Good evening everyone. Thank you all for your patience. We appreciate it. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to reconvene and open session. Second, it's been properly moved and second to reconvene open session. Roll call, please. Lieutenant.
Dr. Wang, yes. Men, yes. Spina, present. department here. Melac here. Cyrus here. So, let's turn again here. Zorggon present. Mr. T. Yes. Thank you. All right. Please rise to salute
the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. All right, at this time we'll have the
MTSD student representative report. Thank you. So, the MHS People Project Club has continued its self-care initiatives during lunch. At the moment, they've been doing origami, but they have multiple different health self-care projects throughout lunch for the past couple of months. Graduating seniors can
now purchase graduation announcements in the Montgomery News by June 15th and can also purchase large yard signs. All the information is on the school Instagram. The MHS orchestra and band went to go see the rehearsal of the world of the orchestra last week. The band spring
instrumental concert also happened two weeks ago and the orchestra concert is happening right now. Uh James von went to prom was on May 16th and currently uh MHS students are voting for the best of the prom proposals. All students also that were going to prom went to an
assembly a couple days before prom to talk about prom and after party safety. Baseball, golf, and tennis had senior mark senior nights to mark the end of their season. And Once Upon a Mattress because music of the hearts production was on May 10th with NHS students
participating by being part of the pit. We've had a delayed opening for NJSLA testing for juniors on Monday and Tuesday. And there will be delayed opening for 9th graders on Wednesday and Thursday. On May 15th, students went to New York City to see Hades Town. Uh the
track team did very well at sectionals a couple days ago. Um they did very well. Aerospace members went to the Montgomery Tree Competition National Finals. And the class of 2026 is hosting a pickle ball tournament on June 11th.
All right, thank you. This time we're going to have superintendent reports and presentations. We have some amazing presentations, so I will be quick because I know everyone patiently was waiting. First, I want to remind everyone that the schools are closed Friday, Monday, and Tuesday.
Monday is Memorial Day. I encourage everyone to find the local parade and go and celebrate um and be thankful for all those who gave their lives for our freedoms. So, okay. At the high school, we had 691
students this month take 1,625 AP exams. We are excited for all of those students as they continue to demonstrate their brilliance at the highest level. The seniors danced the night away at the senior prom this past Friday night. They were dressed to their finest
and had a blast at the James Bond 007 black tie event at S. The select band, jazz band, the eighth grade choir, all participated in the high note music festival at Dawn Park. The students performances were so outstanding that each group received superior rating in
their respective divisions, which is the highest and most prestigious award given. These recognitions continue to be a long-standing tradition of excellence in the s music program. They also were awarded top rookie school in vocabulary competition.
students hard work and motivation helped them master 11,346 words at LMS. The spring performances for fifth and sixth grade band and orchestras were outstanding in their respective concerts. They also looked
amazing and had fun at their spring fling social dance sponsored by and organized by the PTO. We are grateful for the PTO for their offering such a fun event for our students. The Montgomery Elementary School PTA hosted a fun-filled multicultural PK4
family learning experience at International Night earlier this month at Orchard. Third graders gave a phenomenal performance, What is Music concert last week. On the same evening, third grade artists welcomed families to their gallery of masterpieces in the village foyer and hallways. It was a
wonderful celebration of the arts. All Orchard Hill clubs participated in our schoolwide wellness day last week as part of a celebration for mental health month. Students had planned activities throughout the campus, including children's yoga and interactive nature box. Second graders are holding their
annual coral concert this week. Students are excited for their families to watch them making music together to get a glimpse of some of the music skills and concepts the students develop in the class throughout the year. Now, I would am proud and excited to introduce our part of our robotics team
to come and demonstrate for us. Thank you all for coming and staying. And please, right after this, we're having another food event. So, please stay and eat some food before you go home. All right. Hello. Hello. Yeah, good evening and thank you for having us. We're
representing team403 Cougar Robotics. So, our robotics team has been competing in the first robotics competition for 21 seasons now and we want to show you how your support makes this all possible. So, this presentation is going to go through a journey of our season. We're going to start with our Patreon district
event. Then, we're going to touch base on our Montgomery district event. We'll then showcase our highlights and accomplishments from our first Mid-Atlantic District Championship. Beyond competitions, we're going to showcase to you all how our impact extends to our community and inspiring STEM in
everyone. Yeah. Now, we'll have Corby with team 43 isn't just about competition, though. We held many team Bobies for the year. At the beginning of every season, uh we do host our tour classes where mentors teach us different skills ranging from competition ethics
to storytelling to the engineering side of cooking. Additionally, we held big hub little guruh sessions where where returning members partnered with new members to work through a more STEM based activities. This helped break the barrier between leader and member and made them leaders feel more approachable
to members. However, our preparation for this year started this summer. Our leadership team attended trainings run by Mr. Brady in August where um where Mr. Brady taught us basic communication skills, leaders versus managers and more. Additionally, we all met with Mr.
Brady and our captains to verify that all student expectations for the year were measurable and attainable. However, our team bonding didn't end at there. We continued throughout our build season and in February, we partnered with Mind Swap Borders, a Mental Health nonprofit
organization to host a mental health awareness workshop where we discuss strategies for recognizing stress and anxiety. Now, I going to discuss Hapro Hortion, our first competition this year. Thank you. At Hapro, we not only deliver an excellent performance within
our robots's capabilities, but also as a united team. At this competition, we ranked top 30 individually, which qualified us for the playoff round, where we proudly ended as a age overall alliance. Beyond our onfield success, our team won many prestigious awards,
demonstrating our impact and dedication to the first company. Most most notably, we were winners of the first engineering inspiration award. This award honors a team success in the advertising of appreciation for engineering within their team and
community. To achieve this award, we um to achieve this award, we had many outreach initiatives such as our Bridgewater Temple classes where we as a team taught first Lego League core concepts to younger students such as programming and decision-m skills to
better expand the idea of STEM within our community. Winning this award allowed us to compete with other engineering inspiration award winners at the district level. In addition, two of our members, Aditi Hota and Anu Nupala, were nominated by our team as first
deans list semi-finals. This award celebrates a student's dedication, leadership, and commitment to a team. Honor went on to be labeled as a first deans list district competition semi-finalist at Hapo where he was later
able to represent our team at the district competition open. Lastly, but certainly not least, we are proud that our head advisor, Mr. Brady, was nominated for the prestigious Woody Flowers Award. This award celebrates a celebrates a mentor who demonstrates
influence, dedication, and leadership in a team-based setting. Now, Shashan will be talking about our second competition held here in Montgomery. So, learning from our weaknesses at our first event, our team worked late nights to make various modifications to our robot. Over the
course of 4 weeks, we redesigned both software and hardware components to enable us to become more competitive at our home event. Just like we had hoped, we did phenomenally at Montgomery. Uh out of 32 teams we placed fourth and in the playoff section we our alliance
placed third overall. We also won one of the most prestigious awards in first the first impact award. This award celebrates our extensive community outreach over the past few years which also bolstered community interest in STEM. Talking about the event as a whole, we also hosted a women in STEM
presentation and created a mentor mental health safe space for teenagers. Keeping the momentum going, we also toured Mayor Nina Spain and New Jersey District uh 16 Assemblywoman Julius around. Working with Assembly Women Julist, we are currently navigating to
find a facility to host a field. This way uh teams from her district and beyond, including Hillsboro, Remington, and Montgomery, have a place to practice and spin with each other. Up next, here's Bon to talk about our experience at the district championship.
I'm I'm very proud to present that at our district championship, we we put up one of our biggest scores yet. We finished top 30 out of 140 teams with a with a ranking that put us in the 84th percentile globally. This was because of our 90% scoring efficiency and a top
speed on our robot with reaching over 10 miles. And out of our three team alliance, we consistently put up over 50% of our team's points. Now beyond the numbers, this wasn't a fluke. This was due to our strategy with quick decision-m, quick working under pressure
and able to coordinate different components very effectively with our team. Now, apologies for misspeaking. Now we have proven. We continue to assist with this engineering and coding summer camp hosted at Soore. Through this, children
participate in STEM activities such as building a Lego spike robot with color and light sensors to build critical thinking skills. Through this, they find success in STEM challenges, and this encourages them to pursue new engineering opportunities such as joining the first Lego League team. Our
team continues to mentor the two first Lego League teams found at 26362, the Thunderats, and 26361, the robocods. This year, we recently started mentoring a new community team, the creative Lego builders, who meet in the local neighborhood community of the country
club estate. Our student mentors guide these students with the programming of each mission, help them develop their innovation and business project, and go with them to the competitions to cheer them on. Fun fact, 40% of our team actually comes from one of these threeL teams. Our team is also part of the
Compass Alliance or TCA, an international coalition founded eight years ago by 10 teams around the world with the mission to create a one-stop shop for FRC resources. As the only active and founding member left, we are working to revive it. Last year, we
published 18 worksheets which were recognized by first on their website. When reviewing them, we realize the difficulty of the questions and turn them into instructional Instagram gifts where we fill the knots using ourselves and others as examples. As of right now, this growing video library has over
13,500 views across the US and reaching viewers as far as Canada, India, and Israel. Along with our technical resources, we also share manufactured parts. With the recent purchase of our new CNC router, we've contacted teams across the First Mid-Atlantic community
to help manufacture parts between team 714 from Newark, New Jersey, and 8630 CAP Robotics from Patterson, New Jersey. Next, Chin and I will be talking about how we inspire the youth in our community to pursue
engineering. This year, we started a plethora of new initiatives in order to expand our impact. Each of these initiatives being shaped by our members experiences. An a sophomore on our team contacted the Bridgewater Biology Temple, a community of over 10 different school districts. He created a hands-on
curriculum for ages 8 through 14. During the first six week summer session, our members taught students Lego and Spike. In fact, the Temple's education coordinator was so thrilled that she that she invited us back for another four-week winter session which in which the students competed in a mockl season.
Our members have spent over 380 hours mentoring the students and for the students who attended this was many of their first first experience. Since then, three parents have contacted local mentors in hopes of starting their own developments. We also wanted to impact
more kids in Montgomery. So because of that, we started women in STEM story times. Here girls read picture books about diverse women in STEM and we keep the kids practically engaged by custom 1403 coloring books. We brought out the robot and the kids were so excited that by the end of the event, the parents
were practically dragging their kids away. We also started the library DIY event in which over 50 kids have painted crafts that we made with our that we made with our Lego with our laser cutter. We while painting we also showed them a Lego spike robot which you can
see up on the screen using one of our Lego spike kits. We showed a similar robot to the local cub scouts in order to in order to inspire them to pursue engineering. Now pass it on to bunch to finish it off. Yeah. So wrapping it up, we would like
to share with you some of our season highlights. As you can see in the top left, those are actually our new LED cutouts of our team members formed by our brand new spirit committee, which we want to have our team be a very inclusive environment where we're all very happy with each other and a great team space. So, the spirit committee is
helping with that. And you can see us demonstrating at competitions. In the right, you have us putting coral in the human player stations. And then next, we would like to show you a highlight reel of our robot, best moments from this season. [Music]
So quicker isn't is working. But our next slide is just a thank you slide anyway. Oh yeah, very easy. Yeah, thank you. Um, so thank you for your time and we would like to extend you an invitation to our sponsor night 27th at our Montgomery High School from 6:00 to 7:30. So we are inviting local
businesses to come and see our team, what we do, what we stand for, and how well we work. And it's it helps to get sponsorships for our 2025 to 2026 season. And um we had ion Aush and our robotics team or me included demonstrating the the robots. So if you
could all turn your attention to them. Thank you again. [Applause] [Music] So to start off our robot here, uh so this PVC pipe is called the coral. In the in the game mode, um throughout the
game, that's mostly what we're scoring. scoring it on different locations up and down. Um, in order to do this, our robot is able to move the wrist independently uh to to point it at upwards to where the source where we get the corals and point it down uh to score them. Um, our elevator is also able to raise and lower
to adjust for each one of the scoring positions. And once we get to a certain position, the robot's able to just shoot out the coral just like that. Yep. Uh, and then we also have our algae. That's the big pall over here. That's the other game piece. Uh so same thing using the same
mechanism we're able to uh intake the algae like this once again move the wrist in the elevator with it and then we're able to lift it up and shoot it out into the barge which is a net up high. Then once once the majority of the game is done and end game rolls around
uh then our robot while it's driving around the field is able to go to the cage which is like a metal structure. uh it can then deploy its climber to go downwards uh run into it and climber can come back up. Uh and then of course so part of our robot is automated and so during the automated time period in the
game uh one thing that robot's able to do is that so we have these April tags over here that's on the computer. Um and then so one of the things that we can do now is that the robot is able to follow the April tag seeing over there the paper on the computer and it will reorient itself to be facing that behind
it. Thank you. Uh, are there any questions? [Applause] Yes. Not as much as the car. Um so thank you again for letting us have this conversation to speak with you. This whole thing as you noticed um
the beginning of the conversation was Mr. Brady does the beginning portion but every single other component that you heard in their presentation. It's them running the other things. Them running the CNC, them doing all the design. This whole robot is basically manufactured entirely at the school. So we try not to
buy like off-the-shelf products. So these kids programmed, built, manufactured. They even manufactured things for other teams as you heard because they have such a big heart. They want to impact this community here as well as people outside this community around Newark as you saw also. Um there
our resources are reaching people in Israel, Canada, India. So I'm just so proud of our team and them stepping up and doing all this is wonderful. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you Mr. and your team. You know the love and care and
commitment everybody has when you see two retired people here still working with robotics team please and Tim I thank you and again thank you guys for all that you do and on behalf of the board thank you and I'm especially proud that
you guys go out to different communities to share your work. I think that's critical and very important. So again, thank you and you will continue to have the support of this board. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. So I'm going to pass the mic over to Mr. Saliano, the business administrator, and
he's going to introduce to our people. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mclofflin. Uh our next presentation this evening is from our food service management company, uh Mosios. Uh the way this is going to work, Machios, if you could please uh come up to the podium and introduce yourself, we're going to have uh after
the introduction a brief testing. Um you can engage the Machio staff during the testing. Uh everybody's welcome to participate, audience members as well. And then at the end, we'll conduct a brief Q&A at the end. I'll pass to you folks. Thank you for coming out. Well, the future is bright here at Montgomery
Township. Students, you're brilliant. Um thank you for having us tonight, Montgomery Township. We always look for the opportunities to show off what we do. It takes a village when we work with public school districts, but here in Nashios, it takes a village with heart. So, we have our whole team here. I'd like for them to
each introduce themselves. My name is Patty Fragidakis. I'm the director of operations with Mashios. Ken Torsio, CEO, owner of Mashios. Thanks for having us tonight. Hello everyone. Nora Borsa with me.
Good evening. Susan Hollis, area supervisor. Hello everyone. Loren Cunic, director of nutrition. Hello. Good evening. Marlon Wilson, assistant director. Hi, Lawrence Chox. I'm the food service
director. Good evening. Michael B. Sam, district chef. Hello everyone. My name is Mike Jasinski. I'm corporate chap. I support the field culinary staff. Hello, Sandy Balanino. I work at the high school.
Hello, I'm Daniela Coppola and I work at the high school. So, the way that we have this set up is a day in the life of a student. So, we have both serving lines set up. On that side, we have the elementary school and middle school. On this side, we also do have the middle
school and high school selections. We have samplings. So, we show you what the full portion is for the students, but then we have samplings for you to taste in both hot and cold options. So, I welcome everyone to the kitchen to try day in the life of your students.
Please proceed in an order. Yes. Don't be shy. [Applause] [Applause] There you go. There you go. This is the front
side. Would you like chicken broccoli? Why not vegetables? Extra sauce. Just a little bit more rest outside. cuz I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Why not?
Should I get a chocolate milk? That's old. That's old school. Exactly. That is old school. Check that. What's up? Do you want any uh This is All right, now that everyone's belly is full, please stay awake for the rest of the meeting. Appreciate it. Um, Sophia
has a couple of words she'd like to say. Hi. So, since it's um my last meeting before the school year end, I just wanted to say thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I had a really great time this year like learning more about what the board of education does and like getting to share what NHS is doing with you guys. Um,
since I'm a junior, I hope I get to come back next year and continue doing this with you guys. So, I just wanted to say, um, thank you so much to all of you for giving me this opportunity and having me for these past couple of months. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, it was great. Um, I'm going to buy
lunch every single day for the rest of the school year. Good endorsement. Thanks. Have a good day. too. Thank you for representing us so well. [Applause] All right. At this time, um, Damasio's
representatives, if you'd like to, uh, approach the podium, uh, we're going to do a brief question and answer. And if the board has any questions or feedback from this school year that we would like to bring into the fall, that was the purpose of the testing to improve um, our program for uh, the start of the
school year. So, um, as the representatives come up. Now I'm going to defer to the board members. Um kind of take turns if you have any feedback, questions, concerns to the board.
Honest feedback, please. Because we want I was asked to help to improve the program. So please somebody go first. Hi. Hi. Um, I'm going to give you honest feedback. Absolutely. Um, I did I did like the samosa. That's a new addition.
You said that the veggie samosas. Yes. They're new additions. Um, hello. here. [Music] [Music]
Is that better? Okay. Um, the veggie samosas are very good. I'm glad that you're going to get those as another addition, especially uh for more vegetarian options. Um, I don't know if it's that I mean, obviously these have been sitting out for for a bit. Um, I think that that
there are some things that are a little bit hard and um uh a little bit salty um with the the teriyak and and things of that nature. And I I mean I'm I'm giving you my honest my honest opinion. Okay. Um I know that my own children often
tell me that when they get to the cafeteria for second lunch that some of the options that they wish were still available are not there. Um mainly salads. Um, uh, a lot of times they'll say, you know, we know that they have
salads cuz we see other people and they're eating them, but by the time we got there, they were all gone. Um, and I'm so tired of eating a sandwich again. It's the same thing day after day. um not really wanting to necessarily go for
some of the more unhealthy options, the the burgers and chicken nuggets and French fries, although my high schooler swears that they eat French fries every day and that's all they eat. But, you know, some some every kid is different and I know that I do hear from my own
children that they wish that there were more plentiful, fresh and healthy options. So if um if some sort of tracking can be done as to how um I know you were already doing it cuz you know you were talking earlier about how you
have ways of kind of gauging what the the students are ordering and then hopefully you know being able to plan for that. But, um, I I don't know, almost like not putting out all of the like I think that if we did put out more
of the salads and the healthy stuff, they'd go for it. The Jersey Fresh items seem like really amazing, but once a month, like I wish we could have more. It could be our price point, too. I don't know. But so, the recipe, it's once a month. The locally grown produce,
we're actually getting it more often. So we do get the the the fresh apples and we can talk about that. Uh the LFS funding we we use for that. So we have a lot of locally grown product. The problem is that it is sometimes in the
winter we're going to get just the cabbage and we're going to get just the apples and some potatoes that it it is seasonal. Correct. Can you speak to the microphone? Sorry. But what we can do with that is when we do have the local produce, you see the Jersey fresh on the
menu when we feature the recipe, we can put a little logo on it so all of the families do know this is local produce being served today. [Applause] Cafe question. [Music] Um, yes. I think Maria asked one of them
and that was about just, you know, and I know sometimes with um I guess I don't know how it works, sorry, how that works as far as um I've had the same experience with my students, my kids, that they'll go to um the cafeteria expecting one thing and then we'll see something different. So, I don't know
how we can kind of, you know, I guess prevent that from happening. And then number two, hopefully this is not my kids won't hear this, but my question is um you know the ice cream, the cookies, things like that. I'm just always curious whose decision I don't know if it's us as a
district or um why that needs to be something, you know, at lunchtime that they um have the opportunity to purchase. Um, and maybe some families don't mind, but sometimes and I have this conversations, I know as a mom with my children saying, you know, we talk
about when and how much or whatnot, but it just feels like, you know, even the day they do want to get a cookie, they get a whole pack of them, and I'm always surprised by that. So, I was curious to learn more about that. Very good. So, all of the snacks that we serve in the cafeteria are smart snack compliant, which means it goes through a
calculator. I should have Lorraine talk about this. Our director of nutrition. So it is um you know whether it be lower sugar it is whole grain based so there are options available you know the allocart sales do help the district so
that would be a district decision but um there are ways that parents can limit on the account perhaps a popup you put in there and one bag of chips today for Johnny those are options that we can do and show you I want to
elaborate on one thing regarding the alle cart sales and snacks. Um cuz most of the time it's thought that whatever sells in the cafeteria, it's my profit that I'm going to make all the money off of the yellow card sale snacks. Um it
doesn't work that way. If you decide not to sell snacks and it's a district decision and or limit them, that's entirely up to the district. Mashios just works on the management. So when we have the discussions with administration, things come up like
that. So that's clearly an option. So um that's an option that can go either way. And we also do production records to track the items that sell as far as what how much of them sell when we make them. So we could report back to you as often as we want with whatever how much we
prepared and how much was actually total or taken. So that's an easy way to track. And also I've seen at high school more and upper middle school level uh we can minimize the alocart for the elementary
if that's what the the school district is is looking for for upper and high school majority they would get it from Starbucks from Wawa. So the fact that we're offering them an option a healthier even though it doesn't look
like the chips are better but it's it is whole grain it is low sodium we are getting audited uh for that and we need to comply with it there they will get the the coffees the the the sodas they
will get it so making it available for them at a lower price and having the sugar-free option the the whole grain I think especially for that age group. It is it is a a benefit for the initiative. I agree. Thank you. I appreciate that. I
think that's a good point. High school versus maybe the new kindergarten student who is so excited and all of a sudden, you know, their tray is filled with cookies and ice cream their first day of school, right? And again, I also know that their their uh siblings, some elementary, some middle school, so on
and so forth. We can limit it. We can do like Friday ice cream or we can do cookie Wednesday where they can they can come and get and it's just one cookie just like short. So it can it can we can work around it. Absolutely. Uh we should
still make them feel like they're part of of the group cuz I don't want when my six-year-old went went home and she was like, "Oh, he got this and I did it." You're still going to get that. But if we if you would like to limit it, we can
we can definitely accommodate. I just had a um I I'm just trying to recap all the discussions we had. Um bringing samosas, the rockstar of an item, to LMS and is a good idea. I think kids would like it. The spice level is
really good. I think it's not too spicy. And uh um I just I think all the suggestions actually brought up by you um to have a vegetarian section separate
um for middle school and lower middle school would be a good idea because the kids don't feel awkward and so this way if they have a place to go for their vegetarian meal it would be great. Um I think it's a good suggestion by you
agree with that. Um rest of things all the food was good. Um, I think the noodle was a little sweet. Um, but I guess kids like that, right? It's It's good. Um, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the Thank you. We appreciate it. And I really wanted
everyone to try it. Um, the the part that you saw on the grill, they were all three items that we're going to switch. So, the burgers, even though that bread got hard because we stayed there for for 45 to an hour, the burgers were raw
burgers that we cooked uh and that's what we're we're planning on serving. The the chicken breast was raw chicken breast that was fried, seasoned, and cooked uh and and served. And I really wanted to get some feedback cuz we're kind of playing with some product right
now for that. And I wanted to see unfortunately it was not the best the best day uh today. So the samosas, the chicken sandwich, and the burgers were raw protein and all three of them will be uh for next school year. So for for
now they have been um previously cooked and frozen or reheated or So they were No, no, no, no. They were they were parcooked items. So what we do normally for upper middle and high school, we have a combination of um raw and
parcooked items. For the elementary and lower middle school, we had just barcooked, but we had food advisories and the kids tasted a difference. So we're planning on incorporating that for next school year overall. But I just
wanted we're trying different product that would go well because we need to have the portion size to kind of go for for each age group and I we wanted the feedback for that. Yeah, I just want to echo what um Maria
said and I think Venita said as well that the the exciting items go quickly. So if we could really sort of manage that a little bit and then maybe just to educate the kids. I have a kid in every grade level in the high school 9 10 11 to 12 and for some reason they always come home saying I never knew that there
was a X or you know whatever it was. So maybe like through Genesis or through like if we could do a quick blast on like the five hide items of the day or some to sort of educate the kids before they go through the mayhem of the line. Um cuz my kid either gets disappointed that the one thing he thought he was
going to get is not there and so he leaves the line and he ends up not going through everything that might be available. So if there's a way to sort of educate the kids on what's available to them, that might be helpful. Abs. Absolutely. And also we highly encourage attendance on the food advisories. The
principles have been unbelievable. They really supported us in scheduling them and we'd like to get more feedback from different age groups. Normally we are required to do it twice a year. This year we did it
quarterly. we can do it monthly and hit a different grade or a different age group and that way they can participate and give us the feedback because everything that we got from those food advisories and I was looking at them and I'm like okay they like the buffalo
chicken pizza now I have because they like the buffalo chicken pizza I have to put it on the menu I'm worried that I'm going to have a third grader that is going to think that the buffalo chicken pizza is going to be too spicy and then the parent is going to it's going going to be upset about it, but we're trying
to incorporate every feedback that we get from the students. So, definitely if the school district is interested in it, we can do it monthly without any problem in all the schools. Um, just listening to the different
discussions, one of the things that just hit me is it might be the best thing for us to do is to provide a monthly newsletter to you. So that way you know exactly what we're providing in each school and what's been new and and different. So that way you obviously you
can't make it to every cafeteria every day, but we can actually provide to you with pictures and menu items and discussion on the newsletter so you see it. Right. And then the other issue that I find that you know all the gray hair on my head tells me that I've been doing this for 35 years. I must have gotten
something right along the way. But this is not a burden for us to encourage this communication because we can only learn from communication and the the biggest problems are solved easy discussions.
So, I wouldn't mind if I had the opportunity to do this more often during the school year because I think with open dialogue even like this, it provides us the opportunity to act upon your requests and quite frankly with cafeteria connections and meeting with
the students more often, it's it's a win-win. So, I wouldn't mind that. So maybe you and I can work on it for next school year, more frequent uh meetings like this with the board and then also do a monthly uh newsletter to the to the parents or to the board. So the
newsletter be something that you could do and not just talking just to the board but to parent. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, that'd be amazing. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Have a calendar of what I saw. Yeah. But this is that's now that's just the the
menu per se. What I wanted to do was do a snapshot of by each building what exactly has been happening, what we plan on doing. So that way it's highlighted because some of the stuff I think we're missing is exactly that it's being missed because we don't know, right? So
if we can provide you with not only to the parents by building, but to the board as well what's been happening, I think that'll help close the gaps and some of the communication. I have no idea how many such an important part of this whole thing. Ask me how many
But you have one here tonight to answer questions. So that means that they're working all the time. So yeah, it'd be great to know more about what behind the scene. It's it's the the industry as I knew it 35 years ago has taken on a life of its own. So if you told me that I'd
have, you know, 30 40 chefs and and a dozen dieticians, I would say to you, where are we going with this? But, you know, the industry's change with it and you have to be responsive. So by having the wonderful staff that I have being able to be here and do that kind of stuff, it makes everybody's life easier,
especially mine. You had student le focus groups to give you continuous feedback. Yep, we have. We met with them a couple times this year, but I think it might require for us to meet with them more frequently next year. The hardest time that we have is sometimes some of the administrators trying to fit it into a short month
schedule. Doesn't always work out, but you know, we we we can be a little bit of a niche to make it happen. So I have a question. So um from your perspective and since you do have continuous feedback and then your your staff and our principles work with you
so closely where do you think you still have room for improvement that we can see and basically high quality? I I think just the reaction to this meeting per se and I think some of the varieties and some
of maybe the the fresher varieties that I think we want to see in the lower schools that maybe we can bring that along a little further. You know that that's that's always a hit or miss though. You know, I want to be honest. I mean, we'll do it. We'll try it. We'll track it and then we'll we'll try something different if
it doesn't work. You know, one of the biggest problems we have when we take down a school district and we try it once and you know, some of the people that have been with the district long saying, "Well, that didn't work. We can't do that again." No, that's not what we do. We'll put a spin on it and we'll try something different. I wonder
if maybe you can go back to to see what type of food you were providing at the very beginning when you joined our district and then how the food and service has evolved because I think what students are telling us since we do not
eat at the cafeteria every day but you know they were super excited in the first months after we would change the vendors and then as time progressed they keep giving us a very similar to feedback to what was given to us before
we went with the change. So they they say that you know that the the quantity of uh food that was highly desired is very low. So then when students come then they basically are limited to pizza burgers and chicken nuggets and then
some still occasionally uh students say that they do you know like spoiled milk or pizzas overcooked or undercooked. Same thing with the borders. So I'm just wondering it's like maybe there is some way of keeping
the level of service at the same level as it was when you guys came to Sure. I mean you know as as the owner you don't want to hear that it's gone downhill but obviously it has isn't telling us that it has. It requires for us to go and do our due diligence by building. So we
have to zero in on is it preparation and do they even know how has there been change over in some of the staff in some of those buildings that maybe needs to be retraining. So that's the kind of stuff that we need to contribute to. So as as we move along with these discussions I think it's important for
us to zero in on you know which school or schools is the biggest issue at the moment and and what is it? Is it the way it's prepared? Is it just not having enough variety or is it not having the quantity? Right. So if it's all three, then that's a problem and it's a problem with the staff. If it's one of those
issues, that's retrainable, right? So Kurt, we certainly can drill down on that. That's what we do. Y any other questions from the board. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. Our last presentation of the evening, who we canled last meeting is Mr. Corey Delgado, our director of school casting and student wellness. Here to present our portrait of a graduate. Good
evening. So, um, typically this happens a lot earlier in the spring. We are talking about the class of 2024, even though we're really thinking about our class of 2025 right as we get ready to celebrate. So, I'm just trying to move your brain into the right frame. Um, so
we're focused here tonight on the academic performance as it pertains to standardized testing and some of the college trends as we follow along. Um, a little snapshot here. We had 386
graduates. 91% of them went on to continue their education and 90% of the 91% went on to four-year colleges. Here's a five-year look back. I'll let that sit there for a
minute. You'll see on the top half um the academic achievement is pretty consistently amazing. And then you'll start to see, you know, some dips and bumps in the bottom half when we start
talking about college applications percent or acceptance rates and things like that. I'll unpack that as we move through. So, um, a lot of our students when they're with us are acrewing,
um, essential academic criteria. They accumulate this for their academic portfolio, for their transcripts as they get ready for college, and they just, many of them just want that challenge. And they take AP courses. As Miss McLaclin shared with you, we had over 1,600 AP tests administered over the
last week and a half. That's huge. That's a huge number. The class of 2024 took over 1,500. So, just to show you, we're trending upwards. We are taking more AP classes. We are taking more AP tests. Um and
these are the 21 courses we offer. Again, most of our students will choose to take the standardized test at the towards the end of the second semester. And here's how they did. This is again just the uh class of 2024. So you'll see
um the green bar is Montgomery High School. Yellow is how they is the state and blue is global because AP is AP tests are given internationally and you'll see we do far and away better than our peers in the
state and around the globe the other half of our courses. Something to be really proud of. uh good opportunity to give a shout out to the counseling staff to administer 1,600 assessments is uh no joke. So led
by Jess Ritson and uh the whole crew they work tirelessly to organize it all to proctor it and you know when you're dealing with college board there's a lot of parameters and things that need to be followed and uh they work really hard to make sure that all happens and of course
our teachers you know u what they're providing for the kids throughout the year is awesome. Moving on to SAT that is the more popular of the college readiness tests. Here's how our class of 2024 did. We had
337 seniors take the SAT. Again, we are Montgomery High School in green, state in yellow, and the total group is blue. That's how the college board um categorizes. Again, SAT is also given internationally. We're doing about 300
points better than our peers around the state. New Jersey in general does better than the states around the country. So if our school is doing among the best in the state that's doing the best, that's awesome, right? I know we've got some
recent notoriety about being ranked number four for S&T results in the state among uh public schools and the difference between number four and number three and number two and number one is a question. It's such a it's a slip. So really proud of what our students are accomplishing in the world
of standardized testing. Here's a 5-year look back. So you'll see we stay consistently strong, but we are always looking back. We're looking for trends. We're looking to see if we dip. We're looking to see if we trend up and and the reasons
why. So this is not just data that we share with you. This is this is a high school cabinet that will sit around and wrestle with this and we'll analyze the results. The ACT, not quite as popular. We only had about 45 students in the class of 24 take the ACT. It's still
universally and widely accepted by all universities and colleges. Um, but around the country, it's for several reasons we don't need to go into now. Not quite as popular as the SAT. However, results are similarly strong when our Montgomery High School students
take the ACT 5-year look back. Okay. Um so again they are um where was that? So um our students are are doing that work. They're taking the standardized test and again and for most of them it is building their their
profile which they are going to show off to schools through the application process. We're going to get into the college game now. uh a couple of trends you know it and I call it the game because it is a game and it has changed quite a bit over the last five years. Here's some of the bigger variables that
has caused the change starting with test optional. So before 2021 there was a gradual trend for colleges and universities to go test optional. In 2021 students couldn't take the SAT, so everybody was forced into
it. Most schools have stuck to test optional. The more selective schools are t trending back towards test required. Um we chat up the college admissions officers when they come through Montgomery High School. We've had 90
colleges visit this fall. And just a little anecdote about 14 years ago I went through Montgomery High School and had oversight over the guidance department. And I was charged with put Montgomery on the map. Like, how come colleges don't want How come our kids got to go to the Princeton College Fair
or the Hillsboro College Fair? Why are these schools stopping at South Brunswick and they're not coming to Montgomery High School? We're on the map. I'm not taking the credit. I'm just saying that was I was cold calling colleges back then saying, "Why don't you come visit our students here at Montgomery High School? We'll set you up
with a table during lunch." Now, I say, "I don't know how to squeeze you in." Like, that's what's happened over the last 15 years. So the Montgomery High School student is sought after for a lot of the reasons that you already know and and this is just evidence of that. So um just a little anecdote there. Again,
another big trend is the um popularity of common app. So you combine the popularity of the common app with test optional and you have an explosion of applications and it has an impact. It really does. Uh another trend that we're watching is the uh reemergence of the
state and public universities. So the um not just in New Jersey but definitely in New Jersey we are seeing students trending more towards the state and public university as opposed to the privates. And you know it could just be as simple as geography or return on investment. I can't really tell you the
why but it is happening. So here's what our students are doing in terms of application. We recommend to them 7 to 10 applications. You want to find your safe fit and reach schools and spread it out. Many of our students are going beyond 10
applications. You know, we we have plenty of students that are submitting 20. And we don't judge them. The unpredictability that has uh been a reality in terms of college acceptance, I think, is causing a lot of them to apply to more schools. And again, the test optional gives students a feeling
of confidence that I may get into that school with GPA and extracurriculars. So, naturally, we're going to see more Africans. Here's where we're applying. So, this is the top 15 schools that the class of 24 applied
to. NJIT made it to the list this year. That hasn't happened in a long time. The College of New Jersey jumped up five spots to number four. So, again, that supports the idea that students are staying closer to home. Students are going to the state public universities.
Um, we were really happy to see our our students really love applying to PIT. They love PID. They've always loved Penn State. PIT is growing. But if you look at our acceptance rates at PIT, Penn State is awesome. We're not necessarily going there, but we're getting
in. And so, one of the things we did this year was we talked to some of the kids who did get accepted. and when they were contemplating were they going to go there were they not going to go there what we learned that for places like Nor Eastern Penn State uh PIT they're getting in but a lot of times they're
getting into satellite campuses so that might be a deterrent from actually going to the school but boy we sure love applying and they love the Montgomery High School students so you can tell by the excitement right there's where we're actually going so this is the top 15 schools that the class of 2024 enrolled
in highlighted is PID Purdue and Indiana because we just see them trending towards more and more popular. We're going to do some asking why, but they are known for strong business schools, strong engineering programs. So, I imagine that is probably a big part of
it. But this matters because um like I said, 90 schools come to visit Montgomery High School. I promise you, Purdue and Indiana and they get the best runs. They get good days, right? We know our kids want them. We want to make sure they want our kids and they're coming.
All of these that are on the list, if if they're if they're not there, I'm hold we're holding the spot. We're calling them. We say, "What date do you want?" But yeah, they're they're coming. And when we chat them up, it's good to know. I don't have a slide that says this, but when we talk about, you know, what they look at the profile of
the school and they also look at once our kids are on campus, how are they contributing and do they stay and do they finish? and the Montgomery kids contribute, stay and finish. So, they look at that. They keep all those all that kinds of all that kind of data. So,
uh good to know. You won't see that come up on a slide anywhere because it's more qualitative than quantitative. Uh we did I wanted to take a look at Ruckers because Ruckers is clearly our home away from home and it's been really interesting to watch what's happening there. Again, this is the class of 2024. Applications exploded test optional and
they went to the common act. Fortunately, our um our acceptance rate stayed pretty strong, but really interesting times over at Ruckers. Really interesting time. So, this year we had uh in the
class of 2024, we had almost 260 students apply to Ruckers, which is by far that was a record-breaker for us. This year, I did take a peek at the class of 25 and we have 315 students that applied to Ruckers. So again, that we're watching that trend, you know, and we'll start asking some of the questions
why um Ruckers is is uh was one of those places that was unpredictable. You know, we had some students that weren't getting in that we saw were really qualified and we were wondering why. We have hypotheses, but you know, facts. One of the hypotheses is some of the students are maybe even overqualified.
So Ruckers might not be wasting what they think is wasting admittance on them because they don't think they're actually going to come. Yield matters to colleges. They want to whoever they accept, they want them to enroll, right? So, it's a game. It's a game and it's fascinating to hear their end of it. No
two schools are exactly the same when we talk to them, but we're doing our best to provide the right information for our kids and our families so they get where they want to be. A couple things that are new for Montgomery High School. Um, we're here talking about college, but you know, the career exploration piece
is important. We launched a new lunch and learn series this year was really popular. We're going to continue that next year. Hopefully next year when I come and present some of these this information, we'll also be able to talk about the kids that did not graduate and go to college but graduated and went right into the workforce. We're curious
what are they doing and how are they doing. I don't have any of that information now, but we're talking about how to use social media to maybe get some of that information. Um, we enhanced our college prep services. We had eight new college seminars for families and students this fall. eight
new additional to what we've had in the past and uh they were wellreceived and well attended. I always like to promote our school counseling website. We work really hard at keeping it current and chalk full of really good useful information. So just a little reminder
that that's there. And here's just a little fun thing that Miss Pino had posted during our acceptance day. Andrew, I don't know if this is going to make it play or not. This could be Do you want me to play? Yeah. Okay. You ready? Heat. [Music]
Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat.
[Music] So, this is definitely more than rockers. So, lot lots of uh lots of pride uh when the kids get to wear their new colors to school. And I will tell you um it felt different this this spring in the
counseling office. I think I think our students had um attainable, realistic college goals and I think they hit them. You know, I'm generalizing, but it felt different this year than it did last year. Last year there was a lot it was more just worry and stress and why not and this year it's more hey let's ring
the bell and spike the football kind of stuff. So uh it felt a lot better this spring. I know I'm always the optimist but in genuinely it did. So good for our kids, good for your kids. Um I don't know if you have any questions. Just one
question because I asked this question. Thanks. I thought there was an ending slide so that was it. I asked this question last year and that was about tracking whether our kids are graduating, right? I think we've talked about it for years now of we have
wonderful success showing our kids where they started. Would be interested to see how they finished, right? So, is that something you're planning on doing? You did. Yeah, you you brought it up last year. Uh to be honest with you, it was just not an easy was not an easy answer on how to find that out. So, it's not
like there's just a clearing house that we can go to to see where our kids are in four and five years. So, in talking to some other districts that are trying to do similar things because that's useful. I mean, that that's really what we want to know. Like, we're glad you made it there. How'd you do once you got there? Right? That's really what we want
to know. Um, and they're going out to social media. They're starting LinkedIn pages to gather alumni and collecting feedback that way. So, that's what we're looking to launch next year. But no, I do not have any more information about the class of 24 or 21 than I did last
year. In one of your slides, you said something about online tracking. Um, what does that mean? So, the the college on college applicants, the colleges are tracking their online activities. Is
that what you're saying? In one of the slides, I saw that um where you had um I'm sorry if that's not up there. You said that you went into Navvian and you could track how many kids so far have
applied to Ruckers this year. Yeah. So, we get our college most of our college data from Naviance. So, keep that in mind. It's only as good as the kids give it to us. You know, when So, we we are pretty uh vigilant about having them update not just where they applied, but where they
got in and where they're enrolling. Um I don't I'm not sure what the question was, but I'm just I'm just I'm just wondering when kids apply for colleges nowadays the in the outside world there's a lot of things are happening about their activities online
about their support to certain things and is that affecting their college admissions? Well, I don't know. I don't know. I I will tell you I think some of the smaller schools that have a more manageable admissions office might do a
social media dive on an applicant. I don't know. But I do know that for the larger schools that are only able to accept 10% of their applicants, like it is a beast to figure that out. And I would imagine as much as they want to have an interview with the with the
candidate, as much as they want to look a little bit deeper, it's very it's hard to manage. So I don't know that their online activity has anything to do with their college admissions. I I couldn't say that for sure. And for uh Angela's question, I probably
have some answer. I think I searched some data website indicating Montgomery uh graduates uh this survival rate through the 4-year college is more than 90%. It's pretty high and uh I know a lot of our rock our student went to
rockus and across the board all the top leading schools usually the first year retention uh is between like about 8 to 10% of student will uh drop out from the from the first year to the second year. So that's another indicator for us to
think about when we sending our kids to high school. We really want to incorporate higher ed expertise uh advice what they are looking for and then we can better prepare our student to survive through the four year college
day. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate that. I have one question. Um you had 91% as the number for attending and you said out of that 91% 90 is uh to four year.
What's I guess it's a twofold question. I feel like that's a decrease from numbers that I've seen in the last say four years. I think that that probably has something to do with the amount of career uh college and career or the career standpoint of this. Um but maybe,
you know, could you shed some light on that and if if that it was a decrease and what that 9% is doing? I couldn't tell you what they're doing. Um it is something we noticed. It is a smaller class. So 383 compared to you know what
420s and 440s prior. So you know a couple of students choosing career over college could bring you from 94% to I don't know how many more than a couple but brings you from 94 to 91. But we hover around that 91 to 94% continuing um their education. That
that part's pretty consistent but it is a little bit down. I don't I can't tell you why. I don't know. Is there goes more again for the tracking of the what happens to them after you know they leave us. Um so of that 9% you know specifically though which students are
you have you been able to reach out to them through their alumni you know I mean if it was a gap year did they end up taking and deciding to go and start um you know the next year or what I don't have that information. I would only be speculating. So I don't have it
organized or like in any kind of valid way. Is there a way for us to communicate with our alums after leaving? So yes, I mean really it's almost like a it's almost like where people have been successful is through social media. Yeah. So that that's where
they've been successful like Dr. Wan was sharing when when the college admissions folks comes through, they know the Montgomery kids and they know they know they'll have data on the Montgomery kids and we're thinking that's maybe where we go as well like can you share that with us how our kids are doing in your
schools. So that's another thing that we're going to hope but I don't have anything to share with you tonight about that. And C, you happen to know for these kids when they accept the uh offer, do they have defined major or undefined? Depends on where they're
going. Um, do they share that with school? Some do, but it's usually an intended major, you know, and sometimes they will declare and let us know. So, we encourage to get as much information as we can, but again, our data is really
reliant on the kids. They've already gotten in. They're already they're on to their thing and then we're chasing them down to populate Navvian for us with all the accurate information. So there's room for error in there. But yeah, we can yeah I haven't I haven't I could pull majors. We haven't done that
to see what they're majoring. I mean I don't have that shared with you. I work in higher ed and then seeing that student come in with undefined major it usually take longer time for them to graduate. Yes. If they have a clear college goal and they working towards
that, it's uh faster. I mean faster all. Again, that speaks to why we're having our career. We're enhancing that career exploration part. We know our students have college goals, but they're going there without career goals. And so that, like you said, often leads to a fifth
year, a sixth year, or maybe not completing, right? Because they just they don't have that goal behind them. And we tell them the goal can change, but you should go in with a goal. And a lot of them are are we think are choosing colleges more based on career
than brand. But I I don't have any data to support that. I think that's a lot of what our conversation is with families and students. We're talking about you know why you want to go there and really digging into that. Um, and you know, most of the conversations we feel are we
feel some synergy with the families like we're going there because it also has the program that my daughter wants to study. So that's nice. Continuing on college, I wanted to ask some questions about APs. Okay. Um, so
we have 21 that are being offered. You said how many were given? 1,600. Uh so for the class for a year ago it was a little over 1500 and this year was a little over 1600. Um so that's being administered during the 25 season right
now. That's not just seniors. Okay. Uh and because I'm thinking to myself, wow, how many APs are these kids actually taking if there's only 300 and something of them and they're taking500? They're taking five APs in their senior year. I hope not. That's a lot. Um, so out of the 600 or so
students that took APs this year, around 275 were seniors. Okay. And so do you have an average uh how many APs does like the average student take? I don't. And like I'm thinking whether
or not we have a concentration. You may not have any of this information, but it's something that I'm really curious about. Yeah. Um if there's a concentration in the number of APS that are uh you know being
um taken by the same students. So you're talking um you know and then there's the outliers where there's a a student or a group of students that are only taking say one or two APs and not the five or six over their four years of of high school. What are those? What are those
courses, you know, and how can we maybe encourage and get more students taking some I mean, we have some I know that I think uh Miss Pino has I I would say it a million times too. I really would love
to see AP psych. I know lots of kids would love to see that. some things that are I know some things that are um a little bit more attainable for the whole gamut of the Montgomery student population. um you know and I'm curious
about where our concentration of APs is it a lot of STEM and and yes bio stats AP calc yeah I mean obviously we don't do as well in world language that's part for the course in the US versus the rest
of the world but um you could see our our you looked real quick at those three slides you showed it's high in the stem and I wonder if the the concentration is only among a a small group of students that are taking a lot of AP. Yeah, I I I
could pull enrollment for you if you wanted to see like enrollment. Um, so you're just seeing on these slides, you're just going to see average scores, but um I could pull enrollment for you if you wanted to see how many students were enrolling in the respective APs. How many students were taking multiple
APs? We could break that down. Any other questions for Mrs. Data? Um I have a very quick question. So in speaking with parents from other districts, um I've heard that you know like some of my friends um told me that
their kids in other districts were able to have uh dual enrollment credits throughout uh high school and they were able to earn so many credits that they saved um on even like one full year in
college. What that allowed them to do is to not take time to take the electives or the basic courses, but they were able to take uh double major without really a big strain on themselves. So, I asked my
son to look into the dual enrollment uh program at high school and it doesn't seem like our high school offers that many courses. Is that because this is a fairly new program in our district and are we going to expand that? Yeah, great
question. So, yeah, last year was our our launch and I would say it was a soft launch and it was not met with much interest which was interesting. So, we have less than 30 students right now
taking advantage of our our dual enrollment program. We were strategic in what we offered. So we our AP courses are not offered dual enrollment right now because students can already receive college credit for that. So we were intentional about offering dual
enrollment and again we needed to see what does this mean for a teacher? What does this mean for a student? How is this partnership with Satan Hall going to actually work and that is who our partnership is with Satan Hall. So we are looking at expanding a couple of courses for next year but right now um
we we got to take a closer look at the why. So, a few of the kids, uh, we do know some people that it a budget-minded decision. As Miss Velak shared, students could get a whole semester's worth of credit done in their junior and senior year, even with the courses that we
offer. We were strategic about the world language courses because that isn't that nice if you're going to go you you don't have to maybe take that as an elective in college. So, we have a wide array of world language courses. We thought that would be really popular. It wasn't. So, it's we we have to take a look at a lot.
I wonder if that's because it may not have been uh well advertised and maybe it wasn't advertised in time for parents to become familiar and take action. But maybe second year always hopefully. Yeah. Always. Yeah. So, like our our
senior English class, honors. So, we offered it at the honors level and mostly in world language. Um, we even have an art ceramics course that's for dual enrollment and um, senior English, English 12 honors. And so you can actually register for dual enrollment up
through October. So we were in those actual classrooms explaining to the students like you're in this class, you're taking it anyway and this is an opportunity. It just wasn't worth the $400. I don't know. I don't know. It's incredible like because I did not
realize the benefit of those uh dual enrollment classes until my friends told me said yeah like we did not have to pay for full year of basic college uh classes and instead my kid is enrolling
in uh dual major without really taking a you know heavy load of classes. So, so this year during the scheduling process for our juniors and seniors, the counselors in their one-on-one meetings were talking it up a lot more. Last year was like an intentional slow start last
year. Let's see what we're getting into. We did talk it up more with the students as they were registering for courses. We said, "You're, you know, you're taking honors French 4. Would you be interested in dual enrollment?" Because only certain teachers meet the qualifications to be a dual enrollment teacher. You need to have certain degrees and
credentials. So there will be some French for honors course uh sections that are not eligible for dual enrollment and some that are so because of the teacher in the classroom. So we did, you know, we we felt like we got more interest this year as we talked it
up to juniors and seniors. We'll see if they decide to go ahead and register and pay for it. I don't know. So but yeah, it's been it's going to be a slow grow, but we're not giving up on it. Any other questions for Mrs. Delata?
Fair enough. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you. Regarding, we'll now move on to committee representative reports. First up, MTA. Subbing in for Micros VP David Cordon. Good evening. Um this month the NCA
proudly offered um proudly completed its tradition of community support through one of our most anticipated annual events. Our from the heart production of Once Upon a Mattress was a tremendous success with the incredible collaboration of our dedicated staff, retirees, students, and the MHS
instrumental music parent association. The show was a true testament to the power of teamwork and passion. Months of preparation went into bringing this performance to life with volunteers contributing their time and talents in singing, dancing, sewing, painting, setting, and more. Our program cover
design contest engage the talents of students throughout VES, LMS, and Orchard Hill with an art display featuring all the submissions. We earned over $10,000, all of which is being contributed toward the MTA and the Instrumental Music Player Association
scholarship funds. This terrorist tradition began in 2001 and over the years 23 performances have taken place. To date, the MTA has awarded more than $165,000 in scholarships to students who exemplify excellence both in and out of
the classroom. This year, the MTA will be awarding five deserving students $1,500 scholarships, each virtually presented on June 4th. In addition, the MTA recently wrapped up its spiritware draft, which is another great success. Nearly all the collected items were distributed. Thanks for the generosity
and enthusiasm of the community. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making these events meaningful and impactful. Do we have any board member delegate representative reports? Board member. Yes, we do. Uh
county just go to my agenda here. uh Somerson County School Board Association meeting took place on May 8th. Um it was an exciting evening. We had our very own uh superintendent attending and
recognizing the Somerset County Teacher of the Year. Stephanie was present and um introduced herself and and shared some of her journey over the last 12 months. 12 months. Yeah. So it
was it was a very very uh nice event actually first time we had to move it to the bigger room. So um quite a good uh outcome there. Also a few of our members were recognized. Uh Maria Spina was recognized with new board member
certificate. Patrick and Cookie were recognized with a school board member certificate. So it was very exciting time uh for our school district. Um I think next meeting is coming up in October and also I think in March we
will have um again some recognition for and you were recognized as the first VP for the next two years for some county [Applause] school. I was very excited to be nominated with the correct name. Yes.
And I was introduced as Ana just for the record. Any other board member or delegate representative reports? I have a um NJSBA delegate assembly report. So NJSBA delegate assembly was
held on May 10th. There were three resolutions presented for discussion and a vote. Resolution one was introduced by Woodbury Board of Education and it proposed a policy change to formally
recognize Scholastic esports as an inter Scholastic activity eligible for varsity letters. The goal is to enhance student engagement, promote equity, and expand postsecary opportunities including
scholarships. Woodbury has already began awarding varsity letters to four esports teams participating in Garden State esports. The resolution aligns with New Jersey statues which allows but does not
require school district to award varsity letters for school sponsored intercolastic extracurricular activities involving competition with other schools. Esports are rapidly growing with over 100 New
Jersey school districts already awarding varsity letters in this arena. In this area, supporters highlight the benefits of esports such as improvement of social interaction, emotional well-being and acade academic motivation.
This resolution was over met with overwhelming support and it passed with 86 approval vote. The resolution two was proposed by the Franklin Township Board of Education
and it supplement school nurse certification requirements by removing the current bachelor degree mandate. Instead, it recommended that school nurses be required to hold a registered
nurse RN license and complete three school specific courses within 18 months of employment. This proposal res uh this proposal responds to a growing school nurse shortage in New Jersey where onethird of
schools report insufficient nurse staffing and the state faces a projected shortfall of 25,000 nurses by 2023. This resolution sparked a dynamic
discussion about concerns about narrowing standards and safety risks of hiring underqualified medical staff to care for students. The NJSBA resolution subcommittee recommended approval of
modified language that balances staffing flexibility with student health needs. The goal is to broaden um the goal is to broaden access without compromising care quality. This resolution passed with a
very narrow majority vote. The last resolution was presented by the kitten board of education and it uh and proposed state excused absences for
students participating in skilled trade activities supporting career exploration without academic penalties. The resolution highlights the vital role of skilled trades in building a diverse
self-reliant workforce and calls for equitable treatment alongside collegebound students who already receive excused absences. This resolution pass with nearly fully unified support.
Any questions? Any other reports hearing? None. Moving on to board committee reports. Assessment curriculum and instruction committee board member D. Good evening. I apologize in advance for the length of my report this month. Um we covered a
lot. So we met on May 2nd uh both virtually and in person. Um first we had the special education discuss a request to establish um MD which was um multi multiply disabled classrooms um throughout the district. So districtwide
and an emotional regulation impairment class at the high school. This comes after the evaluation of the district programs that are in place currently. The department would like to be able to provide more specialized programs to meet the individual needs of our
students. It also shared um that there will be a general Montgomery special education parent advisory group uh meeting on May 21st um where all of this will be presented to parents. Uh they also shared that students in
grades 5 through 12 whose parents uh gave consent were administered the best three and that stands for the behavioral and emotional screening system third edition. The BES 3 is a universal screener used to identify students who
might benefit from support or interventions. This screener helps us identify and plan supports for students who might be struggling with internalizing self-regulation or overall adjustment to the school. I think most impressive is that school counselors and
case managers um can meet with individual students whose results indicate that um follow-up is needed um on a case-byase basis and in real time which I thought was um really effective. A data presented at the meeting included the percentage of students who
participate which tapers as they get older with 83% in the LMS. Uh 74% in the 63 in the high school. 13% of LMS students who were screened required follow-up. 16% of students required follow-up and 9% of the high school
students who were screened required followup. Uh next we heard about uh a dance program um that will begin at the high school added to the program of studies for the 2025 2026 school year. Um this
comes uh based on a requirement by the new New Jersey standards in the arts area. This program will be uh standardsbased and integrated into the school curriculum. The new dance program will cover various genres. Um the
program will be offered to middle and high school students as part of the curriculum. Um the district will add the dance survey class to the program of studies for both the S and the high school. Uh it's aimed to fulfill the state's requirement and meet the
long-standing request of students for dance classes. A recent opportunity to hire a dance certified teacher will allow the district to implement the approved dance curriculum starting this fall. New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, the NJSLA, which we heard about earlier.
Um, testing began uh April 28th and the window is open until May 23rd. The makeup window is from May 27th to the 30th. Grades 3 through 9 are tested in ELA and math. Grades 5, 8, and 11 are tested in science. Results typically
become available in late August and early September. um AP which we've also heard about advanced placement window is from May 5th to May 16th and then we opened up a large math discussion. So Miss Borland shared information about our star math
tool which is an assessment tool that reviews the various data points including scaled score percentile rank and student growth percentile. Miss Borland analyzed students in math three, math four, math five, and math six and excuse me, and math six and six
integrated. She isolated the students in the top 90th percentile in the nation and determined the percentage of those students whose um grade point average exceeded 50%. In the 2023 24 school year, 81% of grade
three students in the 90th percentile percentile demonstrated growth exceeding 50%. 64% of grade five students in the 90th percentile demonstrated growth exceeding 50%. 76% of grade five students in the 90th percentile
demonstrated growth exceeding 50% and 86% of all sixth grade students in the 90th percentile demonstrated growth. In the fall to winter of the 2024-25 year, 76% of math, three students in the 90th
percentile demonstrated growth. 71% of math four students in the 90th percentile demonstrated growth exceeding 50%. 70% of math five students in the 90th percentile and 83% of all sixth grade students in the 90th percentile all demonstrated growth. This data
demonstrates that our top math students are not experiencing a ceiling effect. A follow-up question was posed by a um an ACI committee member. The question was, "What are the current pathways for students to complete AP Physics A, B,
and C before the fall of senior year college application deadline under the existing middle school math program? The clarification, sorry, it was clarified that at the high school only AP Physics C is offered to students, not AP Physics
A and B. It was also shared with the committee that in speaking with the high school science supervisor, AP Physics C is predicted on students physics background rather than their math background. The majority of students enrolled in AP Physics are either in
grades 11 or in grade 12. AP Physics 1, AP Physics 1, excuse me, is algebra based. In the 2024 2025 school year, uh it marked the first year that grade nine students were enrolled in AP Physics 1. Students concurrently enrolled in
algebra 2 or those who have completed algebra 2 prior to the 9th grade year are eligible for enrollment in AP Physics 1. As ninth graders, there is no honors mathematics requirement for AP Physics 1. The students currently
enrolled in algebra 2 and concurrently enrolled in AP Physics 1 are performing really really well. There will be more students enrolled in AP Physics 1 for the 202526 school year as a result of the success of students and the broadening of
requirements. Finally, AP Biology and AP Chemistry as well as all biology and chemistry courses at the high school are not impacted by the changes made to the elementary and middle school mathematics program. A follow-up question was also posed by an ACA committee member and the
question was, "What are the current pathways for students to complete AP Calculus BC AP Statistics before the fall of senior year, the college application deadline under the existing middle school math program? It was communicated that in the high school
program of studies, students who aspire to be enrolled in an AP calculus course their junior year, that's the 11th grade year, are provided multiple pathways. The ninth grade freshman class enrolled in algebra 2 or algebra 2 honors, depending on their performance, can be
enrolled in either pre-calculus or pre-calculus honors their sophomore year, which is their 10th grade year. Depending upon their performance in their pre-calculus honors course in 10th grade as juniors or 11th graders, um they can be eligible for AP Calculus AB,
AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, or other math courses. High school students who wish to take statistics can take a college prep level, either their 11th or 12th grade, junior or senior year, after successfully completing algebra 2 with a
70% or higher score. Students who wish to take AP statistics in their junior year or senior year with an 85 in statistics and 80 in pre-calculus, 80 in algebra 2 honors, or 90 in algebra 2. Almost done. High school students can
elect to take AP Calculus and AP Statistics concurrently so long as they meet the requirements or excuse me, the prerequisites. The AC committee was reminded that AP Calculus BC was previously discussed during the March 7th ACI meeting which are noted in the
notes. It was also explained that a middle school math progression chart exists on the website in order to provide the formula scores needed to identify the appropriate grade level course. There are only nine courses. In comparison, the math offerings at the
high school, which are 25, are not grade level dependent. The high school program of studies identifies prerequisites that are dependent upon a preceding courses completion and performance. A student's transcript will demonstrate a personalized course selection based on
their interests and post-secary education focus. On this transcript, you may see students take multiple math courses in one school year. In addition, there is no diagram because students are offered various opportunities that allow for them to define their own personal
pathway. A clarification about AP advanced placement offerings at the high school was provided to the committee in response to inaccurate information posed by members of the community. In the last three years, no AP courses have been removed. AP Physics 1 has been added. AP
Seminar, AP Research, and AP Seminar will be new for the 202526 school year. Finally, high school students who have exhausted course offerings in any curricular area have the opportunity to apply to take a course at an area, college, or
university. If the student is accepted and it fits into their schedule, the students are afforded the opportunity to attend. Thank you for listening. Questions or comments? Uh, I'll save my comments towards the
end because I think I did ask a couple of questions but wasn't documented there. If I can ask. Okay. Tried my best. There was a lot. Thank you. I know. Yes. All right. Well, now move on to
I do have. Yeah. Um, regarding and this might um superintendent might know the this but the additional uh MD class for VES, LMS, and the high school. Does that
mean we currently have an MD class at OES? We may or may not. It depends on the population. I have to ask. Yeah. LMS it currently. Right. Um but this would be an expansion of that
program. Correct. And um the ERRI I know we recently um put an ERRI classroom in at OS. This would be just for the high school, you were saying? Yes. For next year. for next year. Um, is the staffing for this already in place? Yes. Um, so
and and like so the MD classes, a lot of them are LLD classes right now, but they're just changing names based on the population. Yeah. All right. Um, thank you. Any other questions? All right. Hearing
none, moving on to operations, facilities, and finance committee board. The operations, finance, and facilities committee committee met on Tuesday, May 13th. Mr. Andrew Italiano provided a
summary of the finalized district budget for the 256 school year. The budget has been reviewed and formally approved at the district level. All required adjustments will now be submitted to the county for final authorization. Mr. Italanya noted that
surplus funds will be strategically reinvested into staff salaries and improvements to school facilities, ensuring long-term benefits for both personal and infrastructure. Mr. Talaga presented the
draft um RFP for selecting a new audit firm. Committee members were asked to carefully review the document and provide feedback. In addition, members were requested to confirm their a when they are available to participate in the
interview pro process with prospective auditing firms. He emphasized the urgency of finalizing a new contract before the current audit firm's agreement expires, underscoring the importance of a smooth transition to
maintain financial oversight and compliance. Mr. reviewed the cafeteria financial analysis focusing on the district's current agreement with national food services. The board review of the food services in is prompted by
continuous concerns about food quality, quantity, and variety. Mr. Diana recommended extending the existing contract through December, during which time improvements are anticipated under the leadership of a newly appointed
executive chef. Um, Miss Mary Pakin, our superintendent, addressed concerns regarding the district's continued participation in the National School Lunch Program. She explained that
shifting to charts was a response to the district's need to access federal resources and food distribution services during CO. Participation in a na national school lunch program was
essential for ensuring meal delivery and eligible to eligible students during co and remains critical due to the continued high number of students qualifying for free and reduced price meals.
Ex exiting the program will require a comprehensive financial analysis to minimize financial losses and to prevent any disruption in support for families in need. Miss Michelle Dreamer, the exe the
director of special ed services provided a clear and informative overview of the X8 reimbursement application process. She explained what what criterias um make the the district eligible to
clarify the distinction between in district and out of district placement as they relate to reimbursement thresholds. Miss Dreamer also addressed committee addressed committee members questions regarding the required
documentation and submission procedures offering clarity on the necessary steps for com to complete uh an a compliant application. She is currently finalizing the X8 submission for the current year.
The committee extended an invitation for Miss Dreamer to return to a future of meeting following the state's approval of the reimbursement amount to present the results of the current year submission. Any questions?
Hearing none move on to policy and communications committee member would like to turn. Thank you. We met on May 8th. Um we reviewed quite a few policies. Uh we had some questions in
regards to those policies. There was a policy 5465 that was scheduled to be abolished and it's an early graduation superintendent and I decided to have a conversation with Strauss Esmate to better understand uh the reason for the
abolishing of the policy. Also, there's a collective bargaining and contract approval uh policy 0176. I requested that we review that further um as there is currently a a policy that's
um uh also aligned with nepotism that's um presented and I would like to make sure that we're not duplicating policies. We've done the wellness check. I reached out to Shra's Esme requesting some support. Um so hopefully we'll get
to uh address some of the gaps that we've had uh identified. Um more on the policy 2435 NJSIA random testing. Um that policy also I don't know if you recall we reviewed random testing policy in the
past. So once again, we do have a meeting scheduled for Thursday with Strauss Esme to address some of my questions around uh the policies and the abolishing. Uh so a few of them we'll be approving and some of them will have to follow up in the upcoming meeting. Uh we
also reviewed the National School Public Relations Association follow-up communication survey. Uh a lot of you probably received it. The district once again partnered with the National School Public Relations and we did a follow-up communication survey. The survey opened
on April 10th and closed on May 2nd. Uh the superintendent is expecting to have um results in 3 to four weeks. There were 375 parents that participated, 77 staff members, and nine community members who responded to the survey.
There's also some changes being done to the MTSD website. The company that provides our website coverage was purchased by another company called Final Site and uh they have a lot more bells and whistles. So, we're working through
finalizing the transition uh to the new platform which I think will be a welcoming change. uh some of the additional topics that were discussed during our committee. Um if you are a community member and you reached out to the board of education,
you should see a new response uh to your email where we're thanking you for writing and giving you some additional uh messaging from the board. Also, I posed the question in regards to the fact that um I would like the tech
director to uh take a look at the security of the board of education email as today we're not getting them directly. They're first being reviewed and then distributed to the board. I requested that uh we have that changed.
So, I'm awaiting uh response. Um, also board retreat that came up uh and I think Maria is coming up with some uh few dates. So, we're looking forward to having a board retreat which hopefully will be scheduled in June. Um, and also
I would like to share with you that I'm putting together board of education member handbook that I'd like to distribute during our retreat for your um review and acknowledgement. I think it's a it's a tool for us to have a comprehensive view of our roles,
responsibilities, uh information sharing, all of those pieces will be included um for your review. Um we've discussed Machio's situation where we are from a contractual perspective and as you saw
they uh did a fabulous uh job presenting to us today and as I mentioned there will be a followup with Strauss Esme as I would like to continue a conversation with Strauss Esme around the policy and how do we continue improving the language that we have in place
today. Thank you. Any questions? Yes. Um the first question I have is about the National School Public Relations Survey. Um the 375 parents, I actually think that's a probably a decent amount sadly. Um it's
very hard to get people to respond to surveys. I think 77 for staff is a bit low and the nine community members is like always a bonus to get people who don't have. But have you found this is a a something that we've done over the years. Is that an increase or a decrease? We're gonna find out when we
go through the results. I have the results somewhere from last year. I just couldn't find them, but they're going to have them updated for me anyway. So, we'll have that in the next two weeks. Yeah. Okay, great. I'm very curious to to see what the change is and what the um the difference of perspective
is possibly. Um and then the other question um was regarding um your member handbook. Thank you for taking it upon yourself to do that. That's a huge undertaking. If you've already started working on it, could you
please share a draft with Patrick and I preferably before next Tuesday so that when we are setting the agenda, we can figure out how to best incorporate it as our planning meetings are coming up. My pleasure. Thank you. The board retreat will be held on June
19th and time is just it's probably going to be 4 to 7, but I know Miss Nordan said that she could not be here until 5 and so I'm waiting to see if we can shift that. Um I've reached out to find out. Hopefully we'll hear back as soon as I have confirmation. I'll send
out the final notice, but please put it down on your calendars because that will be the date. Um am I three minutes? Well done. Work. It works. Wrap it up. Test it. And then um one
more thing um regarding the the email. Thank you for the the very robust wording for, you know, the the revision of a of a automatic reply. just
to put it out there to the public that um the board of ed email address does get eventually forwarded to the nine of us. Um after if anything would go there that would need to be protected by HIPPA laws or anything like that, we would
need to I'm sure make sure legally that that is not sent to us for personnel confidentiality, student confidentiality, things of that nature. If anyone of from the public wants to ensure that an email gets to all nine of
us immediately, you can do so by using our first initial last name at MTSD. us and you can send that to all nine of us at once and not go through the the board email address as well. Yes. So that just
actually um makes me wonder if it's okay for a community member to address all of us individually and the email comes directly to us. I would say as long as we have it CCD to the board of ed or if we would forward it then to the board of ed email address that we all received a
copy of it if it wasn't addressed to all nine of us. Now my my point is that if it's okay for the for the community members to address all of us in the same email and it goes directly to us. What's preventing the
board of ed email which also has all of us to come directly to us? That's my question. Yeah, I think their filters were put on. I think if I remember correctly they were put put on because of spam issues and we also had individual board members responding
without the full board knowledge or sometimes more than five board members were on and then you're conducting you're yeah you're conducting board visit so I think those what that's why the filters were put on but again it's something we can address if we can alleviate those issues it's something we can address I I've actually had this conversation with some of the school
districts local school districts and none of them have that uh restraint right and I part of the The reason I'm bringing this up is because we had pretty intense uh discussions over the budget and when we got home from the meeting, we received a lot more feedback from the community emails because we
didn't see them right away, right? So, we should display those things real time and I just don't understand why we would want to uh prevent us from g getting the feedback from the community right away. I just like I said to your point if if
the email can be sent to all of us and it doesn't get filtered what's the difference if we have it underlined. So that's that was my my my request. I know that there was the day of the board meeting. Um there were some emails that came between 12:39 I think
and 400 p.m. But then there was a lot more that came between 400 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Um so the person's not at the office. So everyone received them before 8:00 a.m. in the next morning. So it was within 24
hours. I think the point is that it was after the meeting that the emails pertain to the meeting. So that's why to Anna's point uh it would be nice to to receive the emails from the community members in real time. That's you just said that some of those emails were
coming in as the meeting was going on. Yes. I don't think they're sitting here reading our email anyway. Personally, I mean, it would be nice to get them sooner, but it's a person who's working at the hours that they are work. It's 8 to 4 or whatever. And so, anything after
400 p.m. on a Friday, we wouldn't get until Monday. And that's how it goes with this particular email. And typically, it's checked like four to five times during the day. That was a board meeting day, so the person was very busy doing the board meeting things. and so didn't get to it till the
morning. Yeah, like I said, my comment was more about the fact that, you know, we shouldn't have the filter on the email. If it can be sent directly, it should be sent directly at any point. So, that was really the purpose of that example I used. Thank you. Uh question about the
handbook. So, the handbook you were talking about, is that containing information that is covered in um board member orientations or were you thinking about something different? So it's actually information um across multiple functions right so how does the
board communicate with the community to the point you were making how can they respond what's considered a quorum um the description of the board the roles and responsibility the voting when you vote yes what does it mean when you vote no what does it mean when you abstain
what does it mean um information about uh how we manage the board what's the expectation from the board right? How do we expect to be uh addressing the community? Just a bunch of things I've collected over the last three years here
that I've captured as potential, you know, I don't want to use the word gaps, but something that we don't have easy access to. We always have to reference back to NJSBA, which is pretty extensive website. There's a lot of information in there. So I consolidated it into some of
the things that I felt were important especially as we have new board members coming on right we can hand over the the handbook and that can give them a good start at understanding some of our roles uh responsibilities what's a committee um how does a committee uh get managed
you know who who picks a committee all of those things are kind of consolidated into that handbook but I will share it with you it's it's not complete yet but I will share it with you guys so you can take a look at Any other questions? All right. HRC met on May
14th, uh, 2025. As usual, um, most of the matters we discussed were confidential. Two matters I can discuss were, um, both VES and are involved in searches for their next vice principles. Uh we had over 90 applicants and
superintendent is expecting to make her recommendation soon and have them present at the June 17th board meeting. Uh second item we discussed were substitute rates for the 2526 school year which are on the agenda and our
letter 4.1 letter O. That's it. Any other questions comments? Keep it short. Absolutely. All right. At this time, I entertain a motion to approve the minutes of April 29th, 2025 executive session and April
29th, 2025 business meeting. Mr. Taliano, move. Second. It's been properly moved and second. Any questions on the motion? Hearing none, Mr. Ting on a roll call, please. Sure.
Dr. Wang, yes. Mr. Allen, yes. Sme, yes. Spiel, yes. Sarah, yes. Journigan, yes. Star gun, yes. Mr. Todd, yes. Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you. At this time, the board recognizes the correspondence to the
board. Action agenda items. Public comments. The board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public. Members of the public are allowed 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 discourageous remarks. The public comment portions of meeting are not structured as question and answer sessions, 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 through the appropriate chain of
command, usually starting at the school level. Responses may be provided at the end of this session from 300 Avenue. I just want to know which from me food. Can I talk about Mio food? I can't talk about food. Food.
Mashe 3.3. No, we can talk about food. Yes, it's 3.3 3.4 their contracts. We just want to give one one thing. I don't know meaning the thing is that uh I'm in a big group and everybody we didn't know about this one and I messaged them one thing that could
you please add more vegetarian option for the next year if there's and next number two that I know you are touched in the past but a few months ago there were in ves there were chips sold that were beyond expiry date and uh please if
you could the parents had just messaged that please tell the board that there should be some policy or some check that please We don't sell expired goods to kids and that's a only one small one request. So thank you. I just want to speak to the one comment. I appreciate the comment on the trips. I actually
went over there personally and I expanded on their process, how they check things in. They have the boxes that are dated. The process needed to be improved on how they check the ones that are on the line and I took care of that myself personally. So thank you for your
feedback. Any other public comments on action items? Going once. Going twice. All right. Public comments on a agenda items are now closed. At this time, I entertain a motion to accept action
agenda items 1.0 through 4.10. So move second. Been properly move accepted to accept agenda items 1.10 10 through 4.10. Any questions on the motion?
I have some question 2.4. Uh I see some students are being approved without tuition amount. Is it because they're still pending placement? Some out of district students.
Grades 10, 11, 11, 12. The uh incoming students that would be tuition paid. And then 2.4. Yes. Basically, my new secretary copied exactly what the folks did last year. I do have the rates. Okay. They're they're
state generated. They're on our website from the budget. The budget software generates them. We just use your resolution that you used last year. So, these are incoming students or they're going out of district. This is out of district. It says out of
district. So that means they're going to a particular school from No, they are students that don't live in our district whose parents have completed a application to come to our school. They've been accepted and they've been accepted to our school. Okay. And the
parents paying the tuition. So that so whatever our tuition is what uh the tuition correct the board correct non-resident tuition non-resident that's res non res and is there reason we're not putting
the tuition rate in here just yeah like I said just a moment ago I used your same resolution you folks used last year so this is my first u May meeting so I had my point of reference was your May agenda from last year so if you want that improved next
If I'm here, I'll put the red the rate on. Can we find out what the tuition rate is? Not on the spot at 10:18 at night. I can't do that. I think that the rates for the tuition reimbursements were on the agenda last month. So, we approved the rates for next year, which is how you folks did things last year
and that's what I did. That is You're absolutely right. They were correct. You're correct. You are correct. That's why it says board approved rate. Yeah. It's a 22 principal evaluation for professional learning observation instruments. There's no money involved.
Which one are you referring to? I usually don't speak to the twos. No, those are our evaluation tools. We just have to have the board approved every year. This is a this is a boiler print. That's the template that we use to evaluate administrators.
Just curious question. I think one more 3.5 this is um employee assistance program agreement with pen medicine. What what is this? That's for when we have to do evaluations for various
reasons and that is our doctor record. Somebody needs to be sent out somebody needs to be tested things of that nature. So, EAP is um a service that we provide to our staff and it's for mental health. If they decide that that they need some
help, they can use this facility. And then the last one is 3.8 athletic training services. So, somebody comes and does training to our kids and then the parents pay or we pay. Essentially, what this is is Oh, do you want to speak to an athletic trainer? So that's a
person who we have to have on site when we have sports activities in case somebody has an injury. An athletic trainer will be able to be the first person to assess the child before perhaps they need medical attention. Children go to the trainers before they go out on the field if they have an
injury. So and we have to have a service in case we don't have a trainer available. So that's a backup. Any other questions? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Mr. Chelaniano. Sure. Dr. White, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mina, yes. Fila,
yes. Sarah, um, yes. And abstain for personnel 4.1 to 4.1. 410. Yeah. All of it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, M. Yes. Yes. Mr. Yes. Thank you. Motions
carry. Thank you, sir. New business from the public. The board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public. 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 on 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 discregious remarks. The public comment portions 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 appropriate chain of command usually starting at the school level. Responses may be provided at the end of this session. Public comments are
now open. Thank you the opportunity. I'm here to talk about that what has quietly quite quite quite deeply affected the academic future of the children in the community. We have created a two tired system in Montgomery. Until recently, students who
demonstrate high aptitude and strong work ethics had a clear merit-based pathway to advanced math. With right support and performance, a student could take pre-calculus by 9th grade. That the pathway has now been closed to majority of them. But they are not capable. But
system has redesigned to do geometry at the highest level and even 8th grade. What does it mean? It means that most students are locked into algebra 2 in 9th grade unless unless their family can afford to pay for summer algebra 2, hire a private tutor and rearrange the
schedule for transportation. Only then can the child move ahead with pre-calculability. Let's be honest, this is no longer a system based on built-on merit. It's a system based on privilege. We have created an environment where two students equally capable and hardworking
are placed on entirely different academic path. simply because one family could afford to pay and the other could not. This is inequity doesn't end just in one grade level. If a child is algebra 1 or geometry in middle school, the same pattern continues. Families
with financial affordability can access two levels in one summer while a child of a parent working multiple jobs can only progress one step at a time. One one such student is a child of a single mom. She works two jobs, one day a day,
early at night, just to keep the lights on. Her son is gifted in math, loved in elementary school. But now she sees her peers leap ahead through a paid summer course while he stays behind. Not because he lacks talent, but because his mother can't afford private tutoring or
time off from work. He is slowly losing confidence. He's asking himself, why try hard in system is rigged against me? This heartbreakening question for a child to ask and when family raise concern they are told it only affects
minority. Let us be clear. Who are those so-called minority? They are the kids who believe in hard work. The kids who studied ahead, the kids who counted on the school system to see how they support them, how they give a fair shot. So I ask you tonight, if you truly value inclusion, academic excellence, we can't
ignore this issue. We were either restore a fair and transparent pathway to advanced math that open to all student based on merit or apply the current policy equal to everyone without any hidden workaround for families who
can pay. Every child government deserves an access opportunity. We owe a system that doesn't reward privilege or potential. A system that inspires them to work hard because they know it recognized. Let us not quietly build a two tire system and let us be one and be
fair to each other. Thank you. Karen can Karen Anderson. [Applause] Um emails. Can you put your emails back on the board of ed page? I don't believe they're on there anymore. I think they used to be and I once looked for them
because I figured out what they were. I don't trust I'll be honest I don't trust your board of ed because of what happened two years ago. You had a something in there that quarantine based on selective words which the board members could not read but it's good. Um
anyway I don't trust it so I do both. And if the instructions are to use your direct emails, please make those instructions clear to the people that are sending you emails. Um, could slate, I hope that makes sense. Just if you could share your
emails, that would be helpful. Okay, thank you. Any other comments from the public? Go once. Go close. Any new discussion items from the board?
Yes. Hello. I want to um thank for sharing the ACI meeting reports. I know it's a little bit long but contains a lot of information school shared particularly when the report said the data demonstrate top math students are not experiencing uh silly impact and how
the school demonstrated their path forward. Uh I don't think um some comments were included there. So today I made a a speech. So I want to uh illustrate some of the points that uh I talked at the uh at the meeting. So I
really appreciate the opportunity again to discuss the critical issue of our middle school mathematic curriculum and last months at the BC uh BOE meeting. Uh I made a move motion to a move align our middle school math curriculum with
higher ed expectations and ensure academic rigor is uh preserved. specifically restating the math pathways including pre-alggebra in grade five, algebra 1 in grade six and continue keeping the geome geometry in grade seven and algebra 2 in grade 8 to
providing the learning opportunities. Um I have eight points I want to talk about. My first point is understanding the student growth matrix. So administration highlighted that top 10% of the Montgomery student are still showing an adequate growth referring the
national growth percentile. It means that this high high performance compared to their national peers. Okay, they're still growing. So I think it's good to hear once again how strong our mountain students are compared to their national peers. So while this indicate positive
trend, it doesn't provide a complete picture. We should analyze the local percentiles by examining the growth across various different local percentiles tens 25ths 5th uh 50s 75s and 90s from the fall to the spring star
mass assessment. So this approach will offer a look at the growth trends from different starting points. So here is the graph I mean to ask and I I think I've asked about this uh graph since March and let me explain what it means.
Okay, these are the 10th percentile kids, 25th, 50th, 75 and 90s. This is their baseline assessment from the fall and the red line in uh indicate the uh spring after year they've learned with the school. You know what where they
look at the different uh skill level. So this is like I just created this illustrate. I don't have the real data. I did request it but um Mary said all the data is identifiable cannot be deacted to share with me but I think
this information is important for public and for board to understand how our student grow at different uh you know uh point after a year they've learned with the school uh where they are ending um
so those is what I mean by uh looking at the complete picture you know from different uh skill levels Okay. So this within this context then we can talk about who we're talking about why the key stakeholders such as teacher parents students and higher ed
asking for this learning opportunities. So that's my first point I want to talk about. The second point I want to talk about is importance of the program evaluation. So educational decisions should be grounded in thorough program evaluations. The previous removal of the
physics in grade nine in 2019. Later we stated after three to four years community advocacy underscores the need for careful assessment after before altering curricula. So that experience is a good example of how stakeholders
input and should shape academic programming. So we must consider stakeholders input outcomes from pilot programs and phased implementations to ensure changes serve our student best interests. Um there are two really good
textbooks I recommend and I also used uh in the past few years when I teach about program evaluation. Um I highly recommend administrators consider uh you know read about them and know about what program evaluation is. The same now is
true for this advancement and mass learning opportunities. At lower middle school, these opportunities were removed two years ago. Yet in upper middle school, the same pathway still exist for the current cohort, but not the on upcoming future cohorts. That means
offering geometry at grade seven and algebra in grade 8. So since its remote role two years ago, we've heard clear and constant feedback from teachers, students, parents, and higher ed experts urging the district
um to bring this opportunity back. Right. And speech as a board, I think it's our duty to acknowledge these voices and ensure they're part of any decision- making process. Any decision to remove or
restrict academic pathways, especially core curriculum, must be supported by strong evidence. The burden of proof lies in demonstrating that eliminating such opportunities still meets the needs of all students. Third, I want to talk
about the equity assess to advanced courses. Um, I think that parents uh talked about that in kids speech too. So he talked about that is like basically pushing the student to take the summer courses to meet the standards. So do you know what that
means? This is really introduced equity issue. So families students from families with greater financial means can afford this enrichment opportunities while others despite having equal academic potential are effectively
blocked from pursuing the same level of college preparation. Due to cost variance, the summer programs can run up uh up to 1,800 and that's on top of already high cost of living in this school district, including property tax and rent. Public education is supposed
to level the playing field, not tilted. If our curriculum structure forces some student to rely on private spending to stay on track with higher ed expectations, right, we are failing to provide equitable access to academic opportunity. We must ensure that all
students regardless of income have a fair chance to pursue the coursework that align with their goals and potentials. So first I want to talk about incorporating higher ed expertise. I really appreciate tonight uh Miss
Corey Mr. Corey presented the portfolio. Then once the time you can see what our Monty student want right majority of them want to pursue um higher ed they want to go with that track. So higher ed faculty are raising
concerns not to dictate the classroom logistics but to ensure the student are adequately prepared to succeed in college and beyond. ignoring their feedback risk creating a disconnect between what our student are learning and what they will need to survive in
higher ed and future careers. Um fifth I want to talk about the budget and staffing considerations. The administration sites budget and staff consideration uh concerns regarding reinstating the mass courses at lower
middle school and keeping this opportunity at the upper middle school. However, these courses are part of the core curriculum similar to ELA and science and this should be prioritized accordingly compared to elective courses. Moreover, these courses are
already offered at upper middle school for current seventh and eighth graders indicating the visibility with existing resources. Okay. Next uh six, I want to talk about addressing diverse learning needs and impact on stu uh student
well-being. So this issue is not just academic. It is also about student engagement with their own education. When student are not sufficiently ch uh challenged, they can experience frustration and disengagement. Research
consistently shows that student health engagement with their own education requires among other things like teachers and parent support an appropriate level of challenge. The consequences of dis disengagement can include behavioral quest problems and
potentially lower self-efficacy in addition to lost academic opportunities. So this connection between the academic fit and emotional health was acknowledged during the April BOE meeting when student well-being was
rightly brought up. But if we are serious about student wellness, we must also look at how curriculum impacts students who are not sufficiently cha challenged. For these students, school can begin to feel they're unfair, like their potential is being overlooked,
which we've heard multiple student representatives from the March BOE meeting. And many educational researchers have noted the missed academic opportunities can lead to long-term negative outcomes in both achievement and mental health. At last
point I want to talk about it the board role um on in curriculum decision. I really appreciate and said we're going to share a handbook to support new board members such as me. I really you know I appreciate that because for me as a new
board member I'm trying to understand what the board roles are particularly in the in the curriculum decision. So my understanding is at core the board of the education exists to represent the community. Our job is to listen carefully to the voice of the key
stakeholders, parents, students, teachers and expert and to ensure our educational decisions reflect the needs and values of the community we serve. If every decision in the educational system worked perfectly fine through the
administrative chain of command, there would be no need for an elective field. But we do exist for precisely this moment when diverse perspective need to be heard and thoughtfully oversight is required. I respect some of the board
members who may hold different views. I welcome open respectful dialogue. However, the dialogue must be grounded in transparency. Last month, I made the motion to reinstate the advanced mass pathways in lower middle school and keep
the current map um one of the pathways in upper middle school reflecting this overwhelming feedback from our community because more than 50 families submitted an appealing letter to the board asking for this opportunity in our middle
schools. It is also important to note that many of the families who were unaware of these opportunities had been removed for younger cohorts. In addition, many faculty from leading universities expressed concerns about the district's current core curriculum
alongside anonymous feedback from Monty teachers. Despite this, we did not pass the motion. So I think we owe our community a clear reasoning for the decision we make especially when they directly impact student academic trajectories. So what
specific issues do you see with bringing back this opportunity in lower middle school? Keeping that uh one track in the current opportunities in upper middle school that are currently in place in upper middle school right supported by teacher parents higher ed faculty like
what are the burden proof lying demonstrating that eliminating such opportunities still meet the needs of all the students. So that's what I want to say about this math day. Um, I want if any of the board members or Mary want
to provide input, welcome. Any questions, comments? We actually had the time that question because we we did spend a lot of time trying to raise um
questions and ask for information about the uh newly proposed math curriculum. So, um I would like to maybe either request a full presentation maybe to the full
board of what the new curriculum actually is because it seems like from the ACI reports we get very high level um overview stating that nothing to worry about. There is no change.
Everybody will be taken care of. all students uh needs will be addressed. But the the reason why I personally am a little bit concerned and skeptical is because not too long
ago we were facing uh a similar change in physics, right? When iples and hypo was introduced and physics was removed, instead of addressing the actual
issue why physics was not really um why students were not performing well in physics was because they they did not complete the required math level to be ready for that course. And instead of offering physics, let's say in sophomore
year to give the the remaining students extra time to complete the the the required math courses, we implemented iples and hypos. And that course is more of a survey course.
And what happened was that we heard even at the board meeting concerns from the faculty members and their concerns was that this was a course that did not have
textbooks, did not have proper resources. The teachers were not prepared to teach that course. And year over year students, parents raised a lot of issues with the
quality of that course and how students benefited from it. So now we are so physics you know and now we're going back to the physics because we realize that surveying course in area like sci
science class or math is really you know like I don't think it's a good idea personally. So now we have a similar proposal with math and math we had a really excellent program that as a
result of that program and opportunities that it created we have the national merit scholars. Now we have the amazing uh robotics team. All those students are so excellent and so
accomplished because they were presented and they were offered opportunities that were advanced in math and physics. So now if we take away that program and replace it with more
generalized survey program, I don't think like I just cannot understand how we are actually creating a better opportunity and stronger math path for our students. So this is something that I would like
to understand because from information that's being shared by ACI I cannot really assess that I don't know what kind of books would be used whether the teachers are prepared to teach that course. So in in about what like a month or two
we will be uh voting on a curriculum by then I would really like to understand what exactly that curriculum will be because it will be if we don't have the clarity I don't think this this vote with the new curriculum
will pass because like I will not be able to say okay I am for the change and then feel that I failed the students the same way as the students who took high bills of being failed.
Any other? I just want to say there was no change to the curriculum. It's been the same curriculum for many years now and the curriculum was already approved in January. That's program studies improve approved
in January, right? Not the curriculum. I would have to look. The only thing you see in the summer are I mean for a new curriculum. So any new courses that will be coming up and there's no in regard to what you're speaking of. There's nothing new. So maybe we just need to have another
conversation with a deeper understanding of what specifically will change, what stays the same, and whether or not we truly addressing the needs of each group of students. because we do have a
responsibility to provide challenges for more advanced students and then we do have a responsibility to provide opportunities for learning for other students as well as special needs students. So if there is a change that's
coming and parents are observing the changes right like there was a change in lower middle school and now the certain opportunities it seems like they are being taken away I believe like that we we well you're shaking your head Maria but like
because they're answering your question but you're still going on and the question has been answered there has been no change we approved curriculum in January that's It it wasn't but it wasn't it wasn't the same. Let me let me say it. There has was no change to that
curriculum. The I mean program of studies, right? The program of studies that was approved in January that's not curriculum was the curriculum was approved in January at the reorganization at the reory. Oh, so curriculum equal to program
studies. say we're both both but in January when we approve the curriculum isn't it for the remaining part of the school year and then during this uh summer then the staff works on changes to the curriculum
they rewrite some courses and then there is a new uh correct so nothing's going to change on this program so there's no new course there's no new curriculum for male for male. There was
a new dance program added and we already have a curriculum for that. I think maybe it's worthwhile to clarify the the concerns that parents have and have maybe examples of okay currently this is the path of the maybe more
advanced students that the that the student would take and the courses that they would take and maybe it would be worthwhile to just ask whether or not this year or next year whether or not the students same
type of student would be able to to take to have the same opportunities because we constantly hear the the concerns from the parents and I would not want to ignore them. To confirm what the concern is to confirm what what is the seems to
be the concern is that um algebra 2 in ninth grade would be the highest that a a student could attain by nth grade. they could no longer get
pre-calculus in ninth grade. So because of the pre-alggebra being bumped up from fifth to 6th. So then algebra 1 is at 7th, geometry is at 8th, algebra 2 is at 9th, pre-calculus would be at 10th,
calculus AB would be at 11th, calculus C would be at 12th. At any time during that they could double up. The only difference would be that There is no difference that when before if you had pre-calculus as a ninth
grader then you would take calculus AB as a 10th grader calculus C as an 11th grader and that's it. Everything is still being offered right there's no pathway that ends because um of the changes that were made years ago. But I
think like that the concern that the parents keep raising is that because right now that calculus C is available to a junior student. So when they complete a junior year that
will actually show up on their transcript when they apply to colleges. If the that student will be delayed by one year, right, and be able to take that course in senior year, then it doesn't really help them with the college application.
No, they will have had the ability to take it in junior year. But we just say that like in ninth grade, they will no longer be able to to take preal, which so doesn't it mean that like they won't be delayed one year with completing the full path, right? So
at this point there's nothing left for their path after junior year which is fine because that's when the college applications are already completed right so that's what they want they want to complete they want yeah the highest possible
three still in place it's still very much in place I I so I'll look up the two there have been two board presentations on the math so I I just don't know exactly where they are so I'm going to look for them and I will send them to the whole January agenda here.
Go ahead. 2.5 and 2.6 the program of studies got approved. I never see curriculum words hitted on there. So I'm surprised to hear curriculum got approved in January
agenda. It's Can you tell me which number? It's on page five. It's Roman numeral 16. 26. No Roman numeral 16 at the reorg meeting. It's a little different. Reorg
the one from I think it was like January 4th. 7th. January 7th. Okay. Part of reorganization resolution. Are you looking at the board meeting or the reorg meeting?
Yeah, there's two in January. first one that probably because uh according to NASA said NJ recommended by May sometime I'm surprised to see again new board member like first day ask me to vote something
that people were not aware of this is a little bit shocking to me 16 so there was better yeah there was a change juniors can take AP calculus uh they're in their junior year with taking
algebra 2 in freshman year. It's based on their performance as Michelle read from the notes in ACI. Correct. So, I I'll look up the two prior presentations and then just if you could read the ACI notes from today because I think it was very specific in terms of, you know, the data that we have in front of us. I
think what I'm having most struggle with is is the idea of, you know, we're talking about data and we're talking about proof. Where is the data and where is the proof that kids are not being challenged and that are not doing well in the math program? Like that that's what I worry about because we're talking
about all of these hypotheticals that they may not be challenged or they may not get to but there's no data and there's no proof that shows that students are not being challenged in the math department. So that that's where I I question is
because some programs were there before which are not there now. They're still what programs some math uh programs course that was there previously is still there and they still can take them all within their tenure as
a student here. No, the track for um grade A's take algebra 2 and ge geometry at grade seven is gone. And I wonder why for neighbor neighborhood school district like hope they offer that and parents pay lower property tax. they have that learning opportunity but we
don't and also why that learning opportunity exists for older cohort but not for younger one is that because our younger ones are not ready as older cohorts to do that so I again I think to better understand how our multi-
students are progressing from elementary to middle school especially considering that taxpayers here contribute over 100 million annually to our schools it is essential to understand this information reported to the community. So I think this question is to Mary. You previously
noted that student assessment data are identifiable and you cannot deduct uh the identifiable information to share with me for analysis. So in that case then I'm asking like can you present a summary of the results as I mentioned
here and share the assessment outcomes with the public the local percentiles. Second, and and we all know enrollment has been steadily declining. For example, in school year of 2019, including preK and kindergarten, Monty
has 4,660 students. In contrast, for last school year 2024, including including preK and kindergarten, the number is down to 4,459. So at the March ICI meeting, I asked how
many uh eighth graders from upper middle school have not enrolled at our monty high school in the past five years. I think understanding our retention rate is very important as this is identifying the reasons family chose to leave the
Monty school district. I think as you as you're the leader of the school district, I really appreciate to hearing your thought on this. So, was the data shared with you at ACI? I don't have that right at my fingertips. Oh, you don't understand my question?
Which data? No. What data are you talking about now? I don't have that. I don't have data right in front of me at a board meeting at 11:00 at night. You don't have to give me data now. Is that the question? The 8th to 9th grade? No, I think she's asking how many kids leave the school district of 8th to 9th grade.
Yes, that's from when they move up to Monty High School that leave and don't go to Monte High School. Correct. Was that shared at ACI? No, that was not shared at ACI. Was that asked at ACI? That was not asked at ACI. Yeah, I asked I said in the in the Excel file in
March. So, the school administrators that Well, I was going to say that that might have gone straight to the school administrator. There's lots of questions that I is it clear that courses still exist? Is that clear, Joanna? in terms of I think we're talking about two different things. There's courses that
still exist and then there's different pathways or tracks or however we want to call it depending on the individual strengths and challenges of students. Okay. But this the courses still exist but I just heard her say that trick was or geometry or yeah geometry do not
exist in upper middle school anymore. They do exist in high school. No, geometry does exist. Geometry is still in the upper middle school right now. But you said we approved the new curriculum. When I go to Blue Atlas, when you pull out grade eight, geometry is gone
because that's the track they eliminated. So, two things. Um, one, in January when we have the reorg, we are not approving curriculum that's new. We are just reapproving whatever was
approved in August because there are new members joining right now. The actual curriculum approval is in August and in August we go through all the courses and this is where we have a list of existing courses and then we highlight a list of
new courses. Right? So because we anticipate that vote, this is why this conversation is important to take place right now. So there are no surprises, right? Um what was it like a month?
Yeah, like last month, uh there was Jason Sullivan, um Jen Fredell, and and Fiona, right? So they came to the podium and they were addressing some of the comments that um
Tanger made and they made a statement that they have been working on the new math program for 2 years and they would be heartbroken if they would not be able to move forward. So this is why I
struggle with reconciling what is being presented and what exactly will be changing in the upcoming school year or in the future years because they didn't specifically say that there will
be a new program and the way they explain it a new program for what for math who said that it was Fiona that at the volume I think at the at the time it was Fiona Jen and Jason, so I just want to really get in
next year's program of studies only geometry is the highest math for eighth grade. That's in the program studies. But in the curriculum applas, when you search grade 8 math, it's gone. Geometry is not there.
The geometry because math 8 is just a math 8 course. Algebra 1 and geometry are their own discrete courses. They are their own courses. Does not matter if it's being taught at a middle school level or at a high school level. Geometry is a course of the course. Yes.
But now it will eliminating eighth graders to take that not geometry. So you're Oh, sorry. Not geometry too. Yes. Geometry will be the highest math class. Geometry. Geometry. Geometry will be
there for eighth graders in two years. Thank you. last year for algebra 2 algebra 2 is what is gone that is why the issue is and for you I'll tell you one thing excuse me public comments are over thank
you wrong direction any other comments or discussions on this hearing none I'll entertain a motion for adjournment yeah I'll I'll Y I we need to be really really clear on this. I I'm determined to be very clear on this. Um
but again I think we need to be very prescriptive in terms of where is the data that shows that students are not being challenged as as long as the everybody agrees that the all the programs are there but the
question is the pathways is pathway is there for everybody who wants to take or it's restricting certain kids at certain age that they cannot take I think the question is that about the pathways of course the schools have geometry schools
have calculus schools have everything but who can take it that's the question basically that's what uh I think the board member team you can take right I don't misspe but if students meet the prerequisite they can take the next course so the pathway is there and the
courses are there does that make sense the pathways are there and they have to ask student take the summer course that's introduced in equity issue and the data I don't know where is that that's what I'm asking for is like you really need to demonstrating eliminate
such opportunity still meets the needs of the students you eliminate this still all the student at different skill set you know they still feel challenged within the uh right challenge they receive the right challenging I thought data was shared at ACR that showed that
there is no and that's what my first bullet point I talk about is they shared is with their challenge with the national pe that's different national percentile is different from local percentile local percentile is me compared to myself baseline pre-est post
test I feel I'm challenging you know this whole school year it's not I feel like I'm growing better than another version of another person nationally nationally we already know Monty is very strong you know even in New Jersey Monty is very strong already and then we need
to know his local position That's usually what teachers use instead of the national. So the information shared is good to hear once again how strong our multi student are compared to the national pe. But then the real the real
core issue is themsel compared to themsel in a year learning with the school. Have they been feel challenged? Have they improved? That's called growth. That's exactly what this plot was talking about. Somebody with
excel skills sorted the scores from low to high can easily plot this out can be a fascinating project for seniors when they take AP senior uh AP seminar. I saw the data that showed that
even she used the top 10% that's what you kept speaking of and that's why she showed only that portion um and how every year they progress which means they are not hitting the they're using a national one. It's not. No, their personal scores are progressing. Oh, that's they compared to their national
ones. Again, they're not using the local personnel for fall and spring. That's the national center. Well, it says that they're academic peers. Academic national because they use the national data.
Well, I'm assuming that that's the metric that we've always used. I mean if that's always a metric that we've always I'll be very surprised because usually teachers using local percentile would you say star some of the some of the act the um the assessments must have some of
that data I mean yeah I'm saying that we'll look into that itself yeah the report shows you the national percentile not the local one but usually for teachers they use the local percentile what do you what do you mean
local haveund students and you sort there's test score from highest to the lowest. The bottom 10 students are called 10th percentile the average score and the top 10 students are the top 90th percentile. So that's called local and you compare pre-est in the fall post
test in the spring you compare to see their mean if they grow anything a little bit. Isn't that we get from NJSLA? Yes, that's what we get from NJSLA. NJSLA uh got the uh snapshot of each cohort at one step in so you can't
really comp it's not apple to apple when you trace that wants it tested in the fall winter spring and to show growth well if you look at the NJSA you can see more than that's how also presented uh talked about the February BOE meeting more than a quarter of the percent of
students exceeding not just meeting expectation but exceeding that that means they're not challenged They're so ready to learn. Well, you can't just unfortunately have a child that is exceeding in algebra 1
and say, "Oh, because they're exceeding." That's why we're asking students, they're going to block them into a different course that they're they, you know, like that doesn't work. So, that's why I said like you cannot assessment is only going to give you from K through eight. And stars, that's
why I'm asking. You brought up NGS. I want to talk about NJS NJ MJ assessment as too. Okay. Well, if you want to talk about assessment, I can go semester session about it. So, I'll stop it for now. Any
other comments or questions? Number nine. I'll entertain a motion to object. So, second properly move second. All those in favor say I. I. All those in favor say right. Citrus.
Thank you guys for coming.