--------- This thing sucks. >> I want to thank all you die hard folks for hanging in there. That's for sure. >> Do we have a motion to go back into open session? >> Motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I
>> Righty then. Mr. Okai, would you move the agenda on building and items on the agenda for buildings and grounds? >> Fine. Just to keep everybody on to their toes. >> Sorry. >> Finance. >> He's going to go back to finance. Got it.
>> I didn't get there yet. >> Builders and rounds first. >> Okay. >> I'm just going I'm going in order. >> I'd like to move items. >> I'm sorry. We skipped over finance. Let me go back. Miss Hargra, would you move the items on the finance agenda, please? My apologies. >> 1 through 12. I move um
items 1 through 12 on the finance agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All right. Roll call. Miss Best.
>> Yes. >> Miss Aguheday. >> Yes. >> Mr. Eststerum. >> Yes. For 1 through 10. No. To 11 and 12. >> No. to 11 and 12. Mr. Wayne Given.
>> Okay, >> Mr. Okad. >> Yes, >> Miss Parks. >> Abstaining from seven and eight and no 11. Seven and eight. Okay, Mr. Shapiro.
>> Yes. And I have to I would like to abstain on this following line items. Um I'm going to read them really quick. I'll provide you with the list. >> Yeah, the list. Every all of the POS start with 26 and then two zeros and then it's 2-681 2682 2683 2719 2720 2733
2734 2738 2739 2740 2784 2785 2810225 2814 2816 282821 and 2859 >> questions. >> Okay, thank you. And I do have the list
from you VP VP Hargrave. >> Um, yes 1 through 10, no to 11, yes through 12, and no to
uh PO25-02888. >> Hold on. Sorry about that. So I got no to 11, yes to others, but you said no to a specific PO. >> PO. Yes. >> Okay. And what PO is that again? >> 25.
>> So >> 028 >> 088 >> 028 888 25288. Okay, got it. 5002
888. >> Yes. Okay. Got it. >> Thank you. >> I I have to look. >> Yeah, it's on the bill's list, not on the finance agenda. So, I have to look and see which one that actually is.
Okay. Got it. But and no to 11. Yes to everything else, but then no to that specific purchase order. Got it. Okay. to 11. You got no >> Yes, I do have no 111. Yes. >> Possible to know which one that is. I don't
>> That's the one we discussed in um you talking about the PO >> talking about the PO. >> Um >> she wants some clarification. Which PO is that for? >> Number 11. >> No, the P. >> No, the PO that you mentioned.
>> It's on the attachment from these is just the supplemental Mhm. Right. >> Right. So, it probably was on the original. >> Right. So, then I'm >> the first time you've ever had that meeting. >> Okay. Sure. So, the same >> same purchase order.
>> Got it. So, same purchase order. Oh, wait a minute. >> I said no. >> You said no, too. You didn't abstain, right? >> Got it. Okay. And President Dr. Howard? >> Yes. To all but 11. >> Okay.
Mr. >> Okai, would you move the agenda under buildings and grounds? >> Okay. Um, just to I'm sorry, just to, you know, just to put in the record, um, motion 11 did not pass. So, just to put that into the record.
>> Okay. >> Sure. >> One final. Thank you. Sure. All right. Um, I'd like to move line items one and two for buildings and grounds. Thank you. Okay. Um, Miss Best,
>> Miss Aguided, >> yes. >> Mrs. Estraum, >> yes. >> Miss Horton Given, >> yes. >> Mr. Okai, >> yes. >> Miss Parks, >> yes.
>> Mr. Shapiro, yes. Miss VP Hargrave. >> Yes. >> And President Dr. Howard, >> yes. Miss Best, would you move the agenda items under education? >> I would like to move items 1 through 13 under education.
>> Is there a second? >> Someone said second here. >> Yes, she did. I I >> You got it. Okay. >> Yes, I did. Thank you. >> All right. Um, roll call. Um, Miss Best. >> Yes. >> Miss Agued Day.
>> Yes. To all but abstain from 10. >> Abstain from 10. Okay. >> Mr. Estra. >> Yes to all. I abstain from 11. >> Thank you. Miss Horton Given. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Okai. >> Yes. >> Miss Parks. >> Mr. Shapiro. >> Yes. And I want to congratulate the district on number two. Maybe
>> crowd's a little slow at the night. VP Hargrave. >> Yes. >> And President Dr. Howard. >> Yes. Miss Horton Given, would you move the agenda items under policy?
>> Look at number C. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Okay. Okay. Roll call. Miss Best. >> Yes. >> Miss Aguided. >> Yes. >> Mr. Estraum. >> Yes.
>> Miss Horton Given. >> Yes. >> Mr. Okai. >> Yes. >> Miss Parks. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shapiro. >> Yes. >> VP Hargrave. >> Yes. >> President Dr. Howard.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. McNeel. >> Sure. Under old and new business. >> Labor. >> Labor. I thought we did labor. I'm sorry. Director VP Hargra, would you please move labor? It's been a long pile. It's a long night.
I move um numbers one through 23 on the labor agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> That Thank you. Thank you, Miss Best.
>> Okay. Roll call. Miss Best. >> Yes. >> Miss Aguided. Yes, >> Miss Estrauma. >> Yes, >> Miss Horton Given. >> Yes, >> Mr. Okai.
>> Yes, >> Miss Parks. >> Yes, >> Mr. Shapiro. >> Yes. Abstain from 20 >> 20. >> Okay. VP Hargrave. >> Yes.
>> And President Dr. Howard. >> Yes. Thank you. Now under old and new business, I need to read a summary report. The report comes from the food service
coordinator in regard to our annual district wellness policy. After a review was conducted about district's wellness policy for the 2526 school year, all Hillside schools are compliant with the district's wellness
policy. As a result of the goals and objectives of the district wellness policy currently being met at all schools, no action plan is needed at this time to achieve any of the school's wellness goals or wellness objectives for the 2627 school year. review of compliance with the district's wellness
policy will again take place during the 2627 school year to confirm that all the goals and objectives of the district's wellness policy continue to be accomplished. So in essence the district wellness policy was met. did pass and because it did pass we don't has we
don't have to have a summer of a report again for next year but it will be monitored throughout the 26 27 school year for the point sake of clarity also um for the sake of the public we do have some information on the
latest or I should say an update on the charter school um you want to address that or should would you rather I do the charter school. Uh the founders of the charter school, Queen City, have made application to the
state asking for a stay, if you will, actually to to for the purposes of a planning year. And I'm going to say this, I don't care. Unfortunately, the state did approve it. They've been given an additional
planning year until June of next year to plan whatever work they might need to map out. We are not happy with this. We are going to seek whatever recourse we can to look into this further. Um but right now this has been approved at the state level. As more information
comes in regarding the planning level and what we're going to do about the finances associated to it, we will certainly get back to you as a as a with the public as as a community. But um that's where it is right now. So we want to be as crystal clear,
transparent as we can be. What I would encourage each and every one of you to do is not it's just not the nine of us who are in this fight. Please encourage your neighbors to take action. Reach out to your politicians. Reach out to your lawmakers. Reach out to your legislature and express your concerns if you have
concerns. Again, I don't want to speak for you if you don't, but I if you do have concerns, you have recourse other than just to sit there and just abide by it. So, if you want to take that action, I certainly would encourage you to do that. Any other old or new business that needs
to be addressed at this time? Any board members wish to Well, before I do that, I just want to one uh congratulate Mrs. Lawler and all the school staffs on the fabulous graduation job. Every single graduation
that it was was absolutely wonderful. It was certainly memorable and uh did not rain like once again on that high school graduation. So, and uh but I wanted to thank you personally, Mrs. law because a lot of people don't see the I got the chance to see up front what you really do in preparation and really it's
a herculean task uh and they did the same at W and at all the schools um HI so all to all the staff out there who participated in graduation job well done uh in addition to congratulating
the new Mrs. Vic. Uh, we want to wish her a happy birthday next Friday. >> Thursday, 23rd. Um, you're quite welcome. We didn't get a chance to say happy birthday, the 250th birthday to the United States,
whatever your political leanings are. Indeed. Um, just please be careful. The air quality alert has been elevated again throughout the through the 17th into the morning of the 18th. So those of you who suffer from respiratory issues, I'm going to just ask you to be pretty careful. Also be mindful of the
heat. Do any of my colleagues have anything they want to add before we adjourn? >> Yes, >> Mr. Shapiro. >> We also want to wish >> Oh, and a very belated happy birthday to Dr. Perez. Last part.
>> Thank you. If I can also add real quick, >> um I do apologize for my um early departure on graduation. Um I was feeling a little bit ill and I do want to say thank you to um board member Parks for being able to escort me out of the um the graduation
ceremony. So I want to say thank you publicly. >> You're here. >> Mr. Shapiro, you had a comment. >> Anyone else? What's that? M >> I thought I thought I was looking forward to hearing say something. >> I was too. >> He was No, he was just letting me know
that I had something to say. >> Oh >> I'm glad to hear chivalry is not Glad to hear chivalry is not dead. Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor?
>> I thank you. Thank you all for your patience. This has been a Part: 2
So, in moving on to this next piece, before you can look at the slides and understand what each color is, I wanted to just go over what the different levels are and what they mean. We have a total of six levels, ranging from level one all the way to level six. Level one
is generally where there is little to no English that the child that the student speaks. As they move up, that will then they will then move on to level two, which is emerging. And in this particular level, they are then able to start
understanding short phrases, basic commands, as well as learning routine greetings, routine language phrases, so that that can help them start to get into the academic world. Level three is now developing. This is something that we also this is an area that we look at
the most when we're looking at access because we want to make sure that our students are in fact developing so that they can then move on to level four which is um expanding and part of level four 4.5 is where our students are then determined should they score 4.5
proficient and generally thus far our students have been able to meet this part of um our proficiency when it comes to WEDA access bridging and reaching those are levels five and six respectively. Those are generally when our students are more than advanced
proficient with level six being that they are pretty much a native speaker and are able to um understand nuances and academic language without uh very much support. So I wanted to uh bring this legend to you because you're going to see a lot of color-coded charts that
are representative of these particular levels. And so while I will include some of these in some of the charts, I just wanted to give a moment to what each level represented. So, in looking at our proficiency levels by year with green being the most recent
school year, uh happy to report that we do have a large number of students from level three and moving into level four. While you do see that dip, that dip could be a result of students who are transitioning from one level to the next as well as students who are um
unenrolling in our district for whatever reason. However, we also do need to look at the accolades of the efforts of our students where we have many of them now moving into level four. And then while we don't have many students at level six, which is that of a native speaker,
uh at least the last four school years, we have more of an increase in students in level five. And that does speak to a lot of the efforts of our bilingual um and ESL teachers across all of our grade levels. So in keeping in mind with our
particular uh proficiency levels I had noted earlier that level three is where we want to see a lot of our number a lot of growth or a lot of our proficiency levels uh taking place. Why is that? Because again that is the developing stage. That is pretty much the baseline
where our students can begin to engage in gened and ESL not just in their ESL classes but they can also start engaging uh with their gened teachers. So as we look through the uh the school years we see that the numbers have been increasing for level four you notice in
20 is it 20 my I have a progressive so 2022 2023 we were at 13% and this year this past school year we had 27% of our students moving from um progressively increasing and moving into level four and that is a correlation if you look at
our level three where we started off with a large number of students in level three and then that number is decreasing. However, the correlation now is if you look at this, our level four numbers were at the beginning a few years ago low and now they're increasing thus uh causing our level three numbers to be less because we have more students
entering the proficiency levels. So, I wanted to just remark that these are now the proficiency levels by grades span in the previous chart. what you saw before. This gives you the K through 12.
This gives you what the grade spans are. Just to give you a little bit more specifics as to what our proficiency levels look like in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and so forth. And again, I put the legend at the bottom for all for you to see. And as we can see, when they are in the primary
grades, many of them are emerging. They're at the beginning stages of their English English proficiency and as they progress generally they start to move more into the developing stage. The same thing continues with our middle school and our high school. With our
middle school and our high school, you won't see as many in the emerging, but that's not to say that we won't have any because we have students enrolling at different um in different grades. So, we continue to have that those proficiency levels represented. However, we still continue to see many of our students
moving into the developing uh uh score span. Now, this particular slide is uh positive, I should say. This is where we're looking at the same students from
one year to the next where they were in kindergarten last year or and first grade this year or first grade last year and second grade this year. As you can see, our students are moving up in their proficiency. There is growth across the board. We are looking at grades 11 and
12 to see where that dip is. However, that dip is not statistically significant for us to be able to say, "Oh, that's a that that's that's something that we have to investigate. However, it is a piece of data that we wanted to represent and we wanted to also present to you to just show you
that our students are moving accordingly and we do see a lot of the growth happening between uh grades uh two and five. Now I believe this slide is now with regard to our exits. Again, another
slide of just positivity. We are moving many many of our students and we're exiting them out from the bilingual ESL program to gened and uh just to allay any concerns. So what happens with these students when they ex once they exit our
ESL bilingual program, we have to monitor them for two years. And one thing that I' uh the CNI department is looking to do is not only monitoring them to seeing how well they perform, but really monitoring them to see how many of them enter the advanced pathways uh course so that we can make sure that
they're not just only excelling in gened, but they're also entering into advanced pathway courses so that we can continue to see the diversity grow even in those uh particular classes. And this just gives you more of a exits by grade level where we have a large
number of our exits happening. The black I believe is last year's with the red being this year. We have a high number of students exiting in different grade spans, but grades four and five account for nearly half of this year's numbers
of students who are exiting. Our middle and high school students tend to have fewer students in comparison and that could be a result of many of them also coming um into our district and enrolling into our ESL classes in 9th, 10th, 11th and or 12th grade.
Now the listening skill is one of the domains that uh the AC the access the Wita access test assesses. This particular domain is uh very nice because you're not only able to see the all the color spans, but you see that in the last section which
is the light blue. Many of our students are now in that reaching level in terms of listening. their understanding much like a native speaker and it has been growing from 22 23 up until 2526 and this is not only evident in the
listening domain and I'm going to uh I put these slides in gray only because I wanted to also give you a picture of what this looked like by grade level but in the essence of time I'm just going to move on to the next uh the next slide that shows K12 al
together but these slides in gray that you will see as I move through the presentation really show you what the progress is by grade level at the elementary, middle and high school. So we don't just look at everything at a from a K12 lens. We look at it particularly grade level and we also try
to track this we not only know we don't try we track the students from one cohort to the next to really ensure that the progress is happening and if there isn't any progress happening what is it that we need to do on our end in terms of targeted interventions and professional development. So looking at
our comprehension also high with regard to how our students fared out. Many of them are entering the comprehension stage at a reaching level. And this is again critical because you can you can always speak a language or read it but the comprehension may not always be
there because it requires now a different skill set. for many of our students to be developing that uh across our grade levels. That says quite a bit about how our multil- language learners are progressing throughout the school year and throughout their time in our district. The the next area where
they're also progressing is reading. You continue to see the level six which is the highest level in we in Awita access. They're still accessing those scores and proficiency levels when it comes to reading. Again, this is important because it's really
showing that our students are not just communicating orally, but they're reading, they're comprehending what they're being taught, what they're also learning. So, I wanted to just uh continue to just speak to that. Same thing with speaking. Now, ironically speaking here starts to go down. One of
the reasons that this could be a result of is oftentimes many of our students, self included, can be conscious about their accent and how they're pronouncing. So that can be a reason why they may not necessarily score as high as they did in the reading piece and the comprehension piece, but it's still an
acolyte that we want to definitely share with all of you that our students are moving into that and that many of our students are at level three. They're developing and they're moving into the part of of level four where they're going to enter proficiency. So that our
expectation and hope is that for next year, this group right here that is in the middle, the light green, I believe it shows up as yes. Oh well, yellow green, that that will then be lower, but then our green columns will be higher. So that's actually something that we're
looking to see and that we're going to be assessing come next year's uh WEDA scores. Again, this is a slide where we broke everything down by grade level just to see what our proficiency levels look like, but in the essence of time, I'm just going to move over through the K12
uh data. The next piece of this is our oral language part. Still we have our many of our students developing which is great because as I said earlier level three is really the baseline that lets us know that our students are not only able to function
um or start to function in a gened class but that they're able to now start interacting with their gened peers and that they also have that peer not just that teacher support but that peer support when they're in the classes with them. So I definitely wanted to point that out. Again, this is uh everything from K
through 12 by individual grade levels. And then you can see there how our students are fairing out, especially at our elementary level. If you look at our elementary level, you'll see that in grades four, five, and six, many of our students are reaching the high proficiency advanced level in their lang
in their English acquisition skills. This is um important. In middle school, we also have evidence of that. at the high school. We definitely need to do a little bit more investigation in that as to what's going on there. But again, it's not anything that is concerning because our students are progressing
from one year to the next as the previous data slides showed. Is this literacy? Yes. Now, in literacy, this is this is now where we noticed that the proficiency levels for six are
not there. And so this is part and you'll see it at the end of the slide where we're going to be looking at professional development to determine what is going on where now that particular piece is not as high. However, I will still note if you look at our level three, we have a large
number of students who are there. They're developing. So again, it may just be that many of our students are just in the developing stage and it may take some longer than others for them to move into the level four, level five and six, but I have no um I have no concern
with regard to them moving into that stage or us seeing more of an increase come next year because of the way our numbers have been looking in the past few years, especially with the first deck that showed we were large in level three at the beginning and now we're low in level three, but because we're now
high in level four when We were low at the beginning there a few years ago. And again, this is just a snapshot of what our individual grade levels look like with their uh corresponding proficient levels. Writing writing also is an area where we
don't see much uh proficiency there. That's also understandable because now the writing skills techniques, you're now taking your thoughts, you're taking your your your vocabulary, your comprehension, and now you're putting it out in writing. So this is an area that yes we are looking at but this is not something that our genetic students
wouldn't also struggle with uh acquiring but this again like I said if you look at our level three and how our students are scoring we are certainly developing in that area and of course the hope and the goal is to continue to move that group of students into level four and to level five and six.
Now what are our what does our gender look like? Uh, interestingly, our gender in terms of elementary, middle, and high school, there's not that much difference between our our males and our females. Uh, but we wanted just to present this data in case it was a question among anyone who in terms of when we're
looking at data, what what does it look like in terms of our males and our female students. Those are the raw numbers right there. However, it can also give you just an idea of how our students are fairing out in terms of their gender groups across the grade spans.
As far as our race and ethnicity, again, there is not that much statistical difference in their performance from uh one year to the ne uh from one ethnic group to the next. Uh we do have more in our middle school uh population than we do in our elementary uh and well
slightly more than our in in our elementary. However, our our group differences are not that much where it's going to pose where one group is excelling more stronger than another group. So what are the key points from the 2526
school year? I will say that and I stated this at the beginning. While our enrollment did dip this year in terms of our multilingual because of uh possibly in part because of what's been happening in our nation, uh we still can't forget that our multilingual population has more than
doubled in the last four to five years. And we expect that as uh we continue to move forward with the 2627 school year and with the teaching and learning initiatives that we have in place that our families not only uh are more compelled to return and feel comfortable coming back but also really just
reiterate the notion to all of our families who are listening. Hillside Public School wants you. We are looking forward to having your students and if you have disenrolled them, please bring them back. We miss them and we definitely want to have an opportunity to have them be a part not only of our student population but to have them be a
part of their story and see how much more they can do and contribute to our uh district initiatives. The other piece too that I also want to um note is that we had our highest ML enrollment for 2425, but I suspect that this won't
be the last year where we have our highest number. We're going to continue to push for our enrollment efforts to bring students to our district so that they can see everything that we're able to provide them and support our students in. The next piece of this is for the 2526 school year, we continue to have a
healthy attendance of our parents coming to our ESL parent evening nights as well as the um ESL adult learning sessions that were provided uh this winter into the spring. We continue we will definitely look to providing that next year. Uh, we also wanted to speak to
what our bilingual and ESL program currently look like. We currently have three bilingual classes at AP Morris PreK, kindergarten, and first grade. And in terms of our elementary schools, uh, middle school
and high school, we have eight ESL elementary teachers, six elementary school, um, teachers with one of secondary teachers, excuse me, six ESL uh, secondary teachers with one of them, that's a typo, my apologies. Uh, with
six ESL teachers with one of them being a vacancy that we're looking to, uh, fill by September. So, it is a uh total of seven teachers once we fill that vacancy that we would have at the secondary levels. And one thing I do want to point out because if you're noticing, you say, "Well, why do you
have bilingual teachers in one grade span and not in another?" What happens is when we don't have when our when the age the grade spans that we have are vast where we have five first graders, 10 fifth graders, three eighth graders, two um uh fourth graders. That's not
enough to be able to put that. that's not sufficient to put them in a bilingual classroom. As a result, that is where that along with not having um enough uh not being able to find a a bilingual certified teacher will cause us to complete a waiver with the state.
When we complete the waiver, that doesn't absolve us of providing bilingual ESL education. We must still provide ESL education at least two periods um to our students. So when you see that we don't have a bilingual program like we have in AP Morris and we we're able to provide that that because
AP Morris being that it's K1 and two we have the sufficient number of students in those grades interestingly where we can have a bilingual teacher for each of those grades. Unfortunately, with our multilingual in grades 2 through 12 and yes, grades 2 to 12, the span is that
wide and we don't have enough of them to put in one particular grade span that would allow the teacher to successfully teach them to so that they can reach um high proficiency levels in acquiring English. Uh the next piece that I also want to share with regard to the year that we just wrapped up, we had
approximately a 100 teachers trained in SEI. And so what is SEI? It is sheltered English instruction. It provides all of our GenEd teachers with not just the resources, but the strategies that they can use in their classes to better support the multilingual that are now
making up their classes. And also, it also provides them with cultural sensitivity as part of it because we want to make sure that our students don't feel like they're strangers in a classroom because they're not with an ESL or bilingual teacher. So the SEI piece is incredibly important because it's allowing our teachers to acquire
skills, acquire strategies that they can infuse in their lessons, in their classes for our multilingual as they start to be mainstreamed or enter their classes when they're level three or level four. And as I mentioned earlier, so what's next for us and what's next for us is really to look at continue to
do a deep dive into these numbers and to better understand where the dips are and why those dips are the way they are so that we can provide not only targeted professional development but also look to see what targeted uh strategies and interventions we can provide for our students.
And with that, thank you all very much. [applause] Not. Well, it was a summer school which was one side. >> Thank you, Dr. Perez. Caring sharing. Thank you. And uh definitely uh I think we should give our ESL uh and bilingual
department another really really big hand. [applause] >> Dr. Howard, is it possible um Dr. press if we can get a copy of this presentation. Can you send it? Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um it's very good to see that consistently year to year that our
multilanguage multil- language learners are not only doing well but becoming more and more proficient. Uh before I move into our student representative report, I failed to make one announcement. Uh with us tonight, we have a representative from New Jersey School Boards Association, Mrs.
Freriedman. You just raise your hand, Mrs. Freriedman. Um, she's just here as a part of the work that we do in representing the New Jersey School Boards Association. Uh, is our student representative here tonight? I don't see him or her. So,
we're going to move on at >> Sorry. School school's out. [laughter] >> I'm on 12 months, folks. School doesn't stop me. I'm just saying. >> No, I didn't mean it like that. >> It just keeps going. Exactly. School's never out for me, sadly. So, we'll be seeing that youngster in September.
Great. At this point, uh, we'll move on into public comments. Do I have a motion to go into public comments? >> Motion. >> Is there [cough and clears throat] a second? >> All in favor? >> Residents are required to state their names, addresses, and subject matter. In
the event that it appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 15 minutes, the presiding officer may limit each statement made by a participant to three minutes in duration. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be
considered and are responsibly forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that all members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be
responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of
legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. That said, do we have anyone from the community who would like to begin? Mrs. Lawler.
>> Good evening. uh Angela Lawler, 54 Herden Street. I truly enjoyed the presentation um in regard to the MLL students here in Hillside and I wondered is there a connection between those groups of students as they're going
through our grade levels and the amount of students this year that graduated with the seal of biiteracy. I wonder if there was a connection with that because that also speaks volumes to what the teachers are doing across the district, not just the ESL teachers, but the gened
teachers as well. >> Great point. Excellent. Excellent point. Thank you. Do we have anyone else in the community in public comments? >> Phil Wilson, uh 217 Williamson Avenue. I did see my concern was it said 30% of
the high school students were at 4.5 proficiency. Correct. >> I think it was total at 32% or something of that nature. So I'm just asking how many students was that? If it's at if it's 100 students that mean it's like 30 30 students are passing so what about
the other 70 students that's what I'm trying to figure out that was my concern >> I think you know I think the the side was brief I just want to just trying to digest the numbers >> understand what the raw numbers are so usually when >> usually when that when we're looking at those raw numbers the other students if
they're 30% out of 100 let's just say for example and 30 of them were uh level five then the other students would fall in those other levels that you see level one, level two, level three, or level four. >> So, it's I'm saying that percentage is based off of off how many students. That's my question. >> I would definitely I do have the wrong
numbers. Let me get back to you on that. Hold on a second. Five >> because you keep saying the students are developing. Developing was at number three, >> right? That would be level three for developing. >> Yeah, that that's what you kept saying in your presentation. You kept saying
the students are developing, but overall was a 4.5. So, I'm just trying to figure out if the numbers numbers not adding up to me correctly. >> No. So, level three So, level three is where they're developing their English acquisition skills. 4.5 is where they reach proficiency. O
>> overall as a group. >> Overall as a group if they're passing. Yes. So, they would have to reach 4.5 or above in order to meet proficiency in English and then possibly be ex and then be exited out of the program. Correct. So, you're asking for the raw numbers of how many were in level three, how many were in level four, and how many >> Yeah. How did you get to the 4.5? cuz
you kept saying everybody was at level three. >> That comes by way of when they're testing for access and then we get the test reports. That lets us know the number of students that tested in level three and level four and level five. That wouldn't come from us per se. That
depends on how they what their assessment score was on the access test. It's like NJSLA. The students take the test. >> I'm familiar. I'm familiar. So then that would the state would then let us know the percent that was proficient in ELA, the percent that was proficient in math. We would then have to see what the I
would have to then check to see what the raw the raw numbers are for those percentages. >> To get a 4.5, you had to be a five and above to to to calculate that out. You see what I'm trying to say? Try to average out that number. >> Okay. >> Certain certain amount of students have to be over >> over something to get to that number.
But thank you. Okay. No problem. >> Did you want to I think >> is your question because one of the slides said 4.5 proficient. Was that what you were trying to say that we were at 4.5 proficient or that is just the
the baseline just saying that 4.5? >> Yes. Yes. 4.5. >> I think it's just that's >> right. It that's that is the score you would get to be proficient but you're not saying that they're at proficiency. I think that's his question.
>> She said they were at 4.5, but she kept saying he had three. >> No, no, no. [clears throat] Is the prof just 4.5 is just >> it's your baseline. That's what you wanted. >> Proficiency line. Yes. >> Yes. >> It deps.
>> Level three. Okay. Good evening everyone. >> What's your name? [laughter] Sharina Del Ross, 63 Clark Street. I have a question. So when I first when my children first
started coming to this district, which I have to say they've done ab exceptionally well from this school district to what they do now. So I'm very proud of my kids. I'm proud of them and I'm proud of
myself because I stayed in this district and held people accountable for what my children were going through in their education. So my question is what happened to parents being involved in uh
the search for a superintendent? What happened to parents being involved in the search for principles? I used to sit on those boards. What happened to parents being involved in the school calendar? What? Why did was that eliminated? [clears throat]
I I sat here. I wasn't here for the June meeting, but I was watching the June meeting. And I got upset because somebody stood here and said they were disappointed in this board and y'all sat here and let them do that. I'm not disappointed in you because I voted for
just about all of you on here. You come to my house, you knock on my door, you ask me, "Can you put a sign in my yard?" and I let you because I believe in what you say. But for you to sit there and let somebody tell you they're disappointed in you, please don't do
that. It's a disservice. I think you do an awesome job. I think you come when you can to the schools to support each and every child there. Your why, the kids. Show the adults that it
is about their kids. you know, I'm I'm a little disappointed that the parents have been eliminated from the process of the school district. So, I think that that needs to be evaluated and talked
about. And I think that not me, I don't, you know, I'm not talking about myself, but the reason why parents don't get involved in most of these things is because you don't include them. You need to include the parents. their children are the reason why you're sitting here
and the reason why we have jobs. So I think that it's imperative that you think about putting parents back on not to vote on anything but just to give their opinion. You know, you don't work in this school district. You don't
go and take a survey of the teachers. I know you did a survey for the superintendent, but take a survey and ask parents what they think. Ask parents what they want. because that's what used to happen. And I've been in this district over 20 years
and I know what I'm talking about. So I I want to ask you to do that. Think about that because a lot of parents want to be involved but they say they don't care about what we say. They don't they don't say anything when we get up here
and talk. I'm just an advocate for the parents and I'm an advocate for the students. I care about our students because I don't want them hitting me in my head. And I want them to grow to be productive um in productive people in this community. You know, I've been here
a long time now and I want to see it continue to grow as you grow. Everybody hear me? Okay. Thank you for listening to me. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Candy. Uh and
to that point, um I can't speak for the calendar and the other things, but during the search, um we did try to make that as public as we can. We held those sessions. Uh we had the surveys out and the surveys did play a very big part. Many of the I have to I'm very proud to say a lot of the community actually did
fill the surveys out and they gave us some very very pertinent information and opinions. Um perhaps we could expand that a little bit more going forward, but thank you certainly for that. >> What I'm saying is this. You had parents sitting with you in those meetings. They
didn't have an opinion. They didn't get a vote, but they got to talk to you and they got to hear your thoughts on what should be done. And now that has been eliminated. Bring it back because it's about our kids. It's about your kids.
Some of your kids go here or used to go here. She used to go here, you know. So, I'm just saying. >> Yes. Mo. Yes. >> But I I'm just saying it's it's really important. It's it's vitally important that you do that. Include the parents in
some of these decisions because you will be surprised at some of the results that you get. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Excellent point. Thank you. Anyone we have any other members of the community? >> Oh, and Miss Miss Vicks,
congratulations. >> [applause] >> misses. I mean, >> that's it. Uh, if we have no one else, do I have a motion to close public comments? >> Is there a second? >> What's that? Oh, okay. All in favor? >> I
thank you everyone once again. At this time, we'll move into our committee reports. Um, in the interest of transparency, I know there were some that were posted, a couple of changes were made uh due to some last minute information that we got. Those changes were are available in the post office
box you see there if you need to look at anything. Miss Hargrave, will you begin the committee reports, please? >> Yes, I will. Thank you. I'm going to give the finance report. The finance committee met on Monday, July 13th, and
we discussed items 1 through 11 on the agenda. >> Can't hear you. >> Never mind. >> Can you hear me now? You hear me now? Nope. >> Is it better? >> No. >> What time? >> It's on. >> There you go. [cough] There you go.
[laughter] >> Got no problem. >> The finance committee met. >> Thank you. >> On Monday, July 13th, and we discussed items 1 through 11 on the agenda. Um, board member Beth. Well, Vic, Mrs.
Vic, can you please uh give the buildings and grounds report? >> Absolutely. Um, our buildings and grounds committee met on Monday, July 13th, and we discussed items one and two um at our committee meeting. And that is
it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Board member Okai, can you provide the education committee report? Good evening. The education committee met on Monday, July 13th to discuss line
items 1 through 13. >> Thank you. >> Board member Horton Given, can you provide the policy committee report? Good evening. policy committee met on
this past Monday for I believe this says first reading but isn't it second the second readings for items number one A through T. >> Thank you. And the board member Vic, will you please provide the labor
relations report? Yes, we met on Monday to discuss labor relations, resignations, um, hirings, all the good stuff with personnel. [laughter] >> Thank you. And that concludes the
committee reports. >> Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Hargrade. There being nothing more, do I have a motion to go into executive session? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I
>> be it resolved pursuant to the open public meetings act that the board of education meet in closed executive session at this time to discuss matters relating to personnel pending or anticipated litigation labor negotiations contract negotiations of
particular student or students or staff attorney client privilege. The board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the close session. The matters discussed in close session will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for conf confidentiality no
longer exists. Thank you very much and hopefully we'll be back in soon. Thank