Uh, good evening. I have a bit of a longer report. The school year is getting into swing. Um, the LHS Student Government Association met on Wednesday, October 1st. The association meets on the first Wednesday of each month. An email was sent out districtwide detailing SGAA's role in the high
school. Essentially, the SGA acts as a PTA for the high school. The SGA has opened a donation account and an Amazon wish list for parents to donate to and purchase directly from, making it easier for the SGA to collect supplies and funds for celebrations during the school
year. The SGA held a district-wide pink attire day to raise money for breast cancer. The money was donated to Hackinack Medical Center. The SJA has prepared several Halloween activities for tomorrow. The high school has been well decorated. Halloween goodie bags
will be passed out to LHS students. A school appropriate costume contest will be held on Halloween. There are several categories and the winners will receive Amazon gift cards. And an Halloween scavenger hunt will also be held. Later holiday preparations are being
discussed. The November SGA meeting will delve more in depth into those presentations. Excuse me. PSATs for sophomores and juniors taking on October 13th were successful. During the PSATs, there was a time management workshop for freshmen and a college and career panel
for seniors. The new NJSLA adapted field test will be taken by students next week, the week of November 3rd. Uh just some important dates. On Wednesday, October 22nd, there was an in-person FAFSA free application for federal
student aid night. On Monday, October 27th, there was a college fair at LHS from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A virtual FAFSA night will be held by Felician College on Wednesday, December 3rd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Several college visits are
coming up. Representatives from multiple schools will be holding meetings at LHS on the 31st of October, the 3rd and 4th of November, the 10th to 12th of November, and on many more dates after that. Further information about other dates and specific times and the
registry details can be found on the new Navian student tool website. The senior LHS students will be signing their names on the LHS rock on the field next to the auditorium on the 4th of November. On September 9th, the Lighthouse, Lynhurst
High School's newspaper, received its newspaper critique from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Columbia University, which oversees an annual crown awards contest, earning 951 points. The Lighthouse is an overall gold medalist and received all Colombian
honors for its essential score, which relates to the overall newspaper organization, structure, and government, excuse me, coverage. The gold medal is the is the contest's highest ranking and now LHS is joining a group of prestigious schools in winning this
award. There were several trips in the past month. On September 30th, select students, many from the LHS FBLA chapter, attended an educational trip to the SECA facility and the SECA US National Headquarters in Lynhurst.
Students toured the facility and heard from speakers from different departments such as research and development, marketing, and sales. The speakers addressed how their department contributes to the company. Students also attended multiple workshops during the trip. The trip overall provided
students with the opportunity to speak to professionals in many departments and learn the inner workings of a business. There was an FBLA Future Business Leaders of America Leadership Training Conference trip at Kain University on
October 28th. LHS FBA chapter officers attended different meetings for different topics at Kain University like networking and community service. They also attended a conference with the state FBA officers. On October 27th,
high school journalism students, Miss Pastor's class, attended the Garden State Scholastic Press Association Student Conference at the Rucker New Brunswick campus. This trip involved the awards I previously mentioned. This event took place at the Bush Campus
Center. Students went to a variety of sessions to learn about various aspects of journalism. The awards for the 25 24 to 25 school year were also received. The awards were first place overall in print excellence and second place
overall in online excellence. 24 students also received a a total of 31 individual awards. These students will be recognized at a future board meeting. The week of respect was celebrated in the high school from October 6th to 10th. The week emphasized the import
importance of fostering kindness, acceptance, and respect within communities. Each day of the week was a different spirit day and Friday was a special bear pride Friday in which many students dawn Lynhurst spirit wear to boost Lynhurst morale. School violence awareness week was observed from Monday
October 20th to Friday October 25th. Throughout the week, teachers and students engaged in a variety of activities aimed at preventing school violence. Teachers and students were encouraged to involve others in activities that promote peaceful coexistence, acceptance, and the
celebration of differences. This week is Red Ribbon Week. It's a mouthful. This year's theme is life is a puzzle. Solve it drug-free. The me the mission of Red Ribbon Week is to present a visible command commitment towards the creation
of a drug-free community, uniting students and teachers against drugs. Um, the LHS student bathrooms were further renovated now with improved and automated sinks. Just some sports and extracurricular things. All LHS sports teams are heading
to their state and sectional playoffs and meets. The LHS football and cheerleading senior night ceremony was conducted on October 10th, right before the start of the game, in which Lynhurst emerged victorious. The Lynhurst football team also beat Park Ridge High
School on Friday, October 24th, and will advance to play Shabbaz High School on this Saturday, November 1st. The LHS boys soccer team has won a share of the league championship with one game with one game left. Robbie Dazzler broke the
Lynhurst boys soccer school record for most career goals this season. As of writing this, he stands at 81. He also broke the most goals within a season at 40 and is leading the state in most goals of the season as of now. That's amazing. >> The Lynhurst boys varsity cross country
team qualified for the Bergen County meet of champs this season for the first time in 11 years. There were also a few individual qualifiers. Juniors Katya Nuggera, Madison Mason, and Gabriel Campos, and
senior Aiden Nuggera. The meet was held on October 25th at Darlington Park. The boys team took fifth in the county. The cross country boys and girls varsity teams will race in their sectional meet on Saturday, November 1st at Greystone Memorial Park in Morris Plains.
The band appreciation night was held on October 10th before and during the football game. The LHS band was treated to a potluck dinner before the game and a dessert during the third quarter, most of which was provided by the Lynhurst Music Association and parents. The
opposing team The opposing team's band members joined the Lynhurst band in the cafeteria during the dessert. The high school jazz band has been invited to perform as special guest artists for the Bloomfield Youth Band's December 6th performance. The Wei Hawk and Band
Festival will be held on Sunday, November 9th, and the high school band will perform. The winter confer concert performance series in Lynhurst will take place as follows. The high school concert will be on Tuesday, December 16th. The middle school concert will be on Wednesday,
December 17th. And the 3rd through 5th district music concert will be on Thursday, December 18th. The LHS music trip has also been announced. The LHS music department is planning to go to Boston, Massachusetts this school year.
The Lynhurst Music Association's Tricky Tray fundraiser will be held on November 15th at the Lynhurst Community Center. The Lynhurst Music Association's mega 50/50 sales have also begun, and the winning ticket will be pulled during the LHS winter concert performance this
December. Last year's winner took away $14,350. This year's high school talent show, Lynhurst Got Talent, on October 15th was a huge success. There were 20 amazing acts performed to a packed LHS theater. That concludes my report for this
evening. Thank you. >> So, not it cannot be said that there's a lot going on at the high school. So, uh thank you so much for that. And uh Sure. >> Excuse me, sir. Did you miss anything? Wonderful. >> So
>> Nick's going to go right right from here, right? And we're going to hire you. Yeah. I said you're going to go right from high school. You're going to skip college and you're going to come work right for us. Sounds good. >> I would love it. All right. >> Uh, of course, it wouldn't be a meeting without our state monitor monitors
report. Mr. Demikov, please. >> Sure. Thank you. I have re uh reviewed the financial reports for the month ending September 2025 and support tonight's resolution that certifies that there are s sufficient funds available based on the September financials to
meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the 2526 school year. We have met with our auditor to review and discuss their draft of the June 30th, 2025 Lynhurst audit, which will which will be
presented to the board at a future public meeting following receipt of information from the federal office of management and budget. Based on those discussions, the district will close the 2425 school year in a positive financial
position. I have also reviewed and discussed the resolutions on tonight's agenda with Mr. Dorso and support his recommendations to the board that they approve all of the resolutions on tonight's agenda. That concludes my report for this evening.
>> Yes, sir. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Democr. As far as my report, I don't have anything formal other than to just let the public know that several of us on the board and Mr. D Corso and James uh uh had the uh the board conference down in Atlantic City last week and uh just just to give you a
sense of uh the themes other than talking about healthcare and other things which we'll talk about um generally most of the sessions I wouldn't say most but there's a the ones that I went to were all talk and uh we're all talking about things like um accountability uh collegiality and there
was an interesting theme about community building that I thought was uh something that I would share with you just in the way of I I I really do appreciate that theme as someone who's tried to do that uh in most of the things that I do. So there was a lot of talk about how to be
cohesive throughout our community, how to open up lines of communication. We always talk about that and so so we I brought back a lot of things. I gave Joe a packet of something I worked on this week. Uh and the hope is that through this learning process to being able to
have that opportunity around schools that uh what do we call that? uh lowhanging fruit uh finding the things that certainly can enhance our our our program. I know that uh Mr. Velvano had mentioned to me about uh having more information for incoming uh board
members and I appreciate that some of the things that we heard as well. Uh so one of the things we're going to strive to do uh between some of the sessions we went in to talk about this and uh I gave Joe some light reading on the other side of it is one of the things that we plan on doing is start uh whether it's within
this year and then going into the new year is start having a little bit more of a concrete strategic plan uh particularly when it comes to things like uh funding and other avenues of creating value within the school district. So uh thank you for that and your attention. I'm going to turn it
over now the meeting over to uh Mrs. Dorson. >> Thank you, Dr. Scardino. Um just to kind of piggyback off of what Dr. Scardino said, we we have plans to um also start some community engagement events with myself, the board. Um you know, we're
limited to um less than five board members if we have a community night, but um if we advertise it, we can certainly do that. So, we're going to do some forums, some uh coffee hour with the superintendent and and any board members that want to come to just really get the public more engaged and people
coming out and hopefully curtail some issues and tackle some obstacles before they happen and also just engage with the community more. So, um we're certainly going to be working to put that together. We'll we'll we'll publicly talk about that here um at the board meetings, but we'll also put out emails and information as well. Uh, one
of the things that we got tremendous feedback on was the newsletter that we sent out right after the school started to highlight some of the things we're doing. So, we're going to continue doing those. We plan to send another one out in the spring. Uh, we didn't just send those to um members of the school
community, but we sent them to the entire community so that everyone can see really what's happening within our schools because um, as Nicholas pointed out, there are there are so many dynamic things happening um, academically uh, with our sports programs. And so we really want to inform everyone and keep
everyone um aware really of you know the great things that we're doing here. Um to kind of piggyback off what Mr. Demikov spoke about, we did meet with our auditors this morning and we really had a very favorable audit report for the year end of 2425.
Um I've said publicly before that our fiscal year runs a little bit differently than the annual fiscal year. So our budget turns over um July 1st. So, at the end of June is actually when we close out our year and our new budget rolls over July 1. So, we met with our
auditors for about an hour this morning. And again, um, all positive news. We are going to be putting money into our capital accounts. The hope is to have our capital reserve up over a million dollars by the time we make those deposits. So, it looks like we're going to be able to do that. And um the
auditor is going to be giving a formal presentation to the community and to the board hopefully in December. The auditor is waiting for numbers back from the state. So there's really nothing we can do to fasttrack that. He has to wait for those numbers to come back from the
state and then he'll be here. Um he did take down our December board date. Again, we're shooting for that date and and hopefully um we can have it then. If not, we'll have to do it in January. So really excited um to continually put money in our reserve accounts which is
needed. Um the next update I have uh Dr. Scardino mentioned health care. It really was the buzz down at the school board's convention because as many of you know and I've seen and read um and in the news there's just um astronomical healthc care increases not just in the
state but across the country. And unfortunately um our district is getting increases. And so, um, if you look in the agenda here, um, our healthcare increase for for this fiscal year, even though I just mentioned our our budget
turns over July 1, the healthcare industry runs on a typical annual um, year, which is January 1. So, we get healthcare increases um that start January 1. So when we budget, we have to budget 6 months of what we know the
increase is going to be and then we have to take a guess from January to June because we don't know what that increase is going to be. Typically in industry standards and at the recommendation of our auditors, we've always budgeted about 20 to 25% for a health care
increase. Unfortunately, this year the state healthcare plan which we went into for our health care is going up uh 32%. and our prescription plan is going up 54%. Which is really um unheard of. Um and unfortunately our district's in a
position where we're not able to switch insurance carriers at this time due to the rate and the utilization of our of our current plan. And so that that hurts the school district that um you know we can't we could not have prepared for that. But luckily, um, I want to
publicly say and thank and commend the board for for voting and approving the tax levy incentive program because without that money right now, our district would really be behind because we did not plan for such a large health care increase. And then additionally,
next year we're going to have to budget close to, if not over $3 million of health care costs that we have no control over. And so down at school boards, um this really was a a major topic with superintendents, board members, and business business
administrators because these rates increases are just not sustainable. And you know, I know, you know, as a state, um and I know it's hitting local governments as well, but to get a 54% increase is really very, very hard to manage and budget and plan for. So
thankfully we have the money to cover these costs, but as a board um you know, we're a little discouraged due to the fact that we just really worked very hard to get all of that money and all those increases to go back to our students, to go back to
schools, to go back to infrastructure, and to see this type of an increase um is upsetting. And so we have to work hard to reallocate um manage, scale back, and so that we could still do the projects that we said we were going to
do and still incur these increases. For this school year, we did have to roll back one or two projects that we said we were going to do. I want to be very transparent with the public and the community and the board. And um we had to just make decisions that were in the
best interests of the facilities and our students. And so we we prioritized projects and did not do some projects this year to um deal with that increase. And then moving forward, we're going to do the same thing. Um we're not going to be able to do everything, but we will be
very transparent. When we formally go through the budget process and these numbers are finalized, I will have more presentations and more public forums to show you exactly what projects were prioritized, what we're going to be doing, and and the reasons why. So, I just um a lot of these numbers haven't
be f haven't been finalized, but I wanted to be transparent and open as soon as I had them so that I can inform the board and the public. We also have a state data presentation tonight that our assistant superintendent Dr. Morel is going to
give. So, at this time, we are going to transition the board off the stage down below and Dr. Morell is going to give that presentation. Thank you. as we look at this data moving forward that it wouldn't be something necessarily we can um view with the new
data that when we take the test in the spring. So when we think about the NJSLA assessment who participates in this uh this is part of a federal requirement. Um so if it's part of the now it's called the every student's disease act.
Um normally it started in No Child Left Behind. That was the initial federal law that required all schools to test their students. It measures the students under state standards. Specifically we are testing in ELA in
grades 3 to 9. And uh in math we test 3 to 8 and then we test by course algebra 1, geometry and algebra 2. And then there's an additional assessment that students take in grades five, eight, and 11 where they take specific um tests in
science. These are the different levels that a student can score in their assessment. So levels one through five. With students scoring in four and five, considering as you're passing the test, you're either meeting or exceeding expectations.
These are our participation rates. Again, this is something we have to report out to the um to the federal government. So, we're required to have about 95% of our students participating in the assessments and we historically have had high participation rates of our
students taking the test. And this is the breakdown by grade and content of ELA, math, and science. So now we're going to get into our NJSLA ELA results. So these are our overall scores comparing the district to the
state. And overall we perform well where we are performing um at or above the state and many of the different categories in the different grades, I'm sorry, grades three to nine. This is the how we've performed throughout the years. It's important to
note that even though it is the same grade, it is a different group of students. So in a way you're comparing apples to oranges, but this type of comparison is useful to us in terms of our curriculum in terms of how is our curriculum instruction aligned to the
standards and how are we supporting the students. So that's one way how we look at the data. The other way we look at the data is looking at the students and following our students from one year to the next, which is what we call cohort, looking at them and how they've grown. And we do very well in that category. We
always meet our students where they are and we always show growth with them. Overall, the pink line is what I would like for you to focus on. You'll see that we are on an upward trend over those several years and some areas you'll see how we've performed
throughout the years. So now we'll look into how do our different student subgroups perform. This is our demographic um regarding ELA. Um we do have some um what's called achievement gaps, meaning that some of our subgroups either over or
underperform when you compare the different groups of students. So we look at that, but we also look at the data in terms of how have these groups of students performed throughout the years. Um the numbers on the far left are prepandemic um testing. If you recall,
we did not test spring 20. We didn't test in spring 21. So there was a 2-year gap where there was no testing. So 1819 and if you look at it in some of the grades, um some of the demographics, I'm sorry, you'll see that we were getting closer back to prepandemic levels, which
is great. But then now the state test changes to test on us. So, it's going to be hard for us to try to figure out how we're going with our new test. Now, um both our male and female students um perform about equally um in ELA. And
again, you'll notice that we were getting back to prepandemic levels with our performance. This is the other group depending upon um their program. So, we have our English language learners, free and reduced lunch, uh, 504, our special
education students, and our JEED population. Um, it's important to note that multilingual learners, depending upon their arrival here to the United States. Some of them um if they're here for less than a year, they are um excused from taking the English language
arts test because obviously they don't speak English. But then the very following year they take the test even though they still probably don't have the mastery of English. But those are the federal requirements that we have. But I do want to point out even though this is not a part of the presentation,
um I want to make the connection that while there is an achievement gap between our different programmatic grades, our English language learners, we have shown great growth in helping them develop English language in our district.
So now we'll go into our math results. We continue to show growth with our students and meeting where they are. we are getting closer to meeting state standards and that's an area that we continue to improve upon. So, uh, algebra 2 I'm not able to report on
because we're required to have a certain number of students to report before we can report that out to the public. And our algebra 1 scores contain our eighth graders. Our eighth grade um has two pathways where some students take an eighth grade test and some students take an algebra 1 test.
These are our scores throughout the years. Again, we're continuing to show improvement in our math scores where we're meeting students where they are and we're improving them each year. And again, as I mentioned earlier in the previous slide, we were getting uh we were making progress closer towards the
state uh the state uh proficiency level. So here's another chart that I want to show you with the pink line that we were again moving in a positive trend and improving what we've done in previous years. Um specifically if you notice
geometry where we were we were already outperforming what we were doing um even pre- pandemic. So overall we were on a positive trend with our math scores. So this is the breakdown for our different subgroups. So these are our
demographic uh changes. Um it's a similar pattern to what you saw in ELA. Uh we do have some achievement gaps between our different demographic groups. Um but we were also um getting our students back to prepandemic levels. So again, it's a positive that we were continuing to meet students where they
are and helping them grow and improve. both male and female students equally perform on our math uh assessments and um you'll see the numbers there throughout the years. Then we have our programmatic students
groups and you see where our different group of students were performing. So now I'll present your science results. Again these are tests. This test is different. uh these students only in fifth, 8th, and 11th grade take
the test. So when it's time during the testing time where everyone else is done testing, the fifth, eighth, and 11th graders have an extra day. It's a day or two. They have two extra days of testing. So um I mean that equals about almost two weeks sometimes, right, of testing. It's it's a lot of testing
unfortunately in the spring. But the NJSLA science assessment, the levels of proficiency change. Um, where if you notice there was five for the NJSLA, ELA, and math, for science, there's four levels. And so if you score in a level three or four, you're considered passing
the assessment. So these are our scores overall um comparison to the state. So we're not that far off from the state. Um so other than 11th grade we are underperforming the state in that particular category.
These are the trends where we're going. Again we're continuing to show improvement from one year to the next where we were um improving from you know just how our students were doing from going back all the way to spring 2022 which is the first time we took the test
coming back from the pand from the closures of COVID. I also have to report out our group demographic groups to how the students were performing. This is our students. So as far as it comes to generalize, I'm happy to report
that male and female students in all three categories uh perform equally. Um I think typically in research people will say that you know people say girls perform better in ELA and boys perform better in math and science and that's not the case in Menhurst. Both of our male and female students perform equally
in all three content areas. These are our different um performance in um program programmatic the multilingual learners. Again, this is a difficult um content area for them because it's you're learning academic
content of science while also trying to learn a new language of English. So, this is an area that's a struggle for them and we've been trying to support our science teachers um really all of our content area teachers supporting our multilingual learners in their class
with additional supports. Um, for special education, we continue to provide them specified um, support in their science classes. I believe in math, I'm sorry, at the high school, they have their own for some of our students, they have a separate smaller
group class setting, right, for science. And is that the same in middle school, I believe. Right. Yes. Okay. And, uh, for the first time now in K2, um, in science, we actually have a dedicated science teacher in K2 and it's his own special. So in the past it was the
classroom teacher that taught science, this year we have a specific targeted science teacher because we have been really trying to attack and improve our science scores. This is the one test that's not being changed. So while we have the NJSLA adaptive test is only for
ELA and math, the science assessment staying the same. So now we go into our dynamic learning maps. This particular assessment is is an alternative assessment. This is for our special education students um that due to their um disability, their
cognitive impairment, uh they need to take an alternative assessment and they still have to test grades 3 to 8 and 11. That doesn't change in ELA or in math. Um and they also still have to take a science assessment. Um the way that their results are ported are reported
out is um as you see here, emerging, approaching the target, at target or advanced. So there's four levels there and if they reach at target advance they're considered passing this alternative alternative assessment. This alternative assessment is also provided
in Spanish for any students who are multilingual multilingual learners because they also have to take the test. So overall we have this is a much smaller group of students that are eligible to take this test. Last spring
we had 28 students overall. Again, for me to report out to you this data, I can't report it out by grade because in some cases it might have been just one student in one grade. So, out of student privacy, I can't report out per grade, but I will report out how we did overall
as a district. So, we have ELA and math. I couldn't report out science because we had less students cuz remember science is 5, 8, and 11. So in some in one grade I think I had no one taking the test and in another one I had maybe one or two. Um so I really had a total of three
students who took a science assessment. But for ELA math the overall performance of the of the students who took the test uh 29% were at target advance and 36% were at target or advance in math.
So here are some of our takeaways when we look at our data. When we look over all our data, we continue to show growth in all of our math areas. Geometry really has uh I think we've been very happy with our geometry scores. They've been higher from even precoid. So, we're
doing phenomenal things with geometry and our fourth grade as well has been performing at the state average. Um, as you saw earlier, our ELA scores um, in every I think it was the one grade we were just at the state level, but everywhere every other grade we were
above the state performing and our scores continue to increase in the ALA when you when you follow the students from one grade to the next. So, what are some areas that we need to continue to improve upon? So when we look at our math and we dig a little bit
deeper into the reports that the state provides us, we notice that our students still need more support in modeling and reasoning skills and really strengthening their numbers and skills. Numbers and skills for English for us run of the day people that just means your basic math facts. How quickly if I
tell you two* two, all of us will quickly say four. For some of our students, they still struggle with some of those basic math facts and we do things during throughout the school year to help strengthen that. So that's an area that uh we continue to support our students. Uh we continue with targeted
professional development with our math teachers. Uh we've been working with a consultant and we had a new math program when we came back September 2021. And she has now um is now currently working with the high school. So she worked her way through K5. Last year she started
working with six and seven and this year she's working with our eighth grade teachers. Uh in ELA, we'll continue to uh specifically we need to continue to work on our vocabulary development. Um specifically in K5, we have a new ELA
program and vocabulary instruction is a part of daily instruction. So we're already strengthening that through that. And then the middle school just revised a lot of their units to also incorporate more direct vocabulary instruction and support with our students. Uh we're
going to continue to improve our instruction regarding reading non-fiction. And then in science um we're highlighting specific areas that we need to improve. And like I mentioned, this year we have um a new teacher who is only teaching science to
our teach to our students. Um and we feel that that helps with the more consistency in the instruction and the quality of instruction that's being provided to our students. So these are some of the strategies we're implementing. All of our special
education teachers always attend our PD. Sometimes we have separate PD for them where it's very targeted for them. So for example, if you are a special education teacher and you work with our LLD population, that means our um those
are those small self-contained students. They get very targeted PD to how to support and modify the work for those students. But we want to ensure that those students are still getting grade level instruction. But how do you support them to get that? Um throughout the year we provide various a number of
PD for ELA and math as well as science. Um we continue to implement our early literacy screener which in K2 that is um inclass dibbles. In 35 we have um I ready. at the middle school has this
year. They just um expanded to also include the excl benchmarks and so that has been very helpful in providing target. Um we also revised our schedule uh K5 the middle school revised their schedule last year to have the
additional math and English class at the K5 level. Every day a uh students have an additional uh ELA class to support them with basic skills as well as for math and we call that the math win periods in ELA is called the DI block at
the K5 level. Um we continue to provide opportunities for PD for our science teachers. Uh a lot of the PD that they attend sometimes are also outside with um science experts. I know some PDS have been held
in um at Bergen Community College at William Patterson Monontlair. Some people have even driven all the way down to Reverend Valley Community College. Um we at the 6 to2 level we're using something called document based questions which are very researchbased
where you read an article and you write questions to that particular text. And again, when you think about it, even though it's in social studies, these are literacy skills that translate. So, we can't expect the language arts teacher to do all these skills. So, the social
studies also help out with ex um supporting our students with reading non-fiction and research and writing skills. I already mentioned the PD that's being targeted at the middle school. And this year, the priority, the focus of the consulting is working with our eighth grade teachers.
At the high school, we streamlined the schedule to have um specificity regarding who is teaching what and this allows for greater consistency of the of the classes and and targeted support uh especially with our algebra and geometry class. So, we've done a lot of work with
that. We've also um are looking to expose the students more to the type of questions they would see on the exam. So, of course um you may not know this, but we didn't know that a new test was coming. We found out in August, the whole state found out in August that the
state was changing the test. So, we're staying the course with having the students practice the test because once we started seeing the sample questions, we're like, "All right, not that far off." So, we want students to be more exposed to that and that's being embedded uh throughout the school year
and not just right before the test. We're having an afterchool tutoring program. So, I want to thank uh the board that's that's part of the funding that we have um utilized also from the tax levy incentive program and we're able to offer tutoring to all students
uh not to all students, I'm sorry, to students in grades 3 to 5 and 6 through 8. And then the high school is offering a tutoring program during the lunch block. After school, high school tutoring program is very difficult because of sports activities. There's a lot going on. So, we have students who
and teachers who stay at the school during lunchtime and they do the tutoring and they show up and we have good performance um good attendance uh for that. And that's my presentation. I will open it now for any questions you might have. Yes.
Hey, what? Yeah. So, I'll we'll tag team that uh Sabrina and I because we've we speak about this all the time when we look at our eighth grade. So, I want to give context and it's not and it's not an excuse. We did have one of our eighth
grade teachers out the entire year last year on leave. So, we know we if you wanted to ask us a reason, we know that's one thing that might have affected it was that because if you saw the previous year, we were actually improving and then we took a dip again, right? So we did have a a teacher out
for the year. So that was one thing we said. Okay. Oh, for two. Oh, we had two. Oh, sorry. I was thinking the one. Okay. So, we know that that had some sort of impact uh regarding the how students are performing in class and how are they performing in the the assessment. I
think you can speak more to that. Right. No, that's fine. Yeah. And that's No. And that's why we went to the released that's why we went to the released items because in talking to the
teachers and looking at the data, we realized that some of the words were tripping up the students. And so we were like, okay, so we we know that they know this is the that teachers will always if we have math teachers here right now, they'll tell you. They know like if you just give me the formula 2 plus 2, I
know how to do that. I put that in a in a word problem, it's like what am I doing? So that's the part that we know that we have to address. The other issue with the word problem is well if I have difficulty reading that's another barrier with that. So um what we're
doing and just to build a little bit on what Sabrina shared about meeting where they are. Um just to give you context our current sixth grade right now has been receiving this new math program and the instruction how we've been teaching
they've come up. So they're here now. Um those are also our kindergarteners who were in COVID. So our current last year eighth grade we're still trying to play catchup with some of them. So when when Sabrina was saying we were meeting where they are, we make them grow but then the
problem we run into is we still did not get them to the grade level. So like you're a year behind. I get you up to speed but I'm still kind of behind the eightball on where you need to be for the test. So it's it's it's something we continue to work really
hard on. We're hoping that with the change in the schedule because that was the other thing to make sure that because last year was the first time that we had math every day. I don't know if you remember if you were here when the schedule Okay, so before math was like every other day or something like that. So now last year was the first
time we had math every day. We had the additional math. So um we feel like we're putting pieces into place. Um, the thing that that's still it may not show in terms of meeting state benchmarks, but when you see the child coming from
I'm just making this up. They scored previously on a 700 and I got you to 724. You're not passing, but I I made you jump 24 points. So, when we look at that like really granular type point, we we see growth. So, we're happy about that
as parts of kids going back. So I just want to make sure I understand your question. So when you're saying when they take the state test, so it's normally would have it listed in either their IEP, special education individual individualized education plan or in a
504 plan where they get time and a half. So um so what that happens is let's say the test is 60 minutes. So then you get time and a half. So those students get an hour and another 30 minutes for the test. So yeah, that's how they get the addition.
All right. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to open up public to be heard on agenda item. One of the things that We're still at a very low percentage relative to like towns and uh we are
going to open up the dialogue. We we did try to start that dialogue. I'll just say that uh we weren't able to have that meeting just yet. I'll say that the best way I can at this point. However, we're looking forward to continuing uh those
conversations with the town. So if they say 1% give us shared services only documented that the budget is 50% that 1% helps us on their books not ours >> you know I I agree and and not to be
doom and gloom, but be between the health care and the cost of everything going up uh and uh all the other variables that contribute to costs going higher, uh there's no question that you're you're in line with what we're talking about. Um we're looking for the
best way to work with the town. I think you already know that sometimes it could be daunting, not because it's a particular one particular thing. It it's something that hasn't been cultivated for a long time and it's one of our priorities as we move forward.
>> You know, >> it's only temporary like all the rules. We dug ourselves out of And then we get and this gets set up after we don't get to get to
>> the poorest. >> Agreed. >> Thank you so much. Tracy, I I'll leave you with this, and I I think I've I've left a lot out on the table in a lot of different ways this week. Um in a previous meeting as well, uh if I were to ever run again, and I
I'm not I'm I'm not really quite sure if that would happen, but I I would tell you that I would run on no politics and education. And I I I couldn't agree with you more. Once the pol politics crosses over and better decision-m uh isn't happening uh we we get this and and we
there's a lot of us here I think most of the board me if not all the board members and and the support here uh agree with you. Yeah, I mean I think you know to your point you know the funding formula needs to be revisited you know on a state
level and unfortunately we have been designated a district which you know which we we know is going to lose funding and continue to lose funding. So, it's extremely important to us to keep that dialogue open and and and and we will and I think um over time, you
know, funding obviously is a huge part of of what we need to, you know, thrive and, you know, it it was a bit of a blow, you know, to healthare for the healthc care to hit us right now after everything that we accomplished. And so, you know, at, you know, on one hand, I'm extremely grateful that we have the resources to now, you know, address
that. But on the other hand, it really is, you know, kind of a kidney shot to know that, you know, a lot of that money is going, you know, to healthcare. But, you know, I I think for us and and not just um you know, us here in Lynhurst, again, this was a major topic down at
school boards. And I I I think what's what needs to start happening. Um I know I've been talking with the superintendent in Rutherford, the superintendent in North Arlington, right? We have to we've had great shared service agreements with the town to save money and resources. I think the
conversation also has to start shifting to local districts, right? Rutherford is so close. North Arlington is so close. If there's ways that we could save money, for instance, with busing, you know, transportation, even custodians, even maintenance, right? We have these large maintenance projects. Well, if one
of us hires an electrician, one of us hires a plumber, one of us hires an HVAC person. Now we can share those services and tackle larger projects together. So these are conversations also that we're having to just find ways to bring cost down and do more with less. And so um I
agree we're going to you know keep charging forward and you know our finances are always going to be a top priority. And so we will continue to be transparent. I know we want to have more meetings about it. Just be open you know with what we're doing. But those are some ideas also that we've been toying with to sort of just you know keep cost
down. But thank you for your comment. >> Can I just add to what was being said? Um just to to you know I guess move on to a happier note. I mean even with these un unexpected increases through the leadership of our superintendent we
were still able to have some capital projects that were able to uh improve the functionality the safety and appearance of many of our buildings. And as a finance chair, I can attest to the fact that moving forward, we will still be able to do that even with these increases. And it's all because of Joe's
strategic leadership. And I want to thank him for everything he's done. >> Thank you, M. I I have to say this was um I know exactly how you feel. I I don't know what else I could say other than um to show your emotion like that.
There's a frustration level that is uh It certainly continues to to weigh out a lot of us and I'm with you on that. Uh I'm not playing you lift service. I I mean it. There's so many other things that we go. Uh we're going to next move to board discussion and on formal and
the formal business agenda. We have any >> new businesses later. >> New businesses later. El right for new business. Okay. Perfect. Pursuant to the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the committee
on finance recommends the following resolutions to be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward finance resolutions 1 through 16 to be adopted. >> Second, Mr. Andronopoulos call. Mr. Andronopoulos
>> four. >> Mr. Guso, >> four. >> Miss Pasamano, >> four. >> Mr. Pamo, >> four. >> Mr. Petronio, >> four. >> Dr. Scardino, >> four. >> Miss Stella, >> four. and Mr. Valvana >> four. >> Motion carries. >> Um, education and curriculum, Miss
Pasamano. >> Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the committee on education and curriculum recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward education and curriculum resolutions one and two to be
adopted. >> Second. >> Second, Mr. Pamo. >> Roll call. Mr. Baron Janopoulos >> four >> Mr. Ger Russo >> four >> Miss Pamano >> four >> Mr. Pacamano >> Mr. Petranzia >> four >> Dr. Scardino >> four
>> Miss Stella >> four >> and Mr. Valvana >> four. >> Motion carries. >> Policies, rules, and regulations. Miss Stella, we're we're getting down to those last few where we're going to have you do that. >> Pursuant to the recommendations of 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 three to be adopted.
Mr. Pano. >> Roll call. Mr. Andronopoulos. >> Four. >> Mr. G. Russo. >> Four. >> Miss. Pasamano. >> Four. >> Mr. Pasamano. >> Four. >> Mr. Petronzio. >> Four. >> Dr. Scardino. >> Four. >> Miss Stella. >> Four.
>> And Mr. Valvano. >> Four. >> Mr. Vano, would you like to do personnel, please? >> Sure. Let me >> pursuant to the recommendations of the superintendent election uh superintendent of schools, the committee on personnel recommends the following
resolutions be moved forward to a roll call vote. I make a motion move forward resolutions A1 through M6 to be adopted. >> Second. >> Second, Dr. Roll call. Mr. Mr. Andronopoulos
>> four >> Mr. Guso >> four >> Miss Pam >> four >> Mr. Pam >> four >> Mr. Petron >> four >> Dr. Scardino >> four >> Miss Stella >> four >> and Mr. Uh yes to everything except for number two.
Uh yes for everyone but I abstain from my name >> under uh >> workshop training >> motion carries. >> Yeah. >> New business. >> New business.
Yes. New new business. >> Yeah, new business. >> New business. >> Well, Tracy, you beat me to what I was going to bring up. >> Um, I'm Well, I'll be done in December, but I'm not going away.
Um, and I am the policy person for years and I've been doing this board of ed stuff because of my son Larry for 45 years. And one of the things I've been wanting to bring up for the last few years was a community liaison with the
school board where they have meet with the mayor and maybe the parks department guy and then be a president of the school board with some board members and sit down and coordinate different things to make everything better. And one of
the things was would be now can if they could do something in their budget that we wouldn't do in our budget that they would give us money to get us to that 6030 because we're still probably in the
red flag with the state. And it's going to come back and haunt us again because they could actually give us less state aid if we don't do this. And they're going to try to weasle it out of us somehow. And the board really knows all that too. So, so my point is they need
to and I've been wanting to do this for a long time and it just never got off the the thing and I spoke to Joe about it is that maybe in January when a new board sits or whatever to create this community liaison and have uh dialogue
with the town and come up with things that the both the board and the town could work together as a community and bring the community together more and everything to be affordable to live here. And you know, people, you know,
you put all a lot of brains together and people could come up with a lot of different things. And I think it's a right thing to do moving forward. And I'll make sure that it that it happens because I'll bring it up at every meeting I come to.
If I could jump on that, I have to say um and I think I had said in a couple meetings ago for again for full transparency. Um Elaine has been talking about this since I've been on the board, which is I've lost track, but I think it's at least four years, maybe five
years, uh something like that. And um I didn't not that I wasn't paying attention. I just didn't quite understand. And that's on me and that's on all of us. and and certainly when we got to the point of where the state had given us an opportunity to increase uh
uh our our tax levy uh to at least and and they they by observing where we were, they saw that we were one of the towns in that deficit, whatever that might look like, >> right? Because you need that 6030 and we were 49, town was 47,
which means who's under who's over. We're not really under. Is a town over? We're It doesn't matter. It still has to be a 6030 and 10 goes to the other crap. But what I'm saying is it's something that you know as time
used will be still on the board to create if you want the president, however you want to set it up, not make it a policy, just make it a liaison committee >> and and to do something not like we talked about talked about and it never got done.
>> Yeah. and you know and it and in a lot of ways we have to remember and you're right but the one thing and the obstacle that's always been is is sort of us and them and I see it at work where people are siloed that they work in their own space and they hope for the best and this is something we have to break down.
So I I I agree but Elaine has been beating this for this this drum for a while and >> and maybe you could break the political aspect of it. >> We're going to work on that. >> You know what I mean? >> I do. I do. Thank you, Miss Stella. Um,
>> at this time the public will be heard. Do we have >> agenda? Not agenda. There is no >> Okay. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. Yeah. >> All in favor? >> I want to thank everyone for being here.
Thank you for your attendance. Appreciate it. >> Also, um, if you want go upstairs and and view our haunted house. So, the haunted house was not supposed to be in the middle school tonight, but because of the weather, we changed locations because of this beautiful facility. So, if you have a chance, I know I'm going
to go up right now. Our students worked very hard. Thank you. Have a great night.