now been lined um has new basketball hoops. It's been lined for basketball. It's also lined uh for pickle ball. Jefferson School also received um a new set of double doors that go outside um into that playground. Um we replaced the
roof at the high school. The fieldhouse roof was replaced, ripped off and replaced. The auditorium roof at the high school was redone. Um it was leaking and it was leaking into the balcony in last school year. We had to close the balcony at the high school because of the leak. That leak was
repaired. Obviously, we waited to repair the roof and then uh the second floor balcony was um replastered and repainted. Um the high school is still going undergoing. They're replacing all the fixtures in the bathrooms at the high school and all the um uh ladies and
men's room. Brand new fixtures, brand new stall uh dividers in the high school bathrooms. There was a brand new industrial arts classroom created. We have new electives for the first time um that I've been in Lynhurst for 15 years at the high school. Um we have shop um
we have a residential techn uh residential construction construction class now as an elective. That's okay. Thank you. Um we have a residential construction class now in the high school. We have um uh we spent
quite a bit of money on tools for that classroom and we're really excited to be offering that at the high school. But in order to have that lab, we had to completely renovate a portion of the basement. That renovation was complete. Um if you notice Roosevelt School, the
back wall at Roosevelt School was a a stucco wall that um needed repair. It was parwashed. It was repaired. The stuckco was repaired. All the windows were sealed and cked and the entire back wall of Roosevelt was painted. There was
a second floor uh classroom where water was leaking because of the stuckco, the holes in the stucco. That classroom was also um cleaned um re um replplastered or reheat rocked I should say and painted. the Washington school gym, the
old gym at Washington received an electrical upgrade that allowed for air condition to go in the gym at Washington School. Um, in addition to that, um, the district spent quite a few dollars on upgrading classroom furniture. Again,
I've been now in the district for 15 years. I served as a principal for many um, I can't remember a time when we were purchasing new furniture. The entire second grade classes uh in the district got all brand new furniture. Many of the kindergarten classrooms got brand new
furniture. And the plan is to do a grade two a year of new furniture. So um I'm excited for our families to enter the school's back to school night to see the upgrades, to see the new classroom furniture. Aside from that, we have new technology initiatives that we're
rolling out this school year. Every student in grade three to five is going to get a brand new Chromebook. Every freshman's got to get a brand new Chromebook. We have a de we've been able to establish a technology cycle where students in grade five are going to get
a Chromebook. They're going to keep that Chromebook through middle school. And when they leave as an eighth grader, our families are going to get get to keep those Chromebooks. So student gets a brand new Chromebook in fifth grade, they keep it through 8th grade. When they leave this middle
school, you will get to keep that Chromebook for your family. And then when you come in as a 9th grader, you get another brand new Chromebook. And then you'll have a Chromebook from 9th grade through 12th grade. When you graduate as a senior, you'll get to keep that Chromebook. So a student over the
course of their time here through fifth grade through high school will have a brand new device twice that ultimately they will get to keep. um we worked that out through lease purchases and um you know at the end of a lease of a Chromebook the device isn't really worth
that much so we felt why not give it back to our families um you know technology is critical and so our students are going to have the latest uh technology aside from that we we we ordered and are in the process of installing over a 100 smartboards in the district every classroom in Lynhurst
will now have state-of-the-art technology will have updated uh Prometheium boards We updated our um ELA curriculum in grades K through five. All those resources came in and were distributed to our teachers and professional development sessions took place this
summer as well. Um I'd also like to mention we're bringing back our 911 mobile museum. Um the middle school students got to um go over to Carney and um visit that museum. It it really is something special and and I think it's
critical for our students to um keep 9, you know, 11, you know, the tribute and its memory alive. And so we partner with Carney in North Arlington. And um our students go and they visit that mobile museum. It's gorgeous. It's a tractor trailer um that they bring in on wheels.
It's I think it's a couple million three or four million dollar structure that comes in and then our students get to go through that museum. It really is something, you know, special and it's extremely valuable to our students. Many of these highlights. Last year, we
sent out a district newsletter and we did that in the summer months as we started before we got back to school. This year, I decided to hold back on that newsletter because I want to highlight the improvements that the district made over the summer. So, at
some point in September, our district newsletter is going to be going out highlighting all these improvements and the upgrades that we've made as a district. Opening of school, we're really excited. I I'm I welcome back um our students. We're excited to start um the new year.
We have um we have some uh uh in enrollments increasing um what I mean to say our kindergarten enrollment's the largest it's been in quite some time. Um, so we opened another section at kindergarten at Franklin School to um, help combat the numbers to keep our
class sizes down. And then we'll continue to add sections of that grade level, meaning we made plans this year to open a kindergarten class. We know obviously those students are going to go to first grade, so the following year we'll add a first grade class um, so that we could really try to manage our
class sizes and keep them down. Um, aside from that, those are the updates I have. And so again, I'll be back in September. I'll repeat many of those, but I want to um you know, to to to see it is is much much better. So I'm going to put together a PowerPoint highlight
some of those upgrades. And um we have students here tonight to recognize. So I'm going to invite at this time um our middle school administrator is up, Mr. Rizzo, the middle school principal, and Terresa Brennan, the middle school vice principal, to give out some awards. Um, please know that when we're done with
the awards, we are going to shift to a PowerPoint presentation. Our families are more than welcome to stay um for the NJGPA PowerPoint uh presentation. You don't have to after you get your word. Um, you can go if you want. So, uh, Mr.
Rizzo and Mrs. Brennan uh, please come up. Uh, good evening everybody. uh and for most of our a lot of our middle school students are here. Thank you for joining us tonight uh to be recognized for some for some special awards you earned at the end of last year. We're sorry we couldn't get you to the meeting in June.
Um a lot of these awards came in in late June, so we couldn't get you on the agenda for that. Uh so thank you for our families for coming. Uh the first group of students I want to recognize um among our seventh and eighth grade students that are enrolled in Spanish uh a select group of them to take the national
Spanish exam uh which is which is amongst students that are nationwide uh in seventh and eighth grade. Uh and we were fortunate to have about a dozen students place uh either gold, silver or bronze or honorable mention on the national Spanish exam. So we want to
recognize those students uh tonight. First, we're going to do our seventh graders. Um, honor, if you're here, come on up and get your certificate. Um, and we'll clap for you. And if our students are not here, we'll just keep right on going. All right. Seventh graders who received honorable mention. Eliza
Bashenko, Carmen Salis, and Edmond Tashuk. Come on down, please. Uh, seventh grade medal, uh, Natalia Feria. Uh, receiving the silver medal, uh,
Paula Himenez and Matias Mrique. All right, now for our eighth graders. Uh receiving honor mention uh for eighth grade Sebastian Alonso, Seth Alvarado, and Lena Gonzalez. Uh earning the bronze certificate,
Xavier and Natalia Ber here. I don't see that. silver medalist Benjamin Del Cruz. No. And we had two students earn the gold medal. Sophia Maldo and Matias
Pasmino. You can sit down. Okay. Next up, we had uh two students uh one sixth grader and one seventh grader um earned the Yard School of Art scholarship uh to attend free art classes at Monontlair Monontlair Museum
in Monontlair, New Jersey. Um I don't know if they're both here, but I will recognize both. Uh, sixth grader Isabella Juso and seventh grader Daria Andagana. Next up are two individual awards. Uh, and to me they're both very they're not they're as prestigious as the other
ones. um that they were uh one student in the entire school earned these uh next two awards. Uh the first one um is was one of our eighth grade students was awarded uh the National Junior Honor Society out outstanding achievement award which is selected by the NAESP which is the national national
association of elementary school principles. Um, Maria Gasulus was the recipient of this award. And Maria was the first student in Middle School history uh to receive this award for any of our National Junior Honor Societies. And we have had the National Junior
Honor Society in Memphis for 11 years. So, be the first team to receive it. It's pretty amazing. Will you come on up? Uh, and the last thing we're going to give out tonight, uh, is for the Le Middle School spelling be champion who then went to represent Le Middle School
at the Burton County Scripts Spelling Be Competition, which ultimately could have won her New Jersey in the month of the Nationals. So, this is her second beat. This is her second year in a row of being champion, um, Olivia Baptist, the
eighth grader. for all students doing a great job. Students and families, if you are in need, now is the time that you you are dismissed from school. Um, we're going to take some pictures outside um by the stairwell if you guys will be around for that. All right. Thank you so much for coming tonight.
Thank you, Mr. Rizzo. So, so congratulations again to our students and their families. At this time, the board is going to come down and sit in the audience and we're going to have a presentation by our assistant superintendent, uh, Dr. Moral. Thank you. Hey,
hey, hey. Go ahead. Good evening everyone. I have two presentations for you tonight. I'm going to start with the shorter one which is our access for L's test. So I uh every district in New Jersey is
required to present their uh state assessment results and we have um a total of three different state assessments that we have to provide. We have the access for L's test which is I'm going to present today. We have the New Jersey graduation proficiency
assessment also known as NJ GPA that is specific uh for high schoolers and uh 11th grade. I'm presenting at today and I don't know right now I can't remember off the top of my head I think it's September or the October uh meeting I have to report out the New Jersey
student learning assessment the NJSLA scores again as per New Jersey statute I have to present these um uh scores out to the public within 60 days of the district receiving the final scores. So
today I'm presenting access for L's. This doesn't work. So there's a long acronym for access for L's and I'll talk a little bit about the presentation. Um this particular test is to assess our multilingual learner
students. Um some of whom may be in ESL classes. Um sometimes some parents um their child might be eligible for English language services but the parents may refuse those services to receive ESL but we are still required to assess them for access for L's. So
really what this test is assessing is how the students um have developed their English language proficiency. The uh the students are assessed in four language domains in listening, speaking, reading and writing. So it went out
So uh just as you can imagine what that means the there's a speaking component where part of the test the student has to speak um into a microphone and the test assesses how the student um answers and speaks and the pronunciation of it.
The students are assessed along the range of level one through level six. Um, it's important to note that here in the state of New Jersey, a student would need to receive a score of a proficiency level of 4.5 or higher for the district
to consider uh exiting the student from ESL services. And there is an alternate access for L's. These are for students who are um not only multilingual, but they're also classified and they receive special education services. Um, if you
can go back, sorry. When we talk about these different levels, um, not to go into too much details, but the levels kind of coincide with how someone acquires a new language. And so level
one means that again that those are primarily students who are newly arrived to the United States and um have have no English uh whatsoever. And then of course as you progress along students develop and um there's developmentally
as someone learns a new language uh there's called what the silent stage where you're just really immersed in the new language and um you don't know much then eventually you might be able to speak a couple of simple u phrases or words knowing um certain items then you
become a little bit more fluent then maybe you can have some conversations uh with students and usually that devel develops differently than um understanding academic language. So multilingual students are not only having to learn a new uh a new language
which is English, they also have to learn content along the way which is an academic language and that's very different. So I only mentioned that because when we receive students um some students may scored a level one but keep in mind we receive students K to 12. So
we may have a student who maybe arrived at the high school and scores at a level one. So unlike other exams when uh state tests when you see someone at level one, it doesn't always necessarily mean that that is a negative. That's just the child just recently arrived and they
still, you know, were required to test them, but that's the level that we're at. But I just wanted to kind of give you a distinction of of those things. So, uh, I wanted to share with you the number of students that we've had last school year to what we've had, uh, this
school year. Um, the number of multilingual learner students that we have in our district has continued to increase. This is actually my fifth year here. Um, I believe when we when I started, we had about maybe I can probably go back to that presentation.
We had about 64 65 students and as you can see tested 130. So just in between from one year to the next we've already increased our population with 25 students. Um the please keep in mind as I go through this presentation again
there are uh student privacy rules and so there's a suppression rule. So I might not be able to report out data for every grade because I need to have 10 or more students in that particular grade so that there isn't a way to perhaps identify a particular student in that
grade. So you won't you'll notice that some grades are not um reported in the following slides. And then we didn't have any students this year who had to take the alternate access. So if you're looking here on the slide, these are the only grades I'm able to
report out to you the breakdown of the different levels that the students scored. So I'll give you a moment to take a look at that. As you see here in kindergarten, uh we had seven students score in level one. We had four students score in level two. We didn't have any
in level three. We had one student score in level four. And then we had two students score in a level five. So just as a reminder, if you have a proficiency level of 4.5 or more, um that is means that you are eligible to perhaps exit
out of the ESL program. So I just want to give you a moment to look at those scores a little bit. All right. So this next slide is just the overall district performance um over the years over four years of how students have
performed in the different levels as a district. And um what I do want to say that I'm very proud of what we do here in the district is that we do have a multilingual learner student come here. Uh we do a great job of eventually exiting them out of the program which
means we help them acquire the English language. And um this particular year um we had 10 students who scored 4.5 or more. And so these students, there's other factors we have to take a look at, but that's still one of the primary
factors to exit out of student the ESL program. And when a student does exit out of ESL, uh we're required to still observe them and keep a record of them, how they're progressing um as they've exited out of ESL just in case they need
to be brought back in. But more often than not, the students do exit ESL uh classes. um you know even in kindergarten um I actually shared one story of a student uh who came here and I remember seeing uh the student in
September spoke absolutely no English was primarily sitting um separate from the other students and I came back in April and the student was talking with everyone saying hi to me having a whole
conversation and I was just generally amazed how the same student in in the span of about 8 months was having a conversation with me. So that's why I say I'm very proud of our ESL teachers and our general education teachers that work with our students. So that's the
access for L's test. Um this is some of the things we have put into place to support um not only our ESL students but also to support the teachers who teach them. So here um we provide what's called highintensity ESL which means
students receive uh two class periods of ESL services and then they take the rest of their classes with their other classmates. So that's you know science, social studies, whatever else they need to take. Um because of the increase in multilingual learners over the last 5
years, this past school year, we had to add an additional K2 ESL teacher um to just handle uh the number of ESL students. And honestly, this is something that as a board um we the administration has discussed with them that with the continued increased
numbers of ESL, we may have to consider adding another ESL teacher in the future to to handle the number of ESL students we have. We continue to make sure that we provide our ESL students with numerous practice opportunities in speaking and in writing. Um they need
better support with that. We've been improving our professional development with all of our general education teachers on how to best support multilingual students in their classrooms um through a particular strategy called sheltered English
instruction strategies. Um we've also purchased a call it's called pocket talk. It's a handheld translating device that we've provided to our uh teachers um to kind of help them communicate especially with some of our students who
like as I mentioned they're coming in as a level one which means they have no English is very difficult to communicate with them and these um pocket talk translators uh can take think of it like a little walkie-talkie I can speak into it and the pocket talk itself can
translate into about 82 languages. angages. Um here in Mhmerst um our three primary big languages are um Spanish, Turkish, and um Brazilian Portuguese. Um but we're seeing um we're seeing an
increase in Russian and Polish. Last year we had our first Japanese student and um and we have a variety of other different languages. uh Ukrainian, Georgian, there's a whole list of of different languages that we have. Um
because we tried to we used a new program last year called Lexio Power Up and Summit and that was more along the lines of uh for lack of a better word of a test prep type situation of giving them similar example questions that they
would have received on the Axis for L's. And so we had the students uh practice um um the different the different foreign language domains using speaking and reading and writing through that. And we also have been able utilizing our
federal title 3 money uh providing an adult ESL program for ESL parents. Uh we obviously want our parents to be involved in their child's education and we do not want language to be a barrier for that process. So, um, as a district,
uh, we're just trying to support our students, their families, and of course, our teachers. That's AS6 for L's. So, if there are any questions specific, you can ask them when I switch over to the next presentation. Okay. So, our next presentation is
related to the New Jersey GPA. Uh, this is for spring 2025 administration. So this uh state test is administered to all 11th grade students and then we may have some 12th grade students who have
the opportunity to take the assessment again uh because this assessment is uh a required graduation requirement. New Jersey, I believe at this point now, is probably maybe the one of six states
left in the United States that still has uh an assessment as a requirement to graduate. And so in New Jersey, uh if a student doesn't pass the state assessment, the ND GPA, they have other pathways that they can take uh to pass
the exam, but we're required to test them in 11th grade. if they don't pass and they have the opportunity to to take it again in their 12th grade. Um the assessment itself is really just to determine whether the students are graduation ready in English or in math
and their graduation readiness is um when it's reported out is reported out by ELA and mathematics. And you see here the the ELA component. So the 11th grade is being tested on 10th grade standards and the math the students are being
tested under algebra 1 and geometry standards. Typically for us a ninth grader will take algebra 1. That's pretty common. But we might have sometimes students in 9th grade take geometry. But for the most part algebra 1 and geometry tend to be taken um by
the majority of our students during their freshman and sophomore years. So when you take the test uh a passing score is a 725. Um that's what they need. I was mentioning before earlier
coming in and out. Um as I mentioned before earlier, if a student doesn't receive a passing score, there is an opportunity for them to take an alternative assessment. Sometimes that's an ACUPPLACER depending upon how they score on their PSATs or SAT scores. that
might be um uh substituted in as meeting the assessment graduation require or they can also a portfolio which is where we collect a variety of different um work that they've done in either language arts or
in math and then we score them and they get credit for that. Um last year we actually didn't need anyone to do that portfolio appeal. We were able to get students to either pass through the test or through the other things. Um, keep in mind that this is possibly going to
change. Uh, we're waiting for the for the state for additional guidance and there's an upcoming state board meeting on October. I don't know the exact date. I should know the date there. So, um, we're sure they're going to keep the same or they're going to change it.
So, these are the number of students that we had um, take the assessment um, in the 11th grade. Oh, Miss Leon, I forgot to ask you what the percentage is. is was this 100%. Okay, so 100% of our 11th graders uh took the assessment
in the spring. Um I have to report on 12th, but we normally don't have senior t testing in the spring. They if they do not pass in 11th grade, they're they take it in the fall, but I still have to report it out to you. Uh these are the number of students we have, which is all of our 11th graders.
So these are the number of students that were graduation ready. In ELA, we had 91.1% um receive a score of 725 or more. And then we have 54% of our students receive a score of 725 or more. Again, 725 is
the proficiency score. So, when we do a comparison from the spring 2024 um assessment to the spring 2025 assessment, um you do see that there was a slight decline in ELA. Um and then the math statistically speaking stayed about
the same. There wasn't much change between the two. Then when you compare uh how our students uh performed on the end GPA uh in accordance to the state, you see that for ELA, we outperformed uh the state in
in both years from 24 and 25. And then in mathematics uh we performed below the state um in both years. Again, not by much by a percentage, but we scored at about the same or a little under the state.
This is the reporting out of how our specific um subgroups of students, demographically speaking, um performed on the assessment. I might not be able to report out all of our subgroups because of the suppression rules. If I don't have 10 students in a
particular subgroup, I won't be able to report out on them. So in uh if you notice on this particular slide, I wasn't able to report out on our black students or multilingual learner students. Um but if you see overall um
for 2425, 24 is on your left, 25 is on your right. Um there was a decline in our different subgroups regarding our EO um percentages. Uh but overall our ELA scores did slightly go down, but you still see that there really isn't that
much um which is a positive uh that big of a large achievement gap between our subgroups of less you. Um we can always of course uh do better with our students with disabilities with their um in in their performance, but again you see
that we're we're pretty even uh closely uh across the different subgroups. And then in mathematics again you see the difference between 24 and 25. Um if you notice in multilingual learner students we didn't have any students in 2024 receive a passing proficiency score
but in 2025 we about about a third of our multilingual learner students who took the math test uh passing a proficiency score. um students with disabilities and math is definitely an area that we need to improve on and you'll see there there is a large gap there uh between the students with
disabilities um in comparison to our other students there. So overall when we look at the data so for example and I I want to thank uh Miss Sabrina Leon and Miss Lisa Klein who are here in the front. Wave. Hello.
Thank you ladies. uh when we get the scores uh we sit down, we take a look at them and the reports that the state provides to us and in looking at the data they in turn believe they met with teachers this summer. So we've already shared this information with our high
school ELA and math teachers and they probably review it again when when school starts in September one more time. Um but when looking at our data we noticed that specifically um in writing our students truly did outperform the state um in these tasks uh whether it
was um writing expression or literacy analysis and research. Um, one of the things we did talk about, um, I remember speaking with Miss CL about is they did very well in these areas for writing, but then for the test itself, uh, the
areas that they struggled in was related to um,formational text. So, skills that you see more in like science and social studies classes. And so we we were talking that that's interesting how they did well in that for the writing task,
but they struggled more on the multiple choice. And one of the fortunate parts of this process is we actually don't get to see our students work the results on the actual test. So we couldn't even look at a question and say, "Oh, okay. I see where they went wrong." And we can
maybe, you know, try to address that in the class. Unfortunately, the state doesn't provide that information for us. they just provide what the child's score is and more I can get to see um how they did and how they scored. So that would be more helpful um regarding the math
look at that. Come over here so I can see a little bit better when we look at our math results. We did perform similarly or better to the state when we diged in a little bit deeper in looking at some of the specific standards. turned off.
Um the one area again uh why we're looking at the data is that we do see that our students um so when the state does give us a report although we don't get to see what the question is they do tell us what the question focused on.
It'll tell us whether it was an algebra question, geometry or modeling and reasoning. And so when we look at our our at our scores and looking at where the students performed, we saw that the students were still struggling with geometry and reasoning type problems.
And um I remember we said, you know, if you're 11th grader, you might have taken geometry freshman year cuz in 11th grade you're taking, I guess, prec. So maybe in your mind at that time that's where your math mind is and
you're trying to remember geometry that you took 2 years ago but you're being assessed on that. So we were just talking about ways on how to try to address that. Um so the next slide talks about some of the interventions we have put into place. So we um our teachers
attend um specific math PD to help them um with their instruction and they need to look at their data and they kind of come together to work on developing lessons and assessments during their professional learning communities. We implemented a boot camp, an NGPA boot
camp that was done during the lunch period where the students would meet with student um teachers and students would come together and kind of do like you know a boot camp of of just preparing and like test prep for the test and then supporting them up with that. Um the other thing we have done is in
English class um a lot of work that this has done uh with our teachers is uh create sample uh tasks that are very similar and mirror the tasks that the students receive um that the students are going to experience on the test. And
in fact, um, when M, Miss Klein, when it gets close to testing time, they meet with each individual 11th grade when they get called down by class and they talk to them preparing them for the upcoming assessment. And Miss Klein
tries to reassure them and uh, any anxiety they may have for test taking is, you've been doing this work all year round and you should be comfortable. And this might perhaps explain why we do so well on the writing task because it has become ingrained into the regular ELA
program. Um we're looking to do something similar in math. So we have streamlined our high school math courses uh where um specific identified teachers are now teaching that. I think before you know you might have had three or four teachers teaching algebra one. Now
we have I think two. Right. Right. And then we have a special education teacher. And then this allows for more consistency in the instruction. So that's something we're changing for this year with the schedule with making sure that we have teachers that are solely dedicated to algebra and geometry. Um
again I mentioned this PD for sheltered English instruction because our multilingual learner students still need support uh because they are also obviously required to take this assessment. Um and then one of the things that we are trying to do which is uh specifically in math uh looking to
embed more practice exposing them to these type of questions that they're going to experience. So here's something interesting. So is it's uh you got to love New Jersey Department of Education. And I joke many of you know this. I used to work for the Department of Education. So don't hold
that against me. Um uh and they um just when you think you're getting used to an assessment, they changed the assessment on August 13th. No lie, it it it was dropped on us
like a bomb. I mean, we knew that something was coming, but we didn't know this was coming. So on August 13th, the department releases a broadcast informing the state that they're going to be implementing a new assessment for
the MGPA and then NGSLA and uh in the for the I don't know how close since 2008 maybe from PAR to NGSA. So we're talking about a good 15 years of of testing uh with Pearson and they
have changed companies to this company and the test has changed. It is an adaptive test. So what does that mean and why is that different from the test the students take now? So an adapted test means as I as I answer a question
the test the questions I experience are either going to get harder right or it's going to get or it's going to get um lower a grade. So it tries to find that nice balance. So I may start off a test getting 11th grade questions and
depending on how I answer those questions it may adapt and come down to 10th grade. depending on how I answer those it may adapt and it comes down back to 9th grade. So it may go up and down until it kind of figures out where is your actual level. Now we are
familiar with those type of tests cuz our students actually take those tests through I ready and through which we have already internally where it pinpoints exactly what the students have. So, we're still not really sure what this looks like for the high uh for
uh our state assessments because typically when students are assessed and the whole point of the assessments was how are they meeting the grade level standards. So, the test is adaptive and I'm no longer testing you on grade level
standards because I'm adapting and I may be going down or up. So, take that as you will. We don't know what the test looks like. They have released some sample items. I know Miss Le has been stressing out about this test and she's been playing around with some of the um
items. By the way, this information is public. So, if you're really curious, you can go on the state website and find some of these practice problems. Then, in that August 13th bomb, they told us, "Oh, we're going to be doing a
field test this fall." and the entire state is doing the field test. That is very unexpected for us. And so we have been told that basically from well we're talking about GPA but this also affects our third through 9th graders as well
when they have to take the NGSA. We this is a testing window. So we were not expecting to be testing in the fall from October 27 to November 14th. It's a field test. So, the way that I'm going to send it and ask our administrators to
send it to the teachers and to the students, it's a field test. Do your best. We won't get a score about it. We won't know how our students do. They're just testing it out. And then in the spring, we take the test. Please know it's very unorthodox.
Typically uh whenever you're field testing um assessment questions, it's usually a year out so that they can fix whatever issues that may happen for validity reasons and then you take the test for whatever the reasons in the infinite wisdom of the department of
education. We I currently have this on fast forward. We're taking the field test in the fall and then the students are taking the test again in the spring. So next year when I'm presenting this, I can't give you a trend. I can't compare
my results as spring 2026 to spring 2025 cuz it's an entirely different test. So we're starting from square one again. So we just try to do the best we do and we roll with it because the importance is we meet our students where they are and we provide
those supports to them. And I think that should end my presentation. Um are there any questions? Yes. Yeah. So when we think about um for example the the last big shift would have been from NJ ask to park cuz NJ ask
was a paper and pencil test was bubble bubble doing the answer you know the old scan I know most of us came out of this cuz we probably remember those type of tests. So park was the first time we took a a test on a computer. So that was field tested um it speed it up. We we
took the test in the fall, we adjusted it, and then we took it again. So, that was a long time. And that makes sense because you're just going to entirely different format. Since that point, and I've always joke with Miss Leon, she's our testing coordinator. That's why I keep mentioning it to her. Um, we always
seem to have the bad luck that when they do field test items, Lynhurst always gets picked. Um, maybe because of our demographics, whatever have you, that we tend to be a representative of a diverse state, right? Right? In the past, the field test might
have just been an eighth grade, for example, or a third grade and and then it might have been a section of the test. This is the entire state. And so, and that's because typically, as I mentioned, it would have been a year
out. So, I'm not I'm not aesthetician. My guess is they're making everyone take the test because they speed it up to find out validity reasons how everyone does. to then give the test in the spring. Mhm. So knowing the state and I think some
people never realize this, right? You have this big building in train and you go to a department and you think, "Oh, this should be like it's it's a huge it's an office building and you go into this huge big floor. There may be three people in the department for the entire
state. I'll talk about ESL. There are four people who work in the ESL department." And so I don't know. Good luck to the state. I don't work there anymore. So I don't I don't even know how realistic it is. Yes.
No, it's uh well, let me let me step back a little bit. All of this testing goes all I'm going to take you back. You ready? I'm taking you back to No Child Left Behind. Okay, that's why we have state testing
cuz No Child Left Behind made it a requirement that if you want federal money, you have to take state testing. So since that point we've had state testing um and state testing has always been from third grade on. What New
Jersey has done again depending upon the governor um has tried to reduce the testing cuz we used to test in every grade in high school was every we had to do 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade for EOA. So 11th grader would have had an
NGSA test, an NGPA test, and then think about all the other tests I take. They had to take SATs where other tests I had to take and it became too much. So then the state pulled back and as we're in the situation that we're in now, the state is currently reviewing in October
their code. Um there are people in the state legislature that want to totally get rid of this assessment. I mentioned we're just one of six states that still have that. But again, that's political, right? I don't what's going on with the legislators who wants it, who doesn't want it. So, we don't know. I think if
you tell most educators, they're probably happy they just get rid of it entirely. Mhm. There is no state assessment K to 2. That would be the NJSLA scores. That'll probably be in October. That's probably in October. We haven't
received the final. We received our preliminary results already, so we kind of have a sense, but we haven't seen the final reports. Yes. It's just a field test to fall. No, the field test is just a field test. It has it has no bearing on what's going
to happen in spring. Now, I I know I know all of us have trainings that are coming up that are starting like September 8th where we're going to start getting more information about this assessment. So, we don't really know uh too much about it. Um,
you want me to say something? it won't count. They did that for science and JSLA science. We took it, I don't know if you remember, we took it for two whole years and it never counted. It created a problem for those of us who go on the QAC because then you were stuck with old
scores. Um but that so that may very well if I was I'm not a betting woman but be I won't be surprised that um they may give the results in spring but it won't affect our accountability purposes
for us Right. Yeah. And um I always joke with Mr. Dorso about that the state has no concept of time tables. Like they'll they'll stress us for meeting a deadline. They have no sense of a
deadline. None whatsoever. So, you know, they just we just kind of unfortunately sometimes are at the mercy of the state and their last minute decisions. Correct. We just adapt and try to roll
with it. Exactly. All right. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Morurell and and to our supervisors and directors uh Sabrina and Lisa. At this time we are going to move to the formal uh board agenda. Okay. So, we have no one for public to
be heard on agenda items. So, we're going to move to our board discussion and formal uh business agenda. So, is there any does anybody have anything? No. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. to Petranio
Finance. Pursuant to the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Committee on Finance recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward finance resolutions 1 through 30
seconds to be adopted. Second roll call. Mr. Abate for Mr. Mr. Andronopoulos four. Mr. Pasamano four. Mr. Petranzio four. Dr. Scardino four. Miss Stella four. And Mr. Valvano
four. Motion carries. We uh normally for education curriculum we go to the the real pasano Anna, but we're going to have to defer to Paul on this one. Pursuit to the recommendation of superintendent
committee on education recommend the following resolution we move forward for roll second 1 to 12 12 I'm sorry 1 1 to 12 second
four uh Mr. Andronopoulos four Mr. Pasamano Mr. Petranzio four, Dr. Scardino four. Miss Stella four, and Mr. Valvano four. Motion carries. Thank you. Policy rules and regulations. Miss Stella.
Pursuant to the recommendations of the superintendent schools, the committee of policies and rules and regulation recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward policies and rules and regulations number one through five to be adopted.
Second. Mr. Roll call. Mr. Abate four. Mr. Andronopoulos four. Mr. Pacimano. Mr. Petranzio four. Dr. Scardino four. Miss Stella four. And Mr. Valvano
four. Motion carries. Okay. The real pasano Paul uh Mr. Pimeano on athletics and student activities. Recommendation of superintendent schools of athletic student activities recommen second
roll call Mr. Abate four Mr. Andronopoulos four Mr. Pasamano four Mr. Petranio four Dr. Scardino four Miss Stella four and Mr. Valana four. Motion carries personnel.
Um, whoever you Oh, me. Okay. Before we make the motion, Mr. Valvano. Okay. Before we vote on personnel, I'd like to make a motion to add Lauren Kreky for four hours to resolution M15.
All in favor? I against abstensions. Motion carries. Thank you. A through M. Thank you. Uh, pursuant to the recommendations of the superintendent schools, the committee on personnel recommends the following resolutions be move forward to a roll call vote. I make
a motion to move forward personnel resolutions A1 through M16. Mr. Secretary, please have the uh resolution note that the motion is to approve resolutions A with the modification at A through whatever
and with the uh revision as we previously approved duly noted. Thank you. All right. Uh I'm sorry, who was the second? Thank you. Uh roll call. Mr. Abate. Mr. Andronopoulos four,
Mr. Pamo four, Mr. Petranio, Dr. Scardino four, Miss Stella four, and Mr. Valvano four. Motion carries. Excuse us one second. the personel
say something someone wants to speak on. Okay. So, I'm going to open up to any new business from any of the board members. No. Okay. We have public to be heard on non-aggenda item. We have no one signed in. Okay. This time, uh, I'd like a motion
to adjurnn. Motion everybody have a great favor. Yes. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned. Have a great school year everyone.