Welcome to the November 18th uh board of education meeting of the Montgomery Township public schools. Uh may I please have a motion? >> Can you not have to get that close? Um a motion to reconvene in executive session, please.
>> Open session. >> Open uh yes, in public session. >> Second. Second. All in favor say I. >> Any extensions? >> Okay. Motion carries. Thank you.
Um please rise to the flag of America standy for all. Before we get into our regular agenda, I would like to ask board member Oriela
Jernigan to please give an update on our uh MTA negotiation. So, good evening. Uh the board of education is pleased to announce that a tentative agreement has been reached with Montgomery Township Educational Association
for successor three-year contract. Both parties are now working collaboratively to finalize the terms of the agreement. We affirm the commitment, professionalism, and good faith efforts demonstrated throughout this process and look forward to sharing additional
details once the contracts are fully executed. In order to uh highlight that process, I would like the board president um I'm sorry, the board attorney to provide us the standard process. >> Okay.
Can you hear me? >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um so yes um the the parties have uh reached a tenative agreement. They signed a memorandum of agreement setting forth all the essential terms. We have the u salary guides that have been developed. the um
the next step in the process um is that once we finalize all of the contract revisions, I know that we've uh drafted those contract revisions um you know red line changes highlighted um once the parties are fully in agreement with that
um then the association will ratify that the board will vote on it. Once the board votes on it then um then that'll be done. My understanding is I think once we get that done, I think the board is committed to doing even a special meeting to make sure that we get that done as expeditiously as possible. So all we need to hear back from is just to
get confirmation that um all of the contract language is fine and then we'll move forward and and hopefully uh resolve that once and for all. >> Thank you. >> Um now we will have our MTSD student representative report.
>> Thank you. Hi everyone, I'm Arhan. Uh before I want to start this report, I just want to reflect on National Native American Heritage Month where it takes place all of November and students and staff have been recognizing the rich histories, cultures, and contributions
of Native American and Alaskan Native peoples through learning and reflection. Now, the start of the month saw several events including daylight saving time ending. We got the extra hour ending on November 2nd. Clock shifted back one hour as we transitioned into the winter
season. The NJGPA field test took place on November 3rd and November 5th. High school juniors completed this field test with delayed openings um schedules and on the 67th of November took place the teachers convention and schools were
closed for students while staff attended statewide professional development sessions. On November 10th was the Powderpuff game that took place at the Cougar Stadium at the Cougar Stadium with high student turnout and school spirit. Veterans Day was on November
11th and the school community acknowledged and honored the service and sacrifices of US veterans. On November 11th was a financial aid presentation, a virtual session that was held to guide students and families through FAFSA, scholarships, and
financial planning for college. On November 12th was the MHS PTSA meeting. And personally, my least favorite part, NJSLA field testing. On November 13th and 14th, students participated in spring assessment field testing, and
students that didn't have to offend this testing had delayed opening schedules. The following activities and events are scheduled for the rest of the month. The MHS PTSA um is hosting a brunch to celebrate and thank MHS staff.
And the fall play Peter and the Starcatcher is on November 21st and November 22nd. Performances will take place at the Empact highlighting the talents of the MHS theater community and depicting the origin story of Peter Pan. Make sure to get your tickets cuz all my friends are performing. They're really
good. On November 24th to December 1st is winter sports beginning. Teams start their seasons as tryyouts and practices begin, but something to take a note is swimming and diving begins earlier on November 17th. On November 26th is early
dismissal leading into the holiday weekend. And I think a underrated holiday holiday is Thanksgiving in my opinion. And that's on November 27th. It's a day of reflection and gratitude observed across the community. And then home students enjoy a break with no
assigned homework after Thanksgiving. Now the more exciting part is the Cougar football team has made school history by advancing to the NJSIA sectional final for the first time. The game took place on November 14th at Philipsburg High School and student
interest has been strong and the school explored organizing a student fan bus to promote attendance and support. This milestone has significantly boosted school spirit and highlighted the value of community engagement in athletics. Also, students shared that Thanksgiving
is often celebrated with not much discussion of its historical context. Providing accessible information including indigenous perspectives like Wampa Noag history may support a fuller understanding of the holiday. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. And now we have our superintendent report. >> Sorry about that. Good. Good evening everyone. I have a couple of repeats. So, the Montgomery High School football team had an historical season, making it to the
state sectional final for the first time in the program's history, as we were just hoping. While it was not the outcome we were expecting or hoped for, we could not be prouder of all of our athletes, our coaches, and supporters who helped make the journey possible.
All false fall sports have come to an end, and we want to thank you for your continued support of our school community and our student athletes. Seeing so many students, staff, families, and community members in the stands reminds us of what Cooper Pride is all about. We hope to see many of you during the winter season, cheering
loudly and representing MHS with spirit and pride. S had 60 students compete in the American Math Competition. This past month, the student council hosted their first ever fall fun night, complete with
an outdoor spooky movie and incredible food hosted by Machios. On November 14th, the entire school came together for its annual respect rally to kick off the school year and send positive messages about the importance of respect in our schools. This year at
the rally, we had wonderful pleasure of having our first ever dance performance. Dance is a new program at bringing an exciting and enriching learning experience to the school. On Sunday, November 9th, the township um
hosted the Veterans Day ceremony, but LMS played an integral part in that. The sixth graders open the event with a stunning solo rendition of the national anthem, followed by a quartet from the choir who performed patriotic song songs that were both harmon harmonious and
moving. Our fifth graders then shared heartfelt letters expressing what Veterans Day means to them. messages that deeply touched the audience and became the most memorable moment of the ceremony. During Red Ribbon Week, LMS students embraced the opportunity to learn and reflect on the importance of
making healthy, responsible choices. Throughout morning meetings, students participated in engaging lessons and activities that reinforce this year's theme. Thanks to the generous support and donations from the PTO, students also enjoyed fund prizes that added excitement and school spirit to the
week-long learning. At Village during the week of October 20th to 24th, the students celebrated digital citizenship week and learned about building healthy habits around technology use through videos presented on the village afternoon news. Topics
included balancing technology time with other activities, protecting privacy, ways to identify and prevent cyber bullying, managing distractions, spotting fake news, and decoding media messages. We are looking forward to seeing how students put this learning into practice so they can engage with
technology in thoughtful and healthy ways. The village and orchard technology teachers created an online book of activities, videos, and discussions with questions and discussion questions as well as podcasts for families to start conversations about being a
responsible citizen online. Across the district, we are proud of our students in their efforts for participating in the state's field testing for the new NJSLA adaptive test. Students were able to see how the math, reading, and writing they wrote for the spring implementation of NJS of the
NJSLA test. On behalf of the entire school district, I wish you a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving filled with warmth, joy, and cherished moments with your loved ones. I would now like to introduce Miss Fiona Borland to come up and present on our
NJSLA spring results. Okay. Hi, good evening. Um so I'm here today to present on our spring assessments and they are two different assessments that our students took in the spring. Um the first is our dynamic
learning maps. Um and that is a test taken by um a a population of our students that are measured against their own growth. And then we are going to talk about the NJSLA which is our New Jersey student learning assessment that um assesses our students against
proficiency in the state standards in English language arts, math and science. So, this is just our standard slide that those of you who have seen this presentation before that just talks about protecting our student privacy and that when we do public presentations on
student data, um the state identifies that if you have a data point where there are less than 10 students involved, you do not report out on that data because it could be identifying features about the specific student. And so, anytime that we are missing data, it's because our N size was less than
10. So that takes us to our dynamic learning maps. The this is an alternative assessment in language arts, mathematics, and science for students with significant intellectual dis disabilities. And they are not compared to other students.
They're not compared to um the grade level proficiency. They are evaluated on their own progress and their own growth. Students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 participate in ELA and math. Students in grade 5, 8, and 11 also participate in science. Eligibility is determined by the child study team according to the
individual's students needs. The DM was administered in the spring of 2025 and um our N size per grade was less than 10. So I do not have any data to report out on this on the DLS. Um the next administration will also be
in the spring of 2026. So that takes us into our NJSLA, our New Jersey student learning assessment. And we will start with um you know, we we cover English, language arts, and mathematics. Um ELA goes through grades
3 through 9. Um and then the NJGPA takes place after that. So our 10th graders get a little break. In math, we have grades 3 through 8 and then algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. And in science, we test only in grades 5, 8, and 11. And the testing that is being reported on
tonight was given in the spring of 2025 for the um ELA and math. So I'll go a little faster when we get to the math one. There are five performance levels. So you go from not yet not yet meeting grade level expectations through meeting and exceeding. Um most of the data
reported tonight will be a combination of students who either met or exceeded. So when you are looking at proficiency, you are looking at the combination of those two numbers together, the fours and the fives. And these are our screen results.
So this first slide um compares us to the state. So the green is MTSD and the blue is the state the statewide proficiency. Um as always, we far exceed the state um often by about 30% in ELA.
This is our three-year comparison. Um, I always find these slides interesting because it the when we present them this way, which is how the data is given to us and how the state asks us to present them, we look at a comparison um against, you know, the grade the grade six, right? So, we're looking at grade 6
from 23, 24, and 25. But what you have to remember is those are all different students, right? So, they are not the same children and it's a different makeup of the class. So, what you really want to do um is you want to start by looking at grade three and you want to look at that first gray column and you
want to say okay in grade three in the year 2023 our third graders were 54% proficient and then we look at the yellow column in 2024 in grade 4 and we say okay in 2024 they went to 74 and then in 2025 that same cohort of
children is now the green that is in the 78. So, you really want to look at how did the cohort progress as well as comparing however you're doing at each grade level. Um, grade level information helps me as the director of curriculum to look for where there might be a
curricular we weakness where we might meet a different resource. Um, but when we look at the cohort, it's really how our children doing and how are the individual needs of the students in that grade level being met. Catch up on my own notes for a second.
Okay, so this is just another way of looking at the um looking at the multiple grades or multiple years, but the difference here is it's broken down by achievement level. So again, when you want to look at the achievement level, um as I mentioned before, they're going
to marry the fourth and fifth together to give you the change in um four and five versus a change in meeting and exceeding. Um in order to follow a cohort in this chart, you're going to go in a diagonal. And so you're going to go from, you know, fourth grade in 2023 to
fifth grade in 2024 and then follow the cohort into sixth grade. Now, I particularly point out in this map that we want to look at in the fourth level, you might see that, wait, they were 47% proficient in 2024 and then they dropped to 33.1,
but they didn't. Um, if you jump over to column 5, what you actually have is about a 20% increase in the number of students who have now reached exceeding expectations. So you always want to follow the diagonal and then go across the chart to make sure that you are
adding the four and five together. This is our slide that talks to us about our subgroups. Um subgroup data is really important for us to look at. Um particularly in a district that is committed to universal design for learning where we are committed to providing learning environments in which
all students can learn. I do want to point out a couple things to help us look at this slide. When you look at a slide, when you look at a subgroup like male and female, you're going to have a large number of students. Several thousands of students are in that subgroup, right? So, you've got several
thousands of female students, several thousands of male students. And when you have that type of um population, you're not going to see the large variance between one year to the next. But in some of the smaller subgroups, you're you're really looking at under 100 kids.
You could even be looking at under 50 students. And when you're looking at the smaller subgroups, the variant from year to year can be dependent on a different number of students that you have in the cohorts, you know, being different students. So, um, just paying attention to the fact that yes, we follow subgroup
data. We want all of our students to be growing. Um, but in the smaller subgroups, we really have to dig down into the individual learning needs of the students in that class. Um that's where we really have a commitment to our multi-tered system of support. Every
building has an MTSS team and when students are not being successful, one of the the first intervention is to we can go to the MTSS team and work with them about what does what do uh what do what does a stu specific student need in order to be successful. Um so you know
again always data that we're looking at but more difficult data to analyze in a in a whole chart like this. A couple things to be really proud of when we're looking at our ELA data that again we typically outperform the state by over 30%. Um we are looking at
successful growth particularly there was a nice jump from grade 3 to grade four and we really um are looking forward to a continued growth in grade three as we continue our implementation of the new phonics and word work curriculum in in grades 1 through 4. Um, we also really
want to point out that um, the state of New Jersey uses 80% as a threshold with a goal of 20 in 2032 for schools to be fully proficient. I'm not sure how we get to 100% but let's keep trying. Um, but the 80% mark is a really big line and we have our grades 6, 7, 8, and 9
all exceeding 80%. And that is just really something that our faculty should be proud of, something that you as board members should be proud of. It is something to be celebrated. >> Yeah, absolutely. Clap for yourselves. Um, so some things that we do to make sure that our students continue to grow,
we have at all of the schools, we have some improved data protocols. Um, as you know, and you've probably all heard me talk about it before, we implemented a new um, assessment platform in reading and mathematics about four years ago. And we've really gotten to a place where our teachers, our child study teams, our
MTSS, we are comfortable with the data. We feel like we, you know, we see our students in the data. We can trust it. And so we've really got a tighter set of data protocols. We also um have some new data platforms that we do some training some we do training on and professional development with our supervisors, our
teachers and our um again study teams um in order to make sure that we can all look at the data in one place and really get a full picture of a child. Um, I've spoken to ACI and I know that it was read out in the ACI minutes that the state of New Jersey has a new early literacy initiative in which we
collected data on our youngest learners, get grades kindergarten through grade three on very targeted literacy skills. Um, those reports will be coming in the parent portal by the end of this month. And so that data will be used to help us identify students at risk and not meeting grade level targets as early on
as kindergarten, first and second grade. We've also done a um an upgrade and um included additional materials to support our tier 2 students. Those are students who get academic support services in grades 3 through 8 that are targeting
explicit skill instruction. Really working to fill gaps um and not just support the learning that is happening in the classroom, but looking back and saying why isn't a student being successful. The same thing happens in ELA lab supports for students in grades 9 through 12. We also have um a real
we've we've always had a commitment to vertical articulation, but we've had um several new administrative staff join us and they are really working with their peers both up and down to make sure that we are doing articulation with themselves as administrators and setting
up with our teachers. Um in the January professional development day, there are plans for teachers at the transition point. So, your second and third grade teachers, your fourth and fifth and your eighth and nth grade teachers to be meeting together and to be looking at um making sure that they're using common
language when we're teaching our students that, you know, you put a kid in the nth grade class and they say, "Wait, I've never heard that." And it's just another way of saying how to write a thesis statement, but the eighth grade teacher didn't use the same language. So, really making sure that our articulation is tight so students can be um confident in what they learned the
year before. And then um you'll see this on several slides. We are based on some code that was passed by the DOE about a year and a half ago. We are really working hard to make sure that teams of teachers are trained in sheltered English instruction. Um those are
strategies that help students who are multil- language learners um succeed in acquiring academic language in the classroom. But the same um the same strategies that help our multilingual learner help all of our learners. So the increase in the sheltered instruction
training across the sheltered English instruction training across the district will really be a benefit to all. Okay, moving on to math. Same five levels. So from not meeting expectations, partially approaching and then to the combination of meeting and
exceeding. When we look at the comparison between the math data and our state data, we are often almost 50% increased over the stat state state data in some places. Um so our math our students continue to have a
very robust um math experience and demonstrate high levels of success across the district in all of their math content. Once again, this is our um three-year comparison. I talk walk through walking from the gray to the gold to the green,
but I want to point out grade 8. Um, so one might look at 51% and think that that is still there's still room for improvement and there is, but I will tell you that that is one of the highest. I've been stalking all of the other school districts. It is probably one, it might even be the highest in the
county. I can't say that yet. I'll tell you when I can stalk all the other counties presentations. But a 12point jump, so I do the math better. 13-point jump between last year and this year. I'm left squinting on this one. Um, I want to really credit the eighth grade
math teachers who worked diligently to create classrooms that all students could learn in. They were targeted with their formative assessment. This was a purposeful driven achievement to really make sure that our students in eighth grade are getting are set up for the best success they can as they go into algebra 1 as freshmen. Um, obviously
there is still room for growth, but that achievement is something that um, our eighth grade teachers should be incredibly proud of, and I'm personally incredibly proud of the work that they did. Um, same same exact slide that we're provided with that we can map um,
progress over three years at the level of proficiency. So, as I showed you before, when you want to track a cohort, you go down the diagonal and always make sure that you're adding your four and five together to notice that something that looks like a drop might actually be a gain. So we've got more subgroup population
data here. Um again it is I just to repeat what I said that it is very important when we look at the sub subgroup data to actually look at what is the makeup of each cohort. um you know in any year in the when you think about the MLS that's an easy one to get very concrete examples of it depends on
what year you might particularly have you know half of your MLS might be level one where in another year only 20% of your MLS are level one and so really looking at the digging into the data to say who is in that column is how you really make a make a dent in the
subgroups and help all of our students um continue to grow some things that we are incredibly proud of is that we often um exceed the state by nearly 50%. We do have some we have significant improved growth among some of our subgroup populations. We have a
consistent growth trend across our high school math courses with um algebra 2 having a 97% proficiency. Um 12% improvement in grade 8 and improved performance of improved performance across all of our standards aligned middle school courses. So when you
really look at the cohorts from five, six, and seven, um you're going to see you see a continued line of a growth trend. Some things though that we continue to do to make sure that we are helping all of our students and closing that gap. Um again, the improved data protocols,
really making sure that we are monitoring students um who need additional classroom strategies. Um and that's really take that is taking place in grades 1 through 12. um really making sure that students needs and specific skill sets are being targeted when we
provide intervention. Um a little bit of a phil philosophical change. We are making sure that when students are provided with academic support services that we are using a learning acceleration model which closes gaps that are created for prerequisite skills that have not yet been mastered. And
that really moves us away from just supporting what the teacher is teaching that day, but unpacking why the student isn't able to master what the teacher is teaching and looking for the prerequisite skills instead. Um, again, our shelter English instruction is going to continue to support all students. um
our uh Amare Rees, our world language and multilingual supervisor. She has been working with the building principles to train teams of teachers who will receive multi-year professional development and be supported over time so that the so that students that um
have ML needs are placed with teachers that are highly trained. Um and again those those strategies benefit all students. We have math lab and math connections to support our students in grades 9 through 12. And we have math workshop and flex for students in grades seven and eight.
And last are our NJSLA science results. This is a C science uh scores are only reported in a category of 1 through four, not five. So you simply have the um meeting the limited and then we've got approaching and advanced or proficient in advance. Sorry about that.
Um when we take we we take this assessment only in grades 5, 8, and 11. And this is just where I want to say to you that the way that the science standards are written are very different than how your math and your ELA standards. So the fifth grade test is
actually testing your standards from grades 3 through 5. Your eighth grade test is testing your sixth, 7th, and eighth grade standard demand. And then your 11th grade is testing really a wide variety of science content areas in 11th grade. Um going to the next slide.
So, I just, you know, when we look at our student achievement, um, this is, you know, sometimes it feels like, well, wait, this isn't what we think of when we think of our students and it really does have to do with some of the way that the testing is approing and the standards are approached. And I'm going to use middle school again as the
example that's really concrete. Um, we are told that, you know, here are your middle school standards, grades six, seven, and eight. But there is not a mandate that sixth graders must learn life science and that seventh graders must learn physical science and that eighth graders must learn environmental
science. Which one did I leave? Okay. So um what happens is that we as a district we make a choice. We support our students. We write our curriculum and then depending on the year um there are a different collection of questions. And so we're just remembering that our students are actually being tested on three years of content, not just the
content of that standard and or sorry, not just the content of that grade level. And that is why you probably see a pretty big difference when we look at the proficiency level between science and between ELA and math. It's because the students there are being tested against the standards to that specific grade level as opposed to a multiband
year. It doesn't mean that we're not still always looking to improve and we'll talk about that in in another slide. Once again, we have our um subgroup populations to look at and we definitely see some good growth across some of our subgroups and continued um
continued improvement which is what we're always looking for. Oh, I just lost myself. There we go. And um so things to be very very proud of. As always, we do continue to outperform the state. Um, we really were very happy to see an improvement in grade 8 and there had we had last year supported the
purchase of a significant amount of new curricular resources for the middle school and we are beginning to see that pay off. Um, we really we we have seen growth in six student subgroups and we've also been able to add additional science opportunity from our 9th graders.
This year we are going to continue to explore some of the open SIAD units that are created um by the you know uh by both the state of New Jersey and next generation science standards and to look to align our fourth and fifth grade into that sixth, seventh and eighth grade um progression to kind of spiral more of
the skills so that we can continue to see the growth and mastery of the multiple content in the bands. Um we also implemented last year we started with the a pilot of the science benchmarks. So, Linkit is uh our data warehouse as well as can provide us with
benchmark tests along the way. This year, we will be using the link science benchmarks in grades 6, 7, and 8. And that's going to give our teachers the following year a lot of very specific data about what has and has not yet been mastered. Um, we are also looking at the link benchmarks do go down in science to
the younger grades and we will be looking at them to decide if we think that they are appropriate for our village and maybe our village students. um a continued commitment to teacher and leader professional learning. Science is not what science was 25 years ago. It's a lot of application, critical thinking,
problem solving, and so we want to make sure that our teachers have everything that they need in order to meet the standards. And we also are a little in a little bit of a pause and a little bit of a hold because the state of New Jersey says new standards are coming. So we don't want you don't want to do a whole overhaul of everything when we
have an expectation that um we are hearing that they might give us a line like a more linear pathway that we have to follow but we are all just going to wait and see for that to come out of the state and we're all eagerly awaiting. Um going to wrap up tonight we are at
the end um by just talking about a transition that will happen next year. Next year in ELA and math, we will transition from NJSLA to the NJSLA, which means it's an adaptive test. Um, our students are familiar with an adaptive test because that is what the
STAR reading and math test that they already take. It means that based on the answer that a student gives on one question, the test adjusts. Our teachers did not see that in the field test or did we we didn't that wasn't an observable thing but we expect it that is what we're being told will come when
the actual real test goes live. Um this will cover ELA and mathematics from grades 3 through 9. Um it will assess the same skills that are aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards. The science test is not changing for next year. So we will still just have
the NJSLA and science that will continue in its current format. Um the state is telling us that this will give us a more precise measurement of our individual's academic abilities and it also will have have enhanced test security because the questions will be given in a different
sequence to to the students in the same room. And that next administration will happen in April of 2026 through May of 2026. And so that is all of the data that I have to share with you tonight. Um, at at the
expense of potentially sounding redundant for people who've heard this before, um, my one question before I open it up to the rest of the board is if you could just explain why the numbers look the way they do in eighth grade math as compared to algebra one.
I'm going to in just want to think about Yeah. So, you know, our there's across the state, um, we are, like I said, we're kind of I'm thinking of the best way to say these things. So, our many of our students in
our middle school are taking our high school math courses, right? So, we we start in our sixth grade is our first year that we have a split in our students, right? And so some of our students go into math 6 and they take a course that is aligned with the math 6
standards and a little about a about a third of our students a little bit more than a third of our students go into a course that is sixth, seventh and eighth grade standards integrated together. So we take out a third of that population. In the seventh grade we have we have three possible things that some of our
students will start taking algebra 1 as seventh graders. Some of our students will be taking a integrated course of seventh and eighth grade standards together. And some of our students will be taking our math 7. A majority of our math 7 students go on to math 8. Um and
math 8 is our is a the straight um math readiness course that will then lead into high school algebra. And so it really is um a course that teachers really need to be thoughtful about motivation and about meeting individual needs and making sure that lots of
strategies are used to help students unpack very complicated um pre-alggebra algebra readiness and algebra skills in eighth grade math >> and >> feel free to add to that as as we have a math teacher at at this point today.
Just want to just want to reiterate that about 2th3 of our eighth graders are taking algebra 1 and geometry tests. Yes. >> So those numbers those children are in those columns and not necessarily correct their eighth grade.
>> Correct. >> And is does anyone have any questions for Miss? >> Yes. Can I ask questions? Do you mind go back to the slides about the uh ELA um from third grade to um that slides?
>> Uh I don't think I'm there yet. Hold on. >> Yeah, I was looking for the slide number. I couldn't see it. >> I'm going to guess. Am I there? Yep, there I am. Is that Do you want that one or you want the one before it? >> Oh, 12. This one is the two. Yes. Thank you. >> That one?
>> Yes. Thank you. So um I think before I ask my question maybe you can help the uh all of us understand first the why NJSA state test cannot be actually measure yeartoyear growth for the each
student cohort. Oh, no they are. That's just that our the student cohort isn't the individual students are. So students do receive an SGP and it's actually still part of the achieve NJ and teacher evaluation that we report that we get a
report on the student growth percentile. That's not the data that is presented tonight. Tonight is proficiency you have the NJSLA. So >> but we so growth SGP does exist with this test not in this report. Yeah, I understand. Okay, >> thank you actually clarifying that
because why I'm asking this question is I want public understand um for each grade learning standards there actually a snapshot of that each cohort at the end of the school year the summitative information uh so when you um there's a
diagram you show like of third grade fourth when they move up to fourth grade and next year they move to fifth grade you compare that com percentage actually that's not a percentage of growth because it's just not the test is supposed is designed to ask uh the
student growth. It's not like climbing a ladder you know uh because each grade have a different learning standards. So and then at the beginning of this school year I think we talked about uh the investment of the federal funds and many
years we are committed to the UDL. So as the board I think our responsibility is to establish a measurable goal evaluate whether our investment uh yielding the results so we can provide a clear
oversight to all the student success and uh actually at the board retreat uh many board members also mentioned we should have a measurable goal tied directly to our school district one. So right now as you can see the slide in
grade three uh we have uh we say about half or two out of fifth students are not meeting the reading rate standards. So and you can see the trend there is has been true for multiple years right is uh 55% 50 54% 57% and 58% meet that
means the other half did not meet the standards. So in math and we also see um grade seven we have 72 that means one out of three um and going up one out of four not meeting the grade level
expectation and science as you also see the similar pattern one out of half the student do not meet the standards and the Mary I know we talked about how we're working to improve uh these areas for previous board meeting so I The
question maybe for you is uh what specific improvement or what measurable percentage uh we should as a board and the public we should expect to see next year. >> I just can I I don't want to cut Mary off. I'm so sorry. I just want to
clarify one thing about the standards. Can I take a minute? So I just do want to speak a little bit about when you said climbing a ladder and it's not climbing a ladder and it's addressing the proficiency at the end of the year. That's an absolute true statement. It's just a little bit more true in math than
it is in ELA. So the ELA standards are really and that's actually um when we look at the different achievement in the and when we look at the achievement from third grade to fourth grade, one of the the reasons that we start to see that growth is it's very developmentally appropriate. So, if you open up the ELA
standards and you look at readingformational text grade three standard 1, there's going it's going to give you a description of students should be able to retell uh recall details from a passage. When you go to grade four and you look up readingformational text, grade 4
standard 1, it's going to be the same skill that then becomes more complex. And that is correct all the way from kindergarten through grade 12 when it comes to the ELA standards. So the ELA standards are really much more like you can think of the middle of the
Guggenheim where or like a the New England Aquarium where it's a spiral staircase and you are spiraling skill complexity. The math standards are much more like a staircase. And so to your example of when students get to the end of third grade, there is an expectation of mastery of a certain skill set and
then some of those skills will drop off and new skills will be replaced at fourth grade. So the math standards are more effect are written more like a ladder and have that impact where the ELA is is different and that is one of the reasons that you might see a different in the achievement level. Um
sorry I just wanted to clarify that point. Thank you. So the question come back to is um with all our great work we've done what should we see as a measurable goal uh moving forward the percentage for the
>> I mean I'm thinking about the state performance report card so the state itself like you asked about SGP verse per verse um >> asking about the grade three why I'm focusing on the early literacy because really matters right >> yes absolutely >> yeah we know the first from K to three
is we learn to read and after that is a read to learn. So there's different con constru concept we're here. So that's why I'm really curious and I think it's important to us to have a measurable goal say okay by grade three um what we
should expect to see. >> Right. So what I just wanted to share with the community is that one of the public data points that the NJDOE produces for every school district is something called the New Jersey school performance report. And when you look at the detailed performance report for each
school, you will actually see that there is a proficiency which is the data that I've presented to you today. And then there's a second table that talks about target goals being met. And it will show you for each school if we have met the
target. The target goals are growth goals. And so you can some you can get to a situation particularly in some of the areas where we are extremely high. um we we have not encountered this problem but you can have because of your high performance it can be difficult to meet a growth goal but the state of New
Jersey themselves sets what is expected as reasonable growth and if you don't meet that target is it it is indicated on the um school performance report card so there are set standardized goals for each school to meet now to your other
point though I think that there might be a little bit of holding holding off on um a specific number in third grade as we are in the first year of the K3 literacy initiative. So we've just finished our first round of an
incredible amount of literacy data. We will be doing analysis of that data, turnkey professional development, working with our teachers in their professional learning communities. And I think that that data itself is expected to have an impact on what will be grade three next year.
So I would like to see how that liter how that state level literacy initiative um is implemented in our district. >> So it sounds like uh we're very pro promising next year we're going to see some climb, right? >> I never promise anything but I think there are a lot of good things in place.
>> Okay. So um here I six of us um in November I think we attended the NJSBA workshop in November. So I attended session called unlock literacy success and they highlighted the NJ tier system
support dash uh >> yes you know yeah project from NJ doe >> yes >> so they mentioned uh where 26 participating school district see significant growth in reading outcomes um I'm just sharing the information okay
and um because we're a team here and one of the superintendent actually uh from the audience uh shared uh Endolf and they say uh school districts say uh their proficiency rates uh rose from uh
30% to 90% after partnering with NJOE and the NJDE that presenter said all of the training materials used in that project and free and for public available. So um I want >> yes we use many of those resources to do
our dyslexia training and also our teachers have 6 hours of flex PD and many of them choose the NJTSS ER program that is something that we are absolutely familiar with um and that we have gone through ourselves and explored and use as a resource. Um many of our teachers though are trained in um Orton
Gillingham or Wilson um or as part of the training for the the phonics program. Um I am a I am a big fan of the resources that when the state produces things that we can really use and the NJTSS resources are great. Um it is it is not
a one-sizefits-all PD. It is good for some of our teachers and many of our teachers far exceed that information as well and so we need customized PD for them. >> Okay. Good. So it sounds like if other school district can make tonight it's very promising our school district can make it too.
you know, I I I don't know what school district you're speaking of, so I can't compare. I can tell you that the data that I presented tonight is some of the best data in the state of New Jersey. We are profoundly um this is data that that most school districts would be thrilled to have. Um and I am incredibly proud of
the data that we have in our school district. >> So Julie agreed that if we can't not make 90 about 75 benchmark, is this appropriate and reasonable? Because we as a board we need at the board retreat we talk about we need to have a
measurable goal you know the numbers make is a measurable goal and that's something why I'm asking here is um what's the measurable goal here for us to expect >> I don't know if there was a question
there >> okay it's okay we don't have answer to that >> I I I'm sorry I didn't know there was a question is what I Oh yeah. Um the question is um do you agree that 75 benchmark is appropriate and attainable measurable goal for next year for the
early um for grade three? >> I think that we are testing children and that I am always working with our teachers as is our our supervisors to help have the greatest level of proficiency in our early literacy students. Um but we are talking about
the youngest learners doing the first round of state testing and that is also to be considered. So I um absolutely have every hope and expectation and we work towards um improved proficiency um as you see a very large jump from grade
three to grade four. Part of that is developmental and so um yes we hope we we we're on a little growth trend continue to hope to expect to see a continued growth trend. Um but I also know that we are talking about students and so we have to um you know and some
of our students who experience the early years of life there is still pandemic language loss and so when you consider the difference that students in preandemic had in nursery school and in their homes and going to the supermarket
and the experience that natural language language acquisition occurred that has still impacted the kids that are in our Orchard and Village school. So just you know none of that is to be forgotten. It's a it's always a robust picture of what creates literacy.
>> So just a follow-up question uh we talked about target goals that are given reasonable goals and professional development. Those three components exist in the process today. So as a district could we set some expectations
or some goal for ourselves not something that you know we are going to be significantly measured against rather to make sure that whatever professional development we choose whatever you know however we look at the reasonable growth where does Montgomery want to see
themselves right over the next year two three as all of those changes are taking place so I think what all we're asking is for us to about what kind of targets we would want to achieve as a school district. >> So I think just to remember that all of
this is nuance statistics, right? And one of the reasons that the performance report reports those two different levels where there's a proficiency target met and a growth performance is because we are talking about actual children who start with a particular proficiency level and then we the state
measures that actual child, right? like the the state measures Arjun's proficiency and the state measures Bob's proficiency and the state measures Fiona's proficiency and so they are looking for us to have a specific growth target. That's that second piece that's part of the New Jersey school
performance report. You need to be able to look at the individual children that are in second grade and know where their learning targets are before I can just say to you we should set a goal of 75% for third grade. We should set a goal that our
children are proficient readers and we should continue to see growth in the individual scores of our students. But I it's a complex there's obviously know we know this there's many things that go into measuring the literacy of a six seven and 8-year-old and so we don't
want I wouldn't I do not feel comfortable you know just committing to a number. Um yes the state's goal is hopefully that we get to 80%. And so that is what we're always shooting for. But to say that we are going to commit to that for next year, that's not something I feel like I could be
comfortable saying from the podium. >> Yeah. I guess I'm just saying for us as a as a team, right? Whatever you striving for to accomplish, you know, like I have to do end of year accomplishments, same thing, right? Where is it that you would envision it to be? Nobody's going to hold anybody
accountable to it, but it would be nice to see that kind of progress with all the data you just described that you have to see how we can push ourselves, right? Push the the you know, particularly professional development. Tang mentioned the workshop. I think we met a lot of school districts um and a
lot of folks and they're utilizing some of those data components to drive change within their school district. You and I discussed the AP uh courses and how that's being much expended to all different types of learners and it's all due to professional development. One
thing that I found intriguing was that the professional development >> was within right so it wasn't from the outside coming in it was it was the the teacher that was successful teaching another teacher right so >> like how Miss uh Reyes is doing for our
sheltered English instruction and how you did for our um uh what was it called the workshop method this >> and our our yeah we we have In ed camp, lots of our teachers are teaching other teachers and often I mean our supervisors are the number one
professional development provider for their teachers. But yes, internal capacity is an absolute must um in order to build your student success. I just I continue to um I continue to be incredibly proud with the high achieving data of students at
79 78 88 89% proficiency. That is stellar data across the school district. That is to be celebrated and thank you and you for yourselves. You you should be celebrated in that accomplishment. And so we look at our youngest learners.
Yes, we are trying to support them to be able to demonstrate what they know better. But when you see that upward trend, this is not a literacy crisis. We we have students that we are working on in helping them assess themselves better and do better in the assessments, but we
um are completely successful literacy and academic um academic school as a school district. May I just note that when you said that children in the early literacy grades, right, K through three, are learning to read and then once they get beyond that
to the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, uh then they're reading to learn. Um it's very true. That is extremely true. And learning to read is is quite an accomplishment in in those years. and the first time that they see
these tests in third grade. Thank you so much for doing such a great job in preparing them so that they are coming out at 50 and 60 from the get-go and not 20 and 30 like other districts are um through the STAR test and through everything else. Uh I wonder though how
many of us and I challenge you to go and do this if you have not ever done this. go to the DOE website and go take a practice test for a third grade literacy exam. It is amazing what they are asking
these eight-year-olds to be able to do to critically think about uh a comparison between a video of um humpback whales that are immigrating to a different part of the world and then draw that comparison to how um migration
happened across Africa through a little detailed article. And now, please do a compare and contrast essay to describe this. And God bless our eight-year-olds that sit there and are able to do that. And I literally will just say just I challenge anybody to think about that
when you're when you're looking at these scores. And the fact that they do have that trajectory and they are moving to the 70s 80s% by the time we get through high school and are so well prepared and so well sought after from colleges and universities. So thank you very much for
all that you've done. That's something that I I very school district has excellent teachers and re strong resources and teachers carry out very important work and they do it very well. But many of the responsibility for the school district
direction such as decisions about curriculum line with administration and board is part of this educational leadership and administration. So I think after our August discussion on the EI curriculum this board gained a
clear understanding of the high level direction our administrator want to pursue and given the confidence of administrator have expressed in this initiatives I think it's reasonable to expect some meaningful and measurable improvement as you also mentioned about uh early literacy is a foundation for
all the future learning um why I'm talking about the third grade is because students Students are not proficient by third grade they begin to uh even later subject like other science, social sci, social studies, math problems at a little bit disadvantage. So that's uh
why we're talking about the grade three uh this thing and also hearing other school district at the workshop uh they can make a chip of a goal. I think this is promising for parents too, right? And uh I believe some of the board member at the board for many years probably heard
some parents uh share their concerns their kids cannot read at the reading rate level and uh um of course this you know something we want to continue to work on is uh it's an area for improvement that's just what I want to
say and also um I have another question is uh Fiona mentioned about uh uh MTSS and uh other um data points of renaissance star you use to um to identify where the student need the need
improvement and uh um you know use at the data point. So my question is uh what's the fall uh to spring that's basically the baseline to post growth for students they started at uh low
medium and high skill levels for different this subject you mentioned do you have um some input for that what's the growth >> I think that we've spoken about this at ACI before >> right this is data that we've reviewed in ACI
>> no this is the conversation that we've had in ACI. >> You mean for ELA, math and science? Um, >> yes. The request for this data, I think that we've had this conversation in ACI. >> Yeah. Um, what's the growth here is like
do they all grow from the like the different skills levels? Do they grow or they don't grow? What's the growth here? >> So, right, we do monitor our student growth. um we shared out with you um that we we sh we shared out the students
at this the 90th percentile and that the students um that was the the data that was asked for and we shared out that and um I think that there has been lots of conversation about this request in the past. >> Oh, I see. Does this have anything to do
with our affiliate? >> Yes. Uh because here this presentation is gone. I see what you mean by this. Oh, that's the national percentile. Actually, we're asking about uh the baseline and post compared to themsel how much they grow
here because we see some when you break down by the different subgroups we see that some students are struggling and some are very doing very well. Therefore, uh is how much they grow for at different performance spent.
>> Yes. So that is absolutely data that we measure as a school district. Um it is not the data that is part of the spring NJSLA presentation and so that is not data that I'm here to present tonight. >> Okay. So >> but do you have answer to my question? I
know you're not >> Am I monitoring student growth? >> No. >> As a school district, do our do our students grow? >> Yes. >> What's the growth at different performance band? I don't they don't I don't have that
with the NJSLA data and so I cannot present on that for you tonight. >> Okay. Is this something that we can work on potentially to the public? >> I think that that's a conversation that we've had at ACI. >> So at the ACI you said no or yes I forgot.
>> I think I'd have to go back to the minutes to look at that. >> So here I will um let the public know why it is important to understand the gross data. Okay. The state assessment here overseminister once a year at the end of the school year to determine
whether student have met the grade level. >> I'm sorry but this is this is now at this point any >> Oh, okay. You want to question for the presentation? >> For the presentation only. >> Let's hold on. No, no. Thank you. I'll hold my uh talk towards the end of the
uh board meeting. Thank you. >> I have just one question. Uh you said something about math lab uh for students who need extra help. Is that consist of math teachers or students who are achieving high level achievers? Does it
consist of >> that is um I think I might have answered your question too quickly. Math lab is taught by math teachers but I think there was a second part of your question. >> I said like sometimes when kids need extra help, how are we giving them that extra help? because I hear kids go to
private tutoring because you know I hear that a lot in the community. Um so I'm just wondering are we giving extra help for the people who cannot afford private tutoring? >> Absolutely. So um I am going to count on Miss Redell to correct me if there is
something that I don't um present properly in this moment. So the um math lab is a complementaryary class to other math classes that are run. So if students are struggling in proficiency, their math class might be partnered with
a math lab so that there is additional math instruction. So that's one way that we help our students that they don't need to go out and seek private tutors. We make sure that our students that are struggling are provided with the support they need during the school day and within their schedule. In addition to
that, every single teacher is required in our school district to provide afterchool help and they all do and um our supervisors are not. And yet the person that I have witnessed, I won't say the most because I can't um speak to all of the math teachers in the room, but that math office is a hopping hub of
high school students seeking assistance and help um often from Miss Redell herself. So yes, math lab is part of the classes that the students are supported in within their schedule. And then there's additional afterchool support um when students need additional help as well
>> because that's I never paid for private tutoring so my kids took advantage of that before school or after school. So I was just wondering you guys have that. >> Absolutely. And we encourage our students to take advantage of that. That is the one of the best ways that they can get the help they need from their
actual teacher. Just one more comment, not to dwell on this discussion, but I think we can definitely um be happy about the results that we're seeing in the higher grades. I think the point that we're trying to
discuss here is if 57% of our third graders are proficient in reading, how can what can we do? So, it's 75% or 80%, right? And I understand it's difficult and this is a good result to be happy about but I think of it
almost in reverse. What about the rest of the students that are not there right? So the goals the asks the asks that we have here are how can we hold ourselves accountable to make sure that that number is higher year over year and that we continue growing it and and
setting up some goals. So I think that was part of the discussion not to question the work that the team is doing but how can we be doing better in this process. Thank you. And I want to add and just maybe clarify
um I think data is crucial and important but as an educator myself um and I know we're doing this and you can just confirm that as well. It's really important too that we're having you guys are having conversations with the teachers as well and looking at the
day-to-day and you're constantly writing communication making sure that the students um the day-to-day as well that they are proficient and they're not struggling and they're able to um monitor through report cards and assessments how the children are
progressing. Um, as Miss Gina said, you know, these tests are, you know, especially at the younger age, you know, what they're able to maybe um how they're I guess I know it's showing proficiency, but at the same time, I
think it's also another accurate maybe even to me personally, I feel a more accurate picture to see that day-to-day. Correct. >> No, I think that Thank you for Yes. And so I think when we look at the big screeners, whether it's the new screener data that we've just collected or whether it's a STAR test that we've been
using in second through 8th, second through 10th grade for many years, those are like the safety nets, right? So that's like the oh no, let's check this kid is dropping. Let's, you know, catch them up and scoop them up in the net. But what changes the student proficiency is every day today when the teacher is conferencing with the students, reading
in the small group, sitting in the desk, sharing a story with them, checking on their writing. And that's happening every day in Orchard of Village and at lower too, but you know, we're gonna talk about our little kids. So, all right. >> Thank you, Mr. Orland. I really appreciate all of your hard work and
efforts here. There's one more. Okay. >> I just wanted to make a comment about the third grade. I I think we're all saying the same thing, and I'm encouraged by hearing that. Of course, we want our children to move in the upward direction. I think the third grade in particular does need to be looked at across the state. um because
we're talking about third graders taking this test for the very first time and I think understanding that is really really critical. So I just want to make that point that um it needs to be compared across the state and what we're asking third graders to do as a state but of course I think we're all saying the same thing which is wonderful. We
obviously want all of our students to continue to move forward. >> Thanks. >> And evidence-based research design is going to be helpful. Right? this country paid higher ed faculty so much to improve our early literacy and we see very promising and yelling results from
this 26 pilotine school district and that can be our goal right again thank you thank you board for a robust discussion uh is there anything else on the superintendent report comment this evening okay we please move
on to our uh committee representative reports first up mta report. Mr. Rosolei, thank you very much. >> All right, good evening. All right, October is wrapped up and we here in the middle of November. MTA's continue to be
busy. We uh ended up October with our Halloween costume exchange. Really popular. We had so many families come out and giving us costumes, taking some home. It was awesome to see. Uh we partnered that with the trick-or- treat giveaway. So, we gave out a book and some treats to families that came over and popped in. So, really well tendered.
couple hundred books given out which is amazing. And then we participate in trunk or treat. We had a really long line for our little spin the wheel. That was very exciting for a lot of our students. Uh we continue in November. Right now we have the winter clothing drive going. We're going to be donating clothes and giving away sweatshirts, hats, uh heavy jackets. So we're having
that going on right now. We're also helping support some of the local food pantries with our food drive that's happening right now. It's very important. We really keep up on that. So we're able to get a grant to make sure we able to purchase the food ourselves and we've been getting donations from all the buildings. So that is much appreciated. Um we're excited that we
were able to get an MOA and a memorandum of agreement with the board of ed. We appreciate everyone's time and effort to make sure that that happens. The MTA already has taken our next step. We have ratified our piece of the contract. So we're excited for the board to do the same and get this all wrapped up. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. >> Do we have any board member, delegate or representative reports? I can speak for um I am a leazison for the PTA, PTO, PTSA and the PTA meeting um as well as the
PTO although I was unable to attend that one. Um they had the chair from the Montgomery Rocky Hill Municipal Alliance Youth Service Commission and they um discussed and provided information regarding programs, identified problems and objectives within our town. um the
resources had information initiative to wait until 8th and that is a um an initiative program that they're trying to help families understand the benefits to waiting until 8th grade to give their children cell phones um and it discusses
that and that was just very interesting reading. You can also go on the website to find more information. Uh so that was one of the big highlights. Please go to the websites for volunteers um information and event information for the future. Um the what else? I have a
letter from Jim Patel, the president of the PTSA that he asked me to read tonight. Volunteer volunteerism is down overall across the district. It decreases with each passing year and gets worse in the upper grades. From August through the
start of school, 58 families signed up and since school began, we've only gained 11 more memberships. Out of that total, 10 are from the PTSI board, which means only 59 families out of a student body of roughly 1600 are currently
represented through the memberships. Last school year at the end of September, we had 165 members, a near 59% drop year-over-year. Back to school night saw a total of three new member signups. After the
latest PTSA newsletter that went out highlighting the the dire situation, we saw an uptick in membership. We are currently at 113 memberships, still a near 32% decrease from last year at this time. unique to MHS PTSA is that we are
competing against hundreds of clubs, sports booster teams, classic group, excuse me, classic groups, all running fundraisers. So, as to not compete against those clubs, the PTSA relies on only two fundraisers, memberships and
snackshack. Snack Shack sales are down significantly year-over-year, as is membership. The numbers concerning the truth is without strong parent participation, the PTSA cannot continue to fund and organize many of the programs that benefit both students and their
families. Last year, valuable opportunities like the interview clinic for students had to be cut. And this year, the freshman boot camp for parents was also cancelled. These are exactly the types of programs the PTSA is here to provide, but they depend on more
families stepping forward in support. Future cuts will affect social events such as the ice cream social and staff appreciation. Further cuts would would see a decrease in grant funds. These grant funds are relied on by teachers, students, and various clubs. Decreasing
or eliminating them would have a devastating effect on the entire school. Last year's freshman boot camp cost the PTSA approximately 200 to $200 to run. Well over a 100 parents attended the boot camp. There was not a single PTSA
membership sign up during or immediately after the event. The interview clinic takes many people and hundreds upon hundreds of man hour man hours to organize and run. Not to mention the expenses involved. Without enough funds and enough volunteers, two had to be
cancelled. Membership makes a difference whether or not you are able to volunteer your time. By simply joining, you are showing that you value these programs and want them to continue. Imagine the possibilities. If even a fraction of our
1,600 families joined together, we could restore these opportunities and create even more for our students. Thank you. Thank you, Harris. I have an update from Somerset County
School Boards Association. Uh the meeting took place actually um yesterday, Monday, November 17th at Somerset Votech High School in Bridgewater. Um for those of you that have joined me in the past, thank you. It's been a pleasure working with uh
that team. Uh for the rest of the board members or any new board members, it's a great opportunity to join in and participate. uh not only learn about the laws, the changes in ethics, um any of the insights around from New Jersey School
Board Association officers, uh updates from county executive superintendent, all of those um all of that information is being shared during that session, and the bonus is that the Votech High School culinary team prepares dinner for us prior to the meeting. So, that's always
a pleasure. Um over the last few sessions uh there's been some change in leadership. Richard Yanuzi is a president and we've been working on building more of a panel discussions bringing resources together for this for conversation and and sharing and
exchanging information and that's what took place last night. Uh stronger to together effective superintendent board relationship uh was the topic uh that was discussed. So, I strongly encourage uh all of you to attend if you have
time. It's an excellent opportunity to get to know folks. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member William Dragon. Any other uh just a quick update on MEPTA? Um we met on October 28th via
Zoom. Um very fun and happy news that ESPN recognized our unified program. Um the bulk of the meeting uh was led by a skilled uh lawyer in HIV law and uh he talked about how children with special
needs are victimized via the HIV process. Um this was also in reference to the Monty news article um or sorry the Monty news article was discussed and two cases were brought up as uh case studies. um one with the use of the word
of the word are um and the perception of the victim um is the driving force to be found as a violation and the other case that was brought up um was the acoustic acoustic acoustic acoustic case. Um
we ended by um just talking about the annual fundraiser dance that is uh set for March 6th and as much participation as possible is um greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you board member Deli. Are there any other member delegate reports?
Hearing none, we'll move on to our board committee reports. First is assessment curriculum and instruction committee. So board member down there, you're up again. Thank you. Uh so we met on November 18th, uh both virtual and in
person. Uh we finalized the norms for our meetings and these norms will be uh in the notes moving forward. Uh we also talked about the statewide assessment presentation that Miss Borland um so beautifully uh presented this evening.
Um, we previewed the the presentation with the understanding that they uh that the committee really wanted um feedback, candid feedback um from the committee members to suggest comments on clarity and transparency for this evening, wanting to make sure that the public
really understood the data um and left with a good understanding of our um student growth and um and excellence. Um we also talked about the literary uh text recommendation which was uh the book inside out and back again um which
is a novel told in verse or poetry format um that touches upon all seventh grade poetry standards um by the NJSLA. Um it will be a new addition to support the curriculum, not a replacement of any text. We then talked about um the updated
state field tests which you've heard about this evening that the NJSLA adaptive and the NJ GPA adaptive assessments um were administered successfully. Um Mr. Papa also um was diligent in making sure that all
information went out in the form of an FAQ for all parents and community members. We then talked about professional development um that staff participated in professional development on October 20th. Um these days are designed to meet the needs of the
district's um PDPs, professional development plans. Um, districtwide administration will support staff's use of data to guide instruction, provide assistance around the district's multi-tered systems of support, MTSS, as well as continuing the district's
commitment to SEAL, student uh, sorry, social emotional learning. Additional professional professional development targets will include curriculum articulation and review, K3 literary initiative support, which we talked about earlier, special education legal
training, the Hegerty writing in elementary um replacement literacy classrooms, school counselor articulation, and school nurse articulation. Um and Miss Borland just um presented the information and updates um about the
October 20th PD day. Conferences were held at OS and BEES um on November 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Both elementary schools will also have spring conferences on March 17th, 18th, and 19th. LMS and will
also hold uh conferences on November 4th. Um after these November conferences, both LMS and have conferences at the request of parents throughout the remainder of this school year. Uh in terms of school counseling, we
talked about um all sophomores and juniors had the opportunity of taking the PSAT at MHS during the school day on October 21st. The district covers the cost for all 11th graders. Information about the PSAT was communicated to
parents via email as well as multiple locations on the school website. Um by offering this test uh during the day um it makes participation obviously extremely high. Uh the high school recommends students to participate in the PSAT to receive feedback about
strengths and weaknesses um and to enter the competition and in order to be eligible as well for the competition for National Merit Scholar Scholarships in 11th grade. um and to help prepare for the SAT. Lastly, we talked about the admission game which um was a presentation given
at the high school on uh October 21st as well. Peter Van Bur Bers Kirk, hope I'm saying that right. A former dean of admission at Franklin Marshall um presented the admission game which is um a feature presentation of four candidates applying to a fictionist
college. Um and he revealed how their credentials are assessed by admissions officers with a focus on academic program development, essay writing, and letters of recommendation. Um lastly, Mr. Delgado will share information and updates about both events at the
November ACI meeting, which happens to be tomorrow. So I will report on that in December. Any questions or comments? >> Just happy with the inside out back again is um on our agenda for tonight. Um it's wonderful to get these young
middle schoolers. They they are really very interested in novels written in verse and it was something that we were not given as when we were in middle school. So it's really nice. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh next would be operations facility and finance
committee but the uh committee chair is not with us tonight. M >> report. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um the committee met on November 11th and the first item was budget
preparation for fiscal year 2627. >> Can you hear me? >> Excellent. Thank you. The first topic of discussion was the preparation for 2026 2027 fiscal year budget. Mr. Italiano provided an update
on the budget development process including an overview of the budget calendar, budget submission checklist and the new program request process for all budget managers across the district departments. Mr. Mr. Italiano emphasized
that any new request must be supported by a strong rationale with consideration given to enrollment trends, associated cost and detailed justifications. He expressed confidence in that budget
proposal will be submitted on schedule. Second item was QAC status update. Mr. Taliano reviewed the QAC timeline which includes three major components. District performance review. The first
submission was due uh to county office on November 15th which has been completed. The second is indicator documentation appro. The second part involves uploading all the required indicator documents to the share drive for county office review. This remains
the most time consuming portion of the process but which is duly underway. QAC third third component is QAC site visit. The final step will be the on-site review by the county officials on March 3rd 2026.
Mr. Italiano reported that the district is currently ahead of schedule which is very positive news. Third topic was rod grant projects. Regular operating districts grant previously approved rod grants for two
projects roofing improvements and HVAC upgrades were discussed. The district is responsible for 60% of the project cost in order to receive the 40% from the state. We are waiting for the final approval
from the state and then our process of going out to bid will start. The fourth topic was food service advisory committee. Food service advisory committee meeting continue to be held regularly. Overall feedback has
been positive with few comments which are being addressed. The committee acknowledged that improving food quality is an ongoing effort and the district continues to working closely with the vendor to address any of this priority.
The fifth topic was health insurance costs saving initiative. Miss Vak reported on her attendance at NJSBA workshop which included a session on managing health insurance costs. She shared information on a new approach
that allows school district to save money through prescription rebates provided directly by pharmaceutical companies which is still in the discussion. Mr. Italiano will follow up with the district's health insurance broker to determine whether this
initiative could benefit the district. Next, we had a Q&A session. The question and answer portion of the meeting focused on getting a deeper understanding of a budget process and future broad grant opportunities. Next meeting will be held on December
9th, 2025. Thank you. >> Just a question, who is on the food service advisory committee? >> The food service advisory committees are held by the students, parents, and our vice principles. And sometimes I work with them.
>> Okay. So it's within the the school each one of the schools. >> Yeah, that's correct. >> Thank you. >> Is that any different than how we did it? Because I remember you were one of the main people that discussed the food service committees and the quality. Is that what you recall that it was done in the past or you were just curious? >> I agree with this approach. I think we
were at the phase of finding a new member. So it was a little bit different, but I was just curious if there's any other. >> That's all. >> Sounds good. Any other questions? Are board members allowed to go to those meetings if they choose to.
>> Just that I've never had that done like in the past. So >> just curious like >> that like basically as a board member I would say no. Like as like a parent like yes cuz it's really like student parent like kind of feedback.
>> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. But as board members, if you have any questions about the process, I would be your middle person to kind of like find out, give you the feedback. So if you hear anything as you're a bridge from the community that might not be coming to me, share it with me and then I could
research it and follow up accordingly. So that is what I can do for you as a board member and like monitoring our food service. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Um, next is our report from policy and communications committee. Um,
cookie or Anna, if you would like to go first. >> Yeah, I I'll try to be short. We actually had two meetings during uh since last uh board session. So, I'm going to begin with October 16th uh session where we review a couple policies. policy around professional
services, administrative employment contracts as well as eligibility of resident and non-resident student. Um I just wanted to highlight that policy 2200 was also updated to remove reference to specific NJSLS
standards as these standards are continuing to change. there's some simplification of the language that Strauss Esme is working through uh with us on um there was a discussion that took place during the session around tutoring and we just wanted to reiterate
that the committee had discussed uh centering on tutoring and classified that per policy clarified that per policy 3232 the following should be followed. Private tutoring shall not take place on school grounds. private tutoring for a fee by a staff member
shall not provide private tutoring for a fee to any student that is currently enrolled in their class. Um on the communication side, I think we discussed the district website. We provided some additional intel and insight of what would be good to see and
we provided that to superintendent on November 13th. Uh we addressed uh policies listed which were duties of public school accountant internal controls. Um in those policies we reviewed the
recommendation uh for the first reading that will take place today and they focused on um changes in administrative code. They were updated to be compliant with the law. Um Bonita covered the QAC so I won't reiterate that strategic
plan. And the update on the strategic plan will be presented at the February board meeting by the goal team leaders. The committee members requested to uh show a visual of what the goals are, where they started, and where they are.
Um as far as new New Jersey school boards um is offering uh which is a great opportunity, a free living policy annual to all members of the New Jersey School Board Association beginning in January. that was also covered at our meeting actually last night in the
Somerset County. So, it's highly promoted. So, we definitely take advantage of it. Um, and also a new board member handbook. Uh, I've put together a new uh board member handbook to supplement the district's um
knowledge on what new members have to um know and be aware of. So, we'll actually submitted it to all of you. Some of you provided some feedback. have already made those updates. So, if you do have any additional changes you would like to make, please send them over to me as it
would be great if we could get that approved uh at the next school board meeting as part of our regular standard documents, especially for new board members uh joining the team. So, the only other thing I wanted to highlight um and this is more from a policy
perspective. During the NJSBA workshop, uh there was some discussion in regards to the recent um United States Supreme Court case, Mahmood versus Taylor. There's a lot of focus and there's a lot of resources out
there for parents when it comes to opting children out of certain part of the curricula. I know our school was actually featured as one of the messages that was sent to the community, but uh for the parents, if you do have concerns, uh this goes beyond health
curriculum. If you do have concerns, Mary has put together a process where you reach out to the principles and can work through that process uh with the appropriate um principles in each one of the schools. So, thank you. That's my update.
Thank you, board member Jun. Is there anything you'd like to add? Any questions on policy? Um, I haven't had a chance to read it, but I just wanted to thank the committee for the handbook. I think it's a really excellent idea and particularly as we transition to a new um new board. I
think it's really critical to be able to have as much information on the as on the onset. So, thank you for putting that together. I think it's a great resource. Thank you. that she concurred that especially um the pandex
outline which months the board should do achieve what goals. I hope we can also consider that, you know. Um, >> thank you. >> Thank you guys. For making some of the the suggestions from the first iteration. I know you've been at this
for a very long time. Um, it's a big undertaking for one person. Um, so thank you so much for that. If anyone has further feedback, please um you know provide it to uh board member Jurgen before the December PCC meeting because
we would like to discuss it at that meeting as well. >> Is that is that the deadline? The next board meeting >> the next PCC meeting PCC which is when >> December 4th I printed it but I haven't read it yet but I will. So, one of the other features for the new board members
um and all of you guys as part of the Somerset County School Board Association, and I've highlighted that in the past, there's a school leader award. And I think this shows true collaboration across the entire school board uh where you have certain um
trainings and uh sessions that if you attend, you actually qualify. And at that meeting, the school board every month is uh recognized. this yesterday um Manville Mary your old school district and yours too right was
recognized um and you know they work very closely with their superintendent and and school board members but it's a it's a wonderful recognition beautiful plaque um for all of you that are interested in participating thank you
thank you um next up can I ask a question for the reports we did actually for uh Christina uh you mentioned about the decreasing of the um membership for those PTAs have
you consider or the president consider about the declining total enrollment of the school district that's correlate and contribute to that because every year we're losing 100 students that's about 4% according to the number you said we're losing about 3% every year so it
sounds like correlates Right. >> I'm sorry. What was the question exactly? >> Oh, you mentioned about declining of the parents involvement in the organization, right? About 3% every year. That's the
number I heard. And then I was just looking at the total enrollment of our school district number of students. Actually, we keep losing about a 100 student per year. So, it sounds like we're losing 4%. It's kind of like numbers correlates with each other. I
don't know how much that contribute to that is I don't want to say our parents are not motivated to participate. It could be just the family's numbers is going down. So I don't know um I can't speak on behalf of um Mr. Patel but I
can certainly ask him um at our next meeting. Um but yes I think the overall message is across you know I've seen a pattern throughout my attendance on all the meetings is just that you know we I it's understandable that everyone has
different schedules but just having that um just joining the membership you know is the first step just to help the district. So, if families can just, you know, look into that as well, that would be great. But again, I don't want to speak on behalf of the >> and those funds, those volunt those uh
membership funds and dues that we pay, those of us, and I'm so sorry. I was one of those late ones that signed up late this year. And you do have to do it for each school, just so you know. So, it's not just one membership for the whole district because I have kids in three different schools on three different memberships.
those are what fund everything that they're trying to do with their social events and and for the kids, for the teachers, for for everybody. So, yeah, it's really important for us to I think it's also really important to note that um a decline in parent volunteerism is a
national phenomenon. It's not something that's happening at Montgomery. It's happening across the nation. Um and that's really important as an educator. We follow that very closely and it's um it's >> steeped in in data in terms of a national Yeah, the message that I think
we want to deliver is not saying our parents are not not trying to engage is right. It's the national trend >> and membership is open to even non-parents. So non-parents can contribute to the dues for all those associations you know from elementary to high school.
So if there are non-parents but would like to uh contribute to the funds of these schools, we can certainly support them. And another one I know you covered in your report about um the uh municipal alliance talk about that and uh at the
meeting I heard the uh presenter one that we ever uh the community really collaborate together the parents collaborate together. I heard this from Miss Mr. Corey in the past two is wait till the end of the eighth grade you know not the beginning of the eighth grade at the end of the eighth grade for
smartphones and age 16 for social media so that's really the recommendation I hope we all parents trying to align together work as a group uh to uh hold this >> if we allign together then there'll be
less but she has one but he has one it's absolutely true the more we can be together on that is better for their mental health and for their academic growth and social growth. >> And one thing I just really I thought was really interesting and this was a conversation I actually had with one of
our administrators um months back at a meeting is you know if you just start small and you think about your child's friends and that group and talking to their parents and if that little group is all on the same page and that's a good step. um if you guys can you know
they can be aligned on whether it's cell phones or whatever sort of um internet technology use etc. But that's a nice way to start small and go from there. Just uh on the policy that was just implemented on cell phones in our schools, we had three students at the
session at the high school who said that they are more focused without their phones. So positive feedback from the students. Thank you. And since uh our chair of HRC has uh taken ill tonight, uh I don't have his update um that we did meet and
um discuss many confidential personnel matters at HRC. Um so at this time I will have to ask for a motion to uh approve the minutes. So, it is
recommended that the board of education approve the minutes of the following board meetings. October 14th, 2025 executive session and October 14th, 2025 business meeting. >> So, move second.
>> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed abstensions. >> None. I wasn't present at the October. >> You can still vote. What if you want to abstain? That's noted. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Motion carries. Thank you.
>> Okay. Next, we'd like to acknowledge uh correspondence to the board. List of correspondence to the board is presented above and on the agenda. Thank you very much. And we will now move into our action agenda items.
Public comment portion. The board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public. Members of the public are allotted one opportunity to address the board regarding the action agenda items only for up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker. All comments must
be directed to the board. Before you make your comment, please state your full name and address and enter both on the Chromebook provided, being mindful of privacy rights regarding students, board employees, and board members. And to avoid any liability on the part of the speaker, the board discourages
defamatory and discourteous remarks. The public comment portion of the meeting are not structured as a question and answer session, but rather are offered as opportunities for the public to share their thoughts with the board. The board may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been
handled throughout the proper chain of command, usually starting at the school level. Responses may be provided at the end of the session. Are there any public comments to action agenda items?
Seeing none, the public comment portion of our action agenda items closed. Uh now we have our action agenda item. Superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the administrative
items as follows 1.1 to 4.2. >> Is there any first >> I just have one question. >> Okay. We have to move to >> Should we do a motion second then? >> So is is there a motion to approve the action agenda items?
>> So move second. Is there any discussion? >> Just one small question on 2.4. I see a um we approing something uh about the district is
um from 7725 to 6326. So just wondering we are in November right now. Uh it takes this long to come to the board for approval. Is it because of the contracts
we don't receive on time or reason? >> So like the Mercer County Special Services School District. >> I believe for clarity we relisted these items to note an out of district to note a non-resident fee that was in the
contract. So this was for clarity to list on the agenda the exact wording that was in the contracts that we received and this was the first time that we were assessed that fate. So for formality during the QAC year we wanted to kind of just be consistent with the contracts. So these were actually Mary
correct me if I'm wrong these were previously approved I believe the contract >> I don't want to speak to that cuz I don't know that to be accurate. >> Okay that was the information that I had. So then this really is not my section. Do you have something else to add to that or do
you want to follow up on Miss Nor? >> Yeah, I was going to say I will follow up after I talk to Mr. July. >> It's not uncommon. I'm not saying it's not it's not uncommon. Sometimes the students have already started going to school >> and and we approve later. M it's not but
usually um if it is July then you know by September you should be able to get something but sometimes you don't get the contracts I guess >> and that was the point that I was going to say they don't always as you know working in special services they don't always show up timely the exact answer
though we're going to have to go back to the office and research and we'll follow up with you in an email. Okay. >> No problem. Thank you. >> Excellent. Any other questions on any of the action agenda items or discussion?
>> Actually, um I just received notification. Mr. Italiano, you were correct. They were approved originally without the non-resident fee. So, they're just being reapproved. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> So, just really it was just for the $750
fee that was now in addition >> which was something. This is the first time that this happened. No, I believe it always happened, but it's in the tuition line. It wasn't separated. >> It was broke out and it was called Well, this is the first time it was broke out called a non-resident fee. So, we wanted
to be consistent with our agenda for the contract for our QAC review. >> I think we both said the same thing, different question. >> All right. So, now that that question's answered and thank you for getting that, any other questions on any other items before we make our vote?
>> Okay. If if there's not then I'm going to take the uh roll call on items uh 1.1 through 4.2. Dr. White, >> yes. >> Mr. Don, >> yes. >> Frank Herman, >> recuse from 1.7 2.3 4 to 4.2. Yes to
all. >> Could you just repeat one more time the recuse items, please? >> 1.7 2.3 4 to 4.2. 4.0 4.2. Noted. Thank you, M. Harris.
>> Uh, yes to everything and recus from 1.7, 2.3, 4.0 to 4.2. >> Noted. Thank you, Miss W. J again. >> Uh, yes. But I'm going to abstain from 3.4. >> Noted. Thank you, Mr.
>> Thank you, Miss Beer. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Motion's carry. Thank you. Thank you. Business. At this time, the board of education welcomes and
encourages input from the public for any new business. Members of the public are allotted one opportunity to bring any new business to the board for up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker. All comments must be directed to the board. Before you make your comment, please state your full name and address and enter both in the Chromebook
provided. Being mindful of privacy rights regarding students, board employees, and board members, and to avoid any potential liability on the part of the speaker, the board discourages defamatory and discourteous remarks. The public comment portion of the meeting are not structured as
question and answer sessions. The board may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been handled through the proper chain of command, usually starting at the school level. Responses may be provided at the end of this session. Is there any public comment
or new business to the board? Karen Anderson Belme. Um actually I just wanted to compliment you. um been here obviously several board meetings and curriculum disc curriculum discussions can get a little challenging and um I
just want to say I appreciate that because that's one of the things I've talked about is behavior and I think I'm not supposed to but I I think it was very good and it wasn't easy questions I could tell and I just want to compliment that that was really healthy discussion
from a public's perspective so thank Thank you for pushing yourselves through that. Um, I do have one question. I sent you an email and it's been a question about the audit. I know three of you voted for it and most and the rest of you did not. And I still would like to
have answers as to why you felt like it wasn't something beneficial to our business. So that's all. Thank you. Are there any additional public comments?
>> Hearing and seeing none, the public comment portion is now closed. >> Okay. So now we have our closing discussion of the board. >> Thank you. So I have uh two um topics I want to discuss. The first one is
continuing our conversation about the growth data. So um as we talked about the growth data is uh specific cohort we uh need at least two data points right one at baseline at the beginning of the school year and one
post assessment at the end of the school year. So for reading for example NJ and JDOE uh this year along with 41 other states now mandated the school district administered early literacy screener in grades K to three as we've heard um in
the report September January and May and uh as Miss Borland talked about the end of this month parents going to receive the report um in addition our district use uh Renaissance star or ELA mass as the local benchmark assessment also So
three times a year. So we know frequency creates utility and we cannot meaningfully measure progress with a single data point uh once a year at especially the end of the school year. So assessing once is symbolism.
Assessing twice is impact. So assessing um once sends a signal that we care about something. Assessing twice means not only we care about something but we also care improving something. This is what we hope for education in this
country improvement. So I often heard the question what data show that we're not doing well. I believe that's the wrong question. The real question should be what are the areas uh we can improve. So continuous improvement is not a
reaction to poor outcomes. It's the core responsibility of educators and the leaders and uh we're body of nine and we're part of the educational leadership and administration team. So we should make ourselves also accountable too. So
for now I want the public to understand why the growth data is essential. Uh the board cannot make informed decisions or even have meaningful discussions without it. So for example, we've often um told that our students are strong in math or
need some improvement in reading and they are challenged at different levels. But without the growth data, how can we evaluate whether that's actually happening? So how much our low, medium, high performing student growing within
each school year? Without information to this question, we cannot assess whether students are being effectively challenged, whether interventions are working or whether our investment are yielding results. So growth data is not optional. It's foundational to
accountability and continuously improvement. Uh this is not about criticism. It's about clarity, transparency, and a shared commitment to helping every student grow. So we heard our administrator uh they
review the local gross data and use it as one of the data many data points for uh for decision making. So um if the data is actively reviewed and applied in decision making then why uh has it never
been provided when I formally asked for the results of such analysis. uh first asked for this information earlier this year to support the budget inquiries and evidence-based decision- making and during this year multiple times and multiple meetings uh yet still has not
been provided. The same issue occurred with my request for the number of the students who have withdrawn from the school district year-over-year. It's an essential data point for us to understand the enrollment trends and budget impact and also what we have what
we can learn from it. I requested this information early this year as well and again in multiple board meetings. The school district has never provided it. When data that is used and repeatedly withheld from the board uh it raised
some concerns. How can we as a board fulfill our oversight responsibilities without assessing the information that guides that informs the school district decision? Right? Where is the accountability and transparency expected by our community? So growth measure
provide the evidence needed to understand the student progress within the school district and to evaluate whether our instructional program are helping student at all starting points. This is why growth data is essential. It provides the evidence needed to support
the valid interpretations about student progress within our school district and also the impact of our uh instructional programs. Um does anyone on the board have any further questions about the growth data? I think this is a good moment that we
can talk about why student roles matters or maybe some of them feel like it doesn't in our school district. I think for me what really uh makes sense is that you know we're sitting here and being asked to vote. We're
voting on um instructional progress curriculum uh developmental u investments that we're making. So to your point, it should be uh correlated with the data, right? Are we making the
right investment in the right uh development programs? Are they working? Are we succeeding? All of those things are critical. So I think the one thing that resonates with me is we are being asked to vote on things. So it's fair that we ask questions on the results of
items that we're investing in collectively as board members and taxpayers. I think it's absolutely valid that we ask questions. I think we have been asking questions. What I'm still stuck on is where is the data that shows that we are not showing improvement in our
student academic progress. That's what I don't understand. >> Yeah. I don't think we're asking to show where we're not showing improvement. I think we're asking to show how we can continue improving. I I mean of course that's I mean why would you be in education if you didn't want to improve student progress I
>> of course that's the goal right >> it's being constantly reviewed right and then when the board asked what percentage the student and low low performing bands and increasing about the medium about the high you know we understand that and then that will
actually help outside the board to understand the question why half of third grader cannot read maybe they're making progress Dr. Wang, Dr. Wang, you just you just made an assumption statement there that half of our third graders can't read.
>> I I I don't think that that is accurate. >> Cannot read at the state uh grade level. We have 58 58. Yes, >> we have been provided with the data that shows that our students are growing
year-over-year for many years of progress in both ELA and math and science as presented tonight, as presented in previous years. That is the data that that is presented to the board showing us over and over again that our
students continue to grow. Um, in order for you to ask for specific data as you continue to do. We would all nine of us need to come together and say that we as a board want Mrs. McLaclin to provide
that to us and one board member does not dictate what is presented to the full board and to the public. Uh Mrs. McLaclin has done a phenomenal job in addressing many of her concerns, even
giving a presentation last month uh on our student enrollment data, which was not required nor but she went above and beyond to do so. Um and I thank her for that. I thank Morland for her great
presentation tonight about our student um achievements and um that is all. Okay, it sounds like you have the answer to my question is what's the year overyear number of students who have withdrawn from our school school
district? If you have that, could you please share? >> I have the same data that you were presented with last month. >> Last month in uh it's the student breakdown by each grade. It does not show it has miss uh miss Mary showed
about each grade uh number of increasing for grade three for example but for each cohort we have student transfer in and we have student withdrawal right so that part of the question number of student withdrawal did not was not answered that's not addressed from the chart >> can I add something um this is a public
school district I feel as though having that information I mean there's so many variables why families are moving in and out whose job >> a things like that. I mean, I think that's a really tricky thing to try to pinpoint. I don't know if that's feasible or fair because there again,
there's a lot of variables for that. >> It happens. And I want to just add one thing cuz this is a common question. Is there a why that you ask that question? What is the why? >> What? >> Are you trying to say that the achievement isn't good here? Are you trying to say it's the teachers, the
education, the extracurricular? What is their reason? Cuz like most people come and go. I don't think anybody ever leaves, please allow me to finish. >> I don't think anybody leaves this school because of the quality of the education or the future that it provides for the
students. I'd say that's a safe bet. >> Well, >> so that's why I want to know what the why is. >> Sorry, just to add because we did talk about this in ACI and we don't ask the reason why. So, we don't have that data. >> I just want to know the reason for the question. >> When families come and go, we do not as a district ask why they go. So,
>> and to reiterate that That is something that typically does not occur >> in public education. >> I thought it was a way to say >> they're leaving or >> if they're leaving or not like if they're disqualified or if they're >> they have to fill in the form and indicate which school they have to go, right? They transfer each. So if they
are transferring to another school, then that information, you know, if we have to send their record somewhere, all of that would be known. But we need to educate the students that are fall into Montgomery Township. We are a public school district. If they fall into
Montgomery Township, they can come to this school district. If they choose to go somewhere else because they're moving or because of, you know, for any number of reasons, it does not matter. It does matter when you're a private school why
maybe students leave and enrollment drops. But this is a public school district. You live here, we educate you. And you have to understand that >> you are trying to ask they give you the
uh the presentation the state versus what we are doing or the levels and everything but you want to go even deeper that how how each student or each group of student if they are improved >> how much they have improved. >> Yes. >> Right.
>> Yes. That's so it's just different level of understanding. >> Yeah. Because exact with the state assessment is a summative information provide a snapshot of that cohort at the end of one. We don't know their baseline. We don't know that but ren
some benchmark assessment like ren star and right now we have this early birthing. We're assessing them three times a year. Then we can see how much they grow. Right? we have a better understanding our school district we invest uh we have great resource great
teachers where we are so um what why I disagree with some of my board members on the perception of uh whether we should care about the student leaving what we can learn from them and uh whether that's uh NJSL can provide
already can address the gross data because for me as a psychometrician I can tell you that uh it It's not because we don't and JSV and JSA they don't have common items across different grade levels to quitting them but for benchmark assessment that's the one uh
they have that they can track the student growth and uh uh it's fine this a great discussion we disagree with each other I want to let the public know and see where the we have a different uh
opinions and uh why I'm keep asking this question and why the board has a majority. Uh they say that's good enough. >> Thank you, Dr. Okay, I have one more thing. So at our September board meeting, as I
referenced uh college expectations and shared student center policy recommendations from multiple higher education faculty members whose expertise bands over business, medical, school, psych, special ed, and STEM fields. Administration responded three separate times by saying they
apologized. Uh that statement was deeply concerning. I want to be clear as a board member I did not receive any apology letter uh emails or communication for from any of these faculty members nor from any university
officials. I do not know who they refers in Mary statement or what exactly she claims they apologized for. If anything, it appears that an attempt was made to undermine or invalidate the recommendation of this higher education
expert individuals whose professional roles include preparing the very student we sent to their institutions reaching out to the employers and suggesting that their input was somehow inappropriate does not align with responsible board
leadership. I want to take a moment to thank these distinguished uh faculty members who generously shared their insights on what an effective STEM pathway can look like and what expectations they have for incoming freshmen. Their perspectives are not
only shaped by working with local students, but also by teaching and researching at national and international levels. Their input broadens our understanding and elevates vision of what our school district can achieve. I also want to thank um
Montgomery teachers uh who share their experience of feeling unprepared for the IPAL implementation years ago. Their perspective reinforces what the NJSBA has long advised. Curriculum discussion and approval should occur in uh in the
May not just the weeks before a new school year begins. When this conversations happen too late, teachers are placed in a difficult position and district misses the opportunity to ensure thoughtful planning and professional readiness. Similarly, when
the board is asked to prove a curriculum without assessing the necessary information, it puts the board in the position of voting in the dark. Meaningful oversight requires timely information. Without it, neither the board nor our educator can be fully prepared and that undermines uh
accountability and the quality of instruction of our student deserve. As a board of our vision should always be higher, rooted in evidence shaped by expert insight and centered on the long-term success of our students. Dismissing or discrediting the very
expert who helped define college readiness is not leadership. listening to them, learning from them and using their insights strengthen our school district. I think that's the standards our community deserves and uh thank you.
>> Thank you again Dr. Wang. There was no discussion there but thank you for your commentary. Um there any other discussion from any members of the board? Hearing none I motion to adjurnn. Is
anyone going to correct the misinformation being commented on? >> Well, I did not hear uh many of the comments that Dr. Wayne claimed to have
heard from our staff, faculty. Uh I can say that I would have to go back and relisten to it to see if I can actually concur with you, but I definitely did not hear them say anything. Um, and as far as the faculty
that they were parents, >> they were parents that >> they're not parents. >> No, they now they're faculty. They're faculty of higher ed and they apparently needed your thanks and you provided it
to them. Um, they have not responded in any way to us ever since that. So I think that this is old business at this point. We don't need to keep discussing. I don't think it's appropriate to reach out to their employee. They've sent the emails from
their business addresses. If I was to use my board email address and send an email to one of anyone, that would be completely and totally inappropriate. And I
shouldn't be called out for it. So, I mean, sometimes you need to take responsibility for your actions. I think I disagree with you. >> Okay. >> Well, we're going to agree to disagree on that. >> Yeah. And I just want to go on the record saying, no home is being called out. The higher um ed institutions were
reached out to say, "We see that you have an issue with our pathways. Can you please set up a meeting and come and discuss it with and they responded back. These professors are not speaking on behalf of the institution. We do not have an issue with your pathways. Um,
thank you for reaching out. So, in summary, what Miss Mclofflin is saying is the university uh she wanted to be sure that the university didn't have an issue with what we were doing here and they didn't. So, we wanted to keep our standards up with them and uh she was doing her due diligence to do that and
they used their uh school work email address. So what she did I deem is correct to kind of keep our relationship up with that school. Okay. So we're going to agree to disagree on that conversation. Is there any new discussion by the board?
>> Okay. Motion to adjourn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> I. Any obstensions? >> Motion carries. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for
coming out.