Good evening. I call to order the October 28th, 2025 meeting of the Matuchen Board of Education. Please stand for the flag salute. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Ms. Alavich, notice of the meeting, please. Sure thing. I hereby make this statement to indicate compliance with the open public meetings act known as
chapter 231 of the public laws of New Jersey 1975 which became effective 90 days after enactment January 19th 1976. Notice of this meeting was given by providing the location time and date of this meeting posting of the same in the front door of the board of education offices by
delivering copies to the Burough Hall and the Matucha public library the home news and tribune and by filing a copy with the burough clerk as prescribed by this law. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Bot, >> here. >> Miss Cheetum, >> she's advised she will not be here today.
>> Thank you. >> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. Here. >> Mr. Glber, >> here. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> I am here. >> Miss Colleen, >> here. >> Mr. Lipton, >> he is also advised that he would not be here today. >> Thank you. >> Miss Michaels Lamort,
>> here. >> Dr. Sper, >> here. >> Mr. Sass. >> Yeah. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Caputo. We have some exciting stuff coming up. >> We do. Thank you, Dr. Johnson Marquez. First up is our uh high school fall play
preview. And the MHS Foot Lighters will present Arthur Miller's The Crucible on Friday, November 14th and Saturday, November 15th. The Crucible is about a small town that spirals out of control when people start accusing each other of witchcraft. As fear takes over, lies and revenge ruin lives, especially that of
John Proctor, who tries to do the right thing, even if it costs him everything. Tonight, seniors Ryenstein, who plays John Proctor, and Aiden Bernstein Lundy, who plays Reverend Paris, will talk a little about the play and the Foot Lighters upcoming performances. >> Good evening. We're Aiden and Ryan, and
we're part of the cast of this year's fall play, The Crucible, presented by the MHS Foot Laders. I'm playing Reverend Paris and I'm playing John Proctor. The Crucible is a classic American play by Arthur Miller about the Salem witch trials in the 1600s. It follows a
community that falls apart when fear and accusations take over. But it's also a story about truth, integrity, and standing up for what's right. Even though it was written over 70 years ago, it still feels incredibly relevant as an allegory for the Red Scare and its
lasting impact on trust in the government. It reminds us of the power of hysteria, the ease with which misinformation and fear can spread, and the importance of thinking for ourselves and supporting one another. That's what makes the story so powerful right now.
For us, it's also really meaningful because this is our senior play. It's one of the last times we'll get to perform with the people we've grown to love over the years. And everyone from freshman to seniors and actors to crew has poured their heart into making it
into something special. On top of that, we both were lucky enough to read The Crucible in our sophomore year English classes, and getting to see it brought to life by our fellow Foot Lighters has been a real treat. We've been building this production since the school year started, and we're
beyond excited to share it with you all. The Crucible will be performed on Friday, November 14th at 700 p.m. and Saturday, November 15th at 2:00 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the MHS auditorium. Tickets are $15 and they'll be available
for advanced purchase at mhsfootlighters.com starting this Friday at noon. You can also buy them at the door for any of the performances. We'd love to see you all there. Thank you so much for your time and we hope you'll join us for the Crucible.
Great. [Applause] >> Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Aiden. >> Was do we know if this was inspired by uh going to see John Proctor as the villain on Broadway? The choice, >> may have been.
>> Wonderful. More good stuff coming. Dr. Kaputo, >> we do. I'd like to uh next invite uh Miss Leick up and she'll invite some special guests that we have uh with with her today. Um as as they're getting near the the uh um the podium here, just want
to remind the board that um a team of 10 of us spent a great day Tuesday, last Tuesday down in Atlantic City. And not only did we receive this award, which Miss Le and her team will talk about, but each school received um awards and then we received another district award because all four schools received
awards. So much of this work is due to the efforts of our STEM supervisor, Miss Kate Lmerch. I'm going to turn the program over to her. >> Is this on? >> Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. There we go. >> All right. It takes a village. I'll start with that. Um, so good evening, Matuchin Board of Ed. I'm super proud to
share that our district has been named the 2025 recipient of the Green Team Collaboration Award from Sustainable Jersey, an honor that's given to just one New Jersey district each year. This recognition highlights our strong partnerships as seen here from some of
our representatives and shared commitment to sustainability across our schools and the community. Our collaboration with the Matuchen Environmental Commission has been central to this work. On August 17th, 2025, you probably saw us downtown at the Matuchin Green Fair. Many of us from
this group were here. Uh and that grew out of our district. Actually, I think all of us were here at the green fair. uh that grew out of our work from our district sustainability committee discussions that we had with uh Mr. Mark Herszburg and Mr. Peter Faircloud who came to our meetings together from the
commission. Our partnership with the Machutan Shade Tree Commission has also been exceptional over the past two years. Our high school tree ambassadors Samuel is one of them have learned from Dr. Ken Salmon right here and Miss Yoko Kato sharing um that knowledge through
lessons, tree planting activities, and library programs that highlight carbon sequestration and native species. As we prepare for our upcoming trees for schools grant, our shade tree commission staff and students continue to play key roles in planning and implementation.
We're also expanding sustainability learning through professional development opportunities, including a field trip for our science teachers with members from both commissions. Our newest initiative, a food recovery program with Share My Meals, and the First Presbyterian Food Pantry led by
Sarah Sarah Teddy right here, has also recovered 485 meals, 611 pounds of food, and it's prevented 2,443 lbs of CO2 emissions. Thanks to more
than 25 of our community volunteers, these efforts reflect the collaboration and creativity that make Matuchen so special. And I really mean that. Matuchin is a very special place. We're deeply grateful to our community partners, our staff, our students for their shared vision. And I welcome you
to uh view this short video. And I'm super excited to share that this award is uh one for the district and one for our community partners that will travel around to our schools and travel around to our different locations throughout the bureau.
>> Wonderful. So, as um Miss Urick makes his way to the um the moni What are we going to see, Miss Lmer? >> What's that? >> As Mr. Ulick makes his way to the video, do you want to set that up a little bit? >> Uh yeah. So this is going to highlight
>> is how willing everybody is to come to one of the things I think is so amazing about is how willing everybody is to come together to partner this council and I have kind of co-led our district sustainability committee which kind of
started us down this path of a number of different community efforts that we've had. Almost everything we've done in the club has been about like some sort of environmental issue that really touches um our school >> tree ambassador program started two years ago when Dr. Ken Sam from the
shade tree commission approached us and had this concept idea. >> One of the best ways to reach the community is to reach for our kids. So we created a program whereby the kids would learn about trees, um learn to plant them, learn how to take care of them, learn how to identify and take
part in part of the process to transform. >> Right now we're working on plans to plant trees on our campus. We want to try to encourage sustainable practices as well. >> Last year, Dr. Student Advisory Board was meeting with our cafeteria. talk
about sustainability efforts. So, one of the ideas came up about the shared table concept, we were able to have this great collaboration across all these organizations to recover all these uneaten meals from our schools. So, every day all of these meals come back
that are eaten from all the schools that come back to the high school here, placed into containers. We have volunteers within our community who are volunteering weekly to come pick up these meals and bring them over to the First Presbyterian Church. We've been really fortunate to be able to start this at the beginning of the school year
and already in a few short weeks have recovered I would say hundreds of meals already which is really amazing. It is truly an honor to be recipients of this green team collaboration award and I think it only fuels us further to inspire the next generation. My four
students have the same experiences and we have way way more future environmental scientists and help combat climate change in the future among other environmental problems. [Music]
Okay. >> All right. So, please join me in uh welcoming Sarah Teddy to share. Oh, hold on. >> I can also speak really loud. >> We can also gush about how awesome that was cuz television won't pick you up, can you?
>> Oh, got it. >> That's right. >> Okay. All right. So, please join me in welcoming Sarah Teddy from the food pantry who's going to share a few words with us today. >> Wonderful. Uh, thank you all very much for inviting me here today to speak a little bit about where the meals are going. I think
that that is a very important thing to recognize. um during this difficult time that we're facing. Um I wanted to let you know that the meals that are coming out of the Matuchen School District are going to a supportive housing building in Edison
called Amandalas Crossing. Uh it's run by Mission First Housing. Um and it supports individuals who are coming out of homelessness and are being housed for the first time since being homeless. These folks usually do not have
transportation to uh get to a supermarket. Many of them do not. So, the supportive housing system does provide them transportation to go there. Uh but that's only once a week. Many of them do not have an ability to cook either. So these meals are a really
important part of keeping them fed and making sure that people are given what they need to take a step in the right direction after such a tremendous issue that they've had in their lives. Um I want to thank all the volunteers
who have driven meals to us. Everybody has been really nice about it. Uh obviously I would like to thank the sustainable committee here uh because it has really just brought us up to the next level at the Matuchin uh at the FPC food pantry. So we really appreciate it
and uh keep doing the good work. Thank you. >> Yay Sarah. >> Thank you. >> And Dr. Ken Salmon from the Matuchin environ shade tree commission. >> You're trying to put me on another commission here now. Um I I appeared
here about two and a half years ago when I I spoke with Dr. Caputo, Dr. Herzog and the board to get permission to begin the tree ambassadors program with uh in the community and to work with students. And I I thought um as currently the chair and then as a member of the Sha
Tree Commission uh the old saying that when's the best time to plant a tree? Does anybody know? 20 years ago. So when's the best time to plant the seed in the hearts and the minds and the arms and the legs of young of people who
want to participate in planting trees well 20 years ago. So we start them young because most people who are on committees um in our burrow and in who volunteer in so many ways are in their 40s or older. So, we have to start them
young. And this is, uh, been a great opportunity for them to participate in making our community greener, um, healthier, um, and more, um, welcoming. Um, one of the things my three kids used to ask me is, "Daddy, how do I know when
we're entering Matuchin?" And I said, "Well, it's when the trees begin on Route 27, when you come from either direction." because trees are what are one of the things that make our community great. Uh, one of the things I wanted to share also is in addition to
the green team collaboration award um last two week two weeks ago in Atlantic City um the tree ambassador program also received the uh top achievement award from the New Jersey urban and community forestry program. So, the state forestry
program honored the work of the tree ambassadors from Sam and his peers and I think you should all give them a big hand. >> Absolutely. Congratulations. Thank you. >> And Sam, if you want to come forward to
just share a few words about your experience. >> Uh, yeah. I just wanted to thank Dr. salmon and the rest of the Sha Tree Commission for heavily involving the students in the sustainability efforts because I think it's so important to ensure that us the students and the rest
of the and the rest of my generation the future generation can enjoy the same benefits that we have today in the future. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely wonderful. and and there are many more that are not here this evening but have been just been amazing community partners both
within our district and and throughout the bureau. So um we are very honored and grateful for this award and thank you all for allowing us to present it to you tonight. >> Yay. >> Thank you. Thank you all for your hard work.
>> As I said last uh Tuesday was a fantastic uh experience. We received uh this amazing award. As I said earlier, I kind of alluded to, each school received their bronze or silver certification. And as a district, because all all of our schools are certified, we also
received another district award. So, it was quite a hall for us. And you know what I've learned uh as I've gotten older is kind of get out of the way of people who are doing their passion projects and doing great work and and you've allowed me to bring great people in and they've tapped into resources in the burrow and within the school system
and this is what results in that. So, thank you. >> Absolutely. It's wonderful to see this magic unfold where we have such a wonderful set of community partners that are making a real difference in what it is that they're doing in terms of the physical infrastructure within our burrow, the beautiful trees that will be
planted and we get to enjoy for a few years, whether it is the meals that we are serving to our neighbors who desperately need them at this very challenging time. So it is amazing to see that and even more important to see our students being engaged in this in a way that is meaningful that brings their
lessons off of the PLA page into practical reality. I love love love seeing all of this. So thank you all for your vision and the execution to lead to these wonderful awards. >> Thank you Dr. Dr. Mark is wonderful. >> Anyone else?
>> Sarah, can you play us a song? She also is an accomplished music you're like, I have my uh pipe here. >> But, you know, at a time where we can't control certain things that are happening at the national level, it's great to know that our community steps
up to support uh support each other um not just in Matuchen, but in the surrounding areas. So, we appreciate the work that you're doing um Sarah and uh also with anything related to the environmental initiative, everyone. So, thank you so much.
Can we uh can we highlight there's new opportunities to volunteer and participate as well. Dr. Caputo, can you folks share with the community? Yeah, sure. >> How it's expanding so quickly. >> Miss Lambert, did you want to talk a little bit how we grew from literally the first week of September to where we
are now to where what's going to happen in November and December even? Yeah, for anybody who is interested in getting involved in the work um now more than ever, uh we are looking to start doing some Friday pickups in addition to our Wednesday so that we can recover more
meals um and send them over to the food pantry if there are donatable items. And I know Sarah can speak to this better than I can, but I know there is such a great need um there is a box outside of the food pantry, correct Sarah? um that is you're always welcome to drop things
off if you want to volunteer at the food pantry. I'm sure Sarah would love the support and even even from food to pantry and then at the pantry is where those um those are portioned out right into meals that are then sent out to the community. Um so I'm sure there's a need
for that as well. So in any part of that process um we we love the support of the community. It's been so nice to have so many people step up. Um and we've had each week people train train training the trainers and it's been a great um opportunity to to really bring the
community together in in these efforts. So we're always open and uh willing to have new participants in in this work. >> And we're recovering meals, Miss Lmer, and we're keeping waste out of the uh as you said earlier one time, but we're keeping waste out of the uh the dumps
and uh so it's really it's a win-win situation. >> Yes. Yes. A huge contributor to climate change. So, it's we're really happy about that, too. >> Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you so very much. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Yes.
[Applause] >> And I will say I noticed some of our principles back there and I know that y'all have done some uh food bank drives as well at the school. So, make sure when yall see those things coming home, you send your young people out to school with goodies for our neighbors.
>> Yeah. And speaking about the principles, they'll be stepping up their work on the share tables >> where um >> where we take food that often gets thrown out that's fruit or bagged carrots, things like that. Put them on share tables so students that have clubs or students that have sports or students
have a little brother at home that likes carrots can pick them up. So, it's less stuff going in the in the dump. So each school will have those and they should uh they should you know the principles will be sharing out that information. >> Oh wonderful. Love that. Thank you. That's great that you shared that as well. Thank you so much. I think at this
time we are moving to the open to the public and I know that some of you while you are members of the public may perhaps want to go home. So I'll give you the opportunity to leave at this time unless you wanted to say more. Um but we are open at this time to the
public for public comment. Give Brandon a ch Mr. ule a chance to go back and forth to the presentations etc as well. >> I feel like this is the time where we play jazz. >> Some quiet music. >> Oh, no thanks.
>> So, as you as you cue me up for the next um um part of so our first presentation, we have two presentations and the first one I'll turn over to Dr. Herszog um and our um administrators to present out our statewide assessment data as we do each school year. So, I'll turn it over to
Dr. Herszog and our team of principles and supervisors here today. >> Wonderful. >> Okay. Thank you everybody. I Oh, good. Thanks. Okay, thank you, Brandon. I'm excited to present our statewide assessment results for NJSLA testing
last spring. Not quite as inspiring as the presentations that we just heard, but also a source of pride for our team and um for our students uh are the results. They were they were very positive. So, we're excited. And I'm
joined this evening by our principles, Dr. Castanza, Mrs. aso and Mr. Prowski and our some members of our supervisor team Lindseay Omar Lewis Manziano and Kate Lemmer. So they'll be speaking as well. I'll get us started with our district level data and then they'll
dive deeper into the schools and some next steps. Okay. So our this is just an overview of who we tested ELA grades 3 through 9, math 3 through 8, and any student who took algebra 1, geometry or algebra 2 last year. Science only tests three
grades five, eight and 11. We also have a small group of students who take an alternate assessments. Speak about that at the end. Why particip why you know what are some benefits of the NGSLA participation? It is one measure, one assessment point,
one data point, but it does give us some trends and it gives us a point of reference to compare to state, district, grades, schools, departments. It gives us areas to celebrate. It drives differentiation, intervention and enrichment and it identifies any areas
of needs or gaps that we want to focus on and fill in for curriculum revision and informs needs for professional development as well. We have a very high rate of participation 98 to 99%. So most of our students take it. First thing we'll do is highlight in ELA our
comparison to the state. On the chart you'll see Matuchen in blue and state in gray. So across all grades, we're achieving well above the state averages. This is our ELA trends over five years of testing. The first column being
precoid and the last four years um to follow. So you will see um our ELA district-wide all students trending up and reached precoid levels. This is the same data on the end but broken up into each grade. So you'll see
um the similar pattern of ach trending upward and reaching precoid levels in ELA across the grades. This is our cohort data. So what this shows us is students who took the test here in 2324 and then the same students who took the
test in 2425 how their achievement grew. And you see the first column they did by several percentage points. And then students who are different students who were not here in 23 24 but then tested here in 2425 also increased their achievement. So
that is wonderful um reflection on their learning here in our district. This is our data in ELA by race and you can see um trending upward and reach and reaching pre-COVID levels across our
different group most of our different groups the majority. This is our proficiency data in ELA by groups. Um, multilingual learners, free and reduced lunch, students who receive um, section 504 plans, students who receive special education services, and our general
population. Mostly trending, all trending upward, mostly trending upward, the majority, and again getting real close to the pre-COVID levels. Now, I'm going to pivot to map districtwide. And again, Matuchen in blue, state in gray, and you see
Matuchen far exceeding state averages in all math tests and grades. This is our total math achievement districtwide, trending upward and far exceeding precoid levels, which is fantastic.
And that is the same across all grades. um most of which are far you know far exceeding our pre-COVID levels and steady growth and some very high bars there in certain areas of of secondary math. This is our cohort data again. Students
who were with us two years increased. Students who joined us um after not being with us also increased. Our proficiency by race for math most of our subgroups showed an increase. most of them um reaching their precoid levels
or um some even exceeding and by program um the majority of our students in these different subgroups of multilingual learners free and reduced lunch section 504 special education and general ed most steadily increasing most
of our groups and most exceeding pre-COVID levels now I will switch to science districtwide blue is Matuchin gray is state in fifth grade, eighth grade, and 11th exceeding state proficiency levels.
All grades um mostly increasing a little trending upward with um more steady in the last couple years. And this is science across the grades, fifth grade, eighth grade, 11th grade, and all grades. More consistent in 11th
grade, little more fluctuation in eighth grade, and steady increases in fifth grade. and our um by race. Again, a little more fluctuation in some of our subgroups. Um in this these are less students are in
each subgroup in a test in a subject that's only tested um in three different grades. So um we'll dive in a little deeper here to look at some of this fluctuation. And same thing here, a little more science v variety in our scores that we'll do some data dives and um look at
further um to to explore these scores more. Okay, I will pass this along to our elementary grades three through five team. Um we'll welcome Dr. Costanza, Mrs. Abdo and Miss Miss Lindseay Omar to
talk about our 3 to five achievement scores. >> Dr. Herszog, thank you very much. Board, thank you for having us this evening, Dr. Caputo. Um, so our job here is to highlight uh just some of the uh data takeaways on the slides. It's a pleasure
to be joined with Miss Alavdo and Miss Omar, you know, um to highlight not just what's on the slides, but also what's not on the slides. The district's great commitment to the collaborative leadership model is so important where these data get embedded in our discussions. As part of evidence of
that, Miss Esdo has opened up her fifth grade teachers to already be participating in our SLT discussions to talk about these data as well as uh many others in preparation for the transition. And speaking of the transition, the work that Miss Omar has
done across three buildings, uh, including Campbell is just so important. We're so fortunate to have her and the collaboration with Miss Oavdo as well. And really again, just to highlight some of the the things here, uh, in third grade, you'll see a theme of maintaining
our progress year overyear. And then as we progress through the grades, which I know Miss Esveda will talk about as well, you see uh exceeding um in fourth grade, highest in in five years. And as um we're noticing difficulty of items on
tests increase, our students are standing up to that and meeting uh meeting the challenges as well. Five of seven most difficult skills, performing 12 and 18 percentage points better than state average. So certainly doing not just as well as the state, but exceeding that. and I know Miss Oavda will
continue that discussion as well. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us here today to present and highlight the great things our teachers and students are doing. Um so as you can see 87% of our students in the fifth grade are meeting and exceeding and that's the highest in five years and of
the four most difficult skills assessed we're performing over 20%age points better than the state. Um, we're demonstrating strengths in many areas and in especially in analyzing multiple perspectives and comparing literary and informational texts.
Good evening. I want to talk about writing. So, in writing, our students in grades 3 to five consistently outperform the state average across all domains. So both in written expression and writing knowledge
and also literary analysis, research, simulation and narrative writing. Uh what's especially uh encouraging is the upward trend as students move from third to four fifth grade their performance increases and the gap above the state
widens. Um this demonstrates the mastery students are building on these skills over time. Thank you. Uh in addition to a commitment to the collaborative leadership model, this district also has a cornerstone of a commitment to the
whole child. Um something that is uh a part of the educational conversation throughout the country, of course, throughout the state is a conversation around scientifically based reading strategies. uh and as people who are interested in science and who implement
uh scientifically based uh strategies across all content areas, it's very important to us to pay attention to science of reading. However, given our commitment to the whole child, it's not just reading that we're doing with children. There's this thing called math as well that's kind of important and so
paying attention to it's very easy to have things like reading given the professional development and the conversation again not just in New Jersey but throughout the country to have reading kind of suck the air out of the room. We pay attention to making sure that there's evidence that that
does not happen that yes we're implemented we're implementing science uh based reading strategies but there's growth in other areas as well. So the one item in particular best performing skills are across different domains that's really significant to show in
math across the breadth of math we're seeing increases in grade three and grade four even as the complexity uh increases super significant again given just academic growth period but then given the conversation and wanting to be sure that yes we're supporting reading
and implementing guiding uh um evidence-based strategies but that doesn't just happen in reading that happens across the board to support our whole child commitment as well. >> And in grade five, we um continue to improve and grow with 82% of our
students meeting and exceeding. It's the again the highest in five years with 12 percentage points increase from last year and with 5% to 30% above state in all the 38 skills assessed. So, our fifth graders worked really hard um as
do all our students, but they showed tremendous growth. We're very proud of them. And our fifth grade um science the same thing. There was an highest performance again in the last four years. Something was in the water with the fifth grades.
It's been amazing. Um 37 to from 37% u meeting or exceeding to 59% and that's an increase in seven percentage points. Um and we exceeded the state in all domains, practices and overall performance. And now, Miss Omar for the next.
>> Thank you. I'm going to share the next steps we're taking to strengthen instruction and support student growth in grades 3 through five for uh ELA, math, and science. First, we've maintained our tradition of conducting data dives at
the beginning um of the year, after the beginning of the year benchmarks, and again, we'll do it after the middle of the year benchmarks. This process has allowed teachers to effectively analyze our assessment data, identify gaps, and implement targeted interventions. Our
math coach and ELA interventionists join each meeting to support our teachers. Our math coach also provides ongoing targeted supports to teachers across many grade levels, focusing on strengthening instructional strategies. And we take a very vertical approach. So
when an area of need is identified in one grade level, we also reinforce the prerequisite skills in earlier grades. So for example, our math coach is meeting monthly with our second grade team to provide resources that with continued supports in grades 3 through 5
will boost overall achievement. With this being the second full year of our ELA curriculum, teachers are better positioned to implement lessons with the additions and revisions that we made last year. And with the continuous cycles of curriculum improvement, we are
continuing to enhance our K5 ELA curriculum. Specifically, this year, we're prioritizing enhancing student writing. And so this includes embedding short constructed writing tasks throughout each unit. Throughout the year, teachers will participate in
workshops focused on elevating writing instruction, ensuring writing, um ensuring that students are exposed to different writing tasks throughout the year. uh for peer observations uh teacher feedback at Campbell. We're really
excited to launch volunteer peer observations, allowing teachers to learn from each other's instructional practices, share effective strategies, and collaborative collaboratively strengthen classroom instruction. We will continue vertical and grade
level articulation meetings as these discussions help ensure continuity in instruction from one grade to the next, addressing gaps before they become challenges for students. We plan to analyze our science units, particularly in physical science, to identify areas
for enrichment and better support student understanding. And finally, we'll continue to expand our multilingual professional development. And this ensures our teachers have the skills to support students um in all subgroups promoting equitable access to
instruction. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now for our 6 through8 ELA analysis. We continue to outperform the state in each grade level and students in grades six seven sorry I hang out with middle schoolers all day.
Um are median exceeding. They both increased in their percentage points. Um, we're scoring up to 33% points higher on individual domains. There was major growth in vocabulary domain in all grades in the cohort and non-cohort data. This is um something we're really
proud about. Mixiano has worked with our depart his department as well as um our consultant in focusing on increasing our vocabulary um domain. So it's great to see that there was an increase in eight percentage points and each domain is
higher than previous years AC across grades six through eight. When it came to math we outperformed the state also percentage of students of meeting and exceeding expectations in each course. Um there was student growth
in grade six 9.7%age points um increase in exceeding expectations and in grade 7 8.1 percentage points increase in meeting and exceeding our geometry um 23 percentage point increase in exceeding
expectations and in grade seven supporting the content 18% um point increase as well. It's the most most growth domain. Um we have seen in growth over time between the years of 22 2022 and 2025.
And in grade eight we continue to outperform the state in each domain and practice um category and overall performance. Our strongest domain category is physical science. Um and our strongest PA practice category is critiquing practices. And the most
overall growth category was physical science with 11th percentage point and life science with 9 percentage point. And in practice, sensemaking was our strongest area followed by critiquing. And now Mr. Parasi. >> All right, thank you so much. Uh, as
evidenced from the NJSLA graphs, our students performance was close to 30 37% higher than the state. The students strengths were specifically seen in reading information and written expression and writing conventions. Looking at the subcore achievement uh
data in 9th grade, we have seen strong growth in vocabulary. These results highlighted a huge bump in their performance in the application of strategies of around unknown words. And if you're following that cohort in
particular from 8th grade to 9th grade, there is even more evidence of vocabulary becoming a strength in their ELA skills. This was a huge undertaking by Mix Manzaniano, Mix Legghorn, and the English department. and I'm truly
impressed and thankful for the work they've done and continue to do with our students. In math, our 9th grade analysis shows that we're continuing to outperform the state in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations in each
course. Specifically in algebra 1, we want to identify that while the percentage, as seen on the 5-year graphs, may show a little bit of a drop, it's important to note that there was actually an increase in the number of students who met or exceeded expectations from spring 24 to spring
25. Looking at the 5-year graph without last year's jump, you'll see consistent growth over the past five years in algebra 1 scoring. Additionally, in algebra 1, the strengths included the ability to interpret expressions and the
students ability to analyze graphs. Areas of further development and focus continue to be as follows for algebra 1. The additional work on modeling and reasoning in the classroom, focusing on graphing functions, both linear and exponential.
uh a focus on graphing inequalities and providing students with more real world applications and multi-step problem solving word problems. In geometry, we see that over 30% high we were over 30% higher than the state in
the students meeting or exceeding expectations in all four reported categories. There's a difference between last year's performance and this year by one student. Geometry strengths included knowledge of
congruence of triangles, relationship of s and cosine and complimentary angles, knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, and application of those problem solving skills specifically regarding the relationships among inscribed angles, radi.
Geometry areas of focus are very niche with our with our cohort here. Specifically, there was the identification of shapes of two-dimensional crosssections of three-dimensional objects. Don't ask me how you solve those things. Um, namely,
they were looking at ellipses, circles, and parabas. This was the same area that was actually identified as a skill that needed to be addressed at the middle school geometry assessment level, too. So, I think that's important to see that we're all in the same boat there. Um,
once again, in algebra 2, the results are pretty perfect. I you got 100% there. Um, but let's go back to a couple of years because you've heard me for the last couple of years talking about this. Over the past four years in particular, I shared that it's hard to maintain a
100% performance from year to year. Our students and teachers have met that challenge headon and they've performed at the top level again with 100% which was an improvement over last year. Note that our students performance in
algebra 2 has been at 100% for the past three of four years. That's incredible and completely commendable. Algebra 2 areas of strength also included things like calculating expected values of random variables in
multi-step word problems, writing arithmetic and geometric sequences both recursively and with a specific formula, analysis of a graph to estimate rate of change and explanations of applying rate of change to real world situations.
the area of focus. Now, uh students performed very well on all aspects, but there were types of problems that were a little bit more challenging uh than some of the other items on this assessment, and they can continue to be an area of focus for our students. So, solving
multi-step contextual word problems limited to trig functions, more complex applications of the Pythagorean theorem, and graphing logarithmic and trig functions are all areas where we can continue to reinforce and support our
students. Overall, congratulations to our staff and our students who are continuing to hone their modeling and reasoning skills while also employing their multi-step problem solving skills in a variety of situations including real world applications. Kudos to our
students, kudos to our staff, and kudos to to Miss Lemmer for all of their hard work in mathematics in science. Based on the NJSLA science 11 assessments, we've seen a site slight
increase from 24 to 25 in the proficient and advanced proficient categories. Our students outperformed the state in each domain and practice category. In 2025, the domain showing the most growth was
life science, which was also highlighted as our strongest domain C category. The most growth in practice from 24 to 25 was investigating which was also identified as our strongest strongest
scientific practice. Looking at our data from 2022 through 2025, our strongest practice category is investigating practices. The focal point of an area for growth continues to be on sense making
practices. As we have seen the performance in this practice decrease by three percentage points over the past four years. So what's our focus there? Developing and using models and analyzing and interpreting data and constructing explanations
and defining solutions. The increase in critical thinking, sensemaking, and investigative skills that are taught within our science courses continues to raise the rigor of the content. And again, I am thankful for Mrs. Lamar's consistent facilitation
of the collaborative process that is observed within the science department as they continue to challenge themselves, one another, and the students in their scientific thinking and reasoning. I continue to be proud of all of them. Now I'll transition to mix
manziano to share information about how they are using the data analysis that I provided to guide their next steps and their interventions in English language arts. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Um so I think I
get the fun part of talking about the well what's next after we've talked about some of the great data analysis so far. Um, so next steps for grades 6 through 9 ELA are we'll be looking to have data meetings with teachers around the NJSLA, the linkit benchmark and our
writing benchmarks. In September, we already reviewed the NJSLA data. Teachers were able to give some feedback, look at where we did well, and look at some places where maybe we need to think about growing and revising our practices. We do review some sample test questions.
Um, I think this is important not to think about creating a boot camp for teachers or a boot camp for students, but sometimes it's important to see how the questions are worded. Um, are they two parts? Is it one part? Is it a drag and drop? Is it multiple choice? And
then to think about, are there ways that we can practically mimic this within our own study guides, within our own classrooms, within some of our literary prompts that we give to our students. When we're thinking about our classroom instruction, um we're going to focus in
on central theme, character analysis, and author's purpose in literature. Um and we're really going to use critical thinking and discourse in class to really hone in on these literary analysis skills. Um ongoing professional development during our inservice days is
a great way to target teachers and improve instruction. We really look for a lot of teacher feedback in our professional development programs. um and thinking about curriculum imple implementation and support through vertical articulation. These two really
go handinand in in my mind um to keep pushing the fidelity of our curriculum and also refining our instruction. I think our teachers are really ready and willing to have a reflective practice which is so wonderful. looking at what
they did last year, thinking about what went well, and thinking about ways to improve and push our students further. We also added new literature to the sixth grade and 10th grade curriculum, which is great, um, to bring in fresh and diverse voices to further push our
literature goals for next year. Um, so we do have some exciting things happening this year that I'm really looking forward to, especially with those new units. Um, I'm going to hand it over to the other half of the brain, Miss Limrich. My better half. Thank you, Lou.
All right. Okay. All right. So, in secondary math and also in science, our next steps and interventions were kind of combined because we're doing a lot of the same work across the grade levels together collaboratively. uh we con continue to
conduct a data analysis following our benchmark administration specifically in math we give benchmarks three times a year um so we look at that data we analyze it the teachers have a plethora of data um and we have those conversations around what are the areas of strength what are the areas we're
working on how are we going to target that what are we moving around in our curriculum to make to make this all make sense and and have coherence there um we had really great conversations at the end of last year vertical ical articulation across the grade levels um which led to some some of our updates
for this year which we're really excited about. So we're hoping to see some of those uh impact our benchmarks across the year. Uh we are also the second piece up there is uh we already did this in depth but looked and analyzed all of this data ourselves
including evidence statements and in science in in the different categories that they report out on. Uh what are our areas of strength? What are the areas of growth? how do we want to um you know tackle those areas and address them and so some of that uh led us to more
further integration of practice test items just for exposure to the types of problems. So in science having students see the STEM and the different questions that are associated and having the practice on the platforms and understanding and exposure to the types of questions. And so multi- select and
drag and drops all of those various kinds of of practice items that are important for exposure purposes. Uh we continue like I had just mentioned through vertical articulation and also articulation within our uh courses making decisions around curricular
refinement. So we're in our second year of curriculum implementation in both math and science and 6th through 12th grade. Uh so having those conversations with teams of teachers and then across grades and across courses as well so that we're making sure that if there's gaps that we're addressing them, that things are coherent and building upon
one another. Um and and hope hoping that that continues to help in our scores. Uh this year at Edgar uh middle school, we're doing our science program evaluation committee. We started that last spring and we're continuing that this fall. Um looking at different materials to help enhance our curriculum
and instruction. Um, and that's being led with the great work of our science curriculum leadership committee, uh, which is representative of teachers of each grade, myself, Dr. Herszog, um, uh, Miss Oavdo, Miss Lewis, all meeting together throughout, uh, the spring and
in this into this fall. Um, so that's been an instrumental part of our work at the middle school science level. Also um at both of our buildings in in mathematics and and at Edgar and science we are uh conducting book studies this year. So building thinking classrooms
which most of our math teachers are participating in as a selection for their professional development plans. Um, and even if they're not, we're having the discussion across our entire department. Um, and not only in math, but in science and in 21st century areas because I think there's a lot that can
be learned from some of the practices uh that are in there. We just conducted our first book study meetings and had some really amazing conversations. And at Edgar, we're uh in science because we're doing our science program evaluation. We're also reading engaging students in science investigations using GRC which
is a fantastic book as I know you know Miss Colleen um ongoing professional development in both math and science. So continuing uh for teachers to identify areas that they are looking to grow in um up here at the high school they're doing some um peer observation. So
there's just a lot of opportunity for growth and continued professional development. Um and we continue to encourage that uh in the buildings with the principles and supervisors together um as a collaborative effort there. And then um through observation, through
articulation, through department meetings, just continuing to focus on interdisciplinary opportunities where they are fit uh where they fit uh peer observations, discourse, critical thinking, all of the really important things that really enhance our student engagement and understanding. Um and so
these have been some of the priority areas that we've really been focusing on um this year but ongoing even from last year as well. Okay, thank you everybody. We also have a small group of students who take an alternate assessment um in grades 3
through 8 and 11 in ELA, math, and science. That's called the dynamic learning maps. We don't have a large enough group of students to report their scores, but we will report that eight students participated in this assessment.
And I'll take a moment to kind of look ahead and preview what's coming next in the new in the current year and some new challenges in terms of standardized assessments. The state has moved to a new platform for testing. So we'll no
longer be testing using Pearson and we will be testing using Cambian for ELA and math. The state has introduced a new new adaptive features in our testing which adjusts the difficulties of items a little bit within the grade level.
There is a learning curve in this for all of us, for the teachers administrating the assessment and preparing students to take it. For the students in in learning the new types of questions on this platform and for our teachers and our administrative teams in
um learning their their reporting tools and the and the analysis features to to dive into our results once we have them. So, this is going to launch with a field test right after break for um third fourth grade um all of Edgar and most of
our high school students with 3 days of field test um of a field test experience. The results will not be told to us. They will not count for anything but it is a required um experience that we um intake that we engage in. So that
is coming up in November just to learn more about the testing experience and then we will do it for real in the spring with um with this new platform and um that may affect our results next year at this time when we're standing up
here with new interpretation tools, new reporting tools and a little bit of a learning curve but we'll we'll see how that goes at that time. Um and I just want to thank the team here for coming and presenting and representing the hard
work and the celebrations of the students and the teachers teaching them and our leader our team of leaders leading them at the building level at the department level and um you're all doing amazing work gave us a lot to be proud of and to celebrate this evening.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Herszog. Thank you so much. Um, I think you probably shouldn't go too far. I suspect there might be a question or two from our colleagues up here as they return to their seats. >> Mr. Sus,
>> sure. Thank you for the presentation. Um, I think Mr. Powski used the word commendable. I think this was better than commendable. You guys set such a high standard which led me to see a couple things I just have to ask a couple question. So I'm not picking on
you. This was absolutely great, but there were just a couple things I just had a a question about. So I think it was um ELA proficiency third grade only 58% of the kids were proficient which is
42% is not proficient. And if you look at the rest of again the high bar you guys set 76 86 85 do we have any thoughts on third grade? >> Well it is the first I'll I'll give a chance for um Dr. C or Miss Omark if
they want to chime in but it is the first testing experience they take using this standardized assessment. Um so that is one thing and we see how they keep getting better at it as they they move up the grade. So that is one thing. Um, is there anything either one of you want
to chime in on? >> Thank you. Great question. I think, you know, just to reiterate what Dr. Herszog is saying, the first testing experience that the children have. Um, the the the significance of the jump from third grade to fourth grade is something that we pay attention to to make sure that the trajectory is going up. with that
first testing experience um is uh you know definitely something that we attribute um that um uh that to and the fact that it's been uh pretty much that for 5 years um now. So there's some stability u with that again gives kind of indication that there's some
developmental stuff that definitely is um you know is occurring um and the trajectory uh continues to grow up. So those are some of the things that we're looking at >> and if uh Dr. Marcus will uh John Marcus will indulge me. One other question just um again the trends are all great and
you know where there's differences you know statistical noise uh but grade eight science there seems to be a huge falloff there just again any thoughts on that one >> miss Leick do you want to speak to grade
eight science a little we did look at that >> this is all your fault you set such a high bar and it it's again amazing work but It's okay. So, one of the things I was going
to mention about um with science, so I don't think it's on this graph, but if you um one of the things I'm going to end up clicking around quite a bit. If you look at the past data, we track with where the state so when you see a test given, right? Test
is going to change every year. new items are are tried, new items are approved that go out there. Um, and our graph on one of these slides, I know it's there, um, shows like when the state dropped, we also dropped and then when the state goes up, we tend to go up. So, we're
following the trajectory. Um, I also share that I'm also really interested in like growth over time. So, I keep all of this data on my little spreadsheet here. Um, and if I just pull up here, science category performance. So, if you look
last year, we grew quite a bit and and there's always going to be fluctuations, right? So, we grow a bit and and at what point are we able to like grow and grow and grow and grow and grow, right? That becomes really challenging. So, there's going to be es and flows with data. Um
and then when I look at the overall growth over time in every single one of the categories they report out on on um three content categories and three domain c practice categories and on each of those from 2022 to 2025 when I
arrived here um the growth over time is all positive. So in in 3% 9% 11% 1% 6% and 6%. So there is not like a negative there there was no negative growth there. So, I think every year the test is a little different. It's going to
change. It's going to eb and flow. We do stay in line with we stay above the state and we stay in line with what the state is um is showing. So, that's kind of a little bit about about that test. Um and then same with like the overall
performance on it as well, right? We increase and then you're going to maybe see a decrease. It's it those kinds of things do happen. What I will say is in middle school, specifically in 8th grade, that's a a big part of our conversation right now as a school leadership committee, looking at new
curricular um resources that we can use as a primary instructional resource to kind of meet um our our needs right now as a as a district um community in middle school. So, we're looking at several different primary resources.
we're looking at we we developed as a committee what are the shared criteria that we're going to look at resources against. So we developed a whole shared criteria as a team together um and now we're in the process of evaluating those and and working towards selecting something that's going to make for
robust instruction in middle school specifically. We're also examining whether we're going to be um continue in our in our domain specific or a more integrated approach. So those are part of our conversations. Um and we're looking at data from other districts too so that we can make some informed
decisions around our instructional programming in middle school. Always a continued area to look at. Always my teachers are very um they were diving in and really having good robust conversations when they were analyzing their data. So it was last year was like really celebratory year and then it was
like oh we saw some decline but overall we did see positive growth in all of the domains. So that's a really good thing to celebrate. >> Dr. Herszog if you could go back to that graph that just showed the state data one more time. And I just wanted to follow up. Thank you, Miss Lem for that. Um, Mr. Sus, and this is something that we've talked to our county superintendent as a superintendent round
table. There's no way in my mind to think that 80% of our kids don't know enough science. Um, the science test is scaled and graded so differently from ELA and math. And it's something that has baffled me for years now. Um, certainly that says there's room for growth, but when you do you think there
there's 19% of our eighth graders statewide who are passing the test, there's something about the test. Uh so we've talked about that a lot and we've talked about that in curriculum committee uh as well. Fair question, but just when we look closer as Miss Lmer said, you know, I do continue, we should
be better than the state average, but I do look we're just as high above the state average really almost as high as we are for example in 11th grade, but the 11th grade result looks a lot better than the eighth grade result. So there's something going on. Um but we'll continue to do all the things that Miss Lmer said.
>> Thank you. And thank you. >> You're welcome. Miss Kh I want to thank I want to thank you guys for the hard work you're doing. Um I want to thank Dr. Caputo for mentioning the difference in the test in science.
Um I think it's something that we all um need to advocate for is more actionable data coming back from the state. I think one of the things that uh Miss Miss Lick Humbly did not share is that in math and in ELA we get really specific data back about how students are performing on
certain standards and in science we don't get that and so she can be working with the teachers but um she doesn't have the same kind of targets as she does in math and that's an incredibly hard lift. Um so I think the work that you're doing is important and I hope you keep going with it.
>> Thank you. I and I appreciate that we were actually just chatting about that before the meeting because it is it is a continuing area of like well we need more usable data to really be able to drive um actionable change especially if that's what we're being measured
against. So thank you for that. >> No problem. I and I and I just want to um thank uh thank you guys for mentioning that you're going to be it's not necessarily for uh math maybe a little bit more implication for science and definitely for ELA um in increasing
the writing emphasis um particularly at the lower grades. I think that the more they write, the better they are across the board. And um I'm I'm sure you're seeing it in your data when you're going into those deep data dives. And we're just getting the 20,000 ft view on it. But um I I really appreciate hearing
that that is going to be some way it's going to help with constructing explanations in science. It's going to help in um comprehension for word problems in math and it's going to help in their writing and reading comprehension in lower grades for ELA. So please continue that work. We'd love to hear more about what's coming in that
direction. Um, and I just have a quick question. This is ELA for Miss Omar, if you don't mind. Um, one thing about the third grade, are we do we what benchmarking tool do we use in third grade?
So, for third grade is a little bit new this year. We're continuing to use the I Ready Diagnostic um, which is a wide scope that gives teachers lots of information. Um, and starting this year, we're also implementing um, uh, the universal
screener using the I Ready literacy task. So, for third grade specifically, it's a reading fluency task, and we'll report home on both of those, a diagnostic and the reading fluency literacy task. >> Okay. Follow-up question. >> Yes.
>> Is are the benchmark results from our literacy in third grade consistent with our state performance in literacy and third grade? Um, that is a really good question. Um, >> you don't have to say it right now. Totally catching you off guard. That would be something interesting for me
for maybe our curriculum committee to hear about or something along those lines. Um, maybe it's maybe it is test anxiety or, you know, first time testing, right? Maybe there's a different story. Maybe we're seeing it in the class. I don't know. I just
thought maybe if we knew a little bit more about how they're doing on the benchmarks and if there was any discrepancies there that would be helpful. >> I'm happy to look at that and report back. Um for both the I already diagnostic which I could do immediately and then the literacy task they were continuing to build um school level and
district level reports for us um because it was new this year um so I'll be that coming out in November. So >> I look forward to analyzing that. >> I think you guys are doing great work right there's growth all over the place. it doesn't make it easy. Um, so
interesting information coming back and thank you for everything. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Colleen. Anyone else? Mr. Glber. >> Yeah, just a general general statement. Um, I don't get particularly hung up on the little differences from year to year because there's so many different
factors in involved in that. Um, but the trends obviously look positive. And what I really appreciate most, which I've probably said before, is that there's a conscientious effort to use the data to influence how we're teaching and what
goes on in the classroom so that we could uh help kids as best as possible. So regardless of whether I see those numbers, you know, slightly tick up, slightly tick down, but um we're trying to make good use of that data and that's what I appreciate. Thank you.
>> We appreciate that, Mr. Bas. Okay, I'll echo that because I think one of the things that I always find interesting is I want to know what next, right? I'm always curious because I y'all have set such a high standard. So, we expect excellence from y'all, not just commendable, Mr. Prowki,
excellence. Uh, so it's always interesting to hear what your plans are to use this data in ways that impact all of our learners. So, I'm always interested to hear that. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. This is an incredible team working very hard behind the scenes. So,
>> it shows. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, folks. Uh, now we turn switch presentations, I believe, to Dr. Kaputo. Thank you all uh for sharing your insights with us. >> Actually, stand up for this one.
>> Sorry. Sorry. I'm following you. I'm not presenting. So, our last presentation tonight is our district anti-bullying bill of rights summary report. This is for the 2425 school year. Thank you to Alana Curtain. Thank you especially to Miss Ali Evage for putting this together uh collecting
all this data into a digestible uh presentation tonight. Again, this is for the 2425 school year. every district in the state um is required to make this presentation. This will cover periods one and two from last calendar year.
So uh this report uh includes the nature and effect and the mode of the HIVs and any disciplinary and other actions taken. Again, these are all sections from the report that we file. So this is not our language. Uh and these definitions are how the state collects
this information. So section A is section A is report we have to uh submit. It's the counts how many HIV instances uh from period 1 and period 2 for the 24 25 school year. So there were 29 uh HIVs districtwide. 17 found as HIV
12 found as not HIV. Remember those um those are investigated within two days reported to me within 10 days and reported by me to the board um at our next board meeting. And the following board meeting after that, the board votes to affirm, reject, or modify the
um the outcome. Uh in all cases, 29, all 29, we met the requirement to do a 10-day investigation. And in all 29, the board of ed rendered a decision uh in those cases. Um and that's critical. As superintendent, my job is to make sure that the that the principles uh uh take
with the right seriousness each um incident or report that the HIB usually the vice principal investigates that in a timely manner that I get the report in a timely matter manner and I report that to the board of education in a timely manner. So that's an important uh slide.
Our summary report looks like this and again these are the categories from section B in the state report. uh and these are how the the nature of the HIV instances I won't read all of them but you can see sometimes there this may not add up to 29 it could add up to more um
if there's more than one um multiple instances for one incident or if there's no evidence of HIV so we know this we record it and we report it out to you and we look for trends in this you know to see where our HIV is coming from.
Section C talks about the effect. So, you know, what effect did an HIV case have on a potential victim? Again, these don't add up necessarily uh 29 because it you could have this in more than one category. Uh again, this helps us design
our programs. It helps us um at the school level respond and a district level to provide trainings for for teachers and students and parents. By the way, if you miss anything tonight, I can always go back and Miss Alvich will either post this tomorrow or maybe post it already on our website.
Section D is the mode, how the HIV incident happened. Um, and these do add up to 29. Most of them in our case, the vast majority are verbal. Student A said something to student B. It was reported to a a a teacher guidance counselor
reported to the administration. administration investigated it, made a recommendation to me, I reviewed it, reported it to the board, and of these 29, as we said, 17 were confirmed as HIV. 12 were determined not to be HIV. Disciplinary actions, again, takes a
wide range from um counseling all the way up to detentions and suspensions. Section F continues with all the other pieces I talked about. Um, other measures include community service reflections, no contact contracts,
reading anformational text to report on it as a learning tool, all kinds of interventions that we take appropriate for the age and the nature of the incident. Sometimes there's more than one of these discipline actions for every case.
Each year also every school is required to do a self assessment and we report this data out to the state. Um and there are 78 points available. This year Moss uh scored 76 out of 78, Campbell 72, Edgar 73 and the high school 73. State
produces an average whole number 79 and we converted to a number 95%. So we're very proud of that score. Um we're not proud that there's any HIVs to investigate because if if these if there's even one HIV, let alone 17, that means we have at least one um victim
that we need to help and deal with. But um we're really proud of the work. We're really proud of the improvement the kids make um reducing recidivism uh with these. And this is the report that gets posted on the website as well as our uh overall um slideshow here today. And
then of course we have recommendations for this current school year. I won't read them all. I'll highlight a couple of them. The second bullet talks about restorative justice practices and that's really important um when working with kids. What we're really good at is not law enforcement. What we're really good at is at second chances and
rehabilitation and education. So, we really emphasize that. Um our morning meeting calendars and resources at Campbell have been a real help um at the um middle school um and high school demonstrations of uh body acceptance. Uh we continue to work on that. Celebrating
um various heritage days and months. Uh advisory lessons at the middle school have been a big help. Of course, we have our newsletters and our uh trainings for parents are important. Um and I was asked a question um before tonight. So I appreciate the board member asking me that so I could prepare an answer. Um
the question was how if parents want more information uh about this, where can they find information? I thought it was a great question. So uh we have all our information on the website. We have an HIV button uh on the district website as well as all our school sites and under that button we have a
anti-bullying bullying bill of rights parent tutorial. We have our HIV policy which is district policy 5512. We have these HIV uh ABR grade reports that you see tonight for past years. We have a reporting form for families and
school personnel who may witness bullying. We have an anonymous HIV reporting form for someone doesn't want to put their name on it. Um, we have an information reporting um, link for parents. We have the ABR state guidance for parents. We have a resource that comes from a government site,
stopbullying.gov uh.gov. And that's a great resource for students. Uh, and you can find that all on matouchinschools.org and on the individual school sites, high school, middle school, Campbell, and Moss. So, thank you for your attention tonight and u certainly take any questions on
our ABR report for 2425. Get settled. Mr. Sus. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Caputo, for the for the report. Did I miss it or do you have a breakdown by school? I saw the scores by school, but I didn't see the breakdown of the 29 HIVs by school. We
don't report that to the state. I mean, we have that data. Uh we don't that's not reported to the state. It's a district report. Okay. When I do those period one and period two reports, that's where it is. >> You see those? Uh this is just the data that goes in this yearly report. >> Got it. >> Any other questions, colleagues? Are we
good? All right. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Kapun. >> Thank you, everybody. >> Alrighty. At this time, we turn to reports. I do not have one at this time, but we I'm assuming since you've just said some
things, you're good. All right. So, we now turn to the committee report starting as usual with construction. Mr. Glassber, >> uh, relatively short tonight. We we have not met since the last uh meeting. We do have a meeting scheduled for November
17th, but that might be changed due to uh negotiations which are happening at the same time. >> Um progress is continuing at all at all the schools. Some really good progress. Windows have gone in at the high school uh gym or most of the windows have gone
in at least. Um so we're cruising along there uh at the at Moss. We're also moving along. So, our target dates have not really changed into the late December, mid January range at the two different uh places. At uh Campbell
School, we have completed the referendum portion of the construction, but you might notice one change there. Uh it was not part of the referendum, but it was brought up after the fact and the board approved to work on leveling out the back field of
Campbell Field there, which had had some drainage issues. So, it's been uh it's been, I believe, fully leveled. It looks cleared out. Uh they're planting seed for grass to grow there, so it'll be ready for use in the springtime with uh
new new grass as well as better drainage taking place there. So, uh that's great. I see some people were happy about that. It's also nice to go by the playgrounds and see them packed full of people. A lot of people at Campbell and then uh
also now at Moss. Um so that's wonderful. So everything is continuing on track. Um we do continue to have um you know work with our construction management and with our contractors on staying on on track on time and on
budget with everything. So those conflicts and uh discussions, you know, continue as it does in any construction situation. Um but we remain on target for the dates that we've most recently discussed. So uh we will let you know when our next meeting is and the next
open to the public meeting is scheduled for December 15th. If that has to change, then we will notify the public of that as well. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Classber. Always good when you can say the end time is still the same. That's always good. All right, I'm going in
chronological order. Mr. S, remind me. Were you able to give us a report last time? Because I know you met right before. >> I did not. >> You did not then. >> I did not give a report, but I can give the report. Would you like to know? I will. >> Wonderful. >> So, we had a board of ed meeting on the 20th and we actually met just before the board of ed meeting and I was uh
>> the 14th. >> No, the That's right. >> Yes. There you go. >> I'm still illprepared to give this No. Um, >> no judgment. All good. >> No judgment. All good. But, uh, yes. So,
we met just before the, uh, the board meeting. Uh, just a couple things. We talked about energy programs. Um, and one of the things you'll see on the agenda tonight is a resolution authorizing the use of a competitive contracting for the solicitation of proposals for a solar power purchase
agreement. Not for, you know, actually doing the solar power agreement, but just authorizing the board to actually uh, you know, do that. So, we talked about that. We talked about transportation for uh next year. Um, we
talked about a busing issue that was brought up to the um to the board. Uh, we talked about transportation for next year. Um, the board uh the the committee was in favor of uh off authorizing busing for the three
schools, but obviously there's a lot more to to come on that. And that was pretty much it. >> All right. >> We had to fit it in quickly. >> I knew you could do it. >> Next up chronologically is Miss Khen uh with extracurricular. >> Yeah, extracurricular met on the 20th.
Um and we had a relatively short meeting. Uh two two items on our agenda. Um I'm not going to go into detail on the uh we had a presentation by the sustainability uh committee, the collaborative sustain sustainability committee. Um, but you heard most of
that tonight with Miss Lmerch's presentation, so um, no need to rehash, but they went over some of the great work that they're doing. Um, and so we were so thankful to have the time to hear that from them. Um, and then we talked about, um, Matuchin uh, High School volunteers to help with the cheer
team. Talked about some liability things that we wanted to look into, but overall we're supportive of the idea and that was the whole meeting. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Miss Colleen. Next up, we have curriculum, Mr. Derlinger. >> Thank you. curriculum met yesterday. Uh we first uh met with the social
emotional character development committee, the district one um represented by Campbell School assistant principal uh Brooke Kersner and um third grade teacher Lisa Levin. So we got some nice updates about some of the work. Um
really the themes this year include recruitment and refinement. Um so they're doing a lot of really strategic work around those two themes. We had a great conversation around proposals um regarding school start and
end times which is an ongoing discussion and um off the meeting just because we did run out of time yesterday. Um we learned the information from the NJSLA slides that
you saw today and we also learned about two international trip proposals. One for spring break of 27 to Spain and one for summer of 2027 to Austria. Whoop whoop where the Derflingers are from. Just saying. Germany and Switzerland
trip. So that concluded our meeting. >> Wonderful. I did appreciate the whoop whoop. >> Dr. Spar policy please. >> Yes. Policy also met yesterday the 27th. We had two items as well on our agenda.
One was very uh well they both were very um energizing and uh the first was with the the district uh professional development committee co-chairs and they walked us through which was so um really nice to see. walked us through what
their approach was, their methods that they used for collecting data, which all goes into um figuring out professional development for the next year. kind of looking back at what professional development um
happened, you know, the prior year and sort of building from that. But taking a very datadriven approach with gathering feedback from other uh from teachers as they um complete the the current year professional training and and sort of uh
development and sort of planning for the next year and the really rigorous process. So we were very impressed by that. So, it was really nice to have a visit from the co-chairs. Um, and our second item was on uh an item that was mentioned before in terms of
transportation. So, we will present a policy hopefully at the at board meeting on November 18th on that once we continue our deliberation about um what's needed for the 2627 school year. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Um and uh
Mr. Bot did have to leave so I will be giving his report. I cannot attempt to give it in his uh in his form. So I'll do my best. Uh so the equity committee met last night. Um two main things that
were discussed the calendar and observance policy. So making certain that folks within our district are aware of the observances that are possible across our diverse community. um that there has been an observance reference
document created that is intended to be a living breathing document that will be managed um and we look forward to presenting and sharing this with the district equity committee uh as a part of our ongoing collaboration uh for discussion review and to collaborate on
the best way to socialize this across our community. Um and also we talked about food equity uh this is an issue that is near and dear to Mr. Bots's heart. Um, and indeed in partnership as you heard earlier with the sustainability efforts in the district,
the share my meal, sharing tables, food pantry presentations that will be what that were made today. And then again making certain that folks know that there are now Fridays available for the share my meals opportunities. Uh, so making sure that we continue to grow
this program as it has started out small but is it's trucking along wonderfully. Um, and that's it for the equity committee report. All right. At this time, we turn to Miss Michaels Lamort.
>> Hello. Hi. So, for Campbell, on October 31st is the Halloween parade. Um, photo makeups are on November 11th and the PTO book swap is on November 18th. For the high school, SATs are on November 8th
and the Crucible performance is going to be on the 14th and the 15th. >> And then all schools will be closed from November 3rd to November 7th. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. That was very helpful. You don't happen to know when the Edgar photo makeup day is, do you? >> Oh, do we need one?
>> I There was a pop collar uh situation. I don't know if it was intentional or not. I don't know. Who knows what the kids fashions are these days. All right. Anywh who uh so at this time we uh is there any old business from the board?
Nope. Any new business? All right. Fantastic. At this time, I'd like to move to approve the October 14th minutes of the Matuchan Board of Education special business meetings 1 and two and the board meeting. Is there a second? Mr. Derlinger,
any questions or comments on those minutes? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mrs. Alvich, >> should I take Mr. Bot off of the Obviously, I should take him off of >> Yes. of voting. >> Thank you. >> All right. Sorry. No worries. >> Mr. Derlinger, >> I abstain.
>> Thank you. Mr. Glber, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Miss Colleen, >> yes. >> Dr. Sper, >> yes. >> Mr. Sus, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Wonderful. Thank you. At this time, the meeting is open to the public on any
topic. Seeing no new public, um, we move to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Oftentimes, it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote. Before a matter is
placed on the agenda at a public meeting, the administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools. If the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the board of education, it is then referred to the appropriate board committee. The members of the board committee work with the administration and the
superintendent to asssure that the members fully understand the matter. When the committee is satisfied with the matter is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken. Only then is it placed on the agenda for action at a public meeting.
At this time I'd like to move the personnel items A1 through A5. Is there a second? Ms. Galen. Any questions or comments on the personnel items?
Seeing none, roll call, please. >> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glassber, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Miss Colleen, >> yes. >> Dr. Sper, >> yes. >> Mr. Sass, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Mr. Sus, finance items.
>> Yes. I'd like to move items uh B1 through B9 is listed on the agenda. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Dr. Sper, >> any questions or comments? >> Okay, seeing none, roll call, please. Mrs. Aliage,
>> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glber, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Miss Colleen, >> yes. >> Dr. Sper, >> yes. >> Mr. Sus, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Spner. Policy.
I'd like to move items C1 through C3 as listed on the agenda, please. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Mr. Sus, any questions or comments? Roll call, please. Mrs. Ellavich, >> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glber,
>> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Miss Colleen, >> yes. >> Miss Dr. Dr. Spner, >> yes. >> Mr. Sus, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Well, sorry, I'm jumping on you. That's right. We're on a roll here. Thank you
so much. Uh, Mr. Derflinger. >> Thank you. I'd like to move the one curriculum item D1 as listed on the agenda, please. >> Thank you very much. Is there a second? Ms. Galene. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mrs.
Elliavich? >> Sure thing. Mr. Derlinger? >> Yes. >> Mr. Glasper? >> Yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus? >> Yes. >> Miss Colleen? >> Yes. >> Dr. Spigner? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sus? Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Fantastic. Thank you so much. We are open to the public again for comment on
any topic, but I am seeing no one new sprinting into the room. So, I shall close this section of the meeting. We are at the announcement section, but Mrs. Cheetum is not here. Mr. Bot's not here. Uh, Miss Michaels Lamort did a
great job. I feel like we could just remind everybody that school is closed next week. Election day is Tuesday. you should probably educate yourself appropriately and go out there and exercise your franchise. >> Period. >> All right. At this time, I move to
adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? Mr. Derlinger. All in favor? Good night, everyone.