Evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um, can we have a roll call? Mr. Calvita, Dr. Genevese here. Mr. Kadia here. Dr. Lillston here.
Mr. Peters here. Dr. Resnik here. Mr. Slotman here. Dr. Stilliano here. Miss Williams Galliano here. Dr. Wilson. We have a quorum. Wonderful. The New Jersey Open Public
Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education has
caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof communicated to the Hope Valley News and the Times on January 4th, 2024. This meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon bios.
The board does reserve the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the board of education. The meeting is being recorded for the purposes of board review, future reference, preparation of the minutes, and viewing on YouTube Bulldog TV and
the school district website www.hvrsd.org. With that, please join me in the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. like to move us on to approving the minutes from the uh September 15th regular meeting. Need a first and a second.
Motion. All in favor? Any opposed or abstaining? Minutes are passed. With that, I'd like to introduce um Miss Trish.
Miss Riley, Riley, I was like, there's so many people I couldn't place you. Thank you, Miss Riley, for joining us and introducing our very important member. Yes. Thank you so much for having me back. I am extraordinarily excited to introduce Grace Corvaline to all of you.
Grace is our um one of our co- student representatives who will be joining you this year. Grace is an incredible member of not only the HBCHs community but the entire Hobo Valley community. She is talented and spectacular in so many
ways. She is an athlete. She is talented musically. You should hear this girl sing. Um she is involved in so many different causes. You may have seen her present regarding u many of the environmental causes that she's involved with. She is
um she is passionate and involved in so many different ways and she has accomplished so much in her time that she has had here in the district. She's a public published author. She has spoken at conferences and she is here
tonight and throughout the year to work with all of you. So, I am so proud of her and I'm really excited to have her share updates about the high school representing our students for all of you this year. Welcome, Grace. Thank you, Miss Riley. And welcome,
Grace, to you. We're very much looking forward to having you with us. And I know we're you're going to be alternating with another colleague. Um, I'd like to invite Mr. Turbo up to the deis. Oh. Oh, she's going to do this. Yeah.
Okay. Sorry. You can stand there looking awesome and we're going to go break. There you go. Hey. Hi everyone. My name is Grace and I am a senior at HBCHS. So, as we move through October, our
sports, arts, and other extracurriculars have been thriving at the high school. In our arts program, the theater department is currently rehearsing and preparing for our fall play, The Crucible, which will take place on November 14th and 15th in the Performing Arts Center. Additionally, the choir
program is set to host its annual Haunted Hallways as a fundraiser for their upcoming trip to Italy this spring. That will be happening on October 25th. This week, the theater department will stop into New York City for a performance of Ragtime on Broadway. And the following Friday, the performing
arts department will travel to the Met Opera to see a performance of Carmen. Our athletic teams are experiencing a successful season through numerous sports including cross country, field hockey, girls volleyball, soccer, cheerleading, and football. Notably, the
girls tennis team just celebrated an impressive 3-2 win over Hadenfield on Friday. And our football team, currently standing at 5-2, looks forward to their annual pinkout game later this month. Additionally, clubs and activities are in full swing at HBCHs. Our recent clubs
and activities fair featured more than 50 studentled clubs and organizations dedicated to leadership and service. From clubs focusing on mental health awareness and cultural appreciation to STEM and the arts, we are looking forward to seeing the positive impact that they will have on our district and
our community this year. This week, the PSAT will also be administered to all sophomores and juniors on Wednesday, October 9th. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Wonderful.
And as I told Grace in advance, we understand our amazing representatives are super busy with their schedule. We invite them always to stay with us. It's a learning experience for them and it's a benefit to have them um providing us
feedback and input as we can go along the year. But we also um offer that they can step away when they absolutely need to because they are students first. So thank you great. Okay. Now the very
awesome gentleman Mr. Turner. Thank you very much. Great job Grace. Um thank you for the opportunity to speak for just a few minutes and to introduce some really special people. Um we we have some amazing people you in our school and in our district in our
community and you get a rainy day like today and then sometimes heavy work that we do and it's tough whether you're a member of the board of education and you're making hard decisions every single day whether you're in the central office making the schools work or or being a parent or guardian it can get
hard sometimes. So when you have these moments of of success in these bright spots, you know, taking a moment to to celebrate them and to think about how fortunate we are and how amazing the students around us are, it it's great to be able to do that. And that's what I have the opportunity to do tonight. So
I'm going to recognize two groups. And when you think about it, one is an individual student who's being recognized nationally for her writing and her poetry. The other group is part of a group that uh a program that was created by some teachers at at
Timberlane called STEMathy where they take STEM and give give students the opportunity to help others to understand other people and to come together and ironically both are being recognized across the country. Um the young lady that you're going to hear from in a
moment is uh her work is on display in Chicago right now as she was a winner of the American Writer Museum um writing contest that took students from across the world, not just across the country, who submitted uh their their poems and and she was one of three middle school
winners in in the nation in the world. Our other group um is being recognized in Indianapolis next month for um winning a a major award with the um which is the association of middle level educators um in Indianapolis. So it's
great we're having Timberland and Hopewell Valley all across the country. But with that I want to introduce Mr. Dave Sherwin to come on up with Ara Desai to talk about uh their writing and their process of of winning a major award.
It's such a pleasure uh to be here with you this evening. Um sometimes there's just you put the invitation out there. And in this case, the prompt read, "It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end." this famous quote
from Ursula Luin, the science fiction writer, um was followed by some instructions um that students could use that as a jumping off point. They could lead in. They could end with it. They could create um poetry or or something
else that spoke to them. And what um Ara produced, this multi-standup poem, If I Had Nine Lives, combines imagery, figurative language, um self-awareness, tremendous insight, and um leaves you wanting more. So, it is absolutely
deserving of the recognition it received and you'd like to share. Okay, so this is the very like last stanza of the poem. My ninth life, I would move to the
beach, back to the ocean. I would feel the serenity all over again. I'd be in the harmony with the sea once again. I'd go back to swimming in the vast ocean all by myself. And as the tide would pull me gently under, I would look back. Each life, the thread in the fabric of who I've become. I'd come to understand
finally that everything I'd learned through each of my nine lives mattered. In my first life, I'd learned sometimes what I dread most is simply misunderstood. In my second and third life, I'd learned that the people who came before me shaped more of me than I realized. In my fourth life, I'd learned a picture perfect life isn't always the
best. In my fifth life, I'd learned I must lose myself in order to truly find myself. In my sixth life, I'd learned happiness is always there if I just look for it. In my seventh life, I'd learn to cherish the small moments in any life I've been dumb. And finally, in my eighth life, I'd learned happiness can come in many forms. Books, coffee,
solitude. I'd smile, not with regret, but with annoying gratitude. After nine long hard lives, I would finally realize the true meaning of life. It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
[Applause] Thank you very much, Arn. And again, that's on display in Chicago right now, which is amazing. Um, and at this time, I'd like to call up Dr. Barbara Mccardi
and Miss Helen Corvaline. And, um, this is a true story. I'm going to give you the behind the scenes because there's some Miss Green. Come on in. Yeah. Get in here. get in here over a slice of pizza not long ago. It's
true. No, but um you know, Dr. McCardy with some retired educators from this area and some current educators just kicked around ideas of how they could make a difference and how they could uh have students help each other and just asked for permission to to run with with
with something. And um they ended up last year having a really really successful first go at having our students from Timberlane support students from Mercer Elementary School who were in wheelchairs and who wanted to experience Halloween. So we use some
of our STEM skills and resources to uh create opportunities and and create costumes that were based on interviews with the students and connections and and see that through. And the great news is we're doing it again later this week for our second goaround. But I'd like to have Dr. McCarti and Miss Corvaline talk
a little bit about it and maybe even introduce some of our students in the room. Thank you so much for the opportunity to explain our STEMathy um project. It you stole my beginning. It started over a pizza conversation in the summer with
some retired teachers and we began to wonder what if we took some re we always give the kids real life scenarios to make it connect with their lives and their communities. But what if we took it out of those scenarios and we placed it into real life? And um through a
retired teacher from Mercer Elementary, she said, "I have connections there." and the texting started and um we built an incredible bond um with the students last year through the medical detectives
uh elective. We created 12 costumes. Um 10 of them for students at Mercer Elementary and two for um students at Hopewell Valley. Uh our project uh was funded by the Hope Valley Education Association through a grant and um we
were able to create the costumes, but more importantly, we were able to um have our students have a connection with the students at Mercer County Elementary. We started off calling them our clients and we ended up calling them our friends. we um appreciate the
opportunity to be able to take our students to deliver the costumes and that was just an incredible moment for all of us. So when the next semester came and Halloween was over, we were like, what do we do now? So we created an inclusive carnival, carnival games
that our friends um could interact with in much. So I promise I'm the last Coraline you're going to be introduced to today. Um, and um, we, you know, I was driving over
with Grace in the car tonight and she said, you know, mom, it's really good that you have the kids there. You have the kids coming today. And I, she said, because you and Dr. McCarti and your friends can organize it, but the kids are the ones that really do it. And so, we really wanted to make sure that you
heard from them about some of their experiences. And we also want to make sure that you know how profoundly grateful we are for your approvals and your support and our ability to go and visit Mercer Elementary and Karen has come today.
She's our partner at Mercer and um Joan and Nancy are here and we could not do it without a team. I would invite you to my classroom. Um but the chaos that ensues you might just be like we'd rather show you the result. the end
result is truly what is amazing. So, um I'd like to invite the students up now. So, come on up. We also have a special guest joining us as well. Lucia Snider is here. And she is here because she's not only one of our new sixth graders,
but she also participated last year as um one of our Halloween recipients, and she's again joining us this year. So, um, so we invited her to come along to make sure that she could be part of our celebration. So, why don't I have my
students come up here? Nilla, you're so brave. You're going first. Yeah, girl. Tell them what you think. I was really excited to start wheels when Miss Coraline first introduced to us, but the best part of the project was seeing the kids and seeing their
reactions to what we made. Uh, okay. I'm Sonia and when Miss Corverine first told us about this project, I was also really excited. And although we hit many challenges along the way, meeting these kids and seeing their smiles made it all worth it.
My name is Tess and one of my favorite parts of the Hollow Wheels project was getting to see all of the kids' faces when they saw their costumes. Even though most of the students were non-verbal, they were all so happy and excited and it really made me feel like all the hard work we put into this project paid off.
My name is Xander and this project was really memorable to me because from only like a few like cardboard felt and PVC pipes, we were able to make something that all of the kids at Mercer were able to enjoy and we going to see there and being able to see how excited they were really made it all worth it and brought us all together.
I'm Connor and I enjoyed this project a lot because I got to see the kids at Mercer Elementary so happy with their costumes. It was hard work, but it paid off in the end. My name's Aziza. Um, when you see people who are different from you, I think it's easy to make assumptions, but I believe
this project revealed to me just how alike we all truly are. And giving this gift to Lucia and connecting with her showed me STEM isn't just boring equations and science. But it's much more than that. It's a way to connect with others and give them
true joy. My name, my name's Maggie and this project was really able to show me that this is what I want to do with my life. Helping others and putting a smile on someone's face is amazing and inspirational. So, as you can imagine, when we delivered everything, there was not a
dry eye in the house. Um, and so we just really wanted to um make sure that all of the students that we worked with and you know, we couldn't bring all 55 of them. Um, so that they were recognized and they know that they are absolutely
part of this celebration. Hi everyone, my name is Evan Schneider. I'm uh Lucia's dad and last year when we uh were entering into the holiday season for Halloween, her mom and I were having conversations, what are we going to do for the costume and everything and the email, the
invitation to participate in the program came just at the right time. Um and honestly, it was a huge gift because it's it's a lot of work to to design and build a costume like this. And we were um actually that I got an email after
after she went in the program and they were wanting to know some dimensions of the wheelchair and stuff like that. And having built one of these costumes myself, I kind of knew there needed to be more information than what was being asked. And so I just suggested, could we
come, could I bring Lucia in? And Helen said yes. And so we arranged one day I went and picked her up from school and took her over to the middle school. And the kids were so excited to meet her and see her and Lucia was thrilled to be
over there and we got to have a sneak peek of um kind of what they were planning and everything and it was just an amazing experience. Um later when Lucia was in the hospital, I actually ran into Helen at uh PQM and I
must have not looked like I was doing very well because she came up to me and she was like, "How are you? How are things?" And so I just shared a little bit about what was going on and it was so fantastic to have a member of the community who I knew come up to me and care about what was going on in my life.
So thank you Ellen for that and thank you for including us in the project. So thanks for your time. I'm sure we went over but we really appreciate it. [Music] No. And again, thank you for affording
us the opportunity to share some of this. But, uh, again, I speak for myself and I think everyone that that's walking through the halls at Timberland. We're so blessed and fortunate to to be there with with some amazing people. So, thank you for helping us share. Thank you all. Oh my gosh, my face hurts
cuz I can't stop smiling. That is that is doing education right there. That is incredible and thank you. Thank you all um for coming up with the ingenuity or putting the ingenuity into action and
for the students being allin and for the parents saying yes, right? That's like the collision of all the things in one place. So, thank you all for being a part of an amazing um part of our education system and I look forward to
seeing what your project brings this season. Does anyone from the board have any comments or question? Actually, I have a question for you. Yeah, I see you're next on the agenda. How are you going to top that? Why, I'll pass, of course.
Well, thanks. I think that's mine. Any other comments from the board about Could Could I just just on a personal level, my my son is actually was a metal medical detective last year and went through this process and unfortunately I had a another commitment tonight so he
couldn't be here. And I know I was just texting with him and he definitely deeply regrets that he couldn't be here. But I just wanted to, you know, on a personal level, we've I've known Helen and for many years now and Miss Corvaline, sorry, I should say Miss Corvaline for many years and just, you
know, just what a joy it is to have you as part of our uh education community and just, you know, thank you for everything you do for our students. Awesome. Um, I'm going to withhold grand comments until later in the program, but
um, I do want to give Dr. Trees a moment to yes speak. I am going to table my speech tonight, but I do want to just say before our guests leave that we are trying to make a point to invite uh some of the stellar things that are going on in our community in our school community
so that the the whole community can see what my teachers are doing, what our students are doing, the collaboration between the community and our students. Uh this is learning that didn't take place when I was a student, when my son was a student. um when some of the young folks that are even in this space, how
we've evolved to really prepare our students for the world that they're entering into to solve the problems that we face in in this country, in this world, um is going to take collaboration at this level. It's going to take innovation and creative thinking that goes beyond the textbook. All right? And
so this you just are a stellar example. I am not surprised that you are receiving accolades outside of this state, across the country. I'm just so proud of all of you and I want to thank you for coming tonight. So, just one more round of applause and then we'll let these folks get to bed, get to their homework, get
to all the things. Thank you. So, as they're transitioning, we're going to um get ready for we have a lot on the agenda tonight. We're talking about QAC. We're doing performance reports. I know, don't rush out. All kinds of exciting things. We're talking about the budget.
Stay for Yes. But now you know where our money is being spent. You know what happens here. So that was a great example. So folks did clearly didn't come to see us board president. So that's okay. I don't feel bad.
Okay. I'm going to pass it back to you. I am going to pass it to Mr. Caliva for our public hearing and adoption. segment. Okay. So, this is a official public
hearing and adoption of a refunding bond ordinance for the 2005 school bonds uh which requires a two-thirds roll call of the full member of the board. So, what we're basically doing is we're refinancing bonds that were issued
um for the previous referendum we did in 2016. I think that date is wrong on there. or I should say 2015, not 2005. Um, we are going to be refunding these bonds um as a lower interest rate which
we are required to do by law. Um, the bonds will run the same term as the existing bond so that we won't be extending the debt out any further. Um, again, so if there are any questions on as to why we're able to open that up to
the public for any comment on that as well as the board. So you can Do you want to anything from the board first? Um, so as Mr. Halvita mentioned we do want to hold a public comment specifically on the refinancing
um mentioned and as such the members of the public are invited to address the board on this specific matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your uh
comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take up the matter at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administration. Refer to our timekeeper for action.
So I am the timekeeper for today for this public comment and all public comment today. If you see a yellow that's a 30 second warning and if you see a red that means you have three minutes up. Thank you. With that public comments are
now open. Okay, seeing none, public comment on this particular issue is now closed. We'll move on to QA. Now we got a vote. So excited. I need a first and a second.
Motion. Second and roll call. Mr. Kapadia, yes. Dr. Lillison, yes. Mr. Peters, Dr. Resnik, yes. Mr. Slotman, hi.
Dr. Stellaniano, yes. Dr. Wilson, Dr. Genevacy, yes. Miss Williams Galliano, yes. Motion carries. Yes. Dr. You want me to start or do you want
to start? Okay. All right. So we are um the board is right now going uh at the beginning stages of going through uh New Jersey Cusack which is essentially a monitoring program
uh where all areas of district operation are reviewed internally and then will be submitted to the county office uh for an external review. The areas that will uh be reviewed are fiscal
curriculum and in it's inp basically it's a curriculum instruction instruction and program um operations is another area uh personnel and governance. So fiscal um essentially involves the off the operation of my
office but also in coordination with Dr. splits is the operation of our grants. Our federal and local uh state grants are also involved deeply in that. The governance portion um involves you guys and how you complete the evaluations that you're supposed to complete of the
superintendent of yourselves um your completing of the um the ethics forms that you need to fill out, but also how you handle policy matters. Um believe it or not, a lot of districts do not review policy as you guys do on a monthly basis. So um all of those things will
involve the governance. There's a personnel piece that not only talks about how we evaluate teachers um how we onboard them um mentoring all those lure all those things. Um obviously curriculum is how we review it how we implement it how we approve
it. Um but also in large part and if you look at the document in itself, it's the only area where we didn't uh self-score ourselves 100 because 60% of the IMP uh metric is test scores and they're input directly by the state. Um the areas that
we feel that we've self assessed, we feel that we meet all the criteria that's required. Um we won't find out the uh the test scores until much later in the process, probably after sometime after the holiday break. the last portion of it and what am I forgetting?
Uh operations. Um operations involves many different areas. Um but it operations is kind of a misnomer. It involves the health and safety checklist that we must do. We must tour every building. Um and there's a uh 89 to a 90
question um question that you must go through. All the ceiling tiles uh in place the electrical boxes in place. Do you have extension cords where they don't belong? um how are your boilers running? Your there's logs for all these things that must be maintained. Um but
it also involves um safety and security uh questions. Um what am I forgetting? Who's looking it up? Yes. Yes. Oh yeah. build building based committees and that when you hold a budget meeting
that there are people that they sign in the curricul um curricular meetings faculty meetings all of those things are involved and they need proof that you actually held them. Um so we've gone through each of these five areas um Dr. Dr. Trice and her cabinet have gone
through them and we've scored selfc scored ourselves um that we feel we meet each criteria. um what will happen in February sometime middle of February I think it's the 13th they will come here um we and review all the documentation that we've submitted a lot of it can be
is going to be reviewed offline u meaning we have a folder set up and we'll upload artifacts that go in there and they'll review them other things they may come into my office and ask uh they'll pull purchase orders and say talk to me about this that or the other where's the backup for this purchase um
show me your bid file show me your quote file um they'll go to Tana and they'll ask for a teachers file and they'll say, "Show me the evaluations, show me um discipline files, things like that." Um they'll go to Dr. Blitz and they'll ask for curricular documents um and other
other things that that are in her office. They may talk to us about policies and ask us to pull policies, show us the you know how your policy committee works, things like that. Um so again, we feel that we are in in great shape. We've never had we've never not
passed QAC. 've always passed um with with um you know well numbers into the 90s and 80s um to go there. So was that she's saying don't jinx us. Not jinxing us. But in short it's a very thorough um
comprehensive audit of everything that we do. Um they do come in and spot check. They they ask for loginins and they go in and spot check that observations were done on time that pulls files and make sure that folks that are in positions have the proper certification. we do very well and I'm knocking on wood that we will do well
this time as in addition but it's a lot it's a heavy lift um we um have to do the um self assessment by a certain deadline and that's why you see it on the agenda tonight the numbers that are on here I know that they may seem odd and folks are saying well why aren't you getting a larger number this is a number that the state has identified as a the
max for each category and we have you know we have given our self assess a self assessment based on that um so we look forward to their visit in um February we have a great working relation relationship with the um executive office and um if they find something that we need to do better, they will let us know and it's an
opportunity for us to do corrections. If a district fails a QAC uh exam, which some of districts do because again, a big portion of it is your test score. So, some people unfortunately start out kind of behind, you know, the passing um
so their struggle. Um that that could lead to the state coming in and monitoring a school district in addition to giving you corrective plans. Um, so I don't anticipate anything like that for Hopewell. Um, but we're that we just wanted to share with you what this process is.
Okay. Um, just real quick before we um move on and accept the the report, um, I know that as we talk about finance and things around the district, sometimes
it's hard to understand what oversight looks like from the board's perspective or for those outside of um, the district who make sure we're managing or we're our oversight is on task and ultimately
the administration's oversight of the district is as it should be. Um and so I I Bob kind of stated past it but mentioned that the financial aspect of this has a lot of scrutiny. So there are
and I just searched randomly there are you know four or five different places where financials comes up in the QAC report. So this is a full-on audit. if anybody's been through an audit, they're not fun. You know, they can pick anything that um they want to pull out
of your records and your policies and things. So, I just um want you to be assured this is an example where we have outside uh parts of the state coming in and looking at the work that Hopewell
Valley does. So the conversations about have you moved money from here to there, that's a hard no way because we would fail any QAC audit. Um so just wanted to point that out that that comes up, but this is
the oversight that probably isn't present to the community as um likely as they're knowing that the board is also overseeing. this is much outside of our realm and it is rigorous and there's no
kind of you know skating by or getting over. Um so I I'll leave that there with that. Um any other questions from the board on this? I think I just a clarification because Bob you you Vicki and I talked really
briefly before the meeting. So I just want to make sure that folks are clear on the board what this 40% means for instruction and program. Right. So that doesn't mean we got a 40% in instruction and program, right? Because when I first saw that I said, "What's going on here?" Um, can you just share sort of why the
score looks that way and what the other inputs are to get us to the final score? So the 60% is really based on our NJSLA scores. So they the state has some formula that they um figure out what our percentage would be or what our per
points out of the 60 points would be and then the 40% or the 40 points that Dr. Lilison is mentioning is just our curriculum review. So we really only have control over the curriculum review portion because the other thing other
test scores have already occurred. And to your point, Pam, I have a a problem with making us submit at this time without them giving us the scores because we can't pull them out of anywhere. They've got to tell us. And for us to have to submit by um it's a
very early submission date. For us to have to submit before they've given us the scores is really misleading to the public. Any other questions or comments? Okay, seeing none, no. first and second to accept the motion
support. Roll call. No. All in favor? Oh, okay. All in favor? I Any opposed? Any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none, the report is accepted. The student achievement
I heard him. Oh, okay. I had Mr. Slutman on my side, though. Hello everybody. Um, thank you for joining us tonight as we review the 2025 achievement report. This presentation will give us a clear picture of where our students are excelling and where we
can continue to grow. We'll look at advanced placement trends, SAT performance, state assessments, and talk about continuous improvement goals. Here's a quick overview of our agenda. Now, just note, I know I'm going through this quickly, but this will be posted on
the website for people to check out at their leisure. The AP overviews is situated around how Hopewell Valley students are performing on AP exams as compared to other students in New Jersey. I chose to organize the presentation around that
comparison as those are the students that our students will be competing with in terms of college acceptance. This slide shows the breath of AP courses that we offer. The courses highlighted in yellow are courses that we don't offer but that students can sit
for exams without taking the course. So just note that students can sit for any AP exam that they like even though they haven't taken the course. Overall, colleges l tend to only accept AP credit if students earn a four or five. However, in a study published by
College Board, it was found that students who earned a one or two on an AP test are more likely to enroll in a four-year school, are more prepared in intro college level course, and are more likely to take future AP tests and score higher. The objective for our students is to prepare them to be at the four and
five score level, but students who don't earn those scores are still being exposed to preparation and experience. I'd briefly like to talk about AP enrollment. The bar graph highlights this year's test takers by demographic. Overall, the
distribution is very close to last year's distribution with 60 60% of the test takers being white. There was a slight increase in regard to Hispanic students and two plus race students, but limited changes in the other races. This is the AP test takers by gen
gender. This is very consistent to last year's breakdown. Okay, now I'd like to talk about the trends. So, this slide highlights the number of students who earned a three or higher on the exam over the last 5 years. As you
can see, this year we had 97% of our students earn a three or higher, which is the highest we have seen. The data for N New Jersey was not available at the time of presentation for 2025. This table breaks down the number of students tested as well as number of
exams. Overall, there was a slight decrease in the number of students or exams administered this year. However, again, as noted in the last slide, we have the highest percentage of students who earned a three or higher and the highest percentage of students who earned a five as compared to the last five years.
The scores highlighted in the next few slides review the scores of the five most subscribed to AP exams which account for roughly 50% of the test takers. Our most prescribed AP exam was US history. 98% of our students scored a
three or higher as compared to New Jersey which is 82%. It is important to note that I did not indicate what the state had in regard to scores one or two. That's why for those scores you don't see the red comparison. In AP statistics, 83% of our students
earned a three or higher as compared to 67% in New Jersey. In AP Seminar, 100% of our students earned a three or higher on the exam as compared to 85% of the students in New Jersey.
in API language and composition, 100% of our students earned a three or higher as compared to 72% of New Jersey. Finally, in chemistry, 98% of Hopewell Valley students earned a three or higher as compared to 81% in the state.
So, the additional slides review the other 50% of the exams. The black percentages are Hop Valley students while the blue numbers are the state percentages. The same trends are as are noted as above um throughout the next few slides. And again, as I said, this
will be online. So, you can look at this um at your leisure. You can just keep moving. And oh, can you just go back to the other the the courses that are highlighted in yellow? Those were courses that students took the exam, but
we don't offer the AP course here. Okay, thanks. So, looking ahead, our improvement goals are clear. We want to increase accessibility to AP classes. We want to provide targeted practice on question types that challenge students, and we want to create more vertical alignment
opportunities for teachers. These steps will strengthen both teaching and learning across grade levels. I'd like to quickly review the SAT means for our students along with the means for New Jersey and the nation. Overall, we have been staying pretty consistent
for the last few years in terms of our overall means in both ELA and mathematics. In comparison, Hopewell Valley in comparison in Hopewell Valley with New Jersey, our students tend to score higher than other students in New Jersey. Specifically, they score 81
points higher in ELA and 78 points in math. and we are thrilled that many of our students were recognized by college board including we had three national merit semi- finalists this year.
Okay, so the the these are the spring results for the New Jersey student learning assessment scores for math, science, and English. These assessments are taken by students in grades 3 through 11, and a passing score in this exam is meeting or exceeding which equates to a level four or five.
So I'm going to talk begin with talking about math and the math NJSLA is administered to grades three and 8 plus algebra 1, algebra 2 and geometry. So I know that this is very small for people sitting in the back. Um but I a couple things I want to point out. Um this
slide h um reviews where the the math NJSLA percentages by scores over a three-year time frame. It's important to note that overall our scores have increased by almost 3% but there are certain grades or content areas that have dropped slightly. Those I've
indicated with the um arrows um if recently came up at one of our ed program committee meetings about how our students are performing in regard to comparable districts in the state. This is what happens every every achievement report. They ask well how are we doing to other districts that are comparable
to us? Um, and so while the data can be tricky to locate, I was able to locate the NJSLA scores from one comparable district in the area from last year's scores. So overall, we had 61% of our students passed the NJSLA in math districtwide last year, while the
comparable district had 70% um meet or exceed. So we were a little bit below. Uh this chart shows a three-year comparison of students approaching or meeting expectations in math as compared to the state. Um Hopeo Valley consistently performs above the state
average demonstrating strong math instruction and consistent growth over time. And this shows the um comparisons for levels one through four. Here here we see percentages of students exceeding expectations or level five in
math. Um, and again, we are outpacing the state averages. And this tells us that not only are our students meeting expectations, but a significant portion are going beyond, which speaks to the rigor of our curriculum. Shifting to English language arts. This portion portion provides an overview of
overall performance. It mirrors the strength we saw in math with high levels of proficiency and consistency across multiple years. This slide highlights a three-year ELA trend. Our district continues to perform above the state average in both approaching and meeting
expectations. The data shows steady achievement across cohorts. Um as I mentioned um when I was looking at data for a comparable district in our um county um we had a 72% overall passing rate where that one district had a 76%
passing rate. Um, our students are meeting expectations in all grades and the percentages are higher than the state. Um, there it's also important to note that there was an increase in the overall percentage of students meeting expectation as compared to 2023 and
2024. Okay. Looking who's this? Looking at students exceeding expectations in ELA, we see that our students again remain ahead of the state and this indicates our strongest readers and writers are being challenged appropriately and achieving
at high levels. Okay. And then the science NJSLA is taken in grades 5, 8, and 11. Please note that the scoring is a bit different for this assessment and it is evaluated on a 1 through four scale with three and four considered passing. So this is a
three-year review of the different score levels for grades 5, 8, and 11. Overall, there has been an increase in the passing rate, roughly about 3%. Alternatively, overall, our numbers are below the state in terms of level one
and two for those that are not passing. as compared to the last two years, we have a higher passing rate um compar as as comparison to 2023 and 2024. All right. So, I'm now going to review
um the demographic data for each of the NJSLA um content areas. All right. Um so, in terms of uh this I'm going to begin with math. Um, and so this chart shows math performance by
race across all grade levels. While many subgroups perform strongly, certain groups consistently achieve higher scores. This reinforces the importance of targetive strategies to to close the achievement gap. Looking over three years, this trend um
is consistent. Um, some racial subgroups outperform others. This stability suggests that while our overall scores are strong, equity remains an area for continued focus. Breaking down by gender, we see relatively balanced performance with
slight differences depending on the subject area. This indicates that both male and female students are assessing learning at high levels. This state this slide shows math performance by program such as general education, free and reduced lunch, and
students with 504s. The data highlights that program placement continues to be a strong predictor of achievement, pointing us toward areas where supports must remain robust. And over three years, our programbased performance has remained relatively
stable. Students in general education consistently outperform subgroups, reminding us of the need for differentiated support for students and specialized program. Now we shift to ELA demographics. The patterns here are similar to what we saw in math with overall strong performances
but persistent differences between certain subgroups. Please note ELA data is for grades 3 through 9. This chart shows the performance by race. While many students are excelling, the data again shows gaps between racial subgroups that we must continue to
address through curriculum and targeted interventions. Over three years, the ELA results remain consistent. The persistence of gaps indicates that we need to keep equity as a focus in literacy instruction and supports.
Um here gender-based performance is relatively steady. Both male and female students demonstrate strong ELA achievement though there may be a slight variations um in with worth monitoring by grade levels. And the chart displays program level ELH
achievement. As with math, general education students outperform other subgroups. This highlights where targeted interventions are most critical. The three-year comparison shows these trends are stable over time while general education students sustain strong outcomes. Continued work is
needed to close gap for students in specialized programs. Okay. And then lastly, we now shift to the science demographics. Again, science NJSLA is administered to grades 5, 8, and 11. This section focuses on science achievement across all grade levels and
demographic groups. Science performance remains a point of pride for our district with students continuing to outperform the state averages across nearly every subgroup. The assessment reflects our students ability to apply um scientific reasoning and inquiry skills, which are reinforced through our
hands-on lab experiences. This slide provides a longitudinal view of science performance disegregated by race. Over the past three years, trends have been relatively stable with most racial subgroups maintaining or improving their levels of proficiency. Districtwide, a high percentage of
students continue to score at or above the proficient range, outpacing the state's performance each year. Um, here we see the three-year trend in science proficiency by gender. Overall, male and female students have performed consistently well with minimal variance
between groups. And this slide breaks down science achievement by program type. Um, and similar to other content areas, general education students show proficiency while gaps remain among special populations. And finally, the three-year comparison
by program shows gradual improvement among se several student groups. These gains suggest that the district's systematic approach um is having an impact. Okay. And in summary, overall performance is consistent year-to-year. However, the data confirms that certain
demographics rem consistently achieve higher scores. This makes it even more important for us to focus on closing gaps while maintaining excellence across the board. And to address some of these learning needs, we're investing in multiple supports, including afterchool programs, datadriven benchmarking, um,
online platforms such as, adopting a a writing tool at the elementary level known as SRSD, and also engaging in collaborative data conversations. And these tools allow us to personalize instruction and close gaps while maintaining high expectations for all students.
And so again, I know that was rather quickly, so if this is your first time seeing it, it's a lot to digest, but it will be posted on the website tomorrow morning. Any questions from the board? Um, I have a couple of questions. I guess unfortunately I couldn't be at the
committee meeting. I'm just wondering, um, it occurred to me we always report SAT scores as part of the achievement report. I believe we have a quite a number of kids who choose to take the ACT instead.
Why don't we also report the ACT score? We can do that moving forward. Right now, the only thing we're really required to report by the state is the NJSLA. So, we don't even need to report the AP or the um SATs, but we can I can add the ACT. I think it's good.
Yeah, sure. And I'm just thinking that, you know, we're going to talk about uh and I forget what the other question. So, wasn't that okay? Oh, I know what the other question was. Really a question for Dr. So, we had
previously discussed what we were going to do um uh actions that we were thinking of taking with Gibbs who did not um score a satisfactory score on the
NJSLA in terms of remedial actions. Did we ever put that in place? Yes, that's right. And would that in place before this latest round or only after this round? It would be after this round because we
put that in place in the spring. It would would have been been in the program of study for this year. Okay. So next time we look at this, we we would be able to see if that made any. So and we put the remedial um measures
in place for this for the NJGPA. So, those are for our current um 11th graders or 12th graders. But one thing that I've been marinating on is perhaps looking at the NJSLA scores and identifying, you know, to get the
students before they take the NJ GPA since that's the required graduation uh course, but I think we can talk we can talk more about that at atcom. So, you I have a quick question. um the comparable district that you referenced, can you just kind of speak to you don't
have to say who it is, but can you just speak to like what the metrics are we use for what comparable would be? Um I was just trying to look for a um a district within our county that had um uh you know how they have those ratings the A through J um I can't remember what
they're what the actual name but they were in the same rating group as us district factor group district factor groups. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, I'm I'm coming on my the end of my first term being on the board and I think and I don't have the numbers I don't have the numbers in
front of me, but I'm just thinking about math continues to be this metric that I think we're all seeing as uh while we're above the state standard, we are not at a comparable district standard. So, I'm trying to just maybe start this
conversation now as to the why here. Mhm. I'm sure you guys have a lot of thoughts around it, and I think the remedial is good, but I I do think that I don't know what the answer is cuz this is not my expertise, but I am hoping that we can have some follow-up dialogue about this
uh and find a way to think about that math number compared to the districts that we want to be compared to. Well, and just uh for your own information, uh we are taking a closer look at looking at the standards by course to make sure that all of the state standards are being um addressed thoroughly as one and
then from there we're looking at how to different differentiate based on the like what trends we're noticing by standard. Yeah. And I know anecdotally and hearing from parents in the district and others and even my own instances with my children, it doesn't help that we've changed in certain grades the way we're
doing math. And frankly, there's times where I look at the math homework and my kids telling me to do it away and I say, "What?" Because I have no idea what it is. And I'm sure that is contributing to this in some way. But I I I just hope that we can figure it out. And it's more of just like a proclamation. I know we're all working
hard to do it, but the math one is concerning and I know it's concerning for others. So, looking forward to continue the dialogue. Of course. Thank you. Yep. And I I do know we talked um a couple of times about the way we might approach
math and that that has changed, but also new students to us are also adjusting to a new way likely for them. So we do have some indication that some of the kids maybe not meeting are coming to us to
our district late in their education. So, so like meaning like below a standard. Is that what you're getting at or what am I missing here? No, no, they they learned a different method. They have a different methodology and then they're coming to us and learning a new method. So, okay,
there's that or it could be we don't know where they're coming from. We don't know the rigor of their education and they're coming to some rigor that we need to catch them up. Got it. So, it's not um there is some not necessarily about capability or ability.
It is the catch up. Got it. Okay. Thank you. And I just want to alert you all that our students do very well. Yes, we can always strive to do better and a like district by just a district factor group
is not enough. You really need to disagregate the data and look at what students make up that that group, right? And and so that all of those things are things that we're digging into. Um now that we have a new u sim facilitator whose background is math, we're asking him to look at all those things and and
um the the education programs committee is challenging us to really dig deep into those things. What are we missing um and what we're doing that we we're not you know elevating our scores in that in that area. I had just two questions. So the first
one is about the AP classes. So um one of your recommendations Dr. Blitzis was to increase the accessibility of the AP um I think it was the AP courses you said and I'm just I'm curious as to why because the fact that we're doing better
in those areas makes me wonder if we're actually doing a better job in terms of matching the students who should be taking those courses to to the courses. Um so just curious to hear more about that. And then the second thing I just wanted to lift up is um I think you know as I've been reviewing these scores, we
do see sort of persistent disparities. That's not a secret to anybody um by race, ethn ethnicity, by sociodemographic characteristics. Um but I think in general we've been seeing scores go up for everybody sort of over the past couple years, which is a really
good news story. Looking at these, the one thing that concerned me is that it looked like our Hispanic students have dropped um you know by seven percentage points or so in terms of their math scores in ELA. So I was just wondering if you could share a little bit about you know what your thoughts are about
what might be happening there and what interventions we might be applying to to help those students um really succeed in these areas. Um well in terms of the AP question and increase accessibility I know that it has been really one of the board's mission to u allow if you want
to take an AP test to to do that and that that was what I meant by just like continuing that um accessibility for students so it doesn't seem like it's something unreachable um for students to enroll in. Um, in terms of specifically for the um, Hispanic population, you know, we have like like um, Miss
Galliano was saying before, we we have been looking at when um, students are enrolling in the district. And so some of the students um, may be enrolling later on in the district so that when they take the exam, they may have only been with us for a year. So, we're we're
trying to put in place more um you know nets to help identify where those gaps are and to address those gaps for new students. And that's not just for um for for one race. It's for all students. Yeah.
Um I had I had a couple quick questions. Firstly, thank you for all of the data. Um and just echoing what Dr. Lillison said, it is great to see year-over-year the you know, increases in our test scores. Um, you know, this is my second year on the board, and I feel like
whether it's NJ uh GPA uh testing results or the the results we've just seen now, there does seem to be a persistent gap between the achievement of our black and Latino students and our white and Asian students. So, we've talked a lot about this, and I don't
want to look and read too deep into the year-over-year fluctuations because I know we've also talked about this where, you know, because how small of the populations of of these specific ethnic groups in our district are, you know, one or two students changing their scores often times can lead to some of
these fluctuations. But I'm curious, the gaps overall are still there. and what are we doing as the targeted interventions and curriculum changes that we've talked about. Um I I think like just having served on the board now we've heard a lot about it but I don't
know what the actual interventions have been. Um so we are providing like I just said to Dr. Lilison we are looking at kind of getting a profile of students. Um, so I know when we um when I presented the NJGPA results, like I I did a deep dive
into who was who wasn't passing in terms of racial um ethnicities and um the majority of the students who didn't pass were the students who were had only enrolled like from 8th grade onwards, which is we should be celebrating that the students who are coming through our
system are passing. Um but so um to your question Drew is that we are we are looking to put in place more um supports whether that is afterchool um interventions whether that are um uh in the classroom more culturally relevant
pedigogy um whether that is um you know just differentiating the instruction overall um we are also looking and this is more for ELA um looking at doing better screeners for the students so that we can identify where there might be some foundational gaps that we can work on addressing.
Um, and then a separate question about the AP scores. Um, all of the data that we saw were results from AP test takers. Have we found any gaps between students that are enrolled in AP classes but then don't end up actually taking the exams?
Not we really not really. And we I mean I I I don't in terms of like their grades you're saying per marking period or No, just just if there are any particular you know demographic differences if there are specific communities that are not that are enrolled in AP classes but then don't actually end up taking the exam. If there's just anything that we're
No, we we haven't noticed any trends in that. I I mean one thing I have noticed though is that now that there's more um dual enrollment opportunities that I think that's one of the reasons why our our um our number our number of test takers or exams administered last year went down because I think students are
going with like the dual enrollment. So it's kind of uh we've been offering more dual enrollment. So it's you know kind of like then with the APs we might not have as many test takers. I know that doesn't really answer your question but I thought it was important to know. Yeah. Thank you. I just have one quick request. When
we're um some of your slides had this and some of them didn't. So the ones where um you know like uh gender of students taking AP tests if we have a way either of showing that like as a rate or having both data sets there. It's just hard when I look at it
to know like oh is it because we have more you know let's say male students or so if we could have some data also that shows a comparison to the population that would be really helpful. Sure. Thank you. Okay. Anything else?
Very very good. Thank you Dr. Blitz a lot. All right. Um, I am I I totally am out of order in terms of the agenda, but I'd like to bring up our um
P. What's your supervisor of counseling? Thank you. You're welcome. Um, and we're going to get an overview on our anti-bullying policy. Good evening. Uh, my name is Corine Rut. Thank you so much for having me this
evening. It's my pleasure to share with you uh the results of our 2425 anti-bullying anti-bullying bill of rights grades. Next slide. As you all are likely aware, New Jersey
has been a leader in the establishment of a strong statutory regulatory policy and framework to support the prevention, remediation, and reporting of HIV in schools. One of the requirements of the state's anti-bullying bill of rights act
is an annual reflection on our proactive anti-bullying efforts using the state's selfassessment tool. Next slide, please. This tool includes eight core elements that address the ABR requirements for
schools and each of the elements is listed on the screen. School safety teams meet and are tasked with assigning a grade or a rating to their efforts on according to the rubric. The core elements are listed here. And as you'll see, some include
HIV programs, HIV personnel, curriculum, instruction, and more. All right. The grading scale the state gives us is on a uh rubric of 0 through three. Zero meaning does not meet the
requirements. Three meaning exceeds the requirements. This grading scale is specific and limited. Um so I want to po take a moment to point out the example that I've provided on the slide here. If you look at the difference between
meeting requirements and exceeding requirements in this one case and this is pulled right from the state's rubric. the difference. Uh so in order to meet the requirement, we have to celebrate the week of respect during the week the first week in October uh and hold
activities related to character education and HIV prevention. In order to exceed requirements in that area, we have to do that plus plan activities in collaboration with school staff, students, and community members as an
example. So, I'm I'm really pleased to say that um and you can go go ahead and go to the next slide. Um I'm jumping ahead of myself a little bit, but the fluctuation in our grading um has been oftentimes just the difference between
meeting or exceeding requirements. Um I'll get back to that just a moment. So, the school safety team is responsible, as I mentioned, for completing the self assessment. They meet several times a year in addition to doing this self- assessment with the goal of strengthening school climate and
thinking critically about preventing and addressing HIV. Okay, next slide. All right. So, what you see here are the 2425 ABR selfassessment results from each building. And you'll see results from
each of the eight elements. As an example, if you look at element one, the maximum amount that any school could have scored in that element is a 15. That means that they exceeded requirements in each of those um
components of that element. Um looking at element seven, you'll see that each of our building did each of our buildings did exceed requirements in that core element. You can go to the next slide. So what I have here now are our total
scores by school. A score of 50 on this rubric from the state means that all expectations have been met. You'll see that in each building we are well above that and are airing on the side of exceeding expectations.
Next slide. And this is an average of our district as a whole over the past four years. you can see that that we are regularly um you know exceeding requirements by a long shot.
So what do we do in order to prevent and address HIV? Well, one of the most important things we do doesn't happen necessarily directly as a result of the anti-bullying specialists or or myself as the anti-bullying coordinator. It happens in the classroom and it happens
um just inherently. We're building relationships with students and encouraging students to have strong healthy relationships with one another. There are lots of ways that we do that. Character education is certainly one of them. Um this year we are pleased to be
running a trial of evidence-based tier 2 social emotional learning program at each elementary school. Um we have uh again one of those components that we need to assess ourselves are on our
staff uh specifically um engaged in anti-bullying work. So we have myself as the coordinator. Each building has an anti-bullying specialist. You can go on to the next. Um and there are just many more things
that we do. school assemblies throughout the year, counselors supporting students, peer leadership programs, etc., etc. Um, with that, I say thank you for your time and I think I have to ask if there
are any questions. I was just going to say, can you go back to the slide by school and I just want to highlight this is not out of a percentage of a 100. So, can you explain kind of what we're looking at there? Is this the correct?
Uh no I think one more forward. Yes there we are. Yeah. So um so in each category there is a maximum score of three for each component of
every core element. So some core elements have two components. Some core elements have five components. Um, if you put all of those together as a whole, a score of 50 means that you have
met each requirement. So, you've gotten a score of two on each requirement. What you see here is that we are far more frequently exceeding the requirements and earning a score of three versus earning a score of two.
And what's the highest score possible? Wow. Um, I haven't thought about that. I think it's 78. Okay, thank you. How do you know this? You're so smart. Um, I will I don't I'm teasing you, but I wanted to highlight that cuz when I looked at this at first, I was like,
we're only getting C's right in like my academic head. And I was like, wait a minute, it's out of 78. This is incredible. So, I wanted to highlight that for you. It's amazing. You want to come up here and do this presentation next year? Thank you. 78. Yes. I appreciate that.
I have a I have a quick question. Um, thank you for this great presentation. I really appreciate it. Um, and you know, we're obviously doing really well. These scores are, you know, on this assessment here. Um, and we still get HIP reports every month and we we see them, right? Um,
every year we look at those numbers. So, you're newer to this district. So, I'm just curious if you could share with us where do you see the areas for growth in terms of us re really being able to build up our anti-bullying work and our
bullying prevention work. Are you asking me how we get uh how we decrease the number of bullying reports or is the question different? No, I I think that's it, right? I think I think my question is we're knocking it out of the park here,
right? We're still seeing reports come in each month. Yeah, I don't know that we're doing much worse than any other school district, right? But where do you see the gaps? Where do we need to be putting more energy if anywhere? I think the good news, bad news of this is that uh from my perspective, this
district has a culture of reporting. We error on the side of reporting it as an HIV and we are also very conservative in our policy related to HIV. uh we don't
um use the option to deny uh an HIV report and say no, we're not going to we've looked at that and that's not HIV, we're not going to report it. And there are lots of reasons that the board um that you all opted uh to to take that conservative approach. So, I would have
to say I think where we may be able to grow is in educating people on the nuances of what specifically is is considered bullying according to the law and what is conflict. And Dr. Trice and I do a presentation almost every year
together talking in part about that. But um that is something that the anti-bullying specialist specialists and I have talked about already this year is trying to get the word out a little bit more about that. Some of it is generational. I I'm a parent of of children in school, right? Or well, mine
are in college now, but um I used to use the word bullying to mean a lot of things that don't meet that definition uh according to the law. And I so I think that's an area of growth that if we're able to do that, we may see the
number of reports come down. Uh I'm speculating. I don't I don't know, but that's my hunch. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes. Are is there any amount of uh he's having me can do you do you get involved
in in calibration and making sure that those there's some consistency across all schools? We do try to do that because the anti-bullying specialists and I meet um at least three times a year and we talk about what the in our
in our last meeting we talk about what the rubric looks like and what that means in certain places. That said, and I think this is this is um this is a good thing. It's not just the anti-bullying specialist who is involved in doing that rating. It's the school
safety team. So, and that typically is comprised of a community member, um, a staff member, the anti-bullying specialist, the principal. Um, so it's that committee's decision. Um, and some of the committees are a little bit harder on themselves than others, I
think, you know, but I think, um, I think overall we we have a lot to a lot to be proud of in this area. Did that answer your question? Uh, I'm sorry. You want me to try again? Okay. Okay. Thank.
Yes. To go back to your previous answer, um, if you're going to educate the community about what content fully according to your statute. Yes. I think it's just as important, if not
more important, to educate folks in our community that when there's an incident, the actions that the district takes are based on the
facts and circumstances of the incident, not whether it is determined to be bullying or not. Right. Absolutely. That right. Because there's a perception in the community that if the district determines that something is not
bullying, that the consequences kind of go away. And that's patently not true. That's absolutely not true. Yeah. Right. But I know it support the board. But we need to say that more. I think a lot of people in the community
are confused about understandably so. Right. between what we do because of statutory requirements around HIPP and the reporting and what we do um as part of routine normal
disciplinary proceeding. Yes, thank you for that. And that and those conversations are had when the principal and vice principal having been in both those roles, we make those calls home and say there's an investigation. the consequence has already been issued
well before sometimes we get the findings for the uh the HIV uh findings. um the HIV findings whether it's found as bullying or not do not give you an extra scoop of consequence right the consequence has already happened um we've already addressed that those
issues with the students because most times it's whether it checks the box or not if it's a violation of our code of conduct which it often is um a consequence needs to come immediately it can't come sort of 3 4 weeks after or two weeks after after everybody's been interviewed to check the box the HI
report is not for us to decide if we're going to give a consequence or not. It is for us to report to the state for them to determine if we have a problem in our school district and that's what we use it for. And then the question is what are we doing just like you're asking us now to make those numbers come
down. It's not for us to decide whether or not something was done wrong. You can do something very wrong and not check that box. And so that would that would be dealt with immediately. and and and the only point I was making that you are going to do community education right that's
a big part of thank you any other I was just going to add to that Dr. I think it's a really good point. Um, one of the things I appreciate both as a board member and as a parent here, right, is you are 100% correct, right? We as a district take
and bullying very seriously and there are other districts across the state that are much more likely to not consider something a bullying event. Um, there are some districts, I think, right, that are worried if they have numbers and what that means. And we take the opposite approach here, right? We
rather it come to the board as a HIV like you're saying so that it can be reviewed both by the state and by the board to make sure that all of those children are being supported. Right? Because that's something that we really really value here that any child that feels that they are being bullied is is
supported just across the district. and to balance that, right? We've done a lot of work as a board and a tremendous amount of work from the administrators and principles and teachers um to also then not just say, okay, well then here's a consequence and that's it,
right? That this is really a learning opportunity. And so a lot of the work that's been done here in the discipline code to bring in restorative justice, to bring in opportunities for healing, to bring in education, right, and and the balance between those so that people who
are engaging in behaviors that are harming, right, are being are being re-educated, are being supported to learn and to behave different while also ensuring those who are being bullied, right, are are fully supported in the district. And so I just wanted to highlight because I think our district does exceptionally well with that with
that balance here and wanted to to really highlight that. Thank you. I second that. Anything else? All right. Thank you so much. Thank you for your support. All right. We are going to move
into a specific public comment section for um on our anti-bullying report. Um, so I'll remind the members of the public are invited to address the board on any not on any matter but the polling report
itself for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so
that the matter is researched by the district administration. With that, you know, your time um rules and public comment is now open. Okay, seeing no comments, we will move on.
Um yes, we are doing the budget presentation for special ed. Hey. Hey everyone. Um, Bobby, I'm Pette, director of pupil services. Bob, you can
move it to the next slide. Um each year I when I present I put these two um IDA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act along with our New Jersey Administrative Code 6A for special education. Um these guide
our practices, our timelines, our procedures, our policies and how we support and educate children with special needs. Next one. um under the umbrella of the pupil services,
uh I could not do my job um and provide the services that we do for our children without the support of our um counseling supervisor that you just saw, Miss Corin Rut, our supervisor of elementary special education, Dr. Beth Hoffman, and
our secondary special education supervisor, Mr. George Nem. Um, together we work to support all of our special education students, all of our students with 504 plans, all of our students who receive counseling services. We oversee
nursing, um, the school physician and any medical issues related. Um, our office supports families who have housing insecurities. Um, we oversee the idea grant, which I will show you in a few minutes about where that funding goes. semi mental
health supports and contracts outside of our staffing to support um our stu students. We oversee home instruction and the extended school year for our students with special education needs. So, this is a breakdown of our students
um as of today who have 504 plans, which are legally binding documents that support students with disabilities. The difference between the 504 plan and the IEP, individualized education plan, is the 504 plans provide accommodations,
not modifications. So, we're not altering the curriculum in any way. Um, and you'll see we have around two we have 250 students as of today who have uh formal 504 plans. Our umbrella,
every piece of our umbrella oversees and supports social emotional learning for our students. We have a board committee that meets monthly. We also have a district-wide committee um where we average anywhere from 20 to 40 members um across all six schools who help to
create and plan social emotional learning days. We just had the week of respect as Miss Rut just shared in October. Um we have monthly themes that support um our students and use common language so that we can practice um
these character traits through character strong a curriculum that we implemented uh I believe this is our third year. So you'll see respect, responsibility, gratitude, empathy, perseverance, honesty, cooperation, courage, creativity and kindness. Looking at our special education
population, um as of today, we have 784 students across our district who receive special education services. These are classifications um that are needed to help us with
accessing the funding and the educational supports needed to educate properly. I've highlighted a few because I want to point out for this year um we had a shift upward of students with u more involved challenges. So, mild to mo
moderate um intellectual challenges um and autism. And you'll see the numbers, you think, well, that's just kind of that's not that's not a lot. But you'll see the code requires the classroom sizes to be a specific number. And if we go up by one, we need to open up another
classroom. And that actually happened with us this year. Those are last year's students. Yeah. Classifications. Yes. the ones in parentheses are last year's and then these are this year's. I do also want to highlight if you look at our specific learning disability number
it it has come down. I do attribute that to the hard work that Dr. Pitzis our principles and all um that we're doing with regard to the science of reading and supporting reading and writing needs um across the elementary grade levels.
our preschool. We have a very large preschool program um across all four schools. Um we have half-day integrative programs for our three-year-olds, afternoon programs for our four-year-olds, and then we have our full day program for our students who um
are identified as preschool disabled. We have special classes um across all the schools. Um you'll see um I've highlighted um where these classes are. For example, uh Bear Tavern houses five of our preschool classrooms. Hope
Elementary houses our language learning disabled classes, K through five, Tolkate emotional regulation class. Stony Brook are multiply disabled classes. The middle school has um again these three. I'm not going to I don't need to name them all. Central High School also has the same multiply
disabled learning language class and emotional regulation class. I can say also with confidence that none of our classes are what I would consider the state would consider self-contained and I'm very proud of that. Um they may receive their four core academic classes
in one one classroom or between two classrooms but they all have home rooms. They all go to electives. They all receive inclusion social studies and science. and our special education teachers, K5. Um, often I receive questions about, well, how is how is my
child in science and social studies receiving the the literacy support that the trained special education teachers provide in our research and language arts classrooms? Well, all of our K5 special education teachers and our our middle school and many of our high school are trained in the same
structured literacy program. So they're receiving that continuity of best practice for reading and writing across the core academics. We have collaborative classrooms all over our district um where that involves two teachers, a general education teacher and a special education teacher
um in all um areas of core uh classroom and curriculum. We have resource room classes which are smaller size um and also language arts, math, science and social studies. So this is the code, New Jersey code of special education. This is important for
you to see because I don't get to determine the number of children per class or how many pair of professionals should be in those classes. This guides our practice and um I follow the rules. So we make sure that we uh we stay we
stick to this number. But like I said, we had a couple students who moved in um right before school who were in our special classes and it tipped it tipped us into having to open up two additional multiply disabled classrooms to be able to meet their needs and meet the code requirements. Next one.
We do have some students, we have 47 students who receive um out of district placements for whatever reason um we are not able to meet their educational or social emotional needs. Um, and so their least restrictive environment is an out of district placement. And these are the
lists of schools that we contract with and support. Next one. The bulk of our IDA grant funding, which is around $892,000, goes towards our tuition costs for our out of district students. Um the out ofd
district students average tuition is anywhere from um 57,000 that's low to 300,000 a year depending on the needs of students. These are some highlighted areas and they are very expensive. I mean there's
there you'll see um we have a student who comes with a onetoone nurse. We have several students actually four and um they they need to for them to be able to come to school to access their learning and um and be able to be a part of our
community, they need this nurse next to them. So we we provide that and uh are mandated to provide that. um outside evaluations. If we need to send somebody for a psychiatric evaluation or a neuroscychological because we need more information to be able to to create a
program that's appropriate for them, we will contract with outside um professionals. We also support and oversee the sports physicals um and the AEDs that across the the um district.
Um under people services we also support the mental health our our Ruckers clinician um is through my budget um our sub nurses are registered medical waste the way it's re re removed from the district we coordinate all of that CPR
training and also drug testing OT supplies so occupational therapy physical therapy supplies again you know I don't think you realize often that our students may need FM systems because they may have um hearing challenges and to be able to have them access curriculum and learning, we need to
provide these services these and these um items. And so that's kind of that's our line item for that. Um learning ally reading supports, text to speech, speechto text, um standards for students who are um in wheelchairs who need to
stand at certain points of the day. We have to be able to provide those as well. Um we also contract um if we need to for outside physical therapy or occupational therapy assisted technology students who use um augmentative communication
devices I may need to bring a specialist in to support their needs to be able to communicate and that's what that item is about. Okay, Bob. Uh pupil services also supports home instruction. What is home instruction? So, if a student um has a medical need
that precludes them from being able to come into the school, um we will receive a medical note from their treating physician. Our school doctor will review it and either approve it or deny it. And if approved, then we oversee and coordinate the home instruction while
the child is recovering from whatever medical condition is going on. And I do want to highlight this because I do feel um you know teachers need the tools to be able to provide quality instruction and we do have to provide
the training necessary for them to reach and teach our kids. Um so we have really committed to um these evidence-based practices that support reading, writing and math. I think there was a question about the math might have been you Drew.
Uh I don't remember Mark. Um so because we do and and standardized testing especially for our special education students can be really hard. It's very hard for them. That's why they have extended time and they should in my opinion they shouldn't be judged on
that. Um but that's the state of our education at the moment. Um, but the multiensory math is something that our staff has brought in um, and our teachers are implementing now and we're seeing a shift for for the better.
Okay. Inclusion at its best. This is just a list of and and we were just literally listing that these our kids with special education needs are in all of these plus
some. Um, and to be able to see the inclusion and when we talk about inclusion, it's not just about sitting in that math class, right? It's about participating fully in the community. And actually, Mus Corvaline and Dr. McCarti tonight, I felt like mic drop. I
I mean, I that is inclusion at its best. It's people who love and honor all of our children and include them and help them identify their strengths and help them face their challenges just like we all have challenges and re reach their
goals. And then I think I the last are just some pictures of our beautiful children and teachers and go ahead next one. And the ultimate goal is helping them to access their greatness. Thanks. Any questions? I'll I'll just uh start. So Bob, can you
go back to the list of the schools that we place and then the following what's the next slide here? So Paul, just to make sure that I'm reading this right, these numbers represent the dollars that we
spend. Can you just finish my statement here? like these dollars right here are the tuition that we spend to send kids out of district. That is correct. And we also cover like the vocational education program. So for our general education students that
falls under my That's right. uh budget as well. So I think just for the general public here, I don't think there's a single board member that doesn't think that Pette doesn't run an excellent program at this district. And for me as the finance chair, when we have discussions
with our community around where dollars and cents end up, this is a perfect example of a slide where on $100 million budget, you can do the math of what percentage is going towards this tuition to place kids, right? And I bring this up not to do
anything to the negative because again, PLET's program is second to none and I think every board member can say that. But the very reality of what we face in New Jersey is this idea that even with a stellar program, we still have to do these placements. A, it's the right
thing to do, right? But B, we're required to do it by law. The second thing I would say is a lot of what Paul has talked about tonight is required by law. So, as we talk about our budgets and we think about the financial discussions that are happening in our community, we can't lose sight of the
fact that not only is it the right thing to do to support the kids that need it most, but there is a requirement that Trenton puts on all of us to do that. So this is less of a question and more of a statement to back up Pette and the great program that we have here. Second to
none and I'll continue to say that. But also for the community to understand that there's a very real dollar and cent figure here that is required by law for us to be able to do that plays into our discussions about budget. So thank you for running an awesome program. Thanks Mark. And I I'll just add I have
I've taught in uh two other states and um they do not have the special education schools that New Jersey has. And I can say that the kids that I had the privilege of teaching in these two other states, I don't know that they
received their least restrictive environment. And I don't know that they received what they needed because there weren't schools like this and there weren't districts to be able to provide that kind of support that they need to access their their education.
If I can just piggyback on that, in addition to that, um Pette has really going gone over and beyond to not just default to sending kids out of district. She has brought a lot of programs here in the district that have brought children back into Hopewell and because this is for a lot of students truly
their least restrictive environment. Some of the autism preschool programs, the the emotional regulation programs that we have um were all PLET and that saves the district money and oh by the way we do a better job academically than a lot of those other schools do. So she's doing the hard work to make sure
um that when those numbers go up there, you know, that is the right placement that that student, that child needs to be successful in school. And that's our obligation and our and our responsibility. This is not happening even in the state of New Jersey consistently in district. And so that's what makes us such a a premier district
for for people that want to to have these services because they know that we do a stellar job. So thank you. I thank you and your team for that. Yeah. And um one other layer to that that's amazing and that's awesome and
and also when we are able to bring our kids keep our kids in district it means we're we are spending less money period into story and it does require a different amount of space. So when we
talk about having flexible spaces in our in our varying schools, some of the the very difficult changes we've experienced from 10, 20 years ago when we didn't have this kind of programming to now is
that we need more space to do this amazing work and at a less expensive price. So, just want to highlight one of the kind of odd or it seems disproportionate um spend when you bring kids, keep them
home, keep them in their home space whenever absolutely possible. We do spend less money as a district and it requires us to use the space we have very differently. And so as we move forward in our planning, we are always
keeping these flex spaces in our planning process. So just again trying to educate the school district in our community on what that looks like as we move forward in in building school
spaces and and adapting to a better way in in all of our opinion, the better way of serving our families and children. Okay, thank you again, Plette. Um, we are
going to roll straight into um our general public comment. And if you guys haven't gotten tired of me reading it, I'll do it again as part of our public comment. But this one is for any topic. Um the so the member members
of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You're asked to state your name, address, and municipality. And in response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or direct the
superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administration. I also want to remind you to sign in at the deis when you step up. Public comment is now open.
Um, hi, good evening. I'm Luis Martinez from Hopewell Township. Um, great meeting. I love seeing the reports and they've been excellent. So, um, commend everybody for all the hard work. I had three main questions particularly on like essentially just improving some of
the educational programs we have. I'm curious um with the stronger AP results, are there any plans to add more AP classes and enrichment opportunities for students? I know we can't offer all the classes, but um I'm just curious how the district uh decides on the AP classes
that we offer. Um and why maybe some other classes like AP African-American studies may not be offered here. Um also, what changes are being considered? Um, I think some of the board members already said, um, you know, for maybe to
help more students exceed expectations in algebra 1 and geometry, uh, where we saw maybe slightly lower performance than, um, expected and, um, maybe offer more support. And lastly, uh, what's being done to close the
achievement gaps in some of the different student groups such as, you know, you mentioned, I think in the slides, uh, it was clear, you know, delineation raising, you know, I'm just curious some of the other ways, whether it's special education or, um, income,
you know, based on the NJSLIS, uh, test result. Thank you. My name is Peter Donado. I'm from Opel Township. I'm speaking on behalf of the FCA club at our school. So, I'm a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club at the high school. Our club is a
studentled club and we've been very grateful for the ongoing encouragement and support from our volunteers, Caroline and Ken, who have constantly been there for us over the years. They treat us with kindness and they always give helpful insights and bring pizza and donuts to make our meetings extra
special. We recently learned that there's a new policy preventing them from coming into the school and we're hoping to better understand why. Could you please explain the reasoning behind the decision and what the policy specifically states? We've noticed that other nearby school
districts allow FCA volunteers to participate and we're wondering why Valley's policy is different. Thank you for taking the time to consider my question and supporting student clubs like ours. Hello, my name is Sylvia Kosas and I'm from Pennington. Um, we had a lot of
numbers tonight. Wow. Because numbers matter and uh we've seen that tonight. The data and the information you provide helps you to make better decisions uh for the educational needs of our students. Last month, I asked the administration to provide the public
with another set of numbers. the actual number of students who have enrolled in our schools from three residential developments that have pilot agreements. These numbers impact the fiscal needs of our school. They are important for evaluation, accountability and decision
making. Also, they help answer the question, do these tax abatement developments provide their equitable share of revenue for the ongoing educational cost for our regional school system? The township in the district provided this demographic study. Here's
a copy of the chart. It's granular. It describes these neighborhoods by name. Topo Park, Woodmont. The collection. It predicts how many students will enroll in our schools from each development by the year 2035.
Woodmont Forge on Federal City Road is projected to generate 76 students over the next 10 years. Without periodic updates on the numbers of students these developments actually generate, the public cannot make any evaluations or
comparisons. You did that tonight. We cannot hold elected officials and demographers accountable for their statements and for the fiscal impact these pilots agreement have on the funding for the education and safety of our children. For example, the town
crier from Q4 2024, Mayor Courtney Peters Manning states only about 250 students will be from the new neighborhoods associated with the township's affordable housing mandate.
Only 250 over the next 10 years. Yet last month, Mr. Kolivita stated that 278 new students have already enrolled from these three developments. 250 new students over 10 years. 278
already. We warmly welcome these students and their families into the neighborhood. But the township cannot claim that these projects will have no impact on our school. They already have an impact. Numbers matter.
Misinformation is misleading and confuses the community. You have the opportunity to provide the public with actual numbers of students enrolled each month in the agenda. Why are you afraid to publish these numbers? What reasons
do you have for hiding them from the public? Thank you. Good evening, Kate Ham, Hopewell Township. First, I'd like to make a remark of extreme praise, appreciation, and gratitude for Mrs. Corvaline and Dr.
McCarti. I thank you and your students for stretching your thoughts and imaginations to use your efforts to positively impact the lives of others. The following comments and questions are attached to presentations that are heard. The first regarding the presentation including AP offerings and
scores. If my mathematics are correct, HBRSD offers more than two dozen AP classes. Some of the numbers regarding the testing are single digits. My question is, what is the range of the number of students in AP classes? In other words, are we offering AP classes
to a student population of single digits in a classroom or might the classes be on the smaller side, maybe 10 or 12, but only three or six, three to six are choosing to test? In regards to the ABR presentation, there were questions and discussions amongst the board about
growth, information, and knowledge. For what it's worth, I'd like to share an experience known by many here in the valley. While HIV investigations occur and may be unfounded, it is important to note that the final determination is being made by one designated individual
per building. More often than not, there have been instances where ABS are unable to fully understand the perception of an incident. For example, a male Caucasian ABS will not fully understand the impact of a racially derogatory comment made
towards a minority female student. or a male or female ABS may not fully grasp the impact of comments or perceived ideologies made towards an an towards an LGBTQ plus individual. Allowing one individual who may not be well-versed in
the perceived harm towards our students involving race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identification, etc. to make a subjective decision as the final determination can be harmful for our students and families. As a result, I would encourage this
district's administration and the board to explore a change to include a small team, maybe two or three individuals when determining a HIP investigation confirmed or declined. Having a few different perspectives instead of one sole individual allows interpretation
and perception discussion to be had, creating safe environments for all. Hi, I'm Jen Donado um from Titusville. Um I understand uh that you have an upcoming meeting with the FCA club and I
just want to thank you for that. I'm really excited that you've got that scheduled so we're really looking forward to that uh seeing some progress. Um, so what I'd like to find out is um where where this complaint came from or what
what what happened with this? I just want to kind of better understand um was it a complaint against the club? Was there a change um or a new policy enacted? Um I'd just like to better understand um why the SCA volunteers
cannot come into the school. Can you explain this to our kids and to our audience tonight? um anything that you could offer to better help us understand would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Okay, looks like we have all comments um
left. Absolutely. I'm going to defer the um the AP course questions and and those um items to Dr. Blitz. You okay with that? Okay. So, the the question was was um um do we plan to add uh additional AP courses um like for example
African-American uh AP which we have by the way we just haven't had enough students register for us to run it. Um so that was the first question and then the other one was some of the things that we've done to close the achievement gap. Um so in terms of the AP offerings
obviously we would love to offer more um but um a few things come into place like Dr. Trice mentioned we we have been trying to offer um AP African-American studies every year. We haven't gotten enough enrollment so we haven't run the course. Um also it we have to um send
teachers out for training by college board and so some teacher you know about teacher availability and also in terms of if we scheduling too. So um if we are looking at collapsing numbers or making our class sizes larger like we won't be able to um to give up staff essentially.
I mean, we would love to if that's possible. Um, I know that, um, Miss Ham, you had a question about, um, the AP numbers and so, just just for reference, um, if there are AP classes that are smaller, like for example, AP Art Studio, there's only three students
registered for it, but that is also with Studio Art 1. So, they're run at the same period. So, the teacher has to differentiate the instruction. So, there are no um singledigit courses that are run solo. If and if there is a single I if
something's standing alone our range of number of students I mean um I we don't have a hard and fast rule I would say in terms of we're cutting it off there. It's just also about um availability of of teaching staff too. The three factors.
Yeah. The other one was um examples of what we've done to close the achievement gap for certain populations of students. I I feel like I I mentioned this to the at the board. Um but we're looking at developing profiles of students to see um you know if they're if they're
enrolling new um later on in the district like what are we going to do to support new teacher new students? Um we're also looking at screening our students better um at just to see where the foundational gaps are. We're working with professional development training for the teachers. Um
and some other things we've done along the way is we've had um enrichment programs in the summer for students for that we've identified as having learning gaps. Um we've paired them with mentors. We have offered after school tutoring. We've done a number of things but part of it is identifying these students as
they come in who have not been with us since kindergarten coming up. And the gaps that they have are not um because that they have a learning disability or anything like that. it's because they just never have been exposed to the curriculum and catching them up. How do we catch them up when they have these gaps? So, all of those things are are
things that we're looking at moving forward. Yeah. And I and I think the the fact that it's hard to what I hear you saying is that it's looking at the information differently as opposed to putting in new programs because the programs exist. the
summer programming, the tutor, the you know the after school, the um additional support is always will be there. But finding which students need what specific mix of those services is what
is kind of a newer look um if you will. And it isn't as simple as saying, you know, this demographic just automatically should should move in because each individual student needs needs to set. Um the other uh question was about our
um our Christian athlete uh organization. Um this is not a change in policy of Hopewell. Uh I was I received a a served servants of a possible pending lawsuit from the fed freedom from religion foundation. It is against
the law for any school to have a club that is religious and based that have people coming from the outside that mentor within the club. Um when I received this letter I reached out to our board attorney um and he was like he said if this is happening you have to
cease and desist immediately. You cannot have someone coming out outside with the religious clubs. They're allowed to have you're allowed to have them in school. Um they have to be studentrun. They have to have an adviser that is on our staff. That adviser cannot supervise or run the
club. The students have to lead it. So if there are other people that are doing that in New Jersey, they're going to get one of these as well if they haven't already. So it's not an Hopewell policy. this there's case law and there's many uh court cases that have been brought and this is a finding that we are not
allowed to do it. Um so it's not something that Dr. Trice or this board has decided. It's been played out in the courts. So when I come talk to the club, I'm going I'll share the letter. I mean it's it's public record. I have it right here in front of me. Um we were served this and this is something we had to
stop doing. Absolutely. I think I I I shared this with y'all in the green notes, but um yes. Yes, but I'll I'll make sure I share that with folks. And then Miss Kosas's question was um about the enrollment numbers as promised. I I told you all I would have
that for you at the I think we'll have the demographers report at the end of the month. We'll share those numbers. This is what the demographers report predicted the first time. Oh, by the way, it never was zero impact. That was not what the demographer said initially. um what he's going to share. They're
going to share. This is what we initially reported. This is what we're reporting now is a prediction. And it is a prediction. They don't know what's what grades students are going to be landing in and how that's going to play out. Um but their best guess based on their conversations with the township
and the two burrows about what possible pilots could be coming in the future. Uh so we will have that for you. We'll have those specific numbers and we have been very transparent. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to share those right here. What I don't want to do is every month put up the enrollment numbers like these are outsiders and not
part of our community. It doesn't matter to me that it's 300 or 400 students coming. They're all mine and they're coming every day. So, I don't want to say, "Oh, these are the folks like they're outside and they're not part of who we are, right?" Um, and it's it's
really not my battle to battle with the township of what the numbers are or what they think the numbers may be. I can only tell you this is what it is. This is what we're experiencing. and this is how I have to address it in my budget. Um, so the bigger question about whether pilots should exist the way they are,
whether or not the folks that are that engage in those pilots owe the district something is a legislative conversation that happens in Trenton and it can happen here in in the board. But I promise you that you will get that full report um with the numbers currently that are still shifting as of today. I
went and tried to publish numbers and and they had changed already. Um, so I'm going to make sure that we have a full report for you and also our prediction of what we need to do to address that in form of um any um redistricting that we may need to do. Yeah.
You just say when do we expect to have the report? It's it's actually I just asked it's due anytime, but you know, we'll have to look at the report Novemberish. It can't be finalized until October
15th. numbers are counted and submitted by our our data person. Once they have that, they can tie together the final report. Yeah. And I I think the the important thing here as a as a board as we give
guidance to the administration is that um all the all of the burrow the burrows and the township are all looking at building growing and um our job is to
reach out at at some measure. We aren't sure exactly how frequently, but we're going to need to ongoingly do demographic studies to see what the numbers look like. And I think the the other piece is that it doesn't necessarily even if we tell you where
what community they're going coming from, doesn't mean it tells you anything about what school they're going to because as we change and grow, redistricting can and most likely will happen. So, um, it doesn't make sense to do something as
frequently as a monthly update because it's going to not only change, but where kids go to school can change within maybe a six month or a year. So, I I think that we wouldn't recommend the district spending that kind of time.
what we want them to spend time doing is managing those incoming kids and making sure that we're we've got transportation and that we've got the teachers in the right place. So, we're going to all stay as tuned in as we possible and be completely as transparent along the way
as possible in a way that makes sense that it actually is um accurate because a monthly number is won't won't be helpful um or accurate. So, and just a reminder that the enrollment
report is shared every month and that's public. And so that's a way where we look at all of our students and what schools they're currently in and so that will remain available um which is how we currently do that. Thank you for that. So so just a little bit of push back
maybe a lot of push back not only monthly but on the impact of releasing numbers by communities. Um, and I appreciate the fact that has some tendenc to isolate
those communities. Don't know to what extent that, but I think if we were just looking to go back into and say, hey, I'd put a little bit more weight on that. The issue we have going on is the
number of future developments, upcoming developments that are being discussed across the street. And having attended some of those meetings, there are numbers for students
that are being thrown out there that are just mindboggling all right. I've heard uh half a student Um, so I think it's important for us um to release and again that doesn't
mean we need to do this on a on a month-by-month basis, but to actually release numbers that show, hey, you know, we've now built these developments and we're not getting have a student per unit. We're getting, I would imagine,
quite a bit more than that. So that as our municipalities are moving forward with new developments, they are um accurately taking into account the impact on the district. And if the folks
who are sitting up on the deis there in the in the in the borrow and the township committees are not doing that then the public has the number to push back and and say yes the developer may be saying that that's their experience but that's not the experience of hopeful
valley you know that may be the experience when you build in district that people don't want to move into but when you build in a district that people with kids want to move to the the experience is going to be completely So I do want to make sure that we get those
numbers out and we get a sense of actually what the number of hits per unit, right? What those numbers are so that people can see them and and and and try
future decisions. Totally agree and I I I'm I'm aligning with what you're saying. We haven't found the how frequently yet because things are so changing so rapidly. So work to do on our part in
assessing that. But it again it wouldn't be appropriate or accurate to put something out on a monthly basis and the frequency we should continue to seek what's what makes sense. Right. That's that's precisely what
we're asking for this report. Okay. Right. They're going to say this is what you said last time. This is what we're actually seeing, right? And again, the demographer never said it was going to be zero. They didn't see any half of children, right? That's our demographer. No.
No. Okay. So, absolutely. I agree. I mean, we're all in agreement. Can I just add one more point? I think just for the public, it just as a matter of principle. Um, the finance committee has been no shrinking violet when it comes to pressing administration to be
involved with the towns and talking to them early on in these processes when it comes to their pilot programs or whatever they're going to label them. I think that the public needs to continue to understand that it's in the best interest of the district for us to continue to be involved in those
discussions because that allows us to actually do long-term planning, which is something we want to do and we've talked about. And the more that we know on the front end about the impact of these potential developments, the more that we can prepare. And I think that the administration has done a good job. It's not been easy, but I do think that
they've done a good job over the past year of uh heeding the advice from the finance committee and others to get involved and do it even when it's been uncomfortable, right? And I I just want to commend both Rosetta and Bob for that because uh I think that candidly speaking, they probably have disagreed when we've asked them to do things and
they've still done it because that's what a board does and they've done it and we've gotten outcomes that we've wanted and outcomes that we haven't wanted, but I think that we're in a better position today than we were a year ago and I just want to give us a public commend both of you for that. So, thank you.
Um the and the last question uh that I wanted to make sure we covered was um the idea that um that we probably should have collaboration among the um the anti-bullying specialists. We generally do have collaboration and know that Miss Rut oversees all of the final reports um
that come through before they they are sent to me to be um reviewed and then I review them. Um, I I would argue that any of our counselors can identify whether they are of that ethnic group or not and they're well trained in being culturally responsive and in how to identify what is a hip and what isn't
and what is is biased and isn't um comments. I could I could I can often say that that they do a very I can sure surely say andure you that they know what they're doing, but I have the final say and I look at it and so does Miss Rut. Uh, so I feel like we're in a good
place with that and they often do collaborate because especially in the middle school where we have most of our hibs. Um, they collaborate and they work across the lines and we have more than one ABS in that building. In the elementary level, Miss Rut oversees those as well and make sure she checks
those and make sure as she looks at the evidence that what they selected was indeed the true what it should have been. Um, and I and I've been very good I've been very lucky to not have had to turn any back. There's been a couple I've had to say, I need you to look at this again. But it's rare. It's rare
that I have to do that. So, thank you for that. Okay, with that, we'll close public comment and move on with the agenda. Agenda, excuse me. Um, do we have any old business items? Okay, seeing none, um would like to get
a first and second to pass the consent agenda items in the in the um second. All in favor? I I any opposed or abstaining? Seeing none, consent agenda items are
passed. Moving on to committee um updates starting with finance and facilities. Mr. I'm actually gonna let my esteemed colleague uh uh Dr. Resnik uh present this because I was out sick. So Oh,
please fire away. I'm gonna very esteemly present. So, we had uh um our uh the majority of our finance and
facilities committee meeting focused on um the presentation from our advisors that help us with our um health plan. Um just for the folks who are here and are
andor are listening online um two important facts to know one is at some point I don't know when but at some point the state passed a mandate which defined very precisely the health
benefits that districts have to offer um to their staff. So none of the details of the benefits can be negotiated. Not what's included, excluded, premiums, co-pays, none of that can be negotiated
um in 2020. Um so the only um options that a district has is whether they offer it through whatever the state plan is or um offer the same exact benefit by
some other means. We are self-insured uh to a significant extent. We we carry insurance to protect us against uh what would be sort of runaway cost. But we're essentially self-insured.
Um which means we hire an administrator to u administer that plan, but then we actually pay it out of our budget. We have historically done way better than if we were paying premiums into the
state plan. Why is all of that relevant in in trying to figure out what we need to budget um for this uh for the next budget cycle for health insurance for our employees?
And for those of you who are not in financing facilities committee, you may want to hold on. Um the first data point is um a report by AON who are I guess the underwriters for the state plan for
what they anticipate the premium increases to be in the state plan and those that they anticipate to be 25 to 33% for the medical part of it and 58% for the prescription
treatment. uh for an aggregate increase somewhere in the mid 30%. So we are hopeful that when our consultants finish
their financial analysis our increases will not be in a 35 right our budget for the healthcare will not increase at at a 35% rate but I would my personal opinion having listened to
it we need to anticipate significant significant increases to our health. I would guess probably somewhere in the 20s, right? Um and of course with a 2% budget cap
that's going to create um so I'm just going to let that sink in. Um, and when I say the rest of the meeting, we had a discussion with Tom Quinn about ongoing projects and we we
have ongoing projects that are going well. They're costing us money. Money is coming out of the budget, but the budget, but the projects are going well and they were budgeted for. Um, there are some other minor stuff that came up, but again, we're able to cover that up.
And I think that's it. anything. Any questions on that one? Please direct your questions to Bob about the healthcare. Don't shoot the messenger. Oh, I forgot. Uh we we had discussed
uh having the our health insurance advisory team do a presentation for the community at large as to what's going on because this is going to be a
significant impact on um on on on our budget. Indeed, we can be thankful that it we're beating the uh I will not be doing that presentation. Okay. Um
seeing no other um questions, we'll move on to we'll stay with Dr. Resnik. All right. In a spirit of musical chairs, I was not able to make the outcome meeting. So I'm going to I guess pass this to Dr. Bissa.
Okay. So we met last on October 7th um and Miss Rut was present there and she reviewed the graduation report with the committee um that was on last month's board agenda. Um, so we as a committee had some conversations about what um the
the high school is doing to help support students from their transition from um high school to college in terms of career options. And so she talked about um the career lunch and learns that are offered. She talked about um representation from the military that
comes regularly to the high school. Um and she she also discussed that um counselors begin to push into different periods during 10th grade to the students to help them begin to discover what their career um explorations might be. Um we then had a professor from
Rowan um present on a possible research um that she's proposing to conduct within the district. Um and that led to a conversation on this a statement of asurances that is in a work of progress work in progress um about if when we
collaborate with outside researchers how what kind of asurances can we put in place for the district to almost get um get something for for lack of a better term um to collaborate with them. Um and then finally we um talked about we were
selected as one of 40 school districts in the country to participate in a um study or survey for our high school students. Um it was for based on health and it was by the CDC protocols. Um and
four to five classrooms will be sampled. So roughly 100 to 150 students in the high school will be surveyed. Any questions? Okay, seeing none, we will move on. Oh,
okay. Um, we'll go ahead and move on to personnel. Okay, so we met before the meeting uh as a personnel committee like we typically do every month. Um, couple items we talked about today. Uh, again, it's always bittersweet to make these announcements. We do have three
retirements uh that we wanted to talk about. Um first was Joyce Nagel who was English and secondary language at the high school. Uh she was with the district since 2007. Really really appreciate her time here and wish her the best. Um our second retirement was
Heidi Mutner um who uh was here since 2015 and is going to be retiring at the end of the year. And then our third is Timothy Wolverton uh from our maintenance department who has been here since 2021. So again, we want to thank them for all of their hard work and service and we wish them the best in
their retirement. Um, also two really good good news uh stories for uh tonight that we're going to be talking about with a roll call. Um, first and foremost uh after a really long effort to get this position filled. Uh we were able to fill our K to2 wellness and supervisor
of 6 to 12 humanities with uh Mary Pankos who I believe is here. Hi. Hello. Thank you for being here. Um, and we also uh were able to uh I think quite literally today uh get the appointment
of our new director of facilities uh William Vanickle um who is also going to be on the roll call uh tonight for that appointment. So very very excited about both of those and uh looking forward to getting through that. We spent a little bit of time on our extracurricular appointments uh which is standard for
this time of year. Uh all that's available for public cont content on the agenda. Uh, and we spent a little bit of time uh, talking about uh, those appointments. Uh, other than that, I don't think I missed anything and I think we need to go to a roll call and a first and second before we do that. Thank you, Madam President. Can I
have a first and a second to go? Second. Dr. Littleston? Yes. Mr. Peters? Yes. Dr. Resnik? Yep. Mr. Slottman. Yes, Dr. Stilliano. Yes, Dr. Wilson.
Yes, Dr. Genevacy. Mr. Kapadia. Yes, Ms. Williams Galliano. Yes. Motion carries. Wonderful. Welcome aboard. Welcome. Yes. Congratulations. This is when we ask you to stand up and
give your first speech. You don't have to. Just joking. But if you'd like to, you want to invite her to say anything. She's a language arts person. Hi, I'm Mary Pankos. Thank you so much for approving me this evening. I I really can't wait to start and being
here tonight and I think it was a perfect night. I got to learn a lot about the district and I'm just taking it all in and and I look forward to working closely with each and every one of you in the in the months and years to come. So, thank you again. Welcome.
Awesome. Okay, moving on to community relations, Mr. Slutton. Hello. Hello. We met on just this past Friday, actually, Friday morning, the 10th, so it was just three days ago and had a terrific discussion. Obviously, a
lot of what we focused on is the various outreach efforts related to education surrounding the upcoming referendum. We, you know, had a whole bunch of different discussions on that issue. But from a community relations perspective, you've
seen us, if you've been out and about recently, you've seen us everywhere. You've seen various board members, members of the administration at the Hope Harvest Fair. We were at every single back to school night. We've been at every though I guess we almost every every Friday night high school football
game. We'll continue to be there obviously with that. And so point is point being if you're out and about please you know don't hesitate to come up and introduce yourselves and you know if you have any questions you know that's what we're there for and we're happy to answer any of them that you
might have. So the other bit of information I'd mention is that we do have another addition of our communications committee. Dr. has a committee that she's put together related to referendum communications that will be meeting next. I think it's the 23rd is what I have in my notes.
That's next week. And I know I think there's some people in the room that are probably participating in that committee, but if you are interested and you haven't already lent your name to that, we would the more the marrier. We take all comers. So, we'd love to have you around the table as part of that
discussion. So, I would defer to my I know uh Mr. Kadia, I know Dr. Jenny who's on the phone were both there as well. Anything else that I've missed that you'd like to add? No, it was a it was a perfect recap of the meeting. So, with that, I'd uh yield back my time.
Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Any comments of Dr. Jennifi? Thank you. Okay, moving on to STL. Sorry about that.
uh we met and um discussed uh the possibility of um providing a parent screening in February for screenagers for our elementary families um in the community and having either a panel discussion or involving our kids in some
way. I met with Heidi Cammy, our head of the municipal lines and Dr. Suzinsky here, but I think she left. Um who's part of our digital wellness and we are working to do that. Um many thanks to our parents who brought this to our attention and asked for that. So we'll
be working on that. Um I highlighted um all six schools uh basically um provided a week of respect activities and was two weeks ago. Um and just kind of highlighted some of the things that were going on at the high school um and at
Hopewell Elementary School and um celebrating this week of respect. And this also tied into all all four elementary schools in that respect was the character strong trait that's been discussed um in their classrooms daily.
Uh we also talked about professional development which happened today because to be able to promote social emotional learning for our children we need to provide it for our staff. Um today was really successful. We had George Scott join our
wellness teachers, our nurses, our counselors, and our child study team members. He gave an amazing um presentation on um resilience within ourselves and um for our children. And
then in the afternoon um Corey actually provided for our counselors uh solution focused counseling within the school and um staff is very pleased with that. Um and I believe that's it.
Did I was it? That's it. Thank you. Any questions? All right. Thank you again. Moving on to government relations. So the government relations committee
met on um that was October 1st I believe. Um in terms of our county level engagement uh we continued having discussions about um potential desegregation initiatives uh with other
uh districts here in Mercer County. Uh we often talk about how Mercer County remains one of the most segregated um public school systems in the entire state. Um and so we have been trying to to do some more uh initiatives with branching out and doing more cross-dist
collaboration. Um in the last two months we've actually identified uh a Mercer County based nonprofit called Young Audiences. For those who are familiar, we've been having um young audiences come and perform in HBRSC schools now for a few years. Um they do cultural
music performance for K through five students. Um, and they also do those same performances with most, if not all, Mercer County school districts. So, there's already some connective tissue built in there. Um, we had a meeting with County Executive Benson to discuss the idea. Um, their office was
interested. So, moving forward, we're hoping to engage with some of our other Mercer County uh neighboring school districts to see if there would be interest potentially having a joint um, young audienc's performance. Euing's on board. Euing's ready to partner with us.
That's great. Um, and yeah, just to be clear, you know, this is something that has been happening in our district now for years. It happens in our neighboring districts for years. And the goal would be to have, you know, our K through5 students be able to interact with students that come from different backgrounds and identities who they normally wouldn't be able to have the
opportunity to interact with. And it's in, you know, the the setting of um not only a Mercer County location, but also uh a performance that's educational and engaging. Um, moving to state level advocacy. Um, after our successful uh,
effort to secure $125,000 last year through the uh, New Jersey state budget for the first time in district history for an ADA accessible playground at Bear Tavern. We're gearing up for our FY27 state budget ask. Um, similar to last year's ask, we want to ensure that we're
delivering a high impact project for our students. Um and a few months ago actually if we if you remember back in June we had a group of high schoolers who came to the board and talked about uh collecting internal datas uh internal data through surveys um and and showing us the analysis about how uh our high
school students really face some pressing needs relating to mental health. Um and so our goal moving forward into next year's budget ask is to uh secure some additional state dollars for our mental health programs that we have here in Hopeel that are tried and true. Um Dr. can talk more
about some of the specific programs um that that we would want to secure those dollars for. But I do just want to reiterate that we as a board have prioritized mental health um for years and this is you know there's always more to do and this would be a great opportunity for us to secure some
additional dollars for programs that sometimes you know are are put under stress when we have these tight fiscal years that we we often talk about. One of the things we talked about specifically was supporting continue to supporting our hurt club, our hope squad, and our aird dog program. Uh we
just attended here last week a a fundraiser uh for for attitudes in reverse where they raise money every year because they receive no state funding. Everything that they do comes from districts or it comes from donations. uh with schools losing funding around the titles. Uh title two
in title four is where a lot of us have been supporting some of these things. Um we they are cancelling AirDogs and Air Dogs is really struggling to stay stay uh afloat. Um I was really proud of um there was a big uh gala. We went, two of
our teachers came and uh brought their dogs with them to the gala and they had a silent auction and four people donated $3,000, won $5,000 by themselves to support a dog. It it cost about $3,000 to train a dog. Um I was just so proud
of that. But how do we keep doing this year after year and keep these cohorts going? Um it's very difficult. Uh we had two students come and speak. I was very proud of them. Um but that's specifically one of the programs that we're looking to write this grant for. I know that we have to sit down and get some numbers in there.
I look forward to to getting to work on that. Um but good part is is we're we're on the same timeline as we were last year. Um we're a little bit ahead of schedule which is great but you know what it worked for us last year and again like like we talked about um the worst answer we can get is no. Um moving
on to municipal advocacy. Um, we spoke briefly about some next steps, um, about an initiative that I talked about a few months ago, uh, which would be advocating to municipalities to allow 16 or 17 year olds the right to vote in schoolboard elections. Um, this is something that obviously we as a board
would have to talk more about. Um, but as just kind of an initial check-in, we wanted to have um, Dr. Trice and and board president Williams Galliano just check in with the mayors to see if this is something that they would be interested in exploring because we don't want to collect data uh from our students, you know, and kind of almost
offer this as as an initiative that we're going to move behind if there isn't really any political will from the folks who are making the decisions. um if there is some interest in exploring it then we can have more conversations as a board and then see you know how we can go about collecting data from our students if this was something that they
would actually want because I think at the end of the day it would be something that's student centered and student driven um and we want to make sure that our students themselves have have that uh uh passion to to engage in it um and lastly uh just as a heads up I know I've spoken with Dr. Lil and Dr. Dillaniano
um about this, but next month I will be introducing some formal language through the policy committee to amend policy 0155 to establish the government relations committee as a standing committee. Uh the timeline would be we would go into first reading in November, second reading in December, and then the
committee would be fully launched and standardized uh moving into 2026. Um, and so I know we've had some conversations about the logistics and whether it could fall under a pre-existing committee or having it be its own or potentially, you know, dissolving some other committees and
absorbing them into others. Uh, we'll we'll have some more finite uh language next month, but just wanted to put it on the agenda for for everyone. Those are my updates. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions?
Yes. Uh, so question on um countywide program that you talked about. So, I'm really happy to hear about the K5 program. Um is the committee also looking into trying to do something for
the for the middle school and high school level? Yeah. So, for the high school level specifically, we we have, you know, an aspirational goal that we want to build towards. So, we're starting with K through five. Um I think all high schools in Mercer County have some iteration of a peer leaders program. Um
we have a very great program here in Hopewell. I was part of it. Um and every year peer leaders go through training. Um and so the goal would be to do some type of standardized training. I speaking of cost, it would probably be virtual to get all of uh the high
schools on the same kind of, you know, standardized peer leader training and then to have those peer leaders come and staff and chaperone these these K through5 events. So, not only would we have high school students interacting with one another from across districts, but they'd also be able to interact with other elementary school students. That's
the long-term aspiration. In the short term, if we can move on the um you know, on the standardization of a of a virtual training, that would be great as well. But that's kind of where we're looking at it from K through 5 and then 9 through 12. So, so on that one, what about asking if
the county can help facilitate a countywide training for your leaders that will be in person, right? Have a county facility where they can come together from the whole county. I mean, the yeah, the county executive's
office is very interested in this type of programming. I think it just started to become a question about logistics because even if we did this K through five initiative, it ideally you want every elementary school to participate, but logistically it's not going to pan out that way and it it probably will be certain grade levels in specific
elementary schools that are able to send students to to a joint location. I I just, you know, I don't know what the numbers would be to get every single high school in the county in one space to do an inerson training. that the last high school.
Yes. But well, no. Well, they're massive, right? If you're talking about Hamilton, there's two huge high schools. If you're talking about Princeton, there's three, actually. Yes, there's three. I mean, West Windsor Plainsboro is huge. I mean, it's just massive. You're talking about the numbers. Um, just that's why I picked Euing because
they're kind of our size. I we couldn't do Trenton. Trenton has I don't know how many elementary schools, right? So, um, so that's part of the problem with that. And I I think the other thing is that we talked when we did meet uh with um Mr.
Benton, it was the really about making sure that it was inclusive. So in order for it to be inclusive, you have to have a low threshold of entry. And you know, to the degree you get the momentum going, then you could kind of rally
around something more in person. Um but not every not every school is going to be willing to or able to participate if the first one is really literally an investment of being in in person.
We'll we'll go for success and then grow. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Seeing none, um there were no climate action updates from um Jackie. So we're going to move on to
policy um Dr. Wilson. Okay. Thank you. So the policy committee met on September 26th and we were joined by Miss Riley who's our high school principal as you all know. Um we discussed three policies and two regulations which are up for first
reading tonight. So, can I have a motion and a second to bring policy 5530 and regulation 5530, substance abuse, regulation 56000, student discipline code of conduct, policy 3245, research
projects by staff members, and policy 955, educational re research projects for first grade. Motion. Okay. So, first up, we'll discuss policy and
regulation 5530, substance use, as well as the student discipline code of conduct. Um, so the revisions to all three of these documents primarily address um lookalike substances, which was an issue that we brought up during the last board meeting as well. Um, so
our policies and regulations, as a reminder, are currently silent on lookalike substances. So these are things like non-alcoholic beer or vapes that have no nicotine in them. So to decide if and how we wanted to integrate these lookalike substances into our
policies and regulations, the committee gathered information from local superintendent um to understand how they're currently treating these uh the NH NJSBA as well as a few sample policies from other school districts. Um so using this information we revised our
own uh policies and regulations in this space to address this particular issue. So for policy and regulation 5530 substance use the main revision that we're looking at is that we're recommending adding lookalike substances
to the definition of substances. So the language currently reads including lookalike drugs, non-alcoholic beer and beverages or any substance misrepresented as alcohol or a mood altering drug. So we've made this change to both the policy and the regulation.
Um we've also made a minor change to change drug abuse to substance use throughout just to be in alignment with the current language that's used in the field. Um, similarly with the student discipline code of conduct, we also are recommending a revision where we're
adding lookalike substances to our definition of a drug or alcoh al alcohol policy violation. So you'll see that language in there. So I'll stop right there and just say, does anyone have any questions or concerns about these particular revisions or policy committee
colleagues, anything to add to that? Okay. So the next set of policies is related to research that's conducted by external researchers and staff members with student staff and school stakeholders. Um so Dr. Plitzus mentioned this briefly during the um ed
program committee updates. So as many of you guys know we receive a large number of requests for research projects involving our students and staff as well as members of our school community. So the committee really identified a need to revise the district's research policies to ensure that uniform
materials are submitted to the district for proposed research um for proposed research studies for approval and also that we really have clear feedback loops such that the district both receives and can benefit from the findings from the
research that's conducted at our school. Um so in addition to the proposed revised policies here, we're hoping to implement a statement of asurances as well um that would move through the ED program committee that researchers would
need to sign that aligns with the requirements in this policy. Um so we have two um I think our attorney recommended that we keep them as two separate policies although we did speak about potentially combining them at one point. So, they are separate policies, but what you'll see is that most of the
language in there is virtually identical. And it just talks about um essentially what the approval process looks like, protection of students rights and confidentiality, and the dissemination uh back to our school district and to the stakeholders who participate in the research. Does
anybody have any questions or comments about these? Anything to add? Okay. Uh so, all in favor say I. I I Any opposed or abstainating? Okay. So, now moving on to second
reading. Can I have a motion and a second to bring bylaw 0177, professional services, for second reading, as well as policy 1648.11, the road forward, COVID 19 health and safety. Policy 1648.13,
school employee vaccination requirements, and policy 1648.15 recordkeeping for healthc care settings in school buildings CO 19 for second reading abolishment. Motion Okay. So, the committee received no
feedback on bylaw 0177 after reviewing it during first reading. Um, nor did we receive any specific feedback on the COVID area policies that were recommending abolishing. Um, and just so folks, as a reminder to folks,
we still follow our um local and state health department guidelines as it relates to CO 19. It's just that these particular policies are no longer relevant as our guidelines have been revised. Um, anybody have any questions or
comments related to these? Okay. So, Bob, I think we can move towards a roll call. Mr. Peters, yes. Dr. Resnik, yes. Mr. Slottman, hi. Dr. Stelliano, yes.
Dr. Wilson. Yes. Dr. Genevacy, yes. Mr. Kapadia, yes. Dr. Littlest, yes. Miss Williams Galliano, yes. Motion carries.
Marvelous. Okay, moving on then. Um, we will roll into public I need a first and a second to approve the October November calendars.
So second, you're on, sir. We already have ED program set for 11:10. Stole our time. 8 am. Blame Pam for this. Not Pam's fault. It is not.
And personnel set for 11:17 at 6 p.m. Can finance meet at 9:00? No, probably not. They already they got to go to work. Oh, you want to go the We can go the
11th at 8 if you want. So, I am on the West Coast that whole week. Oh, you're good. You're free. 8 a.m. Uh, we could do that Monday.
The third. Monday the 3, 8 a.m. will work for me. Good. All right, group. Since you're out of town, give you scheduling preference.
27th to the 29th of October 10:27 at 9:00 am you? policy 8 a.m. on the 24th. So, policy 10:23 at 8. John, hello. It's community relations time.
Um, I like the 8 a.m. slot, Dr. retreat at the week of the 10th, maybe Wednesday the 12th, I don't know, or the 11th. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the 12th is good.
I can be I can be flexible if you guys want to do something a different time. Are we allowed? Well, I mean n whatever time works. 98. We're talking about the 12th. Wednesday, November 12th, right? That's what we said. Yeah, that's fine. Whatever time
my schedule is currently open, if that's okay with we're looking at the 12th of November. Perfect. seal 11:14. Yes,
Jackie. Amanda, yeah, I could do either. I have more flexibility on the 14th. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. All in favor? Any opposed or abstaining?
All right. Calendars are passed. Anyone else? Okay. Members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting. You are asked to state your name, address, and municipality. In response to your comments, the board of ed may respond or
direct the superintendent to do so. The board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administration. Public comment is now open. Hi, Sylvia Kosis Pennington Burrow. Again, um you have the privilege of
having more than three minutes to speak, but I'll try to respond to your comments and present my public comment also. Uh I think it's unfair and unkind to intimate that if a member of the public asks for data about residential
developments that are subject to pilots that that person is prejudiced and against the students that are coming from those developments. I'm concerned about pilots and fair taxes. The students and the people who live
there are my neighbors just as much as they're yours. Here are some more numbers that matter. According to the 2023 census report, Hopewell Township had 6,54 housing units. The three pilot
developments listed in this report that I just showed you that you did uh will add 1,756 new housing units. As mentioned earlier, many students are enrolling in our
schools from these three developments. The developers pment pilot payments for these homes will solely benefit Hope Pope Township Municipal Government. No money goes to the schools. I want the money to come to this school or the fire district. And the county
will get a mere 5%. If these 1,756 housing units paid property taxes conventionally, 57% would come to you for yearly costs and long range costs.
Instead, class sizes are increasing. Parents are paying for busing. Extracurricular activities are cut or busing for them or paying for them. Programs can be cut, maintenance projects are delayed, and classroom space is needed.
There was a controllers report in 2007. If you haven't read it, I hope you do. Matthew A. Boxer said, "The current abatement of structure allows municipalities like Hopewell Township to keep almost the entire
payment in lie of taxes amount. This creates a perverse incentive whereby the municipality may gain revenue through granting an abatement while other government entities, in this case our school district,
sorry, loses out. And I'm going to have no time to finish my comments because you do. You have privilege. Thank you. So, my name is Vivana Deong Gonzalez. I am from Pennington and I just have a
question. What's a pilot's program? So, um, Miss Kosis, before you leave, um, I want, um, Mr. Kavita to And one, I'm I never accuse you of being prejudice. That's not what I said at all. I said I don't want I I did not I did not say that. I said,
I don't want folks to to to single out the new folks that are moving into the community because as a as a as a school district, we've had this before. When Brandon Farms came here, it was a them and us and all of that. And it has nothing to do with ethnicity or any of that. It's just that throwing numbers up
and saying those are the folks coming, which we again we we have no problem saying what the enrollment is is is I don't want that feeling to happen with that community like happened with Rick Brandon Farms years ago. and folks who live there know what I'm talking about. Um, beyond that, a pilot program I'm
going to have Bob explain to you. And yes, this is a conversation y'all should definitely be having downtown because I don't have any control of it. But Bob will talk to you about how it really doesn't the money is not geared toward it doesn't come to the school district in that way. It just redivides the lines of
the contribution that comes out of each municipality. But could you talk about that a little bit, Bob? Yeah, I I think you you hit it there. It when a pilot is um I'm still here. Okay, I'm listening.
When a when a so a pilot program is essentially it stands for payment in lie of taxes. So what happens is a builder comes in the the township has a significant issue with affordable housing. So to bring in affordable housing to make the houses sellable by
the person building them because they have to sell them they're not it costs them more money to make than they can get to sell them. So to do that they strike an agreement with the township that they pay less on the land and and
the people who buy those houses don't pay property taxes as everybody else does. They pay a a pilot payment that goes directly to the municipality. the house itself is not on the books. It's not on the tax roles. Okay. So, what
happens is um when you we when we charge school tax, those homes aren't charged. Okay. In a reg in a in a school district where it's not regional, we're regional. Pennington Burough, Penn uh Hope Township, Hope Burough, the taxes are
divided among those three municipalities. By having a pilot, Hope Township is skewed. Okay. They're un their their properties are undervalued according to the ratio that's used to divide it. So what they're doing is they're pushing
burden to the burrows and to the other people in Hope Township who are not on who are on the tax roles. So we wouldn't get if if the pilot didn't exist, we wouldn't get a single dollar more. We if we need a million dollars, we get a
million dollars. It's just who's paying the million? How much is Hope Township paying? Hope Burough, Pennington Burough. Just because there's a pilot doesn't mean we get more money. We only get what we budget for and how much taxes we establish. Now, other
municipalities have agreements with for pilots. Woodbridge is one I know of. They have the same agreement in place that we are hoping to get. they are paying the debt service on a building that they needed to build, but they had to build several buildings and do several adjustments because their pilots
were enormous. So, that's where we stand right now. Um, hopefully people understand who are watching. Um, but the district wouldn't get a single dollar more than we're authorized to give in our budget process.
And and those are decisions that are made by township, not by school board. So a lot of just wanted to separate that out as well. Yeah. So the so just and one other thing to clarify is the existing pilot right
now is the hopeful township one and other the bureaus are also considering their own. So in any case the other twothirds takes the same burden anytime there's a p v pilot
and the final thing is there was this kind of conflating our annual operating budget with the referendum and and our ask around those items and what the pilot is bringing in which leads we need to expand our space right but the reason
why we are now charging activity fees and we've adjusted courtesy busing and we're looking at hard cuts has has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the 2% cap that's on the district and we can't generate the funds to manage a budget that keeps ballooning
because of inflation and the state says we can only ask this much of the taxpayer. So that's a different question uh a different conversation that really the pilot is is doesn't have you know a part in. So that's you know school finance is very complicated. We'll keep
explaining and having um conversations about it, but as we get into budget talks, which you know, Miss um Donardo, Miss um Plet Donardo presenting tonight, Vicki presented last board meeting, we're showing you where our spending is. And if we're capped at 2% and you see
our spending, that's why we're struggling and that's why we have to make these tough cuts. Yeah. And um I do uh even though the um question by Miss Kosis um I know she left but for anybody watching I do want
to finish that point um that Dr. priest was making and that is the statement that was made was by putting numbers out prematurely or on some frequency that
added error to the numbers. It might bias people's view on any district, any um any group of homes being built. And it was not a quainted remark at Miss
Kosis. It was in general, here's part of the reasons why we are not um considering putting numbers out on a monthly basis and a frequency that it doesn't match an the accuracy that is needed in this case. It won't convey um
you know what the truth of the matter in the moment. Um and Dr. Trice is referring to previous build builds um in the community probably been 25 years now, but um you know where there was an equal discomfort and adjustment to this
large community of um homes coming on board into the school district and it required a whole new school to be built. So having learned those lessons, we understand, you know, we're not going to repeat that same error in terms of communicating um
numbers prematurely and discomforting community on a monthly basis. So just wanted to for anyone watching clarify that point. Anything else? Any comments from the board? Okay, seeing none, um we will
close public comment and we will sprint to the end of the meeting um by checking in on new business. Seeing none, um I need a first and a second to move into executive session. Second
where um uh HIB matters will be discussed, no action will be taken. Um and did we had a first and second? Okay. All in favor? Any opposed or abstaining?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your staying with us. You are now free to go. We'll move into executive session.