Okay, the time is now 7:01. I'll call the meeting of the Leonia board of education for Tuesday, October 14th to order. Um, this meeting has been uh, excuse me, this meeting is in accordance with the open public meetings meetings act.
Adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by the by advertising in the Bergen record and posting the agenda on the school website and through parent square. Can everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? Can we have roll call, please? Miss Troy,
Mr. Grow here. Dr. Mester here. Miss Molina here. Mr. Park here. Mr. Zepka. Mr. Seagull. Miss Thompson here. Vice President Melman. President Lee.
President. I suggest a quorum. Mr. President. Thank you. And let the record reflect I was contacted by Miss Choy, Mr. Zupka, and Mr. Seagel. All who have conflicts tonight. Uh, Miss Mullman did indicate that she may be arriving a little bit late tonight.
Okay. With that, I will turn the floor over to Dr. Caramanos. Okay. Hello everyone. Uh, welcome. Tonight's board meeting. Um, as we shared last board meeting is our meet the staffs, our annual meet the new staff board meeting. So, what we'll do tonight is,
um, we will our administrative team, including myself, will introduce some of our new staff members to you all. Um after we go through and introduce all of the staff members, we will take a 10-minute break uh for coffee. Uh hopefully the coffee is ready. Uh tea
and um dessert. Uh it is also farm to school month, national farm to school month. So we partnered with Mashios for healthy a healthy dessert. It's an apple bake. Um so it's it smells really good to be honest. I opened the thing and it was it's steaming and it smells wonderful. So we will all dive into that
right after. Uh there's also some cookies too. not so healthy but still here. Um, so we'll get started. Uh, I'm going to actually come to the podium to introduce some of the new staff from my end. Hey, can you hear me? Good. Okay. All
right. Wonderful. So, uh, new staff, when we when it's your turn, when whoever is presenting you or whoever is introducing you, uh, calls your name, just come on up to the podium and we'll do our little spiel and then we'll clap and then you can go sit back down. Then the embarrassing moment is over. So,
we'll start with uh, Miss Ashley Banks. Yes, come on up. Um, I'll wait. Come on up, Ashley. Hello, everybody. So Ashley is a highly dedicated and experienced HR officer. She is our she's
has over a decade of experience demonstrating expertise in both education and corporate environments. Um she holds an MBA in human resource management from William Patterson University and is proficient in a wide array of uh HR information systems including Genesis which was a huge plus
for us. Um her previous roles included benefits and leaves administrator at the Pay County Superior Court and she was also the HR analyst at uh the Hackinack Board of Education. Miss Banks has been an asset to our central office team making sure that all things human
resources are accurate, complete, and running very efficiently. And personally, she's been very supportive and helpful in um helping me build systems and processes in the human resource department. So, she's been a great team member and great asset and great person to have with us. So, thank
you. Okay, next up in central office, we have Miss Marilyn Martinez. So, Marilyn Martinez is a highly accurate payroll and benefits coordinator who manages our payroll process from start to finish. uh that includes collecting vouchers,
calculating and balancing uh pay groups, processing tax and agency payments, and completing all of our annual W2 process. Uh Miss Martinez possesses a strong understanding of benefits and works very closely with HR with Ashley uh to ensure that correct payments uh health benefit
deductions and pension enrollment um and that everything is accurate for our staff. Um over the 10 months she has been in the position, Miss Martinez continues to demonstrate a strong uh competency in all aspects payroll within our district and I really appreciate the time and effort and uh that she puts in
to ensure accurate payroll uh for all of our staff. It's very helpful. Thank you. Okay, we have a new administrator on our team this year. Um Glenn Stevenson, come on up. Mr. Stevenson is a highly experienced
and dedicated educational leader with over 30 years experience in education possessing a deep interest in curriculum and instruction. Mr. Stevenson comes to us with extensive experience as a supervisor of math and science uh where he has led initiatives that align with our strategic goals including building
capacity around higher order thinking skills, productive struggle, hands-on and experimental learning. Uh he also has a strong uh he also has strong experience in curriculum reform in understanding by design principles and he also served on the New Jersey state uh next generation science standard
adoption committee. Um he's been a great addition to our supervisor team. Our already strong supervisor team has gotten even stronger and I look forward to seeing all the things that he's going to do to support our staff and our students in the world of math and science. Thank you. [Applause]
Okay, so not a new staff member yet. However, on tonight's agenda, while while I'm up here on tonight's agenda, um I would also like to bring your attention to a new item, a new business item on your agenda um that uh was added this afternoon and I I shared an email.
Um I'm very pleased to recommend Andrew Coin as the in for the position of assistant superintendent of schools. Um our process began with about 27 applicants which we narrowed down for to about 15 for a screening and then after a screening we conducted a rigorous
three- round process two rounds in front of a panel of about 10 to 12 staff members that included administrators a variety of administrators and teachers and then a third round with uh two board of education members and myself. Throughout the process uh Mr. Coin demonstrated the qualities we were
seeking. uh he is innovative and a dynamic educational leader with a proven record of driving student achievement and solutions in diverse school districts. Mr. Coin brings over a decade of experience in educational leadership roles including his current role as a director of planning, research and
evaluation. Um his previous role as assistant director of elementary education and vice principal. His expertise to expands research-based practices, data-driven decision-making, organizational leadership, and technology integration aligns perfectly with our strategic goals and our plans
forward. So later today under new business, um we look I look forward to officially welcoming uh Andrew to the district. And he is here tonight, but I don't want to call him out because he's technically not a new staff member yet, but he is here tonight. We'll have some time with him when we break for coffee
and tea. Right. Next up is Mr. calendar, not a new staff member. Introducing the next set of new staff members. Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. It's very nice to be here. This is always a a great night for us. Uh first, I'd like to
introduce or I'd like to call up Astred Flores. We're pleased to introduce Astred Flores, who joins Leona High School as a mathematics teacher. Ash earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Ramapo College and completed a year of student teaching at Satbrook High School
working with students in grades 9 through uh 9 through 12. This year she's teaching five sections of algebra 1. Outside the classroom, Astred enjoys tennis and is excited to build connections and become an active member of the Leona community. We're very pleased to have her, Astred Flores.
Thank you. [Applause] Uh, next, Sylvia, will you please join me? We're pleased to welcome Sylvia Kates to Leona High School as our new media specialist. Sylvia holds a bachelor's
degree in media studies from Hunter College and is currently pursuing a master's in education in curriculum and learning at William Patterson University. Before entering education, Miss Kates worked as a web developer for 14 years and has spent the past eight
years volunteering with the Bergen County Players Community Theater. Miss Kates is eager to foster both scholarly and personal success among students, especially during these fast-paced technological times. We're very pleased to have Miss Kates with us. Thank you.
[Applause] Miss Bernstein, please join me. We're very excited to welcome Miss Cameron Bernstein to Leona High School's English department. Miss Bernstein earned a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in sociology from Quinnipic
University, where she also completed a master's of arts in teaching and secondary education. After completing a full- year teaching position in New Jersey last year and a full-time internship previously at uh North Haven High School in Connecticut, Miss
Bernstein brings both experience and enthusiasm to the classroom. This year, she'll be teaching English one and English 2. Outside of school, Miss Bernstein enjoys concerts and Broadway shows and is especially looking forward to working with the Limelighters to help produce the fall play. Welcome, Miss
Bernstein. [Applause] Miss Pñena, we're very excited to welcome Miss Carla Pñena to the LHS World Language Department. Miss Pena earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from New
Jersey City University and her master's degree in special education from St. Thomas University. She has 17 years teaching experience, including seven years at Emerson public schools, teaching grades 4 through 12 and 10 years at Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tapan. Carlo will be
teaching Spanish 1 and two when she joins us for the first time next week. We hired her late in the summer. She's finally joining us. We're very excited about that next week. Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, working out, running, and baking healthy dog treats. Carla is
excited to inspire students at Leona High School to not only learn Spanish, but also appreciate its culture and real world connections, explore new perspectives, and celebrate diversity. And we're very excited for Carla to be joining us next week. Congratulations.
Lastly, I have Matt Tutoto. [Applause] We are very happy to welcome Matt Tutoro to LHS as our new school safety officer. Matt Tutoro served five years in the United States Marines Corp and spent 5
years working as an aircraft electronics technician in the private sector and for a defense contractor. He recently retired from the Bergen County Sheriff's Department where he served 20 years as a corrections officer. Outside of work, Matt work. Matt enjoys fitness and outdoor activities such as hiking and
archery. He is eager to build strong, positive relationships with staff and students while helping to maintain a safe and secure school community. And Matt has the distinction of working with both my brother and I at the Bergen County Jail. And somehow he still came
to work with me. Um, so I am very happy to welcome Matt. He's been a huge addition already. So, welcome Matt. [Applause] That's it for LHS. I believe I'm calling up LMS at this time. LMS.
Thank you, Mr. Calendarer. Thank you, uh, board. So nice to be here with you as as we do this every year. Um, I have the pleasure of introducing one of our new teachers, Miss Grace Widell. So, it's my pleasure to introduce Miss Grace Widell, who's joined our team this
year as our fifth grade teacher. Miss Widell is a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinus in Spark Hill, New York, where she earned her bachelor's degree in childhood education and a master's degree in special education. While pursuing her studies, she gained valuable classroom experience working as
a substitute teacher in the Suff School District, also in New York. Miss Widell began her full-time teaching career here in Bergen County. First in the Rivervale schools where she taught fourth grade and then in the Westwood Regional Schools where she served as a fifth grade special education co-teer. We're
so pleased to have Miss Widell bring her expertise, her energy, and her commitment to her students to Leona Middle School. I'd also like to extend a warm welcome to Grace's family who I believe has joined us here this evening to celebrate her new role. Welcome to Leona, Grace Widell.
[Applause] Oh, great. Sorry. Uh, wires crossed. And uh, Daniel Kim, please join me. [Applause] So, I'm very happy to introduce Mr. Daniel Kim to the board, our new uh, art
teacher at Leona Middle School. Mr. Kim is a graduate of Monontlair State University where he earned his bachelor's degree in visual arts with a concentration in art education. During his time at Montlair, he gained valuable classroom experience through his student teaching at Woodro Wilson Middle School
and at Clifton High School in Clifton, where my nephew is a student, uh where he developed a strong connection with students and a passion for helping them express themselves creatively. We were especially impressed with Mr. Kim's LMS demo lesson, which showcased not only
his artistic talent, but also his ability to engage students and bring out their creativity in meaningful ways. And we're thrilled to have Mr. Kim join our team. We look forward to seeing his energy, creativity, and love of the arts enrich our school community. Welcome,
Dan Kim. I will now turn the mic over to my colleague, April King. Thank you. Good evening everyone. I am very pleased to introduce Mr. Daniel Espazito. You can join me up here please.
[Applause] Mr. Daniel Espazito has joined our special education team at Leonia Middle School. Mr. Despisto is a proud graduate of William Patterson University where he earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in special education with a
concentration in autism spectrum disorder studies. He brings with him seven years of teaching experience during which he has taught replacement English language arts, science, and my favorite, social studies. Here at the middle school, Mr. Espazito teaches two
study skill classes and co-ees in both social studies and science. In addition to his work in the classroom, he has also jumped right into our school community by co-directing this year's Leonia Limelighters School Play. A wonderful example of his enthusiasm and
commitment to our students growth both academically and creatively. We are so happy to have Mr. Espazito as part of the LMS family. Thank you. I am now going to hand the mic over to
Mr. Jenner Russo. Good evening. Michelle Park, can you join me? So, I'm pleased to present Michelle Park. I'm representing ECS and also our special education department. So, Michelle Park has been teaching special
education for five years. Previously, she taught special education kindergarten in a self-contained setting. And today, she teaches multiple disabilities in grades two and three. And we're pleased to have her. Thank you. And Miss Brown. Sonia Brown, please.
Sonia Brown joined us in midepptember coming from another district. She is a dedicated educator with over a decade of teaching experience, currently in her 11th year in the classroom. She holds a master's degree in multiensory reading and is certified in special education, reading specialization, Wharton
Gillingham and Wilson reading systems. Sonia's passion lies in empowering all learners through a structured multiensory approach to literacy. She believes that every child can succeed when instruction is tailored to how the brain learns best. Her work is grounded in evidence-based practices that support
struggling readers, particularly those with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. Whether she's guiding students through decoding strategies or mentoring fellow educators, Sonia is committed to fostering a love of reading and building strong, confident learners.
And we're pleased to have her as well. And that concludes our new staff introductions. Thank you. And I guess we'll be having some treats now. Yes. Uh welcome to all of our new staff. Um, you know, I think I I got to meet all of you throughout your process. Um,
I'm very excited to have you all. You know, we were talking earlier today how we've got a great a great group of new staff here from across the board in all of the positions. Uh, we're really excited for, you know, what's next for the district and we're excited to have you with us joining that process. So, we will take a 10-minute break. 10-minute
break. So, 7:30 we'll come back. For those watching at home, we'll be back at 7:30. Um, so come on up. enjoy some uh farm to school apple bake and have a maybe done cough cup of coffee. You're welcome everyone. Please come
enjoy. All right, we're going to get back together. Staff, feel free to uh head home, go work on those lesson plans, grade those tests, you know.
Okay. Okay. Yeah, we didn't officially close or close. All right, we're going to move on with our public presentations tonight. Uh tonight we have um the we have a few uh
presentations that we have to uh present annually. Uh we're going to start with um the DM presentation and the HIB uh the anti-bullying self- assessment presentation. Um both by Miss Russo. Uh
I'm going to let her go first so that way she can go home and then I'll do the NJSLA results after. So whichever one you want to start with first. Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. So, I'm Jenna Russo, director of special services, but I'm presenting about HIPP
right now as the HIP coordinator. So, annually we have our school teams, our school safety teams review HIP, our harassment, intimidation, and bullying to make sure that we're following our practices and policies appropriately. Um, and so we do self- assessments that
are set out by the New Jersey Department of Education. So this self assessment will assist in determining the status of each school within the Leona public school district in complying with the anti-bullying bill of rights act each school level anti-bullying specialist conferred with
the school safety team of each building to complete the self- assessment regarding the 24 or 25 school year. The ABR grade for each school will be determined primarily through a self- assessment tool of the school's implementation of the ABR using the tool
titled school self- assessment for determining grades under the ABR anti-bullying rights. The district's grade will be the average of the grades of each school in the district and the criteria for scoring of each core element is zero which means does not
meet the requirements one which means partially meets the requirements. Two means meets all requirements and three means exceeds all requirements. And I'm going to jump ahead to just let you know that we at least met all requirements if not exceeded.
And these are the different core areas that were in the self- assessment. So number one was includes all HIV programs, approaches or other initiatives. Out of 15 possible points, ACS rated themselves with a 13, LMS with a 13 and LHS with 14.
Within this area, we did meet as admin to review areas that we can continue growing. So, we are looking to look at our HIV programs and survey the impact that they have and also track their effectiveness over time.
For core element number two, the training on the BOE approved HIP policy out of nine possible points, ACS achieved nine, LMS 8 and LHS 8 as well. For number three on the area of other
staff instruction and training programs at a 15 possible points, ACS rated themselves with a 12, LMS with a 14, and LHS with a 13. And in this area, we're going to be looking at providing more training to our school safety team.
For number four, the areas covering curriculum and instruction on HIV and related info and skills. Out of six possible points, ACS rated themselves with a six, LMS with a six, and LHS with a five. For number five, HIV personnel.
Out of nine possible points, ACS rated themselves with an eight. actually across the board, eight um for all three schools. And in this area, we are looking to make sure that um I am part of all of the school safety team meetings um and that
we're going to be looking more and more at tracking uh you know, program effectiveness across the three buildings. And then core area number six is the school level HIV incident reporting procedure. Out of six possible points,
ACS rated themselves a five, LMS a five, and LHS six. In area number seven, it's HIV investigation procedure. All three schools rated themselves at maximum with a 12. They followed procedure appropriately.
And in core area number eight, in HIV reporting, out of six possible points, ACS rated themselves a six, LMS a five, and LHS a six. So when we look at what these points mean, out of 78 possible points, ACS
rated themselves 71, LMS 71 and LHS 72, which equates to 91% for ACS and LMS, and 92% for LHS. So pretty consistent. And the district average then is a 91.33%.
Actually, I'll just uh explain that if a school is meeting all standards, just to put it in perspective, the minimum score they would receive is 52 points or 67%. So, it's not necessarily in line with the way we look at grades for for students.
Um, so 91.33% is exceeding expectations um for many many areas. And I, you know, we looked at the two-year trend analysis just to see, you know, the pattern from last year to this
year, and we have grown. So last year when I reported the same type of um, you know, grading system, ACS had 81% and now they have 91%. LMS had 71% and now have 91%. And LHS had 88% and now has
92%. And so we're looking at action items how to continue to improve because even though we have improved, we want to make sure we're continuing along that trend. So we are continuing with building based social emotional learning programs and activities like the student wellness
fairs at LMS and LHS. Campfires continue at ACS. Week of respects districtwide fourth to fifth grade transition meetings at ECS and LMS. Grade level meetings to review expectations and student assemblies. We're also strengthening communication
with back to school code of conduct information, progressive discipline development at ACS, HIV FAQ information which has been on the district website. Uh clearer procedures and expectations. Again, we updated the district's anti-bullying information on the
website. We also have family resources and supports that are new. Attendance page is new and the student safety page is new. partnership with effective school solutions, ESS. So, we have worked with this um this agency to to
work with two clinicians that target mental health interventions, groups, and training programs located at L LMS and LHS. We also are focused on training and staff development, providing training opportunities to the anti-bullying specialists and the school safety
climate teams on HIP topics. Admin training over the summer took place for calibration and process. And at opening day, the faculty and staff meetings included specific references to HIP policies and expectations.
And going forward, we will create the district and school grade reports of um we have to present them on our district website. So each school will post the grades received by the school and the school district on the homepage of the school's website prominently. The school
district must post the grade received by the district and each school in the school district homepage and they also must post the grades on the websites within 10 days of the NJDOE notification that the grades are available. The districts and schools must use the district and school grade reports for
posting on the appropriate websites. The school district officials are required to review the school and school district grades with the board of ed as we're doing tonight. And this will provide the BOE and the public with the opportunity to learn about the district's implementation of the ABR and
address any concerns. Does anyone have any questions? Yes, I just have a quick question. Thank you for the presentation. It's great to see the the growth um in the scores. I was just curious. I know the the numbers were there's very small
differences in the specifically regarding the two-year trend analysis. I was curious if if there was anything you could really maybe point to that was led to maybe that increase across the board across for all three schools.
We spent more time, you know, so I'm I've been the coordinator for two years now. So in getting to know this role more and more um we've been working with the the teams to make sure that we're really understanding the patterns that we see and being proactive. Um, and the
buildings I think have done a nice job of being more transparent with the process with families, being very open about the difference between conflict and bullying. Um, and you know, just making sure that it's not just a one-time message, but that we're being consistent with our with our
communications and our expectations and that staff are aware of those same um those same elements that we're looking for. So that the more supervision and consistency, the less likely that they'll there'll be hip incidents as well. Just to add to uh what M Russo is
saying, Mr. Russo's done a very nice job coordinating the three buildings to also calibrate what they're seeing. Part of it is you're given this assessment that you know you you're just given blank like here you go, fill this out and nobody really knows and a lot of the language in there is confusing. So we've done a lot of work of understanding what
this assessment is trying to tell us. On the other side as well, the last like six months, we've done a lot of listening to families over the strategic planning process. Um, and in the last six months, we've done a lot of work. Like parents call and they want to talk and they want to share their perspective and we're listening and taking it in and
really thinking about how we can improve the district and what what are the needs of our community and our parents and how do we make their experience and their child's experience better here. Great. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Oh, I'll just add also that um that we also
understand the parent perspective, you know, and what it's like, you know, can imagine what it must be like to have your child's, you know, involved in an investigation on either end. And um so we wanted we looked at our processes and we're, you know, looking to improve our
transparency more and more and to be thoughtful about what that's like for families. Thank you very much. And I really appreciate you you um noting the difference between I think you said between a H and conflict. Um, I think it is definitely scary for parents and I've had, you know, been
approached by the public. It's it's scary for your child to be involved in a hip. You know, what's the impact on on them and their future and um, so I'm very happy to hear that you're trying to clarify that and make that more transparent for the public. Thank you. It's all on our FAQ document on the
website. We can always push people to that website. Any other question? Yeah. Other other questions? Okay. So, we'll move on to the next presentation, DM. Um, so just to preface this as a reminder, uh we cannot report
out publicly on uh subgroups that are less than 20. So, our DM scores um we have to regardless still have this presentation, but you'll see a lot of ends for not able to report
So, it won't be as exciting as if I had numbers, but I'll I'm going to try to I'll locate the right slide off screen. We have the NJSLA um presentation slides first, but since we want to get M Russo out of here,
I appreciate your patience. I don't think anyone wanted to um see me scroll through 45 slides. Okay, we we'll just enlarge the screen so that you all can see better. Okay, so what is DM? We've mentioned this acronym. The DM
stands for the dynamic learning maps and it's an alternate assessment to the state assessment that we provide to students who have um who have IEPs who qualify for this type of of assessment. It is on based on essential elements and
other state standardized evaluations. Okay, there we go. It replaces, like I said, the state standardized assessments for students with significant intellectual disabilities and/or developmental disabilities. The DM assessments offer DM eligible students a way to show what they know and what they
can do in language arts, mathematics, and science. Students assessed include in district students as well as students that we receive from other districts. and they are assessed in language arts for grades three through eight as well as grade 11. In mathematics, grades
three through eight and 11. In science, grades 5, 8, and 11. And the different areas that we look at for achievement levels are emerging. The student demonstrates emerging understanding of an ability to apply
content, knowledge, and skills represent represented by the essential elements that would be listed as emerging. If a student has a score that is approaching the target, that means that the students understanding of an ability to apply targeted content knowledge and skills are represented by the essential
elements that is approaching the target. If they are at target, the students understanding of an ability to apply content knowledge and skills is represented by the essential elements that is at target. And if they are listed as advanced, the student demonstrates advanced understanding of
an ability to apply targeted content knowledge and skills represented by the essential elements. And this is that chart that we said would not be very exciting because at each level there's just an asterisk. We're not able to report on the data because our groups are less than 20. So
normally you would see some numbers here for ELA listing as how many participated emerging approaching at target or advanced as well as for math and for science. And although we don't have the scores for public reporting we do review those
scores internally and look to make plans for interventions and strategies. So we have at the prek to four level PLC's that meet regularly to review data and drive instruction. We look at IEP goals and daily data that are individualized
for incremental meaningful growth. We look we use multiensory modalities to deepen concept understanding. We make sure that we're transferring skills that are emphasized across functional and academic settings. We use instructional resources such as aris lexia unique
learning system and use to you. We also prioritize attendance interventions because the more that students are present for school, the more they can benefit from our programs. So, we have a focus particularly on students with IEPs and we're working with effective school solutions ESS added as a new resource as
well. And that is my portion of presentation for the DM. [Music] Any questions about DM? Any questions? Sure. What happens?
So the DM is one piece of information. But we also look at daily performance. So um we look at overall you know the um the most the most meaningful like tool for for looking at student growth really are those goals and objectives
that are in that IEP. So that is even more important than how they perform really on on you know standardized testing and so on. But it's it's one piece of information. It's not everything. So yeah. Any other questions? Okay, thank you.
Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, we got to get back to slide one. All right. Uh, so while I click back, I'm going to try and multitask here. Um, I hope by the next presentation we have,
now that we have a board here, uh, I hope by the next presentation we have, we will also have a setup where the board members don't have to sit here and I don't have to turn my back to speak to you about the scores. That's the plan. Um, so, uh, today, uh, we're we're also
presenting the NJ student, uh, learning assessments. Uh this is for our ELA, math and science uh spring assessments that we take. Uh students in grades uh beginning in grade three uh take these state assessments.
So these are a computer-based assessment um that assess the progress towards students mastery uh towards the NJ uh student learning standards. Um and we refer to that usually you see the acronym NJSLA. So if I if I reference NJSLA, it's referring to the student
learning standards. Um in ELA, they focus on writing effectively when analyzing texts. Uh in math, uh they're applying to solve real world problems through modeling and reasoning. And in science, they're investigating, sense making, and uh critiquing.
For NJSLA and uh ELA for English language arts and for math, there's five levels. the five levels uh beginning at level one, they do not meet yet meet expectations and then they progress forward. And when we're reporting, when we say that they've met the
expectations, we're talking about students that have scored at a level five or a level four or five. So four is that they're at meeting expectations and then five is that they're exceeding. So overall overall district achievements
um we are happy to again report that we are continuing to grow and continuing to move forward. You will see growth positive growth in the district comparison over time. Um we're consistently scoring higher than the state average. Uh we're overall positive growth in our subgroups. Um and we are
moving closer and closer to our precoid proficiency levels. Um and in one case we have actually exceeded our co pre-COVID proficiency levels which we are very excited to report. Uh some of the big district-wide strategies and interventions that we've put in place over the past few years that we've
continued and we will be continuing into this year uh is our multiensory or multi-tered system of supports. We're really focusing on um those different tiers and how our different resources impact at those different tiers. Uh we have a big focus as the board knows on
professional development. a lot of different professional development happening across the district and supporting staff with time and resources, giving them more time to uh dive into the professional development and more time with staff developers. And then we've done a lot of reviewing and
improving our instructional programs and resources. So I'm going to start with English. So some of our notable achievements in English, uh you'll see that uh we as a district increased in all of the domains. So, English is broken down into
five different domains. Uh, you'll see that there was an increase across the board in all of those areas. Um, at least a minimum of 3% increase across the board. Uh, in grade three, we saw a 3 to 5% increase in literary reading,
information, and writing conventions, which in our primary grades, that was a big push last year was grammar, multi-ensory reading, grammar instruction, and writing. Grade four, we saw a 7% increase in writing conventions, which we were very proud of. And then in grade five, I do want to
highlight grade five because you'll see across the board, grade five is doing a great job. Um the teachers in grade five are consistently whatever that whatever they're doing, those grade five classes are they're really they're doing great work. Um it's a tough year because
they're transitioning right from grade three grade four here at ACS and then moving to um LMS as the little the little fish in the big pond, right? So on top of a social emotional transition, they're also transitioning academically and we consistently see an increase in
that grade. So we're really proud of the work that they're doing. Um grade eight 14% growth in the literary domain and then grade nine also saw a two to 5% growth across the reading domains. All right. So, I'm going to start with participation rates. So, you know,
roughly our participation rates, we sometimes have a handful of students across the district that refuse uh that refuse to take the test. Uh basically, what happens is uh New Jersey is not an opt- out state. That means you can't opt out of the assessment. However, you can refuse to take the assessment. So, a
parent would write a letter saying that I refuse to take the that I refuse my child to take the assessment. Um and then they essentially just they don't test. Um, so that's where you see that's why there's not 100% across the board.
So looking at the district-wide multi-year comparison, uh, you'll see uh, over time. So our precoid 2019, we were at 71.7. When we came back from COVID in 2022, we uh, we were scoring at 61.6% and now we've gotten ourselves to that
70%. So over the past few years, we've done a lot of work um, and we're continuing. ELA has been a big push especially at the primary level with that multiensory that orin uh or in training and a lot of the differentiation work that we are going to really push forward with this year.
This slide shares the state percentage uh the Leonia versus the state. So you'll see across the board we are very well above the state average. Okay. So now the next slides um this is something that actually came from one of
our our board meetings. Um, a few years ago we started doing this where we're instead of doing uh grade comparison, so looking at one grade over time, we we've we do a cohort comparison. So we follow a cohort of kids over time. Um, so this gives us a little bit of a better
picture of a group of kids versus looking at third grade for third grade from 2022 is much different than the third grade students in 2025. So we we like this cohort comparison because it gives us a little bit better data to look at or at least more relevant data
to look at. So this uh slide we start with these are the current students in grade five. So this is their last year assessment. So they were being assessed as grade four and now they are in grade five. So you'll see um you'll see some growth over time.
Grade six. This is these are current grade six. So last year when they were in grade five uh they grade three they progressed from grade three they progressed forward. So this is grade their current sixth graders. This is our current seventh graders. Again you'll
see last year they were scoring in fifth grade they scored 58.7% and then uh in sixth grade 62%. And now they're seventh graders. And this is our current eighth grade. Uh you'll see um grade four 66 and now
they're at 75.6. And then grade nine. Uh grade nine we saw these are current grade nine. So last year's eighth graders. So you'll see uh last year they were 78.1 and now they're 78.9. And then uh this is grade current grade 10 current 10th graders. So last year
they were freshmen. And normally I wouldn't really dive into this slide but I do want to share a interesting tidbit that we've been talking about at the county level. across the board at the county level, we've seen a dip in students in ninth grade students ELA scores. For whatever reason, a lot of
the county ELA groups started talking about why is there a dip in our seventh grade in our nth grade scores. So, it's something at the county level that we're investigating and looking into trying to figure out why and get to the bottom of why. But, you know, it was interesting that like grade nine there seems to be
that transitional that dip down a little bit. And, you know, we went down by about 5%. Um, so we're we're kind of diving into that on our end to really investigate why at the county level why why that's happening and what we can do to better support. Maybe it's the transition, maybe it's um maybe it's the
content. You know, we're trying to figure it out at at a g at a bigger level than just Leonia. Okay. So, then we move on to our subgroup data. So, as we do annually, we report out both aggregated and disagregated data. We report out on
gender, race, and then special programs. Um, subgroups, like Miss Russo said, subgroups that do not meet minimum require minimum reporting size is 20. I know this says 10, but it should be 20. Um, and those are the subgroups that we did not meet the 20 the reporting size minimum.
So, these are our charts. If you look, the first column is the the first gray is 2023. The second maroon is the second column that's maroon is 2024 and then the third column is gray is 2025. So you'll see across the board, you
know, some we're roughly around where we have been. And then our um our special programs are economically disadvantaged students with IEPs, our students with 504s, and our multilingual. Um Dr. Gander is very excited to see an increase in our
multilingual especially in ELA because that's where you know their language acquisition that's where you see oftentimes uh students struggle. So she was very excited to see that. I heard her screaming from my office. So ELA improvements for the from the
spring of 2025 assessment results. Uh we are in year two of our grammar integration from K12. We've been doing this grammar initiative with multiensory reading and phonics instruction in K to 5. So that's going to continue into the second year of implementation. We're
also fine-tuning the ELA curriculum in K12. Uh we've we've made some transitions away from when we used to have uh teachers college. We've moved to now a homegrown curriculum that we've developed with our staff developers and with the experts that we work with. uh
integrating ELA practices like multiensory reading into our instruction, differentiating for our multilingual learners. Um we've been giving a lot of professional development around how to support multilingual learners. Um and while we are targeting that subgroup of population, we are finding that our staff are seeing that
they can use those strategies across the board. So it's kind of helping that global support and those tiered interventions. And then um we are also focusing a little bit more on our what kind of data we have to analyze. So that's been a a thing that we've been working with the
principles on is really looking at our star data, thinking about how we can better utilize our star data with staff and also with parents. Right? We if you've uh received the parent square messages, you may have seen that we've started to send out those reports to families. So now families have access to
their student star reports which they may not have had in the past. Uh and then programs we're working on are vocabulary unit development in grades 5 to eight. We're exploring writing through informational text. Uh and then the K to3 literacy screener which is uh the new state mandate. And
then some resources that we've added this year or continuing this year. We have our new media specialist which we're very excited for. Uh she so the media specialist while she was introduced as a high school staff member, she is actually K12. So she does work in all three buildings. uh and her role is really going to be supporting
the collaboration between the different content area teachers and how we can integrate that through media literacy. And then we also have Lexia which is one of our uh special ed multilingual programs. We've implemented no red ink and brisk. Uh Brisk is no red ink and
brisk are both in their second year of implementation. All right. Any questions about ELA before I move to math? Can I take is it can I take public comment questions is that okay?
Uh sure. Good. Yep. So progress takes time, right? So um the more we when we went through co right you have two years essentially where students struggled there was there was
that weird time of instruction virtual non-verirtual all of that. So there was when we came back from COVID there was a lot of learning gaps. So we've been working on really targeting what learning gaps or finding what learning gaps and targeting the instruction to meet those learning gaps. We saw a lot
of gaps around literacy uh specifically in phonics at the elementary level. You figure kindergarteners, a lot of five-year-olds, right, were at home trying to learn their letters on a computer rather than learning their letters in person. And now those kids are in third, fourth, fifth grade. So
they came in with with gaps. And now we've not only had to teach them grade level content to get them at the grade level, but we also had to then go back and fill in the gaps. So it's been a lot of work to try and kind of support the move forward. Um, we've seen progress and we're I'm thankful and appreciate
all the work that has been done here for the progress because we're very fortunate to see progress. There's districts that are are nowhere have not seen the same growth as we have. So that that's been the biggest co has been it did a lot to schools and to kids. So welcome.
Yes. Yeah, that's kind of sometimes our struggle, right? Um we So you'll see like we we make good growth and then we get to eighth grade. So we've been Not not not blaming Edgewater at all. I want to make that clear. I used to work in Edgewater. I love Edgewater. Um we are,
you know, the new the new superintendent of Edgewater and I um our mission is to bring the districts together. Um we don't have easy access because they are their own district. We don't it's not like we can log into their Pearson accounts and and get those reports. Um we also they're not in Genesis. So
there's no real easy way for us to get these reports. Um and also no like system way like we can get individual student reports but then we'd have to look at them you know we have to look at 80 something kids individually to figure out you know um but
so we have our first Leonia Edgewater summit with the administrative team on Thursday actually we're very excited um the first step is building relationship and getting to know each other. But eventually the goal is to get to this data piece. Uh one thing that when I was in Edgewater that I did with the
assistant super or the director of curriculum that was here at the time um we did do that. We looked at I brought my Edgewater data. He brought his Leona data and we sat as curriculum people together to kind of find where similarities what domains are we hitting are we both struggling with and how can
we support that struggle. So we're going to get back to that. Um that's our you know Mr. Mr. Cunningham and I, that's our hope is to kind of bring the two districts together and be able to have these conversations. Of course, we love Edgewater. [Music] Absolutely. I agree with you. That
parent home school connection is we know is the biggest factor of student success, right? So when parents are involved and parents are collaborating with the school, that's how we know students succeed. There's tons of research behind that. Um we look at this data, we dive into this um like this is
just the surface level of data that we get. Our teams spend a lot of time and this is only also uh like Miss Russo said with the DM this is one data piece so we collect all of this different we use the star assessment we use class classwork we break it down uh the platform that we use educ for our data
analysis can break it down to us by by uh race by uh subgroups by support um by classes uh we can also look at like we can uh analyze their NJSLA scores versus their attendance. So, we can see
patterns in that work and that's the kind of work we do behind the scenes and the interventions we put into place. Um, we, you know, like I said, we we're making really great growth and really great strides forward. Uh, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Uh, but, you know, I'm I'm excited for the the
direction that the district is going in. We try. Yeah. Absolutely. Parents are very busy and we try to bring them in and we've got lots of ideas. So, some work two jobs, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Right. Right. And we think of all of that, right? We that's part of our process is what can we do to better support parents. Um, and we have through our we have I could sit here for hours and talk about the all the programs and the initiatives ESS like I I could stand up
here and I can soap box for I'm sure you all want to go home at some point tonight, right? So, and I still have math and science to do. Um, but yes, all of what you're saying is completely accurate and something that at the district level we have been exploring and continuing to work towards.
head into that unless there's another any other questions from. Yes. No. So, so that um the state does not release districtto district or county averages
uh to the public. the only way we can get a county average is if everybody in the county gets together and gives you know um so it's it's kind of impossible. Uh what I've done sometimes is after the data presentations go out then I go on
other districts websites and you know I kind of like see oh look I see what forly did I see you know what Tennerfly did. So, I kind of look I do my own little digging um which is more fun for me than you know. Um but uh there's no I a few years ago this gentleman from
South Jersey made this website where he took all of that data. We were hoping he was going to continue it. It's been three years and he hasn't continued it. So, yeah, it is. I mean, it would be very nice if the state did that. Yes, Dr. Mester. Yeah. Yeah.
Right. It would be nice if the state did it and state calibrated those scores versus it coming from niche or you know the great schools you know like independent organizations and independent for-profit businesses right one day maybe maybe with this adaptive
test it'll change all right I'm going to head into math okay so math our notable achievements I am very proud of our math scores I've been talking about them for the past few weeks since we started analyzing them um we saw 2.9% growth in one which is very
good. Uh obviously higher than state averages. Um grades to highlight, we saw 8.7% growth in third grade, 11.3% growth in grade five, again that grade five. Uh 3% in seventh grade, and then algebra 2,
we saw 28.2% growth. So we're very excited. We also saw tons of growth in our subgroups. Uh we saw subgroups that we specifically have been targeting and supporting. We saw good growth in those areas as well. These are our participation rate.
Participation rates similar to last time. Um you know we have a handful of students that refuse across the district for whatever reasons. Okay. So these are our scores over time. Uh so we are if you're looking at our 2019 score we are
proud to say that we have exceeded our precoid number. We have uh 61.7% in 2019 and we are at 62.2% in 2025. So we're very excited. This is our analysis versus the state.
So you'll see the maroon is Leonia and then growing is the state. And now we start our cohort. So math cohorts are confusing because when you get to seventh grade and when I get there I'll explain it more but things change in seventh grade for in multiple
ways. So grade five um this is the cohort for current students in grade five. So from third grade to fourth they were fourth graders last year. Grade six. So they were fifth graders last year. This is grade seven.
So we're current seventh graders. Yes. So this is this is they were sixth graders last year. Now seventh grade. So this was seventh grade last year. This is a current eighth graders. So now what happens in seventh grade? Students in seventh grade. So sixth
grade is the last grade that all the kids take all the kids are in sixth grade math. When they get to seventh grade, they have the option in seventh grade through our accelerated programs to either take uh to enroll in algebra 1. If they are enrolled in our algebra 1 class in grade seven, then they can take
the NJSLA algebra 1 assessment. So we have students that take that assessment. So when you look at it just by grade, it's hard to see because you're skew the students that you're looking at are pretty skewed because you're you're looking at a cohort of kids that now you've taken out those kids from that
grade level score. So what we do is we kind of we go backwards and we take them out from grade five. So any students that were that ended up in seventh grade or eighth grade accelerated programs, we go back and we remove them from grade five and six. So that way we can
actually see the true a true cohort of students. Um so you'll see as the cohort so in grade five uh grade six and then as the cohort continues the cohort of students that have remained in the general class have continue to to show
growth forward and then the same thing in uh grade eight so grade nine. So these students now have the students from sixth grade that there that were uh that are the students that are in ninth grade
accelerated course. We go back and take them out from all the way back from the sixth grade course to see the true cohort. Um, one thing to note about this, um, and again, we do a lot of analysis when we look at these scores because the first thing to me when I saw this, I was like, wait a minute, 37.1%
last year in grade 8, and now we're looking at 25.3% in grade nine. Last year, grade nine, for those of you that remember, we were short a math teacher. So, in grade nine last year, our math teachers were each teaching a sixth class, and that sixth class was algebra
1. Grade nine, algebra 1. So, kind of thinking about that, right? We've got uh teachers taking on an extra workload and now teaching an algebra one course. So, right, makes sense. Yeah. So, um we've now hired, which you've met
today, um um Astred is the math teacher that we've hired. She's been doing a great job and the kids love her. So, we're excited to kind of see these scores get back to back to normal. So 37 yes 37% of this cohort of child. Yes. So these
are the students that have not taken any accelerated classes or they're taking the foundations math. So these are the students that fundamentally struggle with math. So the fact that we're seeing growth is good because they're a cohort that generally have a hard time.
Yes, I 100% agree with you. Yes. That's a good question. So that would it's I don't have that data exactly in front of me but when you look at the algebra 1 and algebra 2 so the algebra 2 is really that that group of kids is the algebra 2 kids. So when you look at the
algebra 2 they're scoring 89.2%. So all kids in algebra 2 so those are the accelerated kids right I do not have that data in front of me but that's good data to pull. I mean, it depends on the class size, right? Our class sizes have been
changing. So, there's a lot of factors. I don't have that data in front of me, but that's good data that I can bring to the next education committee. For sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. We have Yeah, we have regular math, right?
Yes, we have remedial math courses. We have Yeah, we have advancement and remedial through our smile program. Yeah. Yep. We provide that opportunity. Um, we also do credit recovery too. Um students that struggle with NJSLA or GPA have the opportunity to then take the assessment again. So we do provide that
in the summer. No, it depends. Like again, this is just one piece of our data puzzle. So it depends. We look at the whole child. We also know that some children aren't very good test takers. So they might have they might score low here, but then when you get to STAR and when you get to other assessments, they score great. So
we take all of that into account. Um, smile is also a um, we do offer tuition uh, free and reduced for students on free and reduced but it is a tuition based program. So that's the one barrier. You know it is an enterprise program that and we need to charge for
it to be able to sustain it. Um, that's the one barrier of the remedial work. So going back to my subgroups. So these are the subgroups again. same subgroups from before. Reporting size is 20, not 10. Um, and this is the breakdown uh within
the subgroups themselves. It's a it's a lot of subgroups that, you know, you have to report. It's hard to It's a hard hard slide to break apart. Yep. Right. Right. Correct. There's probably 21 kids in
that subgroup. Exactly. Yes. Yep. And then these are special programs. So you'll see the economically disadvantaged which that's what so that's been a big push for my entire time here is being able to provide resources for those finance finance
should not be a a barrier for children right so providing them with access to resources the free and reduced lunch u Mr. Thomas Edich last year moved all of our programs free and reduced lunch. They were all going to get free for our enterprise accounts. Um and all of that allowed more kids to get involved and
more kids we had the silven through title one. We had um the online tutoring programs through title one and through uh the co grants. Um so we've done a real a big push to supporting that population of child because we also see that population of child across other
subgroups. So, not only are they economically disadvantaged, they may also have 504s or they may also have IEPs or they may also be multilingual learners. So, we're targeting yes the economic piece, but we're also targeting those other groups as well.
Yep. Absolutely. So we haven't really done work in math specifically. We focused a lot on science and multilingual learners. We created that academic vocabulary bank for teachers. We did we had that consultant come in and do like two years of work with the science department. We haven't specifically targeted math
academic vocabulary. Um if I gave if I let Dr. Gander do whatever she wanted. She would have she would have all the teachers here all year long doing all types of multilingual professional development. Um but uh so she's been itching to get to the math piece. Uh we
hope to do that this year if not definitely next year. But there's other supports that they're doing within the classes. Okay. And these are our interventions and improvements. Um, we're continuing to revise our math curriculum. Um, aligning it to the standards that we
have new standards this year. Um, and then also, uh, the incorporating the climate change standards a bit more to give kids more real hands-on experiences. We're also looking at our professional development for this year. LMS will be focusing on experience math, um, which
is the new math program. And then, uh, LHS will be focusing on utilizing the STAR data more effectively. um they've been they've been assessing they've been using STAR as an assessment tool, but we haven't really dove into the LHS assessment uh STAR assessment data with the staff itself, with this teaching
staff. Um and ACS the just the whole ACS isn't really content focused in terms of their professional development. We're looking more at the global picture of enrichment, gifted and talented and how to differentiate. They also implemented the win period this year. So that's been really helpful for allowing teachers
time to target skills with kids. Some programs, we have our after school tutoring opportunities and then our smile program is on here. And then these are a list of resources that we have access to throughout the different groups. The part of the presentation where my
throat starts to get scratchy. All right. Any questions about math before I move to science? All right. Oh, you do. Go ahead. No, no, no. Okay. All right. Oh, great. I love that. All right. Science.
So, science assessment is taken with in grades five, eight, and 11. So, there are three grades that that assess annually. Um, five, grade, and five, eight, and 11. Um, and these uh these assessments are on the student learning standards and science. and they really
focus on designing solutions to real world problems and assessing these science practices which are investigating, sensemaking and critiquing um the NJSLA science. So math and ELA use a five level scoring.
Science for whatever reason has four levels. So when we're talking about the levels, we're talking about level. When we're talking about proficiency, we're talking about levels three and four, which can sometimes be very confusing for parents who don't know that when they get the scores all at once, there's a little confusion there, but we try and
sort it out. Uh, notable achievements. Uh, grade five, you'll see a great increase in grade five. Um, and then when you break down into the individual pieces, uh, of life science, um, we also saw an increase in from proficiency to
advanced proficiency, which we like to that means that we're supporting those learners that need that advancement or that are ready for that advanced uh instruction. Uh grade eight, you'll see uh some good subgroup growth and then uh grade 11, same thing increase overall and then
some good growth in those subgroups. Participation rates, parents can also refuse this test if they'd like. So that's where those numbers come from. Multi-year uh comparison. So when you got to 2024 to 2025.
There's that nice nice increase there. 2024 we we scored at 42.1% proficient and then last year we were at 47% proficient. And these are our comparison of our scores over time. So it's very hard to do this as a cohort because there's only
three grade levels. So that's a lot of uh that would be a lot of uh manipulation of data that might be difficult to look at. grade eight. Uh so you'll see grade five uh that that very nice increase there. Uh and then
again at grade 11. There's a slight dip in grade eight. Uh which we uh will we have to investigate a bit further now that we have a new science supervisor who's really he's been great. Honestly, he's been wonderful. He's been really a great addition to the supervisory team.
Um, so I I expect these to go up as we continue through and work through his tenure. So then this is a comparison uh versus the state. So you'll see our comparison um to the state. The state we talked about this when we first scored when we
first um rolled out science about the the e the science cut score and how uh the state really bombed this test. They really did not plan appropriately for this science assessment. And then our subgroup data, same as before, reporting size. The reporting
size, you'll see that there's more groups that we can't report on just because there's only there's only so many grades that can take this assessment. Uh this is a great comparison across the board. A nice increase in male in male scores.
And then this is our uh subgroup special program. So you'll see economic place disadvantage a nice increase again um students with 504 and multilingual um we can't report those those scores because they're under the the subgroup size. So you only that's why you only
see two columns there. I'm sorry 504 is we are comparing to this year. So we're comparing last year to this year, but we couldn't compare to 2023 because it was under the subgroup size. But 20 but multilingual we can't compare this year. But we did look at that data and it was exciting to see the
growth and our science improvements um curriculum. Uh we focusing we've been focusing specifically on professional development within the high with the high school team on earth science, earth and space science which is one of the domains in the science standards. um and
how to incorporate phenomenon first instruction and data analysis within those science courses. Um we're also looking at effective use of assessment data uh to inform and tailor instruction at the high school level and also across the board. Um
and then uh assessment revision. So the implementation of the digital item database and looking at different programs and comparing it to our local assessments and making sure our local assessments align to the types of questions that we use. Oh
yeah. Yep. Uh and then the additional resources that we have now now have access to for our science department. And I am on dynamic learning maps which we already did. So, any questions about science or overall or
anything else? Are you you're not going over the appendix though? No. Okay. I can speak to it though if you want to if you want me to. No. No. I had some other questions about Okay. Um it goes back a little bit. Um and I think Mr. King might have even alluded
to it. Um and I apologize for going back, but for the math spring 2025, um there's First question is ELA spring 2025. Um there was a pretty significant dip with among Hispanic population um for the
between the 2024 and 2025 year. I mean to the tune of 10%. Um I know historically we we've not that we've struggled. I mean, we've been exploring um how to try like that that seems to be a group people group that's that we constantly
have issues with um in supporting and and finding um finding ways to help support and bring the those numbers up. I was wondering if there's any kind of particular indicators or anything in particular that that might you might
have seen in the data or in the trends that might have led to that 10% drop. um 2024 and 2025. Um and I think you had talked about um in general some of some of what we're
looking to do. Um this is slide roughly like 15 or 16. It's the one with the subgroup chart, right? Yes. It's a comparison of Leonia subgroup data from spring 23, 24, and 25. So I don't see a 10%. I do see a dip.
Well, I mean the the prior the prior year was 56% and it went down to like 51 51.8. So four four four to 5% out of 56 is roughly 10%. Well, a 5% drop out of 56, right? So yes, you want to talk literal numbers,
then it's a 4.2% drop, right? But when we're looking at when you're talking about the net difference, either way, it's a pretty significant drop and it's with a it's with a demographic of people that we've traditionally seen issues with. Um so it's disconcerting to see
that trend continue. Um just concerned or curious what we're doing if you know to specifically reach out to this demographic group um just to make to to better the situation. Sure. So if you look at the math data,
we did actually increase in the the math scores in the his for the Hispanic population. So we are so similar to what I shared earlier about the economic disadvantage, right? The the students in these groups are in multiple multiple groups. So they they're economically disadvantaged, but they could also be
multilingual, but they could also be any other subgroup alongside. So when we are talking about our multi-tered systems, uh when we when our MTSS teams get together and they look at this data and they target populations. We really focus on the resources that we have and the
most appropriate populations that we need to target. Um, so we do we we kind of take it more case by case and we do support the general obviously, but when it comes to the race data, we don't just say we're only going to target Hispanic, the race of if a student is Hispanic,
they're only going to get these resources because that's not fair, right? that's not fair to all of our students who might be in we look our our focus is more on these special programs data and the special program subgroups so like economically disadvantaged like the multilingual learners um and the uh
students with IPS and students with 504s that's where we really target and then whatever race those students are in you know that's we don't say we're only going to give these resources to Hispanic students or non-Hispanic students um now that subgroup of
population may be in multiple other special programs. Um, so they might get more targeted supports. Um, but we again like I said, we don't really target racial subgroups as how we give out our resources. And then we talk more individually about students in our MTSS
process. So we'll say, okay, these this group of students, we're seeing this these trends. How do we what resources can we provide them? What researchbased information can we give them or the teachers to to focus on that and increasing those scores? I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I mean, we can't, you know, you can't focus on one
subgroup of people. Um, but it it is I mean, the the numbers are pretty clear and it's kind of year-toear. So, it' be nice to see if we can do something to provide an extra support, right? And we is I'm not saying we don't look at it. It's just not we don't we don't target our resources to it based
on the race. And then I just had one other question for uh for math spring 2025. This is going back a couple years and it is for LHS class of 29 for grade nine.
So I guess it's last year's grade eight. Um there was a massive drop off between 22 and 23 from 38.1% to 21.4%. Was that do you was there any indication as to what that might have been? Was that like kind of postcoid still or
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of variables, right? as 2022, you know, we're getting back into it's the second year of testing. There's also a lot of stuff happening, right? You think about the transition um that wasn't our first year of fifth
grade move, but it was one of our first years of fifth grade move. So, it would be interesting to look back the years before if they also had a drop. So if last year's students that took the um so it would be the 11th graders now if we also saw a drop in that score in 11th grade like that's that's a little bit
more data to dive into because that was a transition year for them right that they we newly moved grade five and all and as you all board of education know how smooth that transition was thank you that's all my questions thank you very much for the presentation I
don't know if any other board members have questions Hold. Um, thank you for the presentation. U like you mentioned several times, we we do understand NJSLA is one of many uh performance indicators that we consider
when we think about the strategy like how what direction and what special program what resources going where. Um from that perspective like how um uh significant is NJSLA like how serious do
we need to take this information in when we understand our performance is it like 20%. But is it even quantifiable? I'm trying to get a better feel for it. Is this something like oh it goes up it's it's good to you know good to see it's
going up or going down. Oh but there is multiple reason. um do we just consider it like you know lightly that way or take it more seriously? How how big of a deal is this from the overall picture?
So I'm going to answer this in two ways. When it comes to student academics, NJSLA, when we're talking about an individual child or a group of children, NJSLA is not our most reliable data source, right? We have more we have benchmarking assessments that give us a
bit more real-time data. We also have our summitive you know our in-class summitive assessments all of that work that we have that the teachers do. We have a lot of other assessments that we use to get a whole picture of a child. So from the academic standpoint of a child I would say it's not our first
choice of assessment. It's a it's a piece of the puzzle, right? And that's you know I wouldn't say like when you think about a puzzle it's a piece of it. It's not a bigger piece or a smaller piece. It's a piece of it. That's one side when it comes to the district. So if you're asking me as the superintendent of Leon schools, do I
value this data? I'm going to tell you yes because this data also is indicators for a lot of other things, right? This goes on our performance reports. So this is how we are rated as a district. Uh those niche ratings that just came out that scored us great that comes from our NJSLA scores and our performance
reports. Um so when it comes to the the the overall district and supports and that also includes like opportunities for other engagements uh operationally and instructionally um when we have a stronger performance report and a
performance profile then we have better opportunities for our kids. So, we do from my level want to see these scores increase, but when we're talking about individual and academic performance of a child, it's not our sole assessment piece.
Good. Any other questions? Thank you very much. We're done with presentations. So to uh I think my is my report next. Okay, thank you very much for that presentation.
Um, that brings us to item one, excuse me, 1.4, public comment on agenda related items. Anyone from the public wishing to speak on any agenda related items items, please come to the podium, provide your name and address, and you have two minutes to speak.
Arthur Arthur's at 125. These have a couple of uh items. Just like clarified um under um 9.3 approved maintenance capital projects. We have one for replacing a bunch of screens for $84,000.
Uh I'm sure they're all beat up. The question I have is, do we open the windows? Do we need did we need to do the project? Uh most buildings are air conditioned. I know HS may or may not be air conditioned well, but certainly L the high school is and possibly the
middle school. So the question is did we need to really replace screens that were never going to open windows on? Um um I have a like an explanation for a I don't understand it. Leon, this is under
bills. Leonia Board of Educate current account state aid deductions is the title. Um I can give you the account number. Dennis probably has it. He was good enough to give me all this information. It's $450,000. Did we are they clawing back money? Did we lose $450,000?
Um they'll at the end. Dennis. No. If I may answer that. Um okay. We have students that go to the county uh school and they are paid by the state directly. So whatever those
tuitions are that totals that amount of money, they deduct that from our state aid. So we create a PO to the district to fund that. So we have a debit and credit at the end of the year. Thank you. Um, under bills also, there's
a three bay wash sink repair for $2,000. It sounds like an awful lot of money for to repair a three-bay sink. So, I mean, if they were going to replace the whole thing and then modify the opening, perhaps, but I I don't I'm not sure why it cost $2,000 to repair a sink. Um,
there's also an Evony Martineese. It's it's listed. It's not public, you know, it's not a confidential name. It's a parent tuition reimbursement for $33,000. I don't understand that. I'm sure it's, you know, legitimate. I just don't understand why we're paying a
parent uh $33,000 unless it's something that um I just need an explanation. I also have a comment, a question on the Hib report. I couldn't get it in when the pres presenter was giving it was the last
slide. indicated that passing was 54 points or whatever that that number was and we were up here in the 80s and 90s. It's a self assessment. It's risky when you're self assessing yourself. It's never risky if there's no issue. However, let's say I'm I got a kid in
school and the kid got beat up emotionally or physically. Okay. And I'm suing you guys. All right. And now there we have a legal situation and they're going to come down to, well, how well your people train? Well, we got an or 90%. Does this the question here is does
the state validate this? Is there anybody who comes in occasionally, looks at your numbers, then really goes through it and said, "Well, how did you do this? Who did the scoring?" And and kind of audit your your results. That's that's the question for that. And the final comment I have is actually on cell
phones. I know you just went through a cell phone review. You completely changed the cell phone policy. I read the old one, I read the new one. Um my feeling on it is simply you should take them away. That's the way it's always been that and I this morning on the news there was a California study and I'll try and find it and send it to you
whereby test scores, okay, from schools that took cell phones away from kids were two to 5% higher. And so I think that's a that's a number that's significant if you're looking at test scores and you want to boost them. That it was a pretty significant it was thousands of of of items that they but I
lost the the thing the the name of the study but it was out of California. If I can find it, I'll send it to you. So my my comment here is I stand by I think you should get rid of the cell phones. They come in, they check them in their box, they pick them up when they go home. Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Gender related comments. Okay. Yes, I can answer. Uh the I'll start with I'll start at the top. the screens. Uh do we open the windows?
Yes, we open the windows. The windows are able to open. Whether teachers open them daily, I I don't have an assessment of that, but they are able to open. Um our issue is that our screens don't have our windows. We have windows that are completely broken and or have holes in
them or um don't have screens at all. Um so if in the event a teacher does want to open a window, there's no screen. Um so I mean the at the high school might be I don't know if you've ever noticed the screens um but you know we've seen
it walking around the the wire to the the frame right called the fra the frames are broken the the screen conversation has been a topic of conversation since I started here in 2020 um and nothing's been done about it um and it's something that is always
brought up by the teachers uh because it is it is frustrating for them uh when they do want to open a window and then you open a window and there's no screen and there's a potential of bugs and animals or even sorry.
Yeah, I've been talking all night. I just figured I'd continue. You know, my soap boxes, right? Uh the HIP report. Uh, does anyone come in and audit from the state? So, no, nobody comes in and audits. Um, but, uh,
Arthur, I'm 100% on I 100% hear what you're saying about it's a self assessment, right? So, how do we know that we're accurately assessing ourselves? Um, and that's the work that we were alluding to earlier with Miss Russo that we've done with the buildings of calibrating those scores and understanding what the rubric is trying
to tell us. So, that way in the event something happens, we know that we've met the the expectations. Uh when we certify these scores, they they go so what happens is we we submit them into a system. Uh we certify them as a district and then the state basically takes eight months and I don't know what they do in
those eight months but eight months later they certify them for they they reertify them for us. Um and then they they look at them versus our SSDs data which is our like suspension, our discipline, all of that information. Um and then that is again once again reported on our state performance
reports. So those big reports that we were just talking to. Um so you know nobody from the state level comes in but uh the student safety is a big is a big thing for me as any superintendent or any administrator. Student safety is very
important for us. Um we can't do anything if the students aren't safe, right? So having making sure that this is a true self assessment is one of the goals that we've had over the past few years. Um the cell phone, uh we did approve
that new cell phone policy. Yes. Um if you look at strategic plan, I think it's goal three off the top of my head. Um there is specifically a goal based around student cell uh student cell phones. So while we've started the conversation about the policy and we we passed that new policy that has a little
bit more strict language in there for guidance for the handbooks, uh the conversation is not over. Um and now we can continue having that conversation. Um, now there is a a state push to ban cell phones and more more focus and more research on the importance of banning
cell phones. Um, what we'll start doing, part of our strategic plan, uh, is to evaluate and get that data back from families and feedback from parents as we go through the next year or so with trying to navigate cell phones. Believe me, if I could ban them tomorrow, I
absolutely would just cause more chaos. I that's I think I got it. Oh, the three bay wash sink. We had a lot of sinks redone this year. So, I have to get back to you. We had we had a lot of uh we had the art room, we had
the the culinary lab. So, I I I'll get back to you on which specific sink that was for. Yeah, we the um Right. So, from time to time the um with certain students, typically special education students, there's a issue that
has to get resolved. Sometimes they file a request for due process. Um the cases get settled. Sometimes those settlement agreements involve placement of a student out of district. And sometimes those settlement agreements involve placement of a student out of district, but the student was already going there.
So it might involve reimbursement to the parent who was already paying the tuition. So that's what that's about. Thank you. Any other board member comments on agenda related items? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to the next item.
Okay, so that brings us to item 2.1, approval of consent agenda items. Can I have a motion and a second, please? Motion, Mr. Brown, and a second. Mr. Park, uh, can we have a roll call, please? Or, excuse me, any items to be
pulled for discussion? Okay, seeing none, can we have a roll call, please? All right, we have a motion and a second on the consent agenda items 3.1 through 7.8. Miss Choy, yes. Mr. Grow,
yes. Dr. Mester, yes. Miss Molina, abstaining on ACS. Mr. Park, yes. Miss Thompson, yes. Vice President Melman, President Lee.
Yes. Motion to carry. Thank you. That brings us to item 4.1, superintendent report. Okay, I'm not done. I still have a few things I would love to report on. Um, first, hot off the press.
Our boys soccer team defeated Glenrock tonight in the round of 16. So, this is a huge win for our boys soccer team. And I'm sorry if I stole your update. I apologize, but it was hot off the press. Mr. Prada texted me and he was like, "You have to share this." So, we are
very excited. Uh, the next round is um will be with the number one seed and that'll be quarterfinals. It'll be sometime one weekend from now, either this upcoming or in the future. Um, that'll be up against Bergen Catholic. I will share that information with the board. I also, before you leave tonight,
I have your NJIC uh passes for the board members so you can get into games, county games. Um, so very exciting news. Uh, one more athletic update. Our boys and girls cross country teams won their second
consecutive NJIC Colonial Division Championship recently. Um, they competed on October 7th. So, we have a phenomenal group of cross country runners. Uh, I give them so much credit because I'm not a runner. Uh, but they they are just
amazing and they're they're such good kids, too. Uh we have uh students that finished in first and second place. We had fifth place finishers. Um the girls team actually made history in their race um with the most dominant win ever in
NJIC Colonial Division um with a score of in a score of 19 points in their division. Uh we have our our juniors uh the Cameron sisters um and Eleanor Chang. She's a freshman new to the team. uh they placed first, second, and third
in the in this uh race. Um we are very excited to see what's next for them. Uh they have the the next tournament is coming up. Um I'm excited to go to I mean Mr. Prada tells me I need to pump the brakes, but I already put uh the state of meat champions in home. I
already put that on my calendar. My husband and I already have a plan for that day for snacks. So we are we cannot wait to go see them again. always the snacks are the most important. Uh so we're very excited about the cross country team. Um next board meeting I'll give a full athletics
uh fall season kind of round up uh for you all. Uh on Saturday we had the class of 1970 visit LMS. Uh they did a they received a tour of their old high school because it was the high school back then. Um and they got to explore their old stomping grounds. So we got a very
nice picture that will be on my update this uh this week for you. um October uh last Friday, the Leonia debate team placed third place in their their debate league um match or meet or competition.
Competition. Yes. Sorry, it's been a long night. Um they scored 89 points, giving them a very strong start to the season. Uh Olivia and Christopher were will be competing again for the school on the 23rd. Um on the 14th there is an
um competition that I I've never seen a debate team competition. So I have October uh November 14th on my calendar to go see them compete in Fort Lee and I'm very excited. Can't wait. Um and that's all I have for my update.
That's it. Some some great news. Thank you very much. Um that brings us to Dr. Dennis. Yeah. No report, Mr. President. Okay. Thank you. Um, so that brings us to our student representatives. Feel free to repeat the good news.
Should coordinate next time. Yeah. Um, outside of sports, we have 11 senior students who were named commended students of the National Merit Scholarship Program. Um, basically this distinction recognizes students who demonstrate exceptional academic
promise, placing them among the top 34,000 scores in the top n in the nation on the PSAT. Um, tomorrow there's actually going to be the PSAT for sophomores and juniors. Um, potentially qualifying them for the national merit scholarship and thankfully I won't have
to take it. Um, but and thirdly, there's also an ongoing popcorn fundraiser which ends this Friday for the senior class. We've already raised uh $6,200. And if any board of education members or audience members um want to support the
senior class um and me because I get senior points, we would greatly be appreci we'd greatly appreciate it. I can vouch for the popcorn. It is delicious. We ordered some last year. It's very very good. Yeah. Each student has Yeah, each
student has a different link, right? We do have one specific link in our board board of ed notes. Um I was going to touch on soccer and cross country, but I'll just add a little bit more. So cross country placed
third out of 30 at the Shore Coaches Invitational for the first time in history and look to place well at county and state meets. And the girls have also had a historical season going undefeated in the league as well as finishing fourth in the Shore Coaches Invitational. And varsity captain Dom
Cameron has beat the school record. Actually, every course she's ran, she's beat the school record and looks to continue to break more of her own times, essentially breaking her own times at this point. So, okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ara. Yeah.
Um, okay. That brings us to our committee reports. Um, first committee board of our practices and principles. Miss Melton. buildings and grounds. Actually, Mr.
Zucka is not here tonight, although we did meet uh yesterday morning. Sure. We talked about uh we just gave the board uh an overview of the completed projects and what was kind of lingering from the summer projects and we also talked about um the two items
that are on the list tonight for approval under new business. And we talked about ad hoc committee for buildings and grounds for our strategic plan. Goal five is the complete review of our facilities and how we want to move forward with improvements. Um so we talked about how we were going to form
that committee. Thank you. That brings us to item 5.3 education. Miss Thompson, we met last week and we discussed uh some of the progress on the gifted and talented uh program and and the
committees that had been formed at the schools and also the uh professional development. I think that's going to be part of the November professional development. Great. Um as well as some other professional development and also talked about some feedback. you know,
this year we have um instead of half day, we have a a later start to the day. So, talked about maybe h is that working, the efficacy of that um versus like just one full day. Um and I think we scheduled our meetings and we talked
about our excitement for our incoming assistant superintendent. Thank you. Uh next is finance and planning. We actually haven't met since our last meeting just before the prior board meeting. Um we are looking at the schedule um as the as it is needed u
with Dr. Dennis and the final committee is policy. Mr. Segel's not here tonight but we have not had any updates recently from Strauss. Okay. So that brings us to item 10.1 public comment on non-aggenda items. Anyone from the public wishing to speak,
please come to the podium, provide your name and address, and you'll have two minutes to speak. Can I think the mic turned off? It times out I believe. There we go. Is that better? Thank you.
Okay. Uh Dan Slamman, 177 Lake, New Jersey. Uh not expecting any response just so we can get that off. Uh but I just wanted to let the board know that this evening, uh Rolling Stone magazine released an article about what's been
happening here in the history. Uh the article is uh titled sorry this small town protected a predator now his survivors are fighting back. So, I think you all should read this article. We'll be sending it around,
making sure people see this. And I think, you know, just what I would like you guys to know is the goal of this board to sweep this under the rug and act like this hasn't happened, has failed. We as victims are going out and
making sure that everybody knows that victims know it's safe to come forward and that we're creating a space for them. We're doing the job that you all should do, but we think this article is a part of making sure that folks that have moved away will hopefully get this story as well. And I think it's
unfortunate that we've asked you to join us in making a safe space. We've asked you to bring in professionals. We've asked you to uh, you know, realize that while this happened to us many, many years ago, we all are still suffering from the consequences of what Mr. Ray
did to all of us. We all probably shorter lifespans because of what happened Mr. Ray with Mr. Ray with us and the fact that this board is choosing the route that you're choosing I just think is very unfortunate and I think you're sending a terrible message to
students about how to handle bad things that happen in people's lives. So I hope you read the article. I hope the article brings more victims forward and I just think it's unfortunate how you've all chosen to act. Thank you. [Music]
My name is Nick Saltos, PS to OS. I grew up at 340 Crescent Avenue, right up the street from here. Thank you for giving me the time to present a very difficult story. And I thank the Gonzalez brothers and Paul King and Dan Slademan for what they
did to pave the way for this story to find an audience after so many decades of family pain. I'm 63 years old and currently reside in South Carolina. Our family lived in this town between 1968 and 2002.
My dad was a stock broker and a proud army veteran. My mom was a homemaker. Both are now deceased. Both were born to Greek immigrant parents. I have one older brother 17 months older and two much younger siblings, one six
years younger and one 12 years younger than me, respectively. In the school year of 1969 to 70, I was in second grade and my teacher's name was Miss Novie. In that same year, my older brother was
in John Anagnosty's third grade class. Like our family, Anagnosti was also of Greek descent. Because of this commonality, our mother trusted him immediately. She soon granted him permission to take
my brother on after school excursions, and the following year, she allowed me to go on those excursions, too. I began singing an agnostic. [Music] I began seeing an Agnostic in our living room quite often after delivering my
brother home from their many after school excursions. There were events I recall like Mets and Yankees games. From the first time mom invited him inside, I remember him often staring at me
silently and bending his head over to one side, locking a glaze with me, a gaze, excuse me, with me. And it was sort of hypnotic, silent, staring, head bent to the side.
He then stick his tongue out at me trying to make me giggle. All doing this all while conducting a conversation with my mother. So he's multitasking through the 10 through the lens of my now adult eyes. This was not appropriate
behavior for a teacher. My adult self can now see that he was trying to groom me. On another occasion, mom fed him dinner and he was seated at the head of our dinner table. in dad's seat.
Dad wasn't home from work yet. I don't recall where he was. Maybe she was making a meal and said, "Hey, come try my whatever she was making, a Greek meal, and she fed him at our dinner table." And I remember sitting there and watching him eat at our meal table.
Ma once asked Adignasti to babysit us. I remember him being in my bedroom and was showing him my G.I. Joe collection. I My other memories of that occasion are are still fuzzy. I have a memory of being seated in a
poorly lit kitchen with a box of cold pizza on a table in front of me. It may have been in Anagnosti's home. I remember tasting the pizza and not enjoying it because it tasted bad and smelled weird. I had always loved pizza,
but that stands out as my first ever experience not enjoying pizza as a child. There were lots of screaming kids in the house, too. And I did not feel safe. That's all I recall of that event at
this time. In spring of 1971, I attended a Mets game with Mr. Agnosti. I was nine years old. The ride to Sha Stadium was very bizarre.
I recall there were five or six kids in the car in total. I sat in the center of the back seat. I was trying hard to see the road ahead of us because I always liked navigating while sitting in a car that was moving.
And I noticed while he was driving, he was only using his left hand on the wheel, which terrified me. While his right arm was preoccupied with hugging and tucking the child next
to him in towards his lap while he's driving the car from here to Queens. He would also take his eyes off the road to kiss the child repeatedly on the top of their head. He drove the entire way to Queens and
back after the game with only one hand on the steering wheel. And he had multiple children under his care, but he was distracted. And I seem to recall it was the same child in both directions that sat next to him. And I was in the back seat both
times. Once inside Sha Stadium during the middle of the game, I remember us having to use the bathroom. Agnosti brought us to the bathroom and entered the stall with one of the kids. I don't remember who it was, but I
remember standing outside it and him in in a store with a kid. So on another occasion, I recall being in a diner owned by Anagnosty's father. My memory is mostly vague, but I do
recall being inside a food storage pantry in that diner. It was significant because it was the first time I'd ever seen oversized containers of famous household condiments. There were giant bottles of
in jars and cans with labels like Hines ketchup, Helman's mayo, and French's mustard. As a kid, do that. Amazed me. I'd never seen that before. Okay, but I know I was in for that reason. I know it was in a storage closet. That restaurant structure still exists today. If you were to go to Jedf John F.
Kennedy Boulevard in West New York, it's at 5700 and it's called today it's called Mason Espanol. By the time it was owned by Anagnosti's father in the early 1970s, I do not yet know how Anagnosti may have harmed me or my brother, but I submit
the following behavioral changes in my brother, which began immediately after Anagnosti entered our lives. Hold on to your seats. This is not good. Beginning in 1970 and covering a four-year period, I began receiving violent attacks from my brother, my
brother, who I loved and admired. My older brother, he was my hero. We played baseball every day. We practiced every day for three hours. After having been my best friend for eight years, he suddenly turned into my
predator. They kept trying to inflict pain on me. These attacks began as sucker punching incidents, usually around the house. In 1973, it expanded to public attacks, including a sucker punch of me during a
league baseball game in front of dozens of witnesses. In the following year, he was our team starting pitcher. He began serely beanballing opposing batters for several games through several games with an alarming
frequency. Parents were mortified. They were an uproar and they complained to the the Leon Recreation Commission. My brother was banned from the league. That was his final year to ever play organized baseball in his seventh grade year. and he was an amazing pitcher and
hitter. A few months later, this school burned down where we're standing right now burned down and the town had a shortage of classrooms. So, my parents sent my brother and I to St. Spiriton School right across the bridge in Washington Heights, Greek Orthodox Prochial School.
My brother spent his eighth grade year there. I spent seventh and eighth grade year. After his eighth grade year there, he never returned to Leona school system. He went to high school in New York City. I did return in after my eighth grade graduation, but he never
and he I to my knowledge, he's never maintained any friendships with anybody in Leonia. I mean, there was something going on there and he socially just didn't fit in. I don't know what to tell you. In addition to what I just explained to you, there were bludgeoning incidents.
Four times I was sent to a hospital because my brother bludgeoned me. It gets even worse than this, by the way. Please hang on. He once hit me with a steel shovel. Once with a wooden baseball bat,
once he kicked a a basement hopper window into my face. A basement hopper window has a hinge at the top and it opens I apologize for the issues with the microphone. Once we do transfer that one over there, just you just need to hold the button down. [Music]
Well, hold it whole time. Thank you. Okay, I'll try to continue here. I started to mention there were several bludging attacks. Bludgeoning attacks. One with a steel shovel, once with a wood baseball bat, once with a basement
hopper window kicked into my face and I gashed my chin. And the fourth time, the scenario is really I'm not going to go into it. It was a bird bath, a a cast iron bird bath that he ran behind me and shoved my head into this in Detroit. I w
up in a Detroit hospital and it was really bad. Over the next several decades, there was always a lot of tension around our house, every family holiday. My brother and I each got married, started raising
our own kids, professional careers. Um, in 2008, however, when we were both in our late 40s, my mother had an event on the third anniversary of my father's death. It's a
Greek tradition to have a memorial dinner or lunchon. And at a restaurant right up the hill from here in Napoli in Fort Lee, there were 40 members of our family assembled and dear friends of my father.
And at that event, my brother sucker punched me and then strangled me. I quickly escaped, grabbed my son and my wife and just stroed out of the the restaurant.
Within a minute, someone came out, a relative, and said, "No, come back inside. Everybody saw what happened. It wasn't your fault." And um I said, "You're right. I should go back inside." So I went back inside and as soon as I got in there, there
were police were already inside. There were police. There happened to be police on for on uh Main Street directing traffic for some reason. They were summoned immediately and they were doing an investigation. They asked me if I wanted to press charge and I said, "I will not press
charges against my brother." As soon as I said that, a scuffle broke out in another part of the restaurant and my brother had struck a police officer and got arrested. I had a momentary feeling of relief that suddenly the public and my greater
family understood what I was going through. But that was not the case. The very next day, my mother wo a yarn about how everything was my fault, which she had been doing since we were children. Since we were children. She didn't know how to deal with this stuff. And her
only escape from it was to say first it was sibling rivalry and then exclusively I was the problem. So his hostilities continue into adulthood and it's apparent. I do not yet recall many details of my
own possible abuse as yet, and I cannot effectively speculate what might have happened to him, if anything, but something caused my brother's behavior to change. He has never discussed this with me in 54 years. He always avoids conversations with me. I've arranged to get clergy,
Greek clergy involved, and therapists, and he keeps running away and avoiding it. And sadly, my parents never knew how to handle it. So my mother fabricated that Nyx the bully story and he's the tormentor. If
that wasn't bad enough, while I was away at college and living out of state in many years of my career, she told that story to my much younger siblings who weren't even alive when the stuff started. So now I am saddled with the albatross of being the family bully who
caused my brother to get arrested. And I have no family. Not even my cousins speak to me. In the Greek community, gossip really is powerful. It can destroy someone. I have no family. So the slander my younger siblings had
caused me to get excommunicated in my wider family and it caused me great emotional pain which undermined my marriage. I am now divorced and estranged from my only son 11 for 11 years now. He won't speak to me.
I have lost my health, becoming at one point morbidly obese, 390 lbs, unemployed because I couldn't even focus at my job as a vice president of technology at a medical device firm. I have an MBA from Columbia University and
an engineering degree from Lehi. I couldn't keep my head thought straight because I was being emotionally abused by my family since I began the quest to find what why this is all happening. When I was in my 20s, I began a 30-year quest through
therapy to find out what the hell was going on in my family. And every therapist told me the same thing. Sexual abuse. Sexual abuse. But my parents didn't know how to do it. And my mother created this. She wo a narrative that basically turned into
slander against me, her own son. I've had to have I had several operations. I had a heart ablation. Now I have heart failure. I was homeless.
I couldn't afford my insulin. My wife took my son away from me. I had nobody to care for me. I lived in a foreclosed condominium in Guttenberg for three years and many months with no electricity, no water, no
heat. It was it was awful. But guess what? I found the Lord. So that carried me through. I didn't despair. I kind of laughed at it all because it was so absurd. completely absurd that my sister was
living three three miles away from me, never visited me while I was going through this pain. So, I still don't know. I'm not clear about what happened to either of us, but I do know we've been estranged for 54 years.
I'm still putting my life back together. I've lost 150 pounds. I'm speaking here today for one reason. One reason I want my son back in my life and he doesn't understand what happened to his father
because my ex-wife is probably not supporting me in the story. She suffered greatly too. But my own brother who was doing this stuff to me, he doesn't defend me either. So I've been slandered everywhere and it's destroyed me
emotionally and physically. I just want my son to gain some understanding about the father who loves him and coached him for 14 years. I spent 30 years investigating the mystery of violence. I and I believe that it was caused by John Adagnosti. He was the
culprit. That's all I have to say. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. we go. Okay. Hi, good evening everybody. Mike Gonzalez, 115 Irving Street. Okay. I'm here tonight. Um I was back here in
June a couple times. And um why I'm here tonight is because uh I know you probably can't talk about this because it's probably in litigation, but um it's been brought to my attention what
I'm reading here that there's a new lawsuit against the border head with another teacher back in the 90s. I hope I'm saying his name right. Abanon. Abdon. and uh he's been he's being accused of
molesting a couple of girls in a in a drama class that that Leona board of education I guess was happening at the school and um it seems to me like there's going to be a lot more um victims and
survivors here in this story and I'm just wondering um what actions is Leon going to take to reach out to maybe these possible victims so we can um you know nip this in the butt right away and uh get these
survivors out of there. Do you have any plans on addressing this issue? I believe you're aware about what I'm talking about. I I know you can't comment, but it's just heartbreaking that I stood up here
back in June and was laying my story, you know, about being in the classroom and abuse taking place there and stuff and it's still happening. Just it's just mind-blowing that this is still going on. I mean, this Hey, Mr. Right. I can
name three or four teachers in the school system that you know have big problems with it as far as molesting kids and down at Leona. I mean it's out of control what's going on here. So, I'm really
just concerned about um the practices of maybe hiring these teachers. We're doing complete background checks on these people because they're everywhere, you know, and it's just very concerning
that this is still going on in this town that this is, you know, it's just unacceptable that I'm reading this now. You know, that's all I got to say is just like hope we can correct this situation
and, you know, do our best to find out what's going on and reach out to these children cuz we got to be talking about a 100 kids, hundreds of kids from what happened to me back in ' 68 up until the president or whatever.
It's just too unbearable to, you know, reading this stuff. I thought we might have nipped it in the butt when you were finished with it, but it's still continuing and there's got to be a problem here somewhere. So, that's
all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Okay, seeing none, move on to item 11.1, board comment. Um, I do want to make a brief statement. I do, uh, Mr. Shadman, I do appreciate you bringing to our attention um, the
release of the article by the Rolling Stones. I am very much interested in taking a look at that article. I'm not sure if that's going to be locked behind a firewall or or pay requirement, but um, I'm very interested to see what that that article states. I would appreciate that. Thank you very
much. Please, can you send it to attention of Dr. Dennis of the board? Thank you. Um, so there were some comments made tonight though um, regarding the board's actions or inactions. Um, obviously I mean we've made many statements in the past in
terms of of the situation. It's it's obviously terrible situation that's torn this community apart. Um, but it also is an incident that occurred many many years ago. um this board that sits here before you today, we are taking actions um yes partially under guidance from
from uh from our attorneys um but also on as part of our duty to the current student body, current staff, current faculty. Um as many of you have have noted, we're not going to make any specific comments about the the incidents that were discussed and we are
actively in litigation as some some members of the public have mentioned. We cannot we simply cannot make comments about anything related to it because of the potential impact to the b the budgets we currently oversee the curriculum the students the faculty and
staff that we serve as a board currently. That doesn't mean that we don't care about what happened. We're we are your neighbors. We're fellow community members. We live in this town as well. Many of us may not have even been alive, lived in town, or been on the board, but
the shame that was brought on this community by those incidents is shared by everyone. So, our silence is in no way or shape or form sweeping this under the rug. Our hands are tied because of our duty to the school district today.
Um, there's a couple other comments made about incidents still going on. The incidents that occurred obviously specifically the cases that were discussed tonight were from over 30 years ago. This is absolutely in no way, shape or form going on right now. I have
had discussions directly with Zanti Caramanos, our superintendent. I ordered her to tell me if there is any inkling of any type of incident like this because this board will not tolerate it
at all. That is not the stance of this board at all. So, I appreciate you coming out and speaking tonight about serious issues that have impacted your lives as a result of prior boards or prior school
district. We are doing our duty to serve the current district now, but I do appreciate you coming here to share. I do hope that your ability to come here and speak publicly adds to your healing process. And there are limitations
as part of our board policies in terms of the public speaking portions. I do not impose those specifically for the purpose of providing you with the opport you with the opportunity to speak out. So I do appreciate you coming here and I do truly hope that this is part of the healing process for you.
Uh any other board comments? Okay, seeing none, that brings us to executive session. We do have matters to to discuss tonight. For those of you watching on YouTube tonight, um we will be in close session for quite a while. Um so, and for members of the public and for our student representatives,
appreciate you being here. We do have to ask you to leave. Once we come back, we will be voting on personnel items and then closing the meeting. Can I have a motion to go into closed? Miss Thompson. Second. Second. Dr. Mester. All in favor? Any opposed or extensions?
We're enclosed at 9:29. Okay. So, we are at item nine, new business. Can I have a motion and a second for new business? Motion, Miss Thompson. Second. Dr. Meester. Uh, let's roll call. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um and just let the record reflect that Miss Melman had to leave early. She was
not feeling well. Um Okay, thank you very much. Um, that brings us to item 13, personnel. Can I have a motion? Motion, second, Dr. Mester. Roll call, please. Mr.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Can I have a motion for adjournment? Motion, Mr. Park. Second, Miss Thompson. All in
favor? Any opposed or abstensions? Okay. 10:47 p.m. here.