good evening everyone and welcome to the Tuesday February 25th 2025 Board of Education meeting at this time I'll entertain a motion to reconvene and Open Session second and properly moved and
second to reconvene an open session all those in favor State I I right all those opposed same right any extensions motion carried this time I ask you to please rise to smop the flag I pledge to the flag of the United
States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible andice at this time we'll have the Montgomery Township School District student representative report hi so I'm going to start of this
January so beginning of January we had our National Honor Society induction ceremony uh where we had around 70 students from uh our Junior and senior years and acted to the National Honor Society for the academic performance and
Leadership within the school we also had a winter captains breakfast for the leaders of our school sports teams who learned from am M alumni how to manage the stress of being a student athlete additionally our year two leadership
program uh did the baby project in which they used uh fake babies to simulate um how to be a parent also our unified basketball uh season started and our team has already had U multiple wins since the beginning of January also from
the 21st to the 24th of January the yearbook Club took Club photos we've also had um a lot of senior nights within our Sports to celebrate the seniors that are graduating as well as the ending of some of our Sports
Seasons and the Yearbook Club has also um decided on the Senor superlatives which will be in the school year book which will be coming back the end of the year going into February the school has started um has been celebrating Black History Month our black student union
has hosted multiple events and has also created displays in the front of the school our sports teams our swim wrestling and uh the hard basketball are continuing to have a lot of uh very large winds in the area and our hockey team won County
championships and the um previous week we had the mon police come to do a think fast interactive assembly for the junior year class to teach junior year students how to Drive SE thank you so this time we'll move on to
superintendent's report super M good evening everyone I have some good news to share we did receive the amended shared service agreement from the Township it's under attorney review and we will keep you all updated on its progress the Science Olympiad team at the high school
is excelling clinching the first place in by a considerable margin at the University of Pennsylvania tournament and securing fourth place at MIT which is known as the toughest competition in the nation states will kick off on March 11th we wish them the best of luck and
we are eager to see what lies ahead for them our unified basketball team hosted two home games at MHS season and one against Hillsboro the gym was packed with Spectators the cheerleaders put on an amazing halftime show our students continue to demonstrate SP school spirit
in every way course selections for the 2526 school year is well underway students have entered courses into Genesis and counselors have been meeting with them individually during their study halls to review their course requests provide guidance on graduation requirements to maximize their academic
growth this is an exciting time for students as they create academic plans and take important next steps in their High School Journey this month ums had a lot to celebrate the semester changed and students began their new elective and cycle classes students meet their in
small teams to reflect on their academic successes from September uh from the first semester and prepare for what semester 2 will bring outside of the classroom we are very proud of our boys basketball team for their Championship Game this year this is two years in a
row our students had the opportunity to take the AMC math gate exam and we are excited to share that nine of our students placed from our school finally be sure to buy your tickets for the ums production of High School Musical Junior
shows this Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 2: and 7:00 p.m. tickets can be purchased on the school website at LMS the PTO sponsored duck tape the principal was held on Thursday Fe feary 20th it was hugely successful
event that raised over $1,000 for the school and kept Miss romano and Mr Puda hanging from the wall for 2 minutes each the LMS interact Club did an outstanding job collecting a huge food inventory to donate to the local
montgomry Township food pantry we have two presentations tonight we're going to begin with our school board attorney Mr Stevie Fogerty and he is going to do the hi training for the Board of Education members good evening uh I'm step FY I'm the attorney for the Montgomery school
district and I'm here tonight uh to present uh your ual training on harassment intimidation and bullying with a focus on the board's responsibility with regard to the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh and uh good evening to members of the public so I want to begin by saying that
uh harassment intimidation and bullying while it is handled in our school districts by our anti-bullying Specialists uh and our principles now who under under the board's policy have discretion initially as to whether or not a case is going to move forward as a
a harassment intimidation bullying investigation thank you I appreciate the height there as a harassment intimidation and bullying investigation or a code of conduct uh investigation our principles now have that discretion uh but in large part uh this responsibility uh Falls to our anti-
building Specialists uh the legislature in its Infinite Wisdom determined that the Board of Education should be the final arure in these cases uh so unlike uh disciplinary uh uh decisions with regard to the disciplinary action uh that fall to our principles and also to
our superintendent uh they do not uh they're not presented to the Board of Education unless there's an appeal a direct appeal uh harassment intimidation and bullying doesn't require a direct appeal uh these cases go to the board of education and you are the final Arbiter in these
decisions uh they regardless of whether or not the parents seek an appeal the board makes the final decision in all harassment intimidation and bullying cases so it is important that you understand uh how important your role is as the final decision maker in these
cases uh certainly my experience here in Montgomery is that our board uh does not rubber stamp these decisions uh they go through the uh uh the uh not only the appeal process uh but they go through the process of looking at each of these cases that are presented by the
superintendent uh to the board and that happens on two separate occasions uh but what I want to do first is I want to begin with and I know we have two relatively new board members so I want to go through this process uh to talk about uh what the uh essential elements
are of harassment intimidation and bullying why is this important it's important because when the board reviews these cases uh the board has to has to ultimately be comfortable in reaching a final decision uh with regard to the
elements of the statute the elements of the anti- bulling Bill of Rights so you see that we are looking at are the essential components here that it is uh either a uh an act that is a physical act it is a communication it is
something that happens uh electronically on social media it is those things that happen uh on our school campuses uh in our schools at a school sponsored event or outside of school and so we often say that this is a
247 uh uh uh responsibility uh we have to investigate those things uh that happen that happen outside of school uh those things which we often think should be outside of our jurisdiction outside of the Long Reach of the administration
and the board but it is not we have to investigate allegations of harassment intimidation and bullying uh regardless of where they occur uh whether or not they uh whether or not we impose discipline uh uh depends upon whether or not that conduct uh results in a
substantial disruption to our schools uh very different a very difficult burden uh with regard to imposing discipline uh but uh that doesn't obviate the need for us to conduct the investigation to determine whether it is harassment intimidation and bullying so
when we talk about harassment intimidation and bullying we're talking about discriminatory conduct that is that that is directed or targets uh a student in the district that is reasonably perceived as being actually
uh uh uh actually motivated by actually or perceived to be motivated by discrimination important for me to note here is that we are always looking at the perception of the victim we are not looking at the motivation or the perception of the offender so whether or
not the offender intended for the Discrimination to Target that individual whether or not the offender has the cognitive ability uh to make those decisions uh whether or not uh the offender is contrite an apologetic and says he did not or she did not intend uh
for the harm to be caused is not relevant to a determination of whether or not the offender has committed an act of harassment intimidation and bullying all of those things are relevant to the consequences so if we are dealing with a a child of 10 year
years a young child if we're dealing with an offender who's cognitively impaired who has educational disabilities if we're dealing with an offender who immediately apologizes and contrite for his of her actions that go to that goes to the consequences it
mitigates the penalty it does not change the outcome as to whether or not that discriminatory conduct meets the requirements for a finding of harassment intimidation and bullying under the law as perceived by the victim so um not
every Act of discrimination meets the requirements for harassment intimidation and bulying we all understand that when one student or with an employee keep in mind that this that this law protects students against students and students against our employees our contractors uh
uh uh our volunteers so it protects students but it protects students uh against other students as well as our employees and not every Act of discrimination is going to meet these requirements I think we can all agree
that whenever uh something offensive is said to a student something that's embarrassing something that's humiliating they are going to be offended by that we're all going to be offended by that but students particularly when they are confronted with that kind of harassment it is
offensive and they recoil from it and they feel badly about it the question is does it languish does it continue are they able to get past it and so the law requires for a finding of harassment intimidation and bullying not only that the conduct be offensive but that it
substantially interferes with the rights of the victim and so if the victim is able to get past it if it is temporal if it doesn't continue throughout the day or beyond that day then it doesn't meet the requirements for harassment intimidation and bullying which doesn't
mean that there isn't a consequence what it means is that the consequence then falls under the code of conduct it is not an affirmative finding of harassment intimidation and bullying so we look at the the characteristics uh of uh
of the individual we look at whether or not those characteristics are met and I want to get to them quickly and come back so those characteristics that we're talking about are race and color and religion and ancestry and national
origin and gender sexual orientation gender identity and expression mental physical or sensory disability which falls for the most part to our special education population students with educational disabilities and then we also look to other distinguishing
characteristics so I want to what I want to emphasize here is that when we talk about discrimination that targets a student based on a distinguishing characteristic those distinguish distinguishing characteristics are all of those characteristics in the left-and
column and the right hand column so it's the so typically we think about discrimination based on race or color religion or ancestry a national origin but it can also be based on anything else that disting es you and I from everybody else so it can be our it can
be a facial disfigurement it can be our weight uh it can it it can be it can be uh our our hair color uh it can be our lack of hair our physical features any of those characteristics that distinguish us from anybody else are
protected categories under the anti-bullying build rights so we know it can happen on school property on a school bus a school sponsored event or off off of school grounds we also know that the discipline that's imposed when we are talking about
off of school grounds can only be imposed on the offender if we determine that that discipline is necessary in order to restore essentially health and safety law and order to one of our schools so let me play this out for you
let's say that there is off-campus conduct something happens on social media something happens at a sweet 16 or a bar mitzvah or a sleepover party or it happens at or where it happens at a recreational activity outside of school
and we conduct that investigation and we find that yes there were discriminatory comments let's say there were racial epit that were that were said at a sporting event outside of school we determined that that happened we determined that it substantially
interfered with the victims rights yes that constitutes harassment intimidation and bullying we are going to provide interventions and support to the victim and probably interventions and remedial support to the offender but we cannot
impose discipline on the offender unless we determine that that discipline is is necessary in order to restore safety the health and safety of our schools it is a very heavy lift it is a very heavy burden we we do not see many cases in
which uh that uh that burden is actually satisfied so again we conduct the investigation we provide support and interventions we cannot discipline the offender unless we find that essentially that conduct has turned one of our schools upside down and we need to
impose discipline in order to restore health and safety so what is reasonably perceived mean so what it means in simple terms is it doesn't actually have to be motivated by any characteris of the victim the critical question is whether the victim
felt that the victim was being targeted so if in fact we have a situation where a student calls another student gay it doesn't have it certainly does not have have to be the case that that student is actually questioning his or her sexual orientation it is whether or not the
victim feels that he has been targeted for that particular reason if there is an anti-semitic remark that is made toward a student and it happens that the student that it is directed to is not Jewish that is not going to result in that is not going to result in the
offender not being found to have committed an act of harassment intimidation and bul so that's what that means it doesn't have to actually be motivated by the characteristic of the victim if it's reasonably perceived to be targeting that victim even based on a
false assumption the alleged Defender lack of understanding of the conduct does not changed the finding so you can see here that this case and these cases are often litigated uh if if there's an appeal and we've certainly had a fair number of
those in Montgomery regrettably where board where the board has made a decision and there has been an appeal to an administrative law judge or to a commissioner so you can see that in this case it really illustrates the point parents here appeal to finding that their fifth grade son committed an act
of harassment intimidation in Bine when he touched a female peer private parts uh while sitting in the hallway the parents alleged that their son didn't have the ability uh because of his cognitive disability to actually to actually understand that touching this
young lady in her private parts would be offensive that it would be a sexual assault that it would be sexual harassment and so both the board and this case the township the Board of Education of the township of Jefferson and the administrative law judge and the commissioner said you know what we're
looking at the victim here and when you touch someone in their private courts that is sexual harassment or sexual s which is per se harassment intimidation and bullying we are going to look at the offenders uh U behavioral disregulation in this case emotional regulation
impairment to determine what the consequences should be but it is nevertheless going to result in a finding of harassment intimidation and bullying again the case highlights the fact that we look always to the victim and I know that for us as a board this
has often been challenging you know particularly where where we have an offender you know that is apologetic and contrite and is sorry that that that that the offense has that he or she has caused an offense to the victim that goes as again that goes to the the
consequences not to the finding of whether it's harassment intimidation and bullying substantial disruption or interference and so what we find is that the majority of cases that are appealed are appealed based on this requirement
and as I said to you every time there something offensive is said to a child it is offensive upsetting and it causes and it causes certainly a degree of of of of of emotional upsetment for any child the question is is it substantial
is it a substantial interference those words were chosen carefully by the legislature because not every Act of offense or discrimination should be treated as harassment intimidation and bullying because keep in mind that the result of a fing harassment intimidation
and bullying is that it becomes part of the child's permanent record for the entire time that he or she is in the Montgomery school district and so that happens for two reasons it happens because the legislature has decided that conduct that constitutes harassment
intimidation and bullying should be treated more seriously than a code of conduct violation it also it is also important because 2 years ago the regulations were revised to provide a free strikes provision so that if a student actually commits an act of
harassment intimidation and bullying uh three times after the third time there has to be a behavior intervention plan uh essentially a behavioral contract between the school district and the student and the school district can also require that the parents undergo parent
training so that they can better advise uh their children on the consequences of harassment intimidation and buling so there's a twofold two there is a a two-fold obligation there and uh most of these cases as I said go forward with a challenge on this basis parents saying
fam saying it's not that this didn't happen it is not that my son or daughter didn't do something wrong but they are very concerned about this label of of uh of of bully of harassment intimidation and bullying which attach attaches to the students permanent record I know
this is something that our board has struggled with and for members of the public all of these cases uh are discussed deliberated on by the board in executive session there is never a public discussion about these cases in order to ensure the Privacy rights of
the families that are involved in this often multiple students not only the the the offender and the victim and their families but also students who become Witnesses in these cases so again we're looking for a specific and significant disruption a specific and significant
disruption not the fear of it not catastrophizing about what could or might happen but this has got to be determined on the basis of the investigation which is limited um uh to a 10day to a 10 school day period of time to determine whether
in fact that student uh whether or not his conduct manifests itself in that student in a specific and significant way and so these are the things that are anti-bullying are Specialists look for it's also the things that our board members should be looking for as it
affected theud students attendance their grades do they want to be moved to a different class are they acting differently is there a physical manifestation um uh does the incident create disorder in the learning environment essentially we're looking for something beyond the initial
reaction to the offense uh that that student has experienced reporting timelines and investigation procedures so the reporting timelines and there's no wiggle room here uh there's no flexibility in the joints on
this uh uh reports have got to be made by the uh individual who actually hears sees or is told about an act of harassment intimidation and Bing uh you can't pass this on to somebody else our par professionals have to report it our teachers have to report it our
contractors have to report it and board members have to report it so board members are also included in the statute as initial reporters and so it must be reported to the principal on the same day that it occurs and then the law requires that within 2 days that there be a written
memorialization of the report that goes to the principal now as I said we have something in the in in the policy that is permitted by the statute that's called the principal's discretion and so what that means is we have this form now that has been developed uh by the commissioner of Education it's called
the 338 form it's available on the district's website the 338 form is essentially the Complaint Form that is filled out in order to initiate an HIV investigation now the principal's discretion is very simply that when the 338 report comes into the principal the
principal is required to look at that report and assume that everything in the report is true not do a mini investigation not interview students not interview families not interview teachers but to look at that report and say I must assume everything in this report is true and if it is does it meet
the initial threshold for this to go forward as an HIV investigation or do I refer it to our the assistant principal or to myself to be investigated under the code of conduct so what's the initial threshold the initial threshold is an act that is discriminatory and
targets a student based on a protected category if that is in the report the 338 report and it is checked off by the family by the teacher uh by by the student and they can also report anonymously under the statute if those
boxes are checked off we must initiate an HIV investigation if the principal looks at that report and when would that happen that the principal would say I'm going to exercise my discretion not to go forward that would happen when the principal looks at the report and the report says that a that a that a family
member that a parent has reported that their son or daughter was bullied and they were bullied because they were on the school bus and somebody sitting next to them said I don't like you I don't want to sit next to you anymore and I don't want you in our friend group that would not be an HIV investigation that
would be a code of conduct investigation why because there is no discriminatory conduct there is no victim that has been targeted because of a protected category so we didn't always have the principal discretion in Montgomery that's a fairly
recent change in our policy and there is of course checks and balances there under the statute and under our policy now um the principal if he or she decides not to go forward with the investigation must confer with the superintendent the superintendent has
the ability to Trump that that decision and to require the investigation and to ensure that uh principles are doing this with Fidelity there's also a requirement in the statute that the superintendent report to the board on an annual basis the number of cases in each school where
the principals have decided not to go prop so the Board needs to be aware of that again so that we can be sure that uh uh these uh that the the statute and our policy is being implemented appropriately so principle makes that
that determination as I've said it goes forward we then uh uh we then have uh 10 school days for that investigation to take place uh it must happen within 10 school days we can't extend the timelines it's got to be completed within that period of time that report
goes back to the superintendent superintendent reviews the report and makes a decision superintendent's decision is what the board is reviewing and ultimately if a parent disagrees a family disagrees what they are appealing um and so the superintendent
looks at that report ultimately then moves that forward to the board it must be move forward to the board at the board's next next regularly scheduled meeting after the 10 days are concluded so the first time it comes to the board it comes for advice not advice and
consent superintendent meets with you we meets with you in executive session reports to you that there's been an HIV investigation these are the findings this is her decision you do not take any action at that time and also the superintendent has uh
uh any number of things that she can do in terms of her own uh imposing her own interventions and discipline or counseling if she believes that uh what has happened thus far has not been sufficient you know this is one of the this is a statute that invests in the superintendent uh the ability to
essentially uh impose all of those interventions if she thinks that it's appropriate so as I said the results go to you at the at the next board meeting uh you uh take a look at that you understand what
the allegations are uh you know what services have been provided what training has been provided and what discipline has been imposed that's the first uh uh uh the first time that that's presented to you as a board after presented to you for the
first time par are notified of the superintendent's decision and they are that has to happen within five school days after the board meeting uh they are told uh uh the parents are told of the nature of the investigation this would be the the victim's parents and the offender parents uh whether the district found evidence of harassment
intimidation and believe answer that that that is going to be based on the superintendent's decision whether discipline was imposed on the offender not the nature of the discipline but we do tell parents of the victim that discipline was imposed and services were provided assuming that that is the case
we do not tell them the extent of the discipline that is imposed at that point parents are entitled to get copies of the investigation materials all the witnesses reports the students reports suffice it to say that parents are entitled to copies of everything that is included in that investigation including
the 338 complaints all of that is redacted before we give it to parents so that we protect the identity of all students except their own children parents can request a hearing before the board they have 60 calendar days in which to do it if they request a
hearing you have to provide it within 10 days if uh parents are not willing to wave the 10day the 10day uh period then we have to convene a special board meeting within those 10 days uh to conduct that hearing most often parents are Cooperative they will extend the time until the next board meeting
because that's an efficient way for you to be able to do this uh just because of the logistics that are involved in this parents then have the right to come before you as they have have many times with attorneys with Advocates with Witnesses if they choose to to present their case to the board the purpose of
which is to convince you to reverse or modify the superintendent's decision reversing the superintendent's decision would be to reverse the finding of harassment intimidation and buing perhaps you would say this is a code of conduct violation not a harassment intimidation and bullying not not not a
an a harassment intimidation and bullying finding uh you can remand this back if you need additional information suffice it to say that after the hearing uh and if a hearing is not requested at the second board meeting uh that is the time when the gavel comes down by the
board and the board makes a final decision final decision requires that we notify the families of the victim and the offender we issue a written decision not only identifying what the board's decision is but the reasons for that decision that decision may may be
appealed to the to the commissioner of Education cas that are appealed to the commission of Education go to administrative law judges they have 90 days in which to do it as I've said we've had a fair share of those uh uh uh here in the mgy school district um and
uh uh the cases that have been appealed uh to the commissioner of Education uh there have been many over the years uh uh without exception they have been affirmed by the commissioner of Education which tells me that the board uh has made its decisions uh based on a
thoughtful and deliberative process they have made sure that there is a record to support their findings whichever whatever decision it is whether it's a finding to affirm the decision of harassment intimidation and bullying or to reverse it um and keep in mind that
the standard of standard of review by the the administrative law judge or the commissioner of education is whether or not your decision is arbitrary capricious or unreasonable and what does that mean that means that the judge and the commissioner will look at your decision most of these are done on the
basis of summary Mo summary decision motions they look at your decision they look at the record before you and they decide whether or not you uh whether or not the decision that you uh made was reasonably reached on the record before you and so what that also means is that
even if a judge or the commissioner was looking at the same record it might have reached a different result they're not going to substitute their judgment for the Judgment of the Montgomery Board of Education provided they determined that there was a a reasonable basis for you for you to reach the decision that you
did on the record that you had before you so adult conduct and I told you that this is a law that protects children again against other children and also against our employees contractors volunteers uh so but those investigations are not conducted by the anti- buing Specialists because they're
in the same bargaining unit with uh the teachers or employees that are generally part of the ntea or the njaa so these investigations are conducted by one of our ad ministrators or the anti- coordinator information that is shared with parents before the investigation
the principal has to inform parents of the victim and and the alleged defender of what has happened uh the information that is shared is essentially uh what has happened what the discriminatory conduct is indicating that there is going to be an investigation uh there
also some requirements here critical to our principles that they have to keep anecdotal records of the daytime matter of notification to all parents uh they also have to keep that information with regard uh to their decision not to move forward in terms of exercising their uh
thresh their their principal discretion and their threshold determinations uh after the investigation concludes as I said we share all information with the parents there's no hiding the ball here we want them to have all that information very often when parents can see all of that
information uh they understand why uh the findings were made and the decisions uh were made uh with regard to the allegations so it's important for parents to get the witnesses statements the reports the 338 forms all of the findings that your
involvement so you're the the uh initially our board members are involved because you're included in the statute you're included in the statute as reporters and so if you hear see or told that some discriminate discriminatory conduct has occurred uh targeting one of
our students you have an obligation to report that to the superintendent uh um uh Andor to the principal of the school in which the alleged defender or the alleged Victor the alleged victim attends so that's the initial involvement of our Board of
Education board involvement with HIV results and the HIV investigation I've already told you that you are the final Arbiters here so you have an obligation when those cases come forward to make sure that the timeline have been complied with you have an obligation to make sure that the record before you
supports each of those elements of uh of the anti-blooming bill rights and the board's policy uh you want to make sure that the report you receive from the superintendent includes the consequences imposed whether or not the student code of conduct uh was implicated what the services were that were provided the
training that is established uh or any other actions that were taken by the principal and or the superintendent so you are The Keeper of the gate you need to to make sure that uh these procedures are being complied with uh the documents that you receive uh should satisfy you
that all of those procedures have been met the board level hearing so at the board level hearing you know that we have conducted these before but for our new board members families have the right to come forward they have the right to be represented it's part of their due process they have the right to
be represented by Council they have the right to present their case but what do they not have the right to do they don't have the right to cross-examine our employees our superintendent our anti-bulling Specialist or any of you they do not have that right which is often fundamental to doe process in
other legal proceedings but in our proceeding they have the right to come forward their burden of proof is to convince you that the superintendent's decision is wrong and that the superintendent's decision should be reversed or modified it is their burden of proof so what do our board members do
you ask questions if you have questions with the presid a of those proofs if those proofs come to you and you believe that there's something that was not included in the investigation that there's new evidence that may come before the board that you think has got to be investigated or at least
considered you have the ability to remand it back and I know that we have on some occasions done that where we needed additional information in order to support uh or or or in order to support or in order to negate uh the recommendation or the findings that were
coming before the board so again um uh your responsibility uh at the board level is to uh hear the witnesses U maintain the deorum and ask the critical questions with regard to the evidence that is presented to you so the decision at the next
regularly scheduled board meeting either following a hearing or the second the the second board meeting after uh the investigation is completed we have an obligation to issue a decision the board has to feel comfortable with that decision uh very often uh when we have a
hearing uh we write a comprehensive decision it is different from the decision that we write without a hearing because when we have a hearing we have to include in that decision the proofs that were presented the arguments that were made the witnesses who were produced before the board and you uh
should have those decisions usually uh decisions which I have authored DED for you you should receive copies of those decisions uh after they are issued so that you are that you are comfortable uh with uh the contents of those final
decisions and with regard to F appeals as I've said to you the board's decision can be appealed to the commissioner of education and the victim can appeal to the division on civil rights not the offender but the victim when would that happen that would happen if the victim
was taking the position uh that uh the Board of Education was not implementing this law with Fidelity that their civil rights had been violated as a result uh and that would be uh their recourse to the division on civil rights uh alleging
that they had been discriminated against and that the board had not fulfilled its responsibilities uh under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh we have not experienced one of those cases here in my government you also have an obligation under the statute to review your policy
on an annual basis and you have to review your policy in order to determine whether you want to make any changes to it you know and the changes that you might make to it would be to make it more aggressive uh to make it more clear I mean there are certain things that we know that the policy must must uh uh
contain because they are all set forth specifically in the statute uh but you also want to make sure that appropriate training is taking place in our school district um I I can I can tell you that um there's an abund of training that takes place in my compy with our anti-
Bing Specialists and with our principles and with our administrators and I know that because I'm often here to do it but I also know that it takes place by others who also make presentations here in the district in order to provide professional development to ensure that we are implementing uh this law with
Fidelity uh if you're going to make changes to your policy on an annual basis or at any time you have to do it at least annually but you can review your policy at any time you choose if you make any changes you have to submit it to the executive County superintendent within 30 days because every school district's policy must be
unfiled with the executive County Superintendent because the executive County superintendents have also been given jurisdictional Authority uh over school districts by the commissioner to make sure that we are implementing our policies and our procedures with the
devil consequences Bo is involved in the consequences uh that are imposed uh you must re you have the ability to review them arue you have the ability to suggest that the consequences should be greater than those that have been recommended to you or what I've also
said to you is you have an obligation uh with regard to this uh three strikes provision uh to make sure that if you have a student who is coming before you and after the third time we're talking about 12 years here we're not talking about three times at the elementary
school the middle school and high school that student comes before you on on the third time and is found to have committed harassment intimidation and Bully so keep in mind it's three times with an affirmative finding of HIV you have an obligation to make sure that the
principal is developing this individual student intervention plan so what that also means is that our principles and our superintendant need to tell you if a student is coming before you a second time or a third time so that you are so
so so that you can be assured that you're carrying out your responsibility as a board under the statute and again that is a student intervention plan what goes along with it is a requirement that the parents participate in parent
training uh with regard uh to uh their their their son or daughter's uh conduct and the consequences uh that can ensue as a result so some case law very quickly perception of the victim I'm going to go through this very quickly for you um uh
this uh clearly a fourth grade student was a victim of separate aggressive incidents these are all reported decisions recently 2024 they're all current other New Jersey school districts uh you see that this was a situation in which uh a student uh
slapped another student on the cheek uh grabbed him by the by by twisting his neck stating that he was going to kill him uh ultimately the parents father the 338 form uh ultimately the uh victim felt that he was being harassed and bullied yes he was being harassed and
bullied lowercase harassment lower case bullying not harassment intimidation and bullying under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights and why because he was not targeted based on a protected category there was no discrimination that targeted him here uh ultimately um he
was a target of aggression for sure um but uh ultimately um uh this was not a case of harassment intimidation and bullying you know the parents here had difficulty trying to understand how their uh son could be subjected to this kind of physical aggression if it wasn't
some kind of discrimination they felt like the district hadn't done a done a deep enough dive into the investigation but you know what they did do a deep dive and sometimes we deal with physical aggression uh that is uh just downright
inappropriate uh that needs to be punished uh that students could be the target of aggression but the consequences there are under the code of conduct not under the anti-bulling Del rights so in this case anti-bullying specialist determined that the offender didn't
Target the victim based on the characteristic uh uh uh because he thought he was breaking up a fight one uh uh one one was because he wanted to finish a game of cops and robbers and one because he thought the students were talking about him uh so the anti- boming
specialist determined that these was just simply a misunderstanding of social social cues and situations and he was disciplined under the code of conduct so again uh not every Act of aggression not every act uh uh not not not every
inappropriate act not every offensive act constitutes harassment intimidation and bullying and so no surprise we have our first anti-bullying we have our first harassment ination and bullying case based on a defense of artificial intelligence so in this case the student
out of the chams uh um uh was involved in a Snapchat group uh using using an artificial intelligence a generated chat box uh he alleged that the that this racial epit uh was not something that he generated
but something that was generated by artificial intelligence sufficing to say that that defense uh uh did not uh get out of the box uh um uh and ultimately uh the court appropriately found that if you're going to use uh uh artificial
intelligence uh uh artificial intelligence and you generate language you're going to be responsible for the consequences of what you have generated uh that was discrimination it targeted an individual based on a protected category uh the the defense that AI made me do it didn't get past
the haha stage as far as the commissioner was concerned trash talk we often get this defense before us as a board parents come before us attorneys come before us and they say this is an HIV uh this is uh two kids uh
that are trash talking that they are exchanging mutually offensive statements to one another well that's how this started in the tenly school district these two students started by trash talking they were both soccer players uh they were saying hurtful and uh uh
embarrassing things about each other's soccer skills uh they were they were derogatory statements they were insulting but at one at there came a point in time uh where the offender knowing that the young lady was Jewish uh began to make statements uh uh to her
uh about the Holocaust and the gas Chambers and uh uh statements that were anti-semitic that trash talking turned into harassment intimidation and bling it also turned into a reporting obligation under the law enforcement
memorandum of agreement as a hate crime and that student was prosecuted uh for not only harassment intimidation and bullying but for essentially uh uh communicating uh um terroristic threats and hate crimes to that student uh was
the recipient of that relevant circumstances so this is a case out of Ramsey and again we look at all the relevant circumstances the case is important because what it did was it challenged the board's decision on the basis that the board relied on hearsay
hearsay is something that somebody tells you or me but something that we didn't hear ourselves and you know that you hear about those kinds of things on Law and Order and all those Court shows when somebody's objecting on the in the courtroom because it's here said and they don't want it admitted as evidence
well we're not a courtroom and here say is part of the investigation that we conduct and here say is something that we rely upon as board members when we uh evaluate uh whether or not a report uh supports or substantiates an act of
harassment intimation and bullying da call what is a protected C category so out of Bridgewater rtin comes this case to us this year uh this uh student brought a Nerf gun to school and started shooting uh students when he
arrived with his Nerf gun uh and uh somebody in that hallway uh yelled he's got a gun and you know what happens in the school when somebody yells he's got a gun uh there was a lock down and SWAT teams and all of the consequences that ensued from that uh but when he came
back to school after a long out of school suspension he was una affectionately referred to by all the by many students as the school shooter and while that was offensive and I'm sure that uh it was embarrassing for him uh his parents took the position that he
was in a protected category uh as a school shooter allegation and that there should be a finding of harassment intimidation and bullying that is not a protected category so maybe a code of conduct violation but certainly not harassment intimidation and bullying and
the Board of Education in bridgew Ron made the correct decision actual motivation is not required a case involving elementary students student says that she hates black people uh ultimately that is hurt by an African-American student student doesn't
want to be in recess with her any longer once her uh once her lunch and recess change she's fear has fear of going back into the classro uh this is a child whose parents and lawyer said you know she's too young to be able to to develop the capacity to even discriminate
against anybody she certainly didn't mean to hurt anybody it was a spontaneous statement never intended uh to cause the kind of insult that it did and again as I have said to you said to you at the beginning I'm going to repeat to you again it's something that you always have to keep in mind when you're
evaluating these cases as the final Arbiters of these cases that is actual motivation intent is not required you look at the victim not the offender coach sing out a student treating her badly is not going to be harassment intimidation and bullying so
the fact that a coach may very well uh uh have been guilty of treating a student athlete poorly uh singling her out outing her uh with regard to her lack of athletic ability uh is not going to be an act of harassment intimidation
and Bully uh certainly a Cod of conduct violation uh for an employee but again not discriminatory conduct that targets an individual based on the distinguishing characteristic so likewise in this case uh this was a parent uh who had a poor
relationship with one of the lunchroom Maids uh she believed that the lunchroom maid is treating her child badly during lunch uh this parent claimed uh that she was in a protected category because uh the lunchroom a didn't like the parent
so she suggested that that was a distinguishing characteris so you can see the extremes to which some of these cases have gone that clearly is not a distinguishing characteristic that is your training and you are done with me for this evening
thank you Mr fogy um I do have three questions about defer to my fellow board members first anyone have any questions not um first one so you talked about a board member being being able to be a reporter so if a board member is a reporter is that board member precluded
from the investigation going forward the answer is yes because the board member will become a witness in the investigation so the board member would have to recuse himself or herself from the entire process uh second question is you talked
about um HIV in the third strike what happens if a parent um refuses to participate in trading if a parent refuses to participate in training then I think we would have to make a determination as
whether that as whether or not that refusal constituted abuse and neglect uh since there is a statutory obligation for them to become involved in this process we're talking about a child who has now committed three potentially serious violations of the anti-bullying
rights uh we as a district would have to determine whether that constitutes abuse and neglect and becomes a reportable incident to uh the division of uh Child Protection Services and my last question um as we all know social media is a problem for
in a lot of areas can you talk about the the influence of social media on on Hib investigation so I think that social media probably is uh for us I think it has become the most difficult area for us to deal with um with regard to
harassment intimidation and bullying um uh first because it is so pernicious you know it is perhaps the most destructive uh for children uh because uh it appears over and over and over again um and uh it becomes difficult for us to
investigate because often the evidence disappears uh what has happened with social media is Snapchat disappears you know unless it's part of your memory we're not able to retrieve it very often parents will come in and tell us what their child has seen or told them uh on social media and when we try to produce
it we're unable to produce it we've also found out and I've become educated through this entire process representing School districts that these things can be air dropped and so if they're air dropped and it's discriminatory contuct and we see this happening more and more often if it is air dropped it
immediately disappears and so we're not able then to pursue it what we also are finding out is that through social media students are able to generate uh offensive uh offensive Communications to other students and do it without our ability to trace it and even law
enforcement's ability to trace it what we also see is that you with the use of artificial intelligence that we see sexual harassment and sexual discrimination taking place where uh uh where where where students have been
photoshopped and shown uh uh and and there have been many lawsuits now with regard to that uh where uh students have been exposed as well as sexting incidents that have occurred so this has become the most challenging uh I I think the most challenging uh dynamic in any
of our uh harassment intim ation and willling investigations first of all because of the difficulty in in finding the evidence Mr Todd Mr Todd in order to substantiate the findings but also because of the impact that it is having on our on our children and on our
students so uh it continues to be a challenge and with artificial intelligence it's going to become more challenging and I can see our student representative looking over at me and thinking like oh my gosh any other
questions thanks very much our next and last presentation for tonight is an update on the Strategic plan that right hey good evening everyone again earlier this year we went over our
strategic plan and tonight is our first update all of the documents for the Strategic plan can be found on the district website under parents and Community just to go over our goals again goal one is the student experience student achievement teaching and
learning the goal statement to cultivate a learning community that is safe comprehensive and customized to provide a balanced academic creative and engaging experience to prepare students to make an impact on the future goal two communication Community engagement and
Outreach goal statement increase Community engagement by improving two-way communication so that all community members are well informed and feel connected and our third goal is culture and climate social emotional learning cultural sensitivity health and wellness
resilience and the statement is to enhance social emotional learning environment to support the development and resiliency of all Learners tonight we're going to have our goal leaders go over the actions and the progress thus far this school year so
our goal leader one Fiona Borland is here and then she'll pass the Baton off to gold leader 2 Damian Papa and then gold leader three Cory delado theoda I'm I'm the shortest person okay so um
our our first goal our go our goal one is the student experience and that's just you know we've got the long statement after it but I every time you think of goal one I want you to think about what our students are doing and what our students are experiencing in the classroom we have five objectives under goal one and I'm going to take you through them and give you an update of
where we are so objective one is to support personalized diverse and inclusive learning experiences through comprehensive student advisement so in the 24 and 25 School in the 2425 school year we're taking two actions the
actions really both focus on what happens in the classroom through instructional instructional models um the first is to Foster more instructional opportunities for multiple means of student action expression and engagement this is how do students learn
how do they show you how they've learned how do they um intake information as they're learning in addition the second action that we're taking this year is to work on developing classroom opportunities for students to goal set to make choices and to have more voice in the classroom so one of the ways that
we're doing this is asking our student our teachers to share examples of what is actually happening in their classroom um that's our over on our progress side at this point um we've developed a feedback form which I'll share with you on the next slide to gather information from our faculty asking them to share
with us lesson plans that they're doing in their classroom that capture different forms of how students learn different forms of how students um demonstrate what they learned and how they engage with one another as well as having choice and voice and goal setting in the classroom we have also asked our
teachers in grades 5 through 12 to gather their students voice and so all of you are familiar with the fact that we use Google Classroom we are asking our fifth through 12th grade teachers to occasionally share a an assignment in Google Classroom asking students to give
feedback of where in this unit did you have choices to make did you have freedom to uh learn in a certain style that helped you best did you have agency over a choice that you had to make um and so we're looking to actually capture both our teacher voice our teacher examples of real- time things in the
classroom as well as our student voice um both of these things are in the works I'm going to jump over to oh this way I've got two different slides going on here um so we've done this by circulating this Google form to our teachers and we already have it was out
for minutes when I already had sample lesson plans and Sample student work from our teachers I I was just so excited and and thrilled um and really to see that there's a lot of different things involved in what we refer to as Universal Design for Learning they involve uh student Choice lesson
materials uh planning with data the lesson structure itself and this is only a portion of the form um we are asking teachers to identify which aspects of Universal Design their lesson is exemplifying we ask them to write a summary and then we also give teachers
the choice to include um the document of their lesson plan student samples and teacher created materials um in addition to one of the other ways that we're supporting this goal is on March 31st is our uh one of our last PD days for the school year
actually is the last PD day for the school year and it's going to be in the Ed Camp format which is a conference that um is really run by mostly our teachers we will bring in groups of professionals um a lot of them are on the agenda tonight um but we will also have uh last year when we did an ed Camp
over 88 faculty presenters uh presented different topics in the school district so that's very exciting um both professionals as well as our teachers will be sharing things that they're doing in their classroom to meet the objective one in the Strategic
plan objective two is to promote a connected creative experiential learning environment Plus in real world connections within our within our curriculum um this is kind of happening in two very different Arenas so the first is to look at where do we have professional Connections in the
community and the second was to look at our portrait of The Graduate so towards the first action that we're taking we have completed a data collection from all of our supervisors and teachers of where we have currently where we have um professional relationships in the
community and now we are building um a subcommittee to look at each separate area and decide where and look at where we could have potential expansion and where we need to build more relationships um the second aspect has been really exciting and it's been the review of our portrait of The Graduate
and that did come out of our previous strategic plan um we have had some incredible teachers this is being um led by uh Vince Vin kaguro at the high school um he's been working with an a group of teachers who have really dug in to looking at the language we've got
feedback from every Department um and we have been we have been I assure you looking at all of the data through human eyes but it um artificial intelligence has been an incredible tool to put in all of this data and to have it sorted and categorize it so we are also using
AI to do some summarizing and categorizing of the feedback that we've gotten um The Next Step will be to look at how to incorporate that feedback into a new and updated version um we're also looking to time that with as we do some website revision and to do those things
together so that we can capture really good image of um a graphical image of what the portra of The Graduate is as well as the content this is just a collection I think um kind I tried to pull a collection of uh widespread different relationships that we have um everything
from the Princeton Orchestra to Somerset B Somerset Patriots baseball seen Hall University our own Municipal Alliance these are all organizations that support actual the the actual curriculum in the classroom things that extend our curriculum beyond our classroom and
school walls objective three is to examine the curriculum to create a standard progression of learning across grade levels content areas and academic levels so again I just want to point out in this goal that this is um this is year
one of a multi-year um a multi-year strategic plan So eventually one of the one of the goals is that last part of the objective statement which is academic levels and really look looking across and saying okay so when we do our vertical articulation and we get to high
school and now we're in high school and we've got CP classes and honors classes and AP classes do those all have a logical progression as well so just know that that's a direction that we're heading in the 24 25 school year our actions have been to make sure that our preschool through grade 12 supervisors
meet together to um create consistency among the curriculum expectation and specifically our transition years we all know that we have a lot of transition years in Montgomery and so we really want to make sure that when you move between schools that the transition is as seamless as possible we also want to
continue looking for more opportunities for our preschool to grade six staff to articulate with each other that's that is a window of our faculty we're creating opportunity for vertical articulation is very difficult and we want to continue to examine that and brainstorm possible solutions um to give
you an update on the progress there we have actually um the supervisors have already been working together and scheduled the conversation um preschool grade through grade 12 they've already been working on that at that level we also have data collection forms that are being sent out to the teachers um for for each of the specific
departments so I just want you to look at the list there in the 2425 school year we are focusing on the spiral progression of instrumental music writing and Mathematics in the 25 26 school year we'll be focusing highly on literacy and Science and the 26 27
school year will be focusing on social studies and World Ling none of this negates regular curricular updates that have to happen this is just our pacing for the um the alignment goal and the vertical articulation goal of the Strategic plan um as I said we are
all the supervisors are already working as a district team um but that last piece is that continuing to brainstorm and look for opportunities for our third our SEC our prek through grade six teachers to speak with one another and that is just a the overlapping nature of
our schedules makes that very difficult objective four is the um integrate emerging Technologies and at this moment a lot of that is dealing with artificial intelligence um so our actions this year is to create the shared vision of AI among different academic levels and
content areas and the content areas are really very extraordinarily diverse you know so what might be actually a really useful tool in science or in um social studies might be absolutely outlawed by the English teacher and so you can't just create one universal blanket policy
you have to really examine how we how we want our students to you learn and how it can be beneficial at the same time what are the ethics and the acceptable uses um we're also looking at you know just beyond Montgomery what's happening across the educational um both k12 and
secondary platforms regarding um AI software and then looking for our own opportunities to develop our own learning around this area um Jeff Brooks is taking obviously the lead on this objective um working with County Partnerships to really identify what our
current and best practices out there um I I know that all of you every one of you who are dealing with any sort of technology in your field when we use the word emerging it is emerging rapidly and so every single week there is a new a new platform a new technology um and
really just working to figure out what are the current best practices that align with our ethics um we are all attending um staff and local training we're you know trying to learn more in addition we are bringing uh experts in during our Ed Camp day we are bringing
professional experts um kker learning was named um a Google partnership company for 2024 which is a pretty big deal in the world of technology they will be coming in with two trainers and they will be doing some AI sessions on that day um they've received they've been a long-term partnership with
Montgomery they've always been an amazing job um and then we are really looking for feedback from our staff right so we can all have our own opinions and we can read our articles and we can experience it but nothing's going to be as important as how the teachers are experiencing it in the classroom watching their students learn
how to watching their students use it um and if any of you have adolescent or young adult children ask them how they're using it it is fascinating they are incredibly smart and the way that they are thinking it's not it's not all it's not all negative there's a really interesting ways that they are um
leveraging this tool and so really we're really just working to Pace with it and to develop policies around it and the last objective for goal one is to again provide that continuous support I think that when you look at all of the things that we've said we
were going to do in objectives 1 through 4 the only way to make that possible is to support our teaching staff and so really making sure that we have um really good professional development opportunities offered both in District and at local and Regional levels and
then bullet two is where we have put our action to is where we have put a lot of effort this year and that is to develop a more userfriendly process so we are not there but we are exploring technology that we currently already own and how we can leverage it to make the
process of asking to go to a PD and being approv to go to a professional development easier um right now it still involves lots of inter office envelopes and so we're looking to make that a little easier for our teachers um you know when I talk about professional
development as the Director of I'd like to remind everybody we want our teachers to go right we want to encourage that we want to make it easy for them we don't want to be that a difficult process we want them to be you know and they are you know continuous Learners and then that just that last piece coordinating
Ed cam facilitators this year based on the needs and wants on our staff um I'll be meeting with the MTA chair on um professional development to to review what we already have planned and to elicit more feedback um before the final schedule for the March first day goes
out so that is where we are with goal team 1 student experience okay good evening everyone when we take a look at goal two objective one into insute multi-prong communication communication is the focus of this goal uh maintaining active
profiles on social media active and updated Instagram accounts both at the district and the school levels I know some of you are followers of the principals follow of our superintendent likewise Facebook at the district level is is
active this was an opportunity Gold Team 2 was able um to really take advantage of something that we thought would work and then we wanted to hear feedback so one of our goals with um objective one is we wanted to have more folks coming
out to our sporting events and to some of our vpa activities concerts things of that sort so we added Arts events and Athletics those tabs both the district website as well as all five uh schools we thought that would be something that
would bring those young families out to middle school events High School events take real like pride in the community and I said earlier I think in a presentation uh in a smaller venue we don't have a professional sports team here but come out and watch our high school sports uh we're not living in New
York city so we don't have uh Broadway or car Hall but come out watch a play watch our students perform um music and you always want to make sure like what is the response to this we think it's going to make sense what did people say so we were able to send out a
communication check in the MTSD Comm medication check in these were the questions that some of you answered and others throughout the school Community we wanted to hear input on how these two tabs is this going to entice you to come out more so we heard very very positive feedback yes I know it's there I'll take
a look at it of course people's availability and their interest in a particular event is really going to guide them but thanks for letting us know and then input on District's weekly e communication I'll get to that in a little bit we got a lot of interesting feedback on that I had wondered I'm like
well is it more generational do people like things a certain way and I found that I don't really think it's generational per se it's just we're receiving information sometimes we want to read an email we'll click when we want to click when we take a look at
um what did we do what did we do with it when we took a look and We examined the feedback so following the school Community feedback from the check-in we did make an adjustment to the UNS so I think a lot of you might have know noce this the feedback we we received was I
have to click too much I want more information in the email so we said all right let's try to do a middle ground we're going to probably send something out and get feedback so when you take a look at the E news now you'll see there's text and then in the center of
the E news are clicks or attachments that you can click on and then we bookend it with more text so we believe this could address it we'll send something out and see if that's going to work uh people did not want to have to go around and click on everything but at
the same time people do like to click where they want to click so if their only interest is in the school of their child then let's do a click on Ms if that's where they are so we'll send something out we'll get some feedback on that this is where we're going to try things and then hear what everyone has
to say about it uh still continuing with that um objective one the other thing was I talked about this within the small group here um pre September I think folks in this community have been asking we want to see our superintendent in front of us
we want um we want to hear of her speed we want to hear her present things likewise we want to hear from our building principles so in February our superintendent conducted an in-person superintendent Roundtable uh plans moving forward is um the in-person
connection is wonderful so let's do that and then in the spring let's also provide an opportunity for people to log on virtually so we're referring to it as a hybrid we we didn't coin that phrase now what was it that our superintendent spoke about um earlier this month she
focused on Safety and Security and she was joined by um our director of security as well as the security officers in all of the buildings we had a very much stuck to the same delivery 45 minutes of delivery 15 minutes of Q&A
superintendent did that as well as the building principles did that in January all five schools the principles and one particular case a vice principal led a principal Round Table similarly did it in person also
similar to what I said earlier about the superintendent Spring delivery it will be both in person as well as giving people an opportunity to tune in virtually these were the topics that were covered in each of the buildings so I did just in chronological order here so we started off on the 16th with Mr
Romano we could see she focused on Code of Conduct um later in the month Miss penino is able to talk about AC stress and some other things the goal of these principal roundtables were not to do the same thing in every building but for the
principles to bring forward and have conversations with those who attended about what they're seeing occurring in their buil in their schools you might see some similarities so there is some there are some similarities as we go through uh third presentation was done
by um Mr van heis he was joined by Miss C and we talked um with our youngest Learners parents um positive feedback in all instances but we absolutely know we've all been parents um first time we're going into the school we really
like that connection it was really nice to hear a lot of the feedback from everyone in particular maybe I'm taking into account I have an 8-year-old what would it be like if I had Mr manhe I think it would be wonderful um and then we finished out the month with uh Mr
ardi ums and then miss Lacy at Village all right objective two Community survey on prefer uh preferred modes and frequency of communication so as you all know you participated or at least it was administered to you last spring uh we wanted to make sure that
the feedback we received from that survey the nspr survey that we were going with what everyone said so we were staying true when people want information on General District news things of that sort they want want it in the form of an
email when they need to know something like it looks like it might smell or there's some type of maybe more serious matter not that snow can't be serious but school crisis we're not reading an email you text us and that's what we've been trying to do and then we are so
much ingrained in knowing in addition to conversations with teachers supervisors whoever it may be if I want to know the what my child is doing other than speaking with them at night I want to go into the uh Genesis Parent Portal so academic needs to be delivered that way
um our superintendent myself and Mr waldis we're going to schedule a meeting with this organization so when we can determine the administration date of this year's survey as well all right continuing with objective
two um December of 24 as I said we did the communication check-in we made adjustments based on feedback we received and now in the spring you're going to have to then do check-ins and say what are the other things we did are you still wanting to
receive the information the way you said I don't want to have to wait for the results of the 25 survey to come out to determine or do we need to deliver information in a different way is Instagram preferred do you want more Facebook you want more things on Facebook these are all the things that we hope to do internally I'm not talking
about that other survey that's going to be created by that organization objective three I turned into a hockey fan I keep saying organization it's too late huh that's not a fun one all right initiate and develop mentorship opportunities for all
members of our community leverage expertise and enhance engagement identify students areas of interest for potential mentorships contact outside agencies you heard it with Miss boring you'll probably hear what Mr lado on going to say as well in year one of this
we want to do this right we don't want to rush into something so we are very much in the infancy of this we want to come up with the Google form that will have all the correct things that we're going to present to students we have to identify do we want to do this with nth
and 10th graders is it possibly 11th graders we want to hear their feedback we want to determine when are we going to administer this do we want to do this during class time we want to do a year lunch study hall all of this is really important because when we talk about when I say Google form I think
everyone's wondering why didn't you wrate survey so so we have to be very cognizant of when we're getting this information who we're getting it from so then we can start to develop something that will be meaningful to our students as we progress through the Strategic plan and then something that I'm not
going to go into detail about but Mr lado will when he talks about goal three is launch and learn series at nhhs so that is something that he's going to go into detail with he did touch upon it in ACI this month objective four explore using school building for non-school
activities after hours to engage community and students where's my off people nobody wants okay we got off this is coming to off so let's see what I'm talking about all right create a new section on the district website to promote usage by outside agencies and
groups build and regularly update a calendar of events that are hosted at MTSD buildings by outside groups so we want to honor the goal or I should say the actions of this goal so let's put things on the website that we currently didn't have so when you read this let me
just explain what this is the the the form was located on a tab on our main page called departments and under departments you'd have to go into facilities let's make it easier for people so this is what we did let's just put it on the main site so as you can
see right there I apologize if you take a look this represents on the left our district website it is the fourth item you can select under site shortcuts we we want you to go on we want you to click on this form we want you to see if
facilities are available to you we're inviting folks from the outside like we always have likewise I would think the more logical place that I would want to search and find this form if I somehow missed it I would think it's probably a community TX so we said let's get it on
the community so when you go on parents Community directory let's make even easier let's call it the first thing call starts with a B if I could change it and start with an a I would have done that but we did it be here so we see the form is much more accessible it's not just in one place but it's in the front
right when you log on or when you get on our website and then it's in a very logical Community tab all right so this is what I'm going to this is what I was saying earlier about how this goal I I know will be going into off so I just
focused on September right up until our current month of February pretty self-explanatory here months on the left on the right we're seeing the number of outside groups per month I do want everyone to know it's
per month so we had 14 outside groups in September as we go all the way through we see 13 outside groups in February and it I it doesn't change in between keep in mind we have internal groups that are using using our school facilities as
well how frequently are these outside groups using our schools in a given month available days you'll note that the available days with the exception of October don't match the actual days in the month you have to take into
consideration holidays or um in certain cases with holidays the day prior the day after is going to make it where it's a restricted date so when we take a look at the the available days and we see the amount of usage I think your eyes are
immediately probably going to m in the month of October it means that building was used every single day by an outside organization the other thing that I want everyone to keep in mind is they're not just using in some instances one classroom or if we we say Orchard
they're not just using this facility we're in right now they're using multiple classrooms in a school so it's again I want to emphasize when we take a look at the days in which outside groups are coming into the schools each month take into consideration also using
multiple classrooms they using multiple venues within a school our impack in some cases outside of the building the fields so on and so forth this is something I think we're going to want to talk about in N objective five pull community in by
utilizing a software platform for school sponsored events to promote volunteerism and donations listen if I if I had a software program that would allow people to somehow want to volunteer I get it to you now I probably sell it to you as a
school district I know an attorney who might help me wrate the language for the contract is that that's not the case so to be responsible to this goal and to this District I think we have to have a conversation about where are we with
volunteerism within the district first before we start exploring software programs so to dat and I have to say I cannot thank these folks enough so the the lead of our PTO PTSA and sepa they were so gracious they myself and two
other members of the gold team they gave us an hour plus of time do you mind if we asked you a series of questions they were so honest they were so appreciative to you know to give that feedback in turn I I just couldn't say enough about them they're wonderful they were
sharing um they they are seeing decline in volunteerism and fundraiser as a result they're they're tied together I don't think it's Unique to these organizations to these leaders but I want to do my due diligence and I want
to also talk with um their counterparts in the areas of Athletics and music so our boosters and our band parents um and I work really closely with Mr Grandy and Mr Ras our ad and our supervisor of vpa and and they're they're going to make sure that they're a part of that as well
we just have to hear what are some of the challenges we'll get to the software portion of it but I really think we have to dig in and say what's what are we doing it seems like we're busy here now what are ways that we can promote volunteerism then we can incorporate those software platforms that I think
will make it much more organized um it the platform we know doesn't entice you to volunteer it makes it organized once you get those volunteers um and then finally objective six of goal two uh this is where we want to do that um we have those Partnerships
those relationships with the township so I know some people are particular about the ter relationships so we're going to say Partnerships meetings established with our communication specialist so Mr waldes with his counterpart at the
township uh to date they've met twice they do have plans to meet again I believe at the uh start of next month and what are they doing so it's a very reciprocal exchange here we you can see what we're doing on behalf of the township anything that's Tang Township
sponsored events we're making sure we're putting um so those with in our school Community could be aware of it and likewise we're having events um things that we find very important even our kindergarten registration which is very important we're teaming with the
township and as said right now it's very much you know reciprocal and we hope to continue that so that is old two I do look forward in the future giving you that next update does anybody have any questions no I'm going to turn it over
to Mr Rado for go three I just have one very quick question um you said that you generated the topics for the principles based on what the principles were sort of seeing yes how did you come up with um the safety topic
for the superintendent and how will you come up with future topics for the superintendent's Round Table you're getting the I dictate to the superintendent should I have a superintendent answer that question it's been brought up here at Board of
Education meeting so that's we took the topics parents will email me every now and again either complimenting or Thanking us for having the security officers asking questions about it so that's how I came up with Safety and Security hi everyone good evening oh okay moving on to goal three
we have several objectives under goal 3 goal 3 the big overarching umbrella for goal 3 is around around um culture and climate of our schools and um social emotional learning development for our students so um our first objective is
supporting the mental health and physical well-being of our students the first area of focus that we took on in this year was mitigating the negative impact that technology specifically cell phones and social media has on uh our
students your children so we had several actions to do that uh through down the actions col column starting with creating awareness partnering with Community groups focused on Mental Health that the particular community group that we have uh really partnered strongly with and
have appreciated the partnership is the local Municipal Alliance I'll share a little bit more about some of the things we've done together and analyzing our in school cell phone usage and practices so we're talking about technology but we're really narrowing down in this year um uh
with the cell phone as the device that we're talking about so in the analysis phase of the cell phone usage and practices in schools we find a gradual progression of cell phone privileges from LMS through Montgomery high school
LMS phones really fortunately have not been an issue in terms of misuse or irresponsible use or a distraction and we're really pleased about that it starts peing in Upper Middle School often students are in their first or second year of having a phone some of them are finding social media so we are
uh off and away is the policy off and away all day that's including during unstructured times um we're not policing at the upper middle school where they store the phones teachers will manage that they have the autonomy to manage that within their own classrooms and
then at Montgomery High School um sometimes cell phones are even used as the everyday device that's to bring your own device building so the promotion so at and they are at Montgomery High School School allowed to use their phones during unstructured times um we see the majority of misuse however at
the middle school level as I started saying we partnered with Municipal lines we have a couple Ventures going on with them one really exciting um uh activity that we just concluded actually last week was we we together
facilitated a community book club we've read the anxious generation if you haven't read it and you are a parent or an educator or a human you should read this book or at least a synopsis of it it really is transformational we had 15
staff members volunteer to facilitate 15 different um groups and we had 120 parents uh part uh sign up to participate attendance wasn't quite 120 every time but we had up to 15 different
groups happening online as well as in person the conversation was stimulating it really focused around the two main themes of the book uh one being the um basically we are overprotecting our
students and our children in the outside world and we are underrot them in the online world and what that is leading to is increases in anxiety and depression and decreases in accountability and resilience and that's a problem we're
all facing it it it is huge the majority of parents that joined the book club were Elementary and Middle School parents that was interesting to us the book talked a lot about um and our conversations were a lot about the importance of that unstructured play for
kids that's minus phones you know our youngest students are not dealing with the phones but that unstructured and dare I say it unsupervised play really really important and then as the uh age groups of our parents increased we were talking more about the use of the cell
phones and social media and the potential dangers that that would bring we uh continue objective one supporting mental health and physical well-being with um a focus on our district health
and wellness services so we took a look really at our guidance programming and one of the things that emerged that were um uh was causing a lot of conversation and some stress was around our College
career planning so in the fall we um we added six different programs for our students and parents specifically around College Planning to our already rich program we added six and um we did have a seventh that unfortunately had to be
cancelled they were all really well attended no less than 30 often UH 60 or 70 parents or students were in attendance for those often webinars sometimes inperson activities so that was great really well received
um Mr Papa referenced our new College Planning I'm sorry career exploration and career planning series that we're launching I'm excited about that and I'm speaking quickly and I just want to point that I we embedded some things in the presentation so if any of the board
members want to learn a little bit more about it um you can see on this slide we embedded a couple things one of the things that my co-leader Miss Mattis really liked she really took a liking to this promotion that we ran and for the lunch and learn series which Mr
Papa um introduced and we're actually launching this Thursday Mr Brooks maybe click that one because you're probably tired of hearing my voice so let's go to this guy good morning MHS have you ever been
asked a question what do you want to do when you grow up did you have an answer well if you didn't we want to help you find that answer because High School is prime time for developing your career goals here's how we're going to help on
February 27th we will be launching our lunch and learn series these sessions will feature guest professionals who will give you a sneak peek into a day in their life and share with you the pathway they took to get to their dream jobs Our Guest professionals will come
from a variety of fields including law medicine business technology trades and more these sessions will happen during unit lunch and oh yeah we'll make sure that there's plenty of pizza and drinks in the room for you and our guest Our
Guest professionals this month are Mr Brian Conor we're going to leave you in suspense if you want to know who the guest professionals are this month you can go and watch the rest of that video but we actually had 40 students sign up for our first two guest professionals that are coming on Thursday and again I want to thank the Montgomery health department and the Montgomery uh
municipal Alliance they're helping to not just organize but also fund this program so we're hoping it gets sticky and this is something that will grow so every month we are I'm going to bring in two guest professionals throughout the spring and and we'll see if it sticks so um again stay tuned and you can see who
we're bringing in but we thought 40 students signing up for the first one means okay this is relevant we we know that our students have college goals um we're not so confident they have career goals solid career goals and we tell them how important that is to be successful sucessful in college if that
is so their plan a career goal will help you be successful through college and there are many careers to pursue that don't require a college um degree and we're bringing those folks in as well so uh more to come on that going to move on so that's a little bit about our College
and Career planning again I'm going to point out uh our counseling web page there is a lot of information on our counseling web page specifically at the high school regarding the College and Career planning programs that we offer and a lot of other information moving on to our second
objective encouraging responsibility and [Music] accountability sounds like a good idea we uh really focused our our vice principles really rolled their sleeves up and they have focused on the structures that we currently have in place that Foster responsibility and
accountability often that comes in our codes of conduct our K through schools all uh do a great job campaigning and promoting core values we wanted to First just kind of do inventory and then see if there's an alignment between uh our core values and our coding of conduct so
we're in the in the process of that again you could see there um there is a link embedded there so you can see a little bit in more detail of some of the things that we have uncovered and we're going to continue to take a look at data regarding student behaviors so what are
the trends in the student behaviors and then do we have the right interventions and the right um responses to those behaviors to correct them so more to come on that objective three promoting and celebrating diversity and
inclusivity so that students feel known valued and connected we really in this year we are focusing on the inclusivity of diversity and inclusivity so we're taking a look at our inclusive practices inclusive practices in schools are basically all the teaching and
behavioral strategies that we use to to make sure every student has equal access to Quality education and help students feel safe welcome value and a true sense of belonging in our school so we have inventoried what we currently have we are we have identified a few gaps that
we will look to fill next year and uh also this year there's been a focus on providing professional development for inclusive practices in our schools so again you can take a look at that list if you so choose by um clicking the link
on your time so moving on to for developing a respectful community that uplifts all members our Focus has really been on like let's get a baseline what is our climate currently so we are taking a look at several surveys and
climate surveys and assessments that are being used across the state and the country that uh we would eventually administer to parents students and staff um I don't know that we'll administer one in this year but we will definitely look to identify tool in this
year and then lastly when it comes to uplifting all members we want to make sure that we emphasize the importance of celebrations so you have seen our the first superintendent newsletter came out in December of this year and uh this glin second newsletter will come out in
March and the final one in June and that is all about celebrations all the things that we are doing well and of course student focused so that is goal three not any questions I have just a
question um how do you select uh this lunch and learn professionals who come and speak to the kids so great question so um through surveying students that were coming through the guidance office we were just asking them what how
they're how they are career-minded and uh we got a lot of overlap and a lot of consistent kind of thoughts so we focused on that but we at the same time wanted to make sure we had a variety so for this for example this um this month
we are we have our first uh two are focused on our Mr Conway is coming in he is out of high school went into construction eventually went to trade school uh by the time he was 29 owned his own very successful hbac company so
from construction to trade school to business owner uh we have a 20 students who said I need go hear more about that path that sounds interesting to me and that was not a surprise to us we know and our second guest presenter this month uh we have a a very vibrant um art
interest in our schools so Mr Steven Deutsch is a user interface experienced designer he studied Art Studio at the University of Maryland with a concentration in graphic design the two things he loved turned it into this big wonderful career he's going to come
share a little bit about his path with the students um um on Thursday as well as a day in the life in um March I will share with you that the focus is engineering and medicine and then more to come in April we haven't quite
finalized that I see Dr Newman is here she's going to get an invite from me to maybe come join us in March uh but I I think it's a great way for the students to you know make a choice it's again during their lunchtime and have a great opportunity to number one make a
connection connections matter and hopefully learn from somebody who's living the life a little bit more about a career they're interested in that might Foster their interest or it might deter their interest either is good right so just get more informed and have
more solid career goals to go so we'll see what happens if it catches on something will definitely continue next year I have a question um do we have any workshops planned for our students students to learn about interviewing skills so when they are applying for a
job or interviewing for even colleges they know how to dress for success how to show up on time questions that they should ask I can't back I love it I love it so yes uh we'll have something in the spring last year we partnered with the p
the high school PTO we had about 120 students show up for an interview clinic so we start in the auditorium and we just give them some basic information tips rules of the road and then they are scheduled with guest interviewers and we talk to them you either about college uh
interview or and it's open to Juniors and seniors a college interview a potential job interview whatever they're most interested in whatever they see the most need for and they'll go through three 20-minute interviews so I I want to say there was about 120 students last year and it it great point it's so
important because as we all know it's not always what you know and you know but you have to be able to demonstrate that in an interview and that takes a certain skill for sure yeah just sorry pardon my voice um just a followup question during the strategic
planning sessions we had a lot of parents ask us how do they get involved in these types of discussions perhaps they have careers that are unique or something that they've accomplished in a different way are we also thinking about reaching out to the Community outside of
just the township uh not at this time at this time just through our internal connections we don't have enough time in the day there's that many people that we're just so closely connected to already and some are parents and some
are um uh spouses of Staff members uh three alumni so we haven't had to work very hard to find people in the fields that our students have voiced interest in but I would imagine we we know Montgomery Community is rich in resources so we will definitely tap into
it when needed hopefully hopefully it is something that the students stay interested in and hopefully they're not just coming for the preat of we find out and I do hope that this is to be a permanent like if it's successful a permanent program with a partnership
with Municipal Alliance that would continue to do like all these um all these things that you doing are like little change management processes that eventually shift how um our school does their practice and hopefully see a lot
of positive change but we need to be consistent about how we do all these activities which are all great and I'm very appreciative of all the hard work that you've all done um to M you know to start working on these goals and I know it's a multi-year thing you know five
years um but this is a lot for your first year so also want to shout out Mary for taking in the feedback during a policy about doing a hybrid for um the round tables um I know that that
was a goal to have round tables but for you all to consider to add to that goal uh your impact for Target I know there were various numbers of parents coming in small groups big groups but to think
about what is an effective number of in terms of reach if you only have five people I don't know how effective that is so a hybrid an inperson would probably be a good way to have a better reach for parents or Community but to
think about what is an effective way to really Reach people when you're doing these round taes because those are all important topics and I'm sure there will people be interested in hearing again um from you all about all those um things
that matter to them so thank you sorry I just have a quick question for Miss Borland I apologize um just you talked about a couple of obstacles um for k6 to get together is it mainly scheduling or is there another
obstacle there and then it's mainly scheduling and then um Part B to that is um can you just be specific about what personnel Andor structures are in place to help um transition like transition um information from third grade to fourth
grade about students about curriculum Etc like I'm assuming that there are department heads in the older grades but what what what does that look like in the k6 in the k6 okay so we you know the the two the K4 buildings have one supervisor right well not one supervisor
have the same supervisors um so you have um you know our K4 master math and science supervisor and K4 literacy and social studies supervisor um dedicated special ed super visor just K2 then you transition there's a special ed supervisor that is uh 36 so that kind of
builds spans that our supervisor communication is the thing that is most easy easily done right and so um that we have monthly meetings they set up their own meetings they set up walkthroughs and that's actually one that's one of the newest practices and I think they've
all spoken to the power of it um they as like a math team from you know Miss Clover um and um our newest uh mass presor at the middle school Missi as well as Miss Rell will actually go on walkthroughs the classrooms from all the different grade levels and start
calibrating what they're looking for um in good instruction so you see that um in the parent lens you know we it's really when you get to the there's there's the welcome nights I know that we have them in the moving up to fifth grade moving up to seventh grade when especially when you're talking about kids having to choose schedules and the
big changes um so those things exist you will always see to support teams just like special ed teams talking to each other with the Baton Pass off so coming in the spring what students does LMS need to know that they're coming out of Village what students do um again easy
easy for Orchard to Village so because it's the same supervisors that oversee the support um so really probably I could run down 100 more for you but it is an area that we really do focus on because we are unique right our students do not stay in a school from the time
that they are preschool to grade five by the time they've gotten to grade five they're in their third building and so we have to put in formal structures to make sure that that that Baton Pass happens thank you thank I have a small question for you too I know I thought we were asking questions at the end or I
would have asked if you had I wasn't avoiding any of them so since you were talking about Ai and all so New Jersey Department awarded about $75,000 to each school for about 10 schools got that so the grant
is artificial intelligence in inovation and education grant so I was just wondering do we have a uh a specific Department which applies for this grants so the there's the there's a monthly there's a weekly actually um there's a
weekly thing in the state of New Jersey called the broadcast the broadcasts come out all of the time um broadcasts announce anytime there's a grant opportunity um and so different people different department heads you know different administrators will always review the grants I review most of them
um and so when when you see it's called NGO when you see a notice of a Grant's opportunity the first thing you have to do is read what's required and so often um you know in that we had in order for that Grant I believe you had to have an AI committee up and functioning and all like already going um additionally there
were requirements that that money is funded for it's not ever it's hardly ever actually I've never seen it ever um $75,000 to do what you think your District should do towards AI it's here is $75,000 if you are going to rewrite a course and create a curriculum and hire
a teacher and so that's how we scan through NOS um right now we are in year two of the high impact tutoring grant that was $230,000 we saw that we saw that as a need for our school district we applied for that competitive NGO and we won it
so we do scan NOS we do fill out the grants um and you know again I I'm often part of that team but all the administrators are looking at that and it's really about looking at is this grant opportunity and the requirements for it aligning with where our fiscal
goals and our instructural goals are at the moment but we do watch them carefully okay sorry just lastly this is such great information do we have a pushout plan for getting this information out I mean obviously the audience members are
here that can witness this but it's I think it's important to get all of this information out to the entire community so do we have plans to push this out or just updates on the plan yeah this goes right on theic plan website on the main website it'll be there
tomorrow but people will have to look for it I mean is there a way that we can push it out so that it's a big paral like just wanted to update the community on where we are with strategic just news this week sure it's really
good celebrate the successes so full of action text he wanted me to quiz everybody say what method does do people like receive strategic plan presentation email text like a text right now at the end of the
board meeting it's really impressive thank you thank you thank you thank you right Andrew that is it or Jeff you're the one controlling me y thank you and that concludes the superintendent report for the night
thank you we'll now move to committee and representative reports first up mtaa report Mr roli good evening everybody good evening uh for the mtea we have Once Upon a mattress that's now scheduled for May 10th that's the music from the heart show so we have been getting all our
recruitment done for all the castings that's fet we're looking for now the crew that we're going to do it and we'll start rehearsals so we're really excited to get that started uh the read alouds have been a big hit so far we've had a lot of attendees especially from Orchard and Village and then we hand out all the little prizes and it's it's awesome it's
really interactive I know I got to do one so we're continuing those we'll have another one this month and then next week is read Across America we'll be starting with some more volunteers and we thank our board members who did volunteer and they'll get into the classroom and so it was an exciting event I know I like try to get into orcharding with is one of the younger
grades so that's all I have for tonight thank you very much thank you Mr ran do we have any board member delegate representative reports I do have one suers Kelly suers Kelly uh School Board Association meeting on January
27th uh it was a virtual meeting I think a lot of folks on this board attended uh virtually it was a discussion about the um uh financials and uh budgets uh a lot of uh good you know information and
resources shared I know the media had plenty of questions on my call um also unsung heroes uh applications were due so that celebration will March 3rd and I understand that we have a un some hero in our school district hopefully so that will be exciting so if anybody would
like to participate please feel free thank you okay Somerset uh County Educational Services Commission met on Wednesday February 5th I was sworn in along with several other Somerset County Board of Education members to their board of
directors uh board member WCA Jernigan is the alternate to that um committee their mission the commission's mission is to provide students with opportunities to increase their academic and behavioral growth in a safe learning environment ultimately establishing a foundation for them to become lifelong
Learners in collaboration with parents Guardians sending sending districts and any other relevant stakeholders students are prepared with necessary 21st century learning skills that will lead to a successful post secondary Endeavor Endeavors the commission provides shared
educational programs and services to Somerset and surrounding County school districts who are unable to provide the necessary academic programming Andor services to meet the everchanging needs of school districts and their students the first meeting consisted of budget review and approval approval of the 25
26 school calendar approval of their extended school year styen program among other things any questions here none we'll now move to board committee reports first up assessment curriculum and and instruction committee board member Dy
thank you um we met on February 7th uh both virtually and in person um first up on the agenda um was uh the announcement that access testing uh began uh in February 3rd and
the window closes on March 28th that's a Statewide assessment um given to multilingual Learners um they are tested on speaking listening writing and reading in English and the results will be available in the fall um technology
assisted with um or is assisting with this um administration of the of of the assessment um required headsets and Chromebooks um have been handed out through the uh Tech technician Department excuse me uh January 29th uh
the staff led a professional day um this was the first time that the wellness fair was uh that the morning portion of the professional day um they usually run that in June um in addition or some of
the activities during the wellness activ during the wellness Fair included yoga mindfulness and technique uh mindfulness techniques and walking and then the afternoon was dedicated to various content area specific topics um too many to discuss but I would just um
highlight assessing data um that came from Winter testing dyslexia training professional um learning communities for our teachers uh middle school science planning uh due to the new resource that they're using um High School science
safety AI in the classroom World Language updates Etc uh then we were also um briefed on H sorry I can't read my administrators legal training oh um the
sorry the the child study team behaviorist and administrators had a legal training that focused on manifestation determination um which is basically a student discipline process for students um with disabilities who um face school misbehaviors um then Mr Delgado talked
to us um uh about about the um ABS staff um that had HIV legal training um with Mr Fogerty um they also studied our internal processes including the preliminary determination which Mr Fogerty went into uh detail about middle
school math opportunities were discussed um course offerings are listed on the U and LMS web page um parents can locate that um through the multiple math opportunity sorry can locate that to find out more about the multiple math
opportunities um as well as the data that is used to determine um which course um students are eligible for uh in the spring um they will be adding a pathway that will enable the opportunity to move
from math 6 integrated to Algebra 1 and from math 7 to Algebra 1 um these updates will be added in the middle school math website and communicated to um the students and obviously their parents um I just want to highlight that um the
program of studies is out there and I really encourage families um to take that first step it's really important for parents um to look for the information that's on the website and that's um in the program of studies to really understand the scope and sequence um and the offerings that are being
given to to students um along their Journey uh HIV training for counselors um career exploration at at M MHS um Mr Delgado just explained that in in detail um but the lunch and learn series um are
taking place and hopefully that will be a big success to give our students an opportunity to explore different career paths um the person centered approaches in schools and transitions or pcast um enables effective communication
and collaboration between the districts and their families um this is an educational practice that helps to plan and support um future endeavors for our students um this collaboration is supported by the Department of Education and the ruers bogs Center for developmental
disabilities um one of our supervisors applied um but was put on a wait list um and since then a spot has opened up and the district will now be in the cohort um which is also really wonderful news and last but not not least update um was
given on impact um there's a new class in oh our new class is going well and we anticipate the roster to grow in the future any questions or comments about ACI uh I would like to add a comments to
that report and later on in the next uh our session we talked more about the mass uh learning opportunities um from um Upper Middle School to high school and uh um in the previous program so um
that sixth grade students are the top very top high performing students were offered opportunity to take Algebra 1 7eventh grade they were offered uh to take geometry and 8th grade they were offered opportunity to take Algebra 2
and in the current new uh math program opportunities uh that uh the most condensed program has been uh has been removed so according to the conversation with the schools is uh with the current math program really helps majority of
the students to boost up to the uh Target level or exceeding level and here are some other more facts that I collected from the previous um board presentation more than 25% of the students from third grade to 7th grade
exceed expectations on standardized State uh State assessment test that's more than a quar from the third grade till uh 7th grade and based on my knowledge um seventh grade uh start in previous viously a third grade students
offered opportunities can take more challenging curriculum uh such as fourth grade and currently I don't think that opportunity exist anymore and another fact that I collected from the conversation was more than 44% of the
sixth grade students are offered at Mass six integrated level so I think there's a remaining questions uh there's still remaining question is there there's no curriculum and instructional dis distinction between the 44% and the top
10% students who need greater challenges and as research shows lumping students of bearing different abilities together can really lead to disengagement and other behavior issues I believe uh
differentiate instruction helps maintain motivation and classroom balance it is very important and of course schools offer other um non-traditional curriculum approaches such as clubs as uh a gifted program but unfortunately
that's not traditional curriculum um and also after talking to many faculty um at higher ad um AP Calculus by grade 11 aligns with
very competitive stand passws uh I uh I also searched I believe uh in the previous presentation more than 88% of The Graduate chose the career go to a 4year college um I don't have the data
showing how many of them show stand uh track but if AP capulus C by grade 11 aligns with the very competitive stand Pathways what are the opportunities that we can offer to our current and future
cohor um this opportunities and as we also know many college admissions prioritize AP schools uh especially in calculus again uh culus and uh uh you know a for the stand
programs and also in the past sustain past success and National recognition perspective previous cohh foring Early In This Very condensed acceler program have won national awards um stren Mass Foundation also in enhances the success
in science and engineering field um that's my another uh talking point why we should promote long-term benefits of early acceleration maybe when we I just thought since we saw the data starting
grade three we have a quarter of students are qualified are are qualified to take more challenging curriculum and another point is is strengthening the our district data also show that most graduate as I said pursue
the higher higher education right 88% I I believe offering early acceleration attracts families and boost enrollment making our district more competitive so here of them come some questions um I hope uh we can continue
talk about this at ACI meeting the mo for the most advanced students were offered the opportunities they need in the previous math program since grade eight or more than 10 years that what can we do to help this uh High
performing students arrive in this again to contribute and Elevate the entire School District academic success again I mean in the traditional narrow definition of curriculum not extrac curriculum and how much is the new program can meet the needs of the most
advanced students and um I hope school that possible we can pull out the top 15% students you know I know we have a Renaissance uh assessment and this assessments allows us to see the
because it's a length of vertical scaling so it allows us to see the student grow um the each cohor grows so is that possible we pull out the top 15 students versus the top versus the 14%
students we see how much grow they make is there ending a ceing effect there and that's my suggestion and so I hope we can continue to uh have this conversation uh what of the opportunities we can offer to especially
our high performing topping students here and that's the comment thank you um Michelle you go back to ACI with all of this can you just double check and verify that Algebra 2 at 8th grade w
that might have been part of our course selection it it's still in there I'm pretty sure as an eth grade course yes used to be there it's no no no no it's there now still there this year and next year it'll be taken out and that
would be my one question which we can continue to talk about at ACI but what what data point are you using that students are not being challenged in their mathematical that's the state assessment results we show that since uh for third grade 2022 28%
students exceeding expectations that means they're above their grade level 2023 26% 2024 27% that's for the third grade and what happens when you get to
eighth grade ath grade is different because we all know eth grade then we have to introduce geometry and masses becomes not unid dimensional anymore we have sub scales so I would say to sth grade is more accurate so 7th grade 2022 is 4% 2023 is
12% 2024 is 29% so they're taking the njsla test for the content not for the grade level at that point so a seventh grader in Algebra 1 or geometry is taking a test
and being compared to peers that are you know compared to the to the state to the state yes so that's why I'm saying if we have Renaissance um right you're taking Algebra 1 so if you're in seventh grade algebra 1 you're taking Algebra 1 so
when you're looking at the seventh grade scores there if you're looking at seventh grader scores you're looking the scores of the seventh graders taking math 7 not taking Algebra 1 so those were the students that were always
exceeding if you're looking at the exceeding they're now taking the algebra one test which you're not comparing to to that so a lot of the seventh graders are no longer in that data my concern I think we can see the
clom assessment data and also Renaissance data and see if there's a feeling of the student not growing if that mean if student came in with 90 percentile and after a year they still like 90s that mean Decay there's a room they they're ready to take more
challenge absolutely 100 right but I think that I'm just saying that you have to make sure that you're the data that you're looking at is following the student not necessarily just looking at the grade level over the 3 years correct and
that's the data I can find so definitely yeah correct I hope school can and through share more related data and help us make more of growth yes grow data that's something that we really need to see and that would be very helpful for
me for us as a court to make decision later on to% yes in keeping though that you know there is a bell curve with you know every kind of standardized testing in terms of you know there's 23 below there's 23 above and then there's that 46 in the middle so yes that's across
the board on every standardized test Okay so we'll look at that growth over time so I have a question I think for our superintendent so if we have a district that Pride uh themselves
on Excellence academic excellence and we have also strategic planning uh goals to to achieve the best possible um results for each student so uvl basically saying that we should be providing uh
opportunity for each student to learn to the best of their abilities and continue to grow if we eliminate program that allows our most talented students to grow at their own speed which is faster
than others how are we supporting their academic Excellence so the change in the programming it did not impact their capacity in their math program through high school they did not lose any
opportunities and in fact we we found data to show the students who went into that um you know the handful of students let's call it right that went into that um program for Algebra 2 in the 8th
grade when they reached high school they we started to see in Pre pre-calculus that their skills were missing foundational skills that they would have gotten in fifth sixth and seventh grade foundational skills that are needed to be successful so we found
that it was perhaps not helping them and now we're seeing growth in having students have a real strong foundation in the standards in fifth 6th 7th and eth grade with the opportunity to take
geometry in the eth grade and then Algebra 2 in freshman year cuz I I actually know someone who is extremely gifted and um that
student I can totally understand how he would not be uh fully engaged in the regular classroom because his capacity for learning especially math was so much different
and higher than other classmates that it was really beneficial for him to be put on that accelerated program because it kept him engaged and right now he's in college thriving and you
know he's very very successful because of the opportunity that we created for him so I would hope that we still support those students even though if it's a small group but they probably are future you know like they those are the
students that will become inventors those are the students that will become someone super unique in the future so we have an opportunity to build to P the road for their success so I would really
not want them to be commingled with um a bigger group that is not capable growing at the same rate and also math provide a strong foundation for Science and I know I
really appreciate the school of offered the opportunity at grade nine this year or last year uh AP Physics 1 so to take AP Physics 1 I think it requires a little bit of calculus too so again is uh can we offer more opportunities for
students who are ready to learn since they're young since maybe third grade and help them build strong Foundation I I didn't I'm not CR criticizing the current maass program who's been running for two years I I've seen the data I really appreciate that help the majority
of student to learn but I think the focus here is we're talking about the top maybe 5% 2% of students with know our school district goal is we really value every single students's uh experience can we talk specifically
about what programming you feel has shifted or changed or not there anymore to support these having geometry in eth grade is very accelerated that that's and and having physics AP in nth grade is very accelerated so what what programming are we talking about specifically just so I can go back and
be very clear to the ACI in terms of what we think we're not offering now so my understanding is that our new curriculum will collapse certain levs of acceleration so where instead of having
three different levels of um math kind of CH levels of challenge now we will be having two no I think in the PowerPoint that you shared with us you can see that the
Montgomery Township common mathematic sequence up to 2022 was very different so to your point TOA in sixth grade you had math 6 but you also had pre-algebra 6 right now in sixth grade you have math 6 integrated right so you don't really
have the difference between different type of capabilities right if you move on to uh grade seven is you had pre-algebra you had algebra one part one and you had Algebra 1 um njs LS Algebra 1 which none of my kids were smart
enough to be in um but then you take a look at the the 7 grade right now and you have math 7 integrated and algebra one so I think that's what we're getting getting at and I think we've had parents come to the board meetings before talking about how their kids are not
challenged and I think that asks a very good question right we had a program that worked really well why did we transition to it and are we being successful in new program perhaps we should take a look at the old way of managing the math to give more opportunities for some of the
students so those two charts you can you um the on those those particular ones have you gone in and looked at the um the course program of studies and the course guide on Rubicon Atlas I suggest you do that I I'm only
saying so because I did after after the presentation was was sent and integrated is the upper level course and it's integrating standards from seventh and eighth grade down into sixth grade in
order to properly prepare students to take Algebra 1 then in seventh grade and geometry in eighth grade so the integrated piece of it is the acceleration there is an acceleration there so I think that I I I really think
that it would be wonderful if um ACI could potentially have Miss Borland invite Miss ryell to a com upcoming meeting or something like that so that we can all really understand this they did do a a a presentation when the
change was made um I remember it we uh it was very thorough um we could go back to to that and review it on video but I think that maybe another presentation would be uh really helpful so another presentation would be very
helpful especially show us the grow data thank you Spen like a true a person all right any other questions for ACI heing none operations facilities and finance committee board member
F the operations finance and Facilities committee met on January 28th and February 18th um our discussion focused on developing the district's budget for the upcoming year these discussions
centered on the budget process itself and the thorough review of District priorities ensuring that the resources are allocated to provide our students with the highest quality education this budget review process
will continue throughout February and a proposed budget will be presented at the March board meeting right Andrew it's correct I wasn't sure if it was March right 10 budget March board meeting
hearing you're correct um as we begin a new year the committee also undertook a review of its Charter clarifying goals and expectations to maximize the district's operational efficiency and Effectiveness uh looking ahead to 2025 a
key initiative will be collaborating uh with the administration to develop a long-term facilities plan the this plan will identify crucial Capital Improvements Improvement Pro
Capital Improvement Pro projects necessary to maintain the quality and functionality of our school buildings and grounds in addition the committee will assess the use of school facilities by outside organizations benchmarking
our district against comparable districts to identify best practices for facility rentals this revie view will focus on fiscal responsibility while ensuring Community benefit the Comm the committee is dedicated to
exploring all available funding Avenues and will work with the administration to identify federal state and other grant opportunities we will encourage the administration to pursue these new funding sources as they
arise um we hope our district will apply for Grants uh like uh the AI uh in education grant uh that board member naret spoke about and we will support our Administration administ
administers in pursuing such opportunities and their efforts to secure additional resources for our students finally the committee discussed the upcoming audit contract and recommended initiating a search for a
new auditing firm while we greatly appreciate a long standing service of suly and Company we believe that engaging a new firm periodically provides valuable valuable uh fresh
perspective on District internal District's internal controls and reinforces public confidence in our operations once the budget process is complete the administration will begin the request for
proposal process to identify the new auditing partner any question for board member F hearing none we move on to policy and Communications committee board membersa Jernigan and Franco herst so we'll start with uh policies uh some of the policies
that were updated as we mentioned during the HIV training we did provide um updates to our harassment intimidation bullying as well well as state memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement in
addition there is a revision to the student smoking uh section of the policy in summary these are all associated with regular uh law updates that were um highlighted in the current njsa as far as additional comments on
policy we did um have some questions some came from the community actually to the Board of Education around the impact of executive orders on some of our policies and structures so I did request that we have um a meeting a special
meeting with Strauss Esme which actually was held earlier today with the committee where we discussed um high level the current executive orders and what potential impacts they could have to a policies there's no decisions being
made obviously State needs to uh provide some of those guidance but we'll be closely aligning with the school district um as well as our board attorney to make sure that uh any federal funding that is um required for
school um maintains as is and then in addition to that um I've spoken to you in the past about the wellness check I'm sure everybody is tired of hearing me talk about it but the good news is uh I do have quite a few meetings set up to
provide those updates in our policy um guide to make sure that whatever was outlined in the wildness check by njsba policy we provide appropriate updates to keep us up to dat that is all I have communication cookie I I don't have anything to add
because we talked about the roundout table earlier the newsletter and I did provide uh my appreciation to Mary for incorporating the feedback PCC gave about um round tables being hybrid Ed any question
39 HRC met on February 11th um only item that I can disclose in public is that we assistant superintendent Mattis along with the company hired to find us a new uh ba uh provide us an update um unfortunately in the state of New Jersey
finding competent Bas is a challenge for every school district we are not the only one in in this boote um we did find two candidates um that are going to be interviewed later this week and hopefully we can uh get that process
completed any questions no at this time I'll entertain a motion to approve the following minutes January 7th 2025 executive Session 1 January 7th 2025 organization and business meeting
January 21st 2025 executive Session 1 January 21st 2025 business meeting January 27th 2025 executive Session 1 January 7 January 27 2025 special meeting so moved second it's been
properly moved in second to accept the following meetings any questions on the motion roll call please Mr chano Sure uh Dr W yeah m d yes M Franco Herman yes Mr
felak yes Harris is here Mr L Jernigan yes Mr Nan yes Spina yes Mr Todd yes thank you carries thank you the board acknowledges the correspondence to the board at this time action agenda items
public comments the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public are allowed at one opportunity to address the board regarding the action agenda items only for up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker all comments must must be directed to the board before you make a
comment please State your full name and address 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 fatory and discource remarks the public comment portions of the
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 it's 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 any public comments for the action agenda items there's your comment related to an action agenda item that's listed uh it's about the ACI so the
topic about the ACI the topic just so that will be in public that will be the the next session hearing none at this time I entertain a motion to accept action agenda items 4.1 to 4.3 second it's been properly mooved to
accept items 4.1 to 4.3 any questions get roll call please Mr sh sure uh Dr way I I apologize let me retract that action agenda items 1.0 to 4.3 I
apologize sorry noted so to be clear action agenda items 1 point0 to 4.3 okay the question is on 2 today I I see there is uh we're
approving um a company for a bcba and then another company for bcba Behavioral identification supporting and was just wondering the difference between these two is it something to do with the dist trining training or
something I can answer that yeah 2.3 2.3 the Consultants yes so it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to use these Consultants is to have them already board approved if we have a need for them and then one of the companies is not available we can go to the other
company so the services may not be different which one my question was the difference between one has bcba at $200 per hour and this the bottom one has bcba behavioral identification supporting uh at
175 I was trying to understand the difference between these two bcbas does does the second one has any anything like restraining training or anything like that no difference no difference thank you any other questions yeah I have a
comment that we have a correction for item 3.4 as I discussed with the super and the ba I think there is one item on that um on the reimbursement of traval
reimbursement report that is no longer um I guess uh the yes yeah so I just want to make a note that as we approve this report this item will be removed the last that's noted thank
you any other questions there none roll call Please Mr Tan okay Dr way here M all yes M frankco Herman uh yes to all Rec 4.3 noted thank you Miss filac yes
select jigan yes noran yes Spina yes Mr yes thank you motion is carry this time we'll hear new business from the public the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public m members of the public are allotted one opportunity to bring any
new business to the board for up to a maximum of 3 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 discour 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 good evening board members Board of Education and parents I'm Balaji awaran from 300 Berkeley Avenue and I'm
here both as a parent and advocate for academic excellence I stand before you today to urge the board to reinstate the double accelerated program on math allowing a uh students to take prealgebra starting the fifth grade starting September this
year my son who is currently in the 8th grade at ums was fortunate to go through this program and through positive impact has undeniably has improved drastically because of this early acceleration was able to advance to advance mathematic
thinking at a young age age build confidence in problem solving and develop a strong Foundation that carried him through the middle school my son is in the part of the math count team and our team on March 15th mgy will
represent the state in the math Count contest our school came second among the 50 other schools in the region and that is why they are representing the team consist of four members of math count team and all the four members at
actually belong to the black program in the eighth and seventh grade may I repeat all the four members of the team belong to double ACC program that the program had it it is sad to know that this program does is not available in LMS now now as
my daughter who is in fourth grade now at vs approaches the same stage I deeply concerned that she's denied this opportunity not because she lacks ability but because of the policy change that restrict students from reaching their full potential I understand
districts have cited research suggesting that pre-algebra and fifth grade does not show positive outcome but I ask positive outcome for whom the reality is many student did benefit from this program and we as parents have seen it
in firsthand these students are excellent in math striving in stem fields and embracing academic challenges with enthusiasm by removing this option we are not just slowing down one group of students we are lowering the ceiling
for others in the era of AI technology Global competition and Rapid advancing we should be accelerating learning not limiting it I'm not here to ask for one size fits all approach I am asking MTSD
give students who demonstrate Readiness the opportunity to advance just as they did before why take away a proven path of success when so many students have flourished because of it tonight I'm asking this board to consider
reinstating the double accelerated pathway so students like my daughter and many others can have the same opportunity as the older peers I also ask for transparency to show the decisions were made because parents and educator must work together to change
time sorry thank you thank you thank you I I also want to talk uh talk about this mation program uh because I have big son already goes uh go through this program very successfully uh actually it's not a
small group uh in his uh uh that year they have uh 16 students who all success go through this program and they are now in their Mong high school and you know that uh last year our M High School s
Olympia eventually make National fors this the U they the best SP they can they have and actually a lot of student in this m Olympia team Olympia team come from this program they not only improve
themselves they also have their uh classmates to improve all together so uh I I can see that there uh so many uh I as I know this Mass acceleration program already suc successfully
operated for more than 10 years and a lot of students confir this program and they already uh benefit from this so I am uh Al we have a group of parents uh make suggestion to the school district
uh not to uh cancel this program instead uh uh continue this program and uh to benefit more students yeah thank you thank you thank you everyone it's a um very informational educational session um
discussion on the um math um acceleration program um I just want to make um two points um on top of um the previous two um committee members one is that I urge this um the the um the
district to um um you know uh make decisions and um you know using a data driven approach um uh you know with an eye towards um driving all of our students towards um success um the um my
second point is that um the although you know what you know I advocate for um this acceleration program for younger students even at the third grade or the fourth grade um I am quite disappointed
um to be honest that um the um previous acceleration program Mass acceleration that was available for fifth grade uh graders are no longer available um my um uh my suggestion is that the school
district um considers um uh putting together uh bringing back this program and even at um offering the the opportunity to low uh lower grades and the reason is that um we're not talking about um just the the small portion of
um uh High uh you know uh High performers and fast Learners um in fact um when we have enough number of students in the class that are um accelerated and high performers they are
actually better able to assert their influence on all all the class the entire class all students and so not by by by not doing that I wonder if we're um missing the opportunity to um uh help
um all students achieve their best potentials so um I'll just make the point here and um encourage student uh the the district to consider um bringing back these um acceleration programs and bring more diversity um to our approach
to education for all um students at all levels thank you thank you um hi everyone um my name is sh Lee I live in 19 bould Brook Court B I actually didn't plan to speak tonight I thought I would observe I have always
had full trust in all of you my son is in the sixth grade he has been doing a great job so I seldom pay very close attention to the C curriculum changes until recently I was told that his math
uh curriculum for the highest level um I don't see I don't even know the full name of that level uh the official name was removed um actually I felt bad because I I'm aware of a few students who act for example for the assessments
that your District or School bought um they would perform at or Beyond 99 percentile on the maap and uh um I know that they're not challenged and we know the consequences of they're not being um challenged um
for for those um extreme ends I mean that there's only limited stuff that the teacher can do I think he has a great math teacher but given the class size class sizes that we have now it's hard for for her to balance the structure
structured curricular or content that cerss to the full spectrum of ability uh in in the classroom so I I believe and I you can inter uh interview uh students for example and Based on data too that a
few at least a number of them are not challenged and um and I hope that um me too will pay more uh attention to these and we work with you to help provide
um to the the uh appropriate level content for them for for this far paced students you have done a great job providing help to students who have been struggling I've noticed that occasionally and heard about read about
it so please help these people uh students who are far paced um so that they can deserve their opportunity to thrive um so we so from now on I would learn to pay more attention and I would
also like to have um transparency from you guys for example how the decision was made um and and and we would like to know about the solid um evidence based on which the decision was made to have
the level moved thank you so much any other public comments non public comments now close super attend ml anything you care to address at this point now there are no questions we're going to talk as we discussed before this topic
was going back to the ACI committee are there any items from the floor for discussion from the board seeing and hearing none now entertain a motion for to adjourn second has been properly moved second to
adjourn all those in favor sayi those po same right exensions thank you all for coming out