less I don't know time all Blends together so many meetings um and the topic of conversation was our student technology policy or what is it it's um use of privately owned Tech technology um so we're not talking about like District Chromebooks we're talking about anything that's coming from home that's not owned by us um it was a wonderful meeting I mean you ever have one of those meetings where like everybody's on the same page understands the issues um and wants to go ahead and get started on problem solving um that's what this meeting was so it was really wonderful um there was basically consensus that our policy needs work regardless of what kind of approach we move with um so we are going to um generate a feedback form for uh our teachers our students and our families um and then kind of use that data and then also use some of the data that Dr suska has been gra um has been gathering in terms of um disciplinary infractions involving cell phones and mental health concerns involving cell phones and that data to inform some decisions um the basically how we left it was the um staff is going to take um some discussion back to their school leadership team in terms of what things can be done immediately while we kind of work on this policy because working on the policy is going to take some time so some immediate um actions could be explored at the school levels um perhaps encouraging technology free days um types of tech-free campaigns um revisiting the code of conduct student leadership teams um brainstorming Solutions so trying to get some student voice in there as well um and then in terms of the feedback form we're going to Anchor our questions in some of the benefits um and the potential negative impacts of cell phones um that are coming up in research and you go I guess assess attitudes about the different approaches that we could take um and our main focus or should say FYE are we do not want our new policy to place a lot of responsibility on staff um because as staff uh shared it does create tension in the teacher or staff and student relationship when there is that battle over the cell phone um being put away um and then we also want to remove the temptation of using the cell phone during the school day so looking at options that um could work to both uh meet those goals and um that is that's what I have for you for from Central leadership team um so we will work on that feedback form and the staff is going to continue looking for more Immediate Solutions um that they could uh employ at the school level um Alison can I ask a question yes okay great um I was just wondering um is is there a sense of urgency among the teachers that Mr fuez is talking with and working with that they you know while so acknowledging that this is going to take some time to get the policy right they sort of feel like this is something that they need to act on quickly and that's why they want to try and think about what can be done in the short term as they wait for the long-term stuff to be developed um yes and it depends on the different School levels so like bartel's data has gotten better um but they are still having you know issues with students with um cell phones in terms of like filming Tik toks and bathrooms and stuff like that so um it's not as many as it was so but Bartle is improving so I don't think the sense of urgency um really existed there although you know there is that impact on just mental health and um emotional well-being to begin with um but at the high school and the middle school levels I know the middle school has been trying to um be more consistent with the policy um they are seeing some you know anecdotal reports of um things improving but yes both of the middle school and high school levels do want to tackle some immediate options um while we work on the policy revision great thanks okay um any old business I do have some old business so we are two months in or a couple months into our second year um and I need to bring it up that um I just wanted to keep on our radar the ble school start times that people are still struggling um and I want to make sure that we're not um forgetting about that and that we're actively um actively discussing um and taking into account and considering the families that aren't as vocal as they used to be but still are we still are getting some emails and um social media doesn't really count but we are and we do get people talking to us in person um so it it still is an issue um and I just don't want us to forget about that any other old business okay new business all right I'm going to move that we adjourn second all in favor I thank you thank youy good night everyone