And I call this meeting to order. Can we all rise for the flag salute? [Music] >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And could we all remain standing for a moment of silence and reflection for all those in harm's way in all of our military at home and abroad? We could be seated. Statement advanced notice. The notice
the notice requirements of the open public meetings act of the state of New Jersey have been satisfied by the inclusion of the date, time, and place of this meeting in the notice of regular meetings adopted by this board on January 6th, 2025. Such schedule and
notice of meetings is posted in the municipal building, the Mount Olive Library, the board of education offices in the six schools was submitted to the daily record for publication on January 7th, 2025 and was filed with the clerk of Mount Olive Township on January 8th,
2025. I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting. >> Thank you. And I'll take a roll call, please. >> Sure. Mrs. Aino, >> here. >> Mrs. Fenton >> here. >> Mrs. Paggera >> here. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald >> here.
>> Dr. Yordano >> here. >> Mrs. Melendez. >> Mrs. Narcissis >> here. >> Mrs. O'Neal >> here. >> Mr. Orzillo >> here. >> And with that, I will take a motion for the approval of the minutes. And can we
put Mr. Ozilla on the spot? >> Oh, cool. I like being on the spot. I'd like to make a motion approve minutes. >> Second. All those in favor or any questions from the board? I just have one edit on o that I just caught on open session minutes. There's one spot that
says Miss Fitzgerald reported on the Flanders PTA. That was actually Miss Faggera. We just got a lot of people with similar sounding last names. So, just wanted to make sure we got that. >> Um otherwise, that's all I have. >> Anyone else?
>> Okay, with that, we'll take a roll call. >> Sure. >> Mrs. Aino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fenton. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Figgerero. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald. >> Yes. >> Dr. Jordano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Narciz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Neal. >> Yes. >> Mr. Orzillo.
>> Yes. >> And just a little housekeeping. We're going to change the order of tonight's meeting and we're going to move superintendent report prior to confidential session. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to you, Dr. Bania. >> I'm actually going to Could we have the student leon report first?
>> Oh, great idea. >> Is that is that fair? >> Yes, sounds good. Can we have our model students come up? >> Introduce themselves to the board and the public. >> And we're excited to have you. >> Hi everyone. Good evening. I'm Jake Cawthorne on behalf of the Mount High
School student council. I'm a senior this year. I'm also going to be the uh student council secretary and I just want to take a second to introduce um Atelka as our board of ed leaison this year. >> Hi everyone. I'm really excited to be the leazison this year and I hope for a great year. So with that um killed us
out of the year, we had the freshman orientation on August 19th which was successful and the freshman class officers were elected. We had our transfer student orientation on the 20th. We had about 10 students come and tour the school and they had a great time. Their parents had a great time and
they got a breakdown of Mount Olive. We had back to school night on September 10th which is a rousing success. We had a lot more student volunteers than we usually have and the parents had a great time. Then the um Air Force Junior ROC attended the 911 ceremony at Turkeyburg which was really nice. We had our club
fair on September 16th successful. We had a lot of interest in the clubs. New members sign up for student council. It was great. We had our mini college fair on the 17th and we had over 40 colleges attend. We had our pep rally on the 19th which is really successful. We had a lot of student participation. We're very excited to see where the sports go next.
Our homecoming court was announced at the pep rally which was Tommy Canning, Frank Gallow, Jake Hawthorne, Andrew Achoa, Liam Shelton, Kelsey Burke, Madison Clemente, Belle McGrini, Jillian Moscatello, and Megan Roodas. And with that, we had a guest speaker, Steven Hill, come on the 19th for the 10th
grade, and he spoke about drug abuse. We had our ELA Lincoln Link last week, and we have our mouth tomorrow. But to move on, our marching band on September 20th came in first place in the US band's competition at Arler High School and also took the award for best music. Our athletics is also doing really well.
Football is four to null. Our next game is next Saturday at Morris Nolles. Volleyball is doing really well, 7 to three, and gymnastics is 3 to nil. And Ava Tabarenza, she's a senior. She earned a distinction in the Morristown Festival of Books annual teen writing contest and she's going to be honored at
the festival's opening event on Friday, October 10th. Thank you. >> That's awesome. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, coming up, we the guidance department will be running their financial aid night on October 6th in the performing arts center. Um along with that, they'll also be hosting the
SATs on October 8th. So, that'll take place during the school day. And then following these dates, the homecoming football game will take place on Saturday, October 10th. Um everyone's really excited to see not only whether the team wins, but also who's going to be elected as homecoming king and queen
this year. Um, in addition to that, the PSATs will be hosted at the high school on October 15th. Followed by that, um, an art career night which will take place on October 16th in the PDR at 6:30. Um, the following, uh, after that,
the guidance department will be hosting a second mini college fair on October 22nd for all the students to attend. And then on the same day, those interested in going to military services post-graduation will have an opportunity to take part in the ASVAB test. The
following night on October 23rd, Broadway night will be hosted at the high school. And then as for honor society, so far this year, the National Honor Society will be holding an induction on October 27th, followed by an induction for the National English
Honor Society on October 29th. >> Thank you. very busy. >> Is there anything not going on at the high school? Jeez. Good. >> Any questions or comments from the board? >> No. Good job. >> Thank you. Well done.
>> One down. Thank you so much. >> So, at this time, I would like to invite our acting assistant superintendent, Dr. Rean, along with our amazing curriculum team, who's going to be giving us an update from all the summer work that has been completed. Thank you. Thank you very much. And
let's see. Terrific. That's perfect. Thank you. I have the supervisors here this evening and they will be sharing the kinds of curriculum revisions that they've done over the summer with their staff. This is um especially important
this year since the district is going through CUSAC and so this is the group of your supervisors and uh basically uh this helps uh document the the transparency and articulation of your curriculum with the
public and as you know during the spring the um uh Mrs. Mcderman came to you with all the curriculum work that she needed approved. The board uh very generously approved the curriculum work that was to be done during the summer. Um that work
was during the summer and as you've noticed it's been um before the education committee and this board to get uh adopted. So, uh, quite honestly, I've been having oneto ons with your supervisors and the curriculum looks
like really good shape for for um for a QAC and uh basically as you know the standards are developed by the state which results in the curriculum and results in lesson plans. Um, as you know the the standards
are uh researchbased. They're clear and consistent with our uh K12 learning goals and uh it covers nine nine content areas with a lot of input. Um so I know that you have a tight
schedule and we're going to move this quickly. Everybody knows two minutes, right? So, um I would like to So, I would like to now turn this over to uh Melanie and she will uh over give
an overview of the music down. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to just change. It's all right. >> We need an adjustable mic. >> She's an old pro at this. >> Yeah. Right.
>> Yeah. my microphone. That's true. >> Good evening everybody. Uh I'm excited to share the work that uh that's been completed this summer by the music department. So I got to remember to do this. There we go. Our program goals
continue to focus on cultivating lifelong music literacy and appreciation through active participation. We aim to strengthen fundamentals like the basic fundamentals of music, rhythm, melody, instrumental technique while also supporting creativity, collaboration, social emotional growth through the both
classroom and ensemble experiences. This summer, we revised all K through2 curricula to fully align with the updated New Jersey visual and performing arts standards. So each grade level now has a clear unit-based structure centered on rhythm, melody, and instruments with more opportunities for
composition, improvisation, and reflection. We also enhance transfer tests so that students can apply their music learning in real world ways. I'm also proud to highlight two new high school courses that were written. The first is introduction to guitar which
provides students with kind of a nontraditional entry point into our music program. Uh it introduces basic guitar care, chords, strumming and note reading and also serves as a pathway to our rock and roll academy program. we often get students signing up to participate in that program that
actually have no background knowledge of like playing guitar. So, this is a a great way to help kind of bridge some of those gaps. Uh the second new course is unified introduction to music peer buddies, which is a unified music class that brings together general education
students and our special education students. And this course emphasizes once again those basic elements of rhythm, melody, performance in an inclusive setting. So it's fostering empathy and leadership and collaboration amongst peers.
Finally, I'd like to share a few points of pride. Manolof continues to be recognized nationally as NAM's Foundation best community for music education. That's now up on the website. Um we've expanded access to our elementary instrumental programs including financial assistance options.
Our students perform regularly in the community and and a number of honor ensembles and outside of the community just serving as ambassadors for our program and the district. And with programs like the new peer buddy course, we're not only growing musicianship but also strengthening our school climate
through inclusion and collaboration. So, thank you so much for your support and making those opportunities possible for our students as well. And now I would like to turn the mic over to our math supervisor for the secondary level, Mr. Brian Mate. Well done. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Good evening everyone. For those who haven't met me yet, my name is Brian Mate. I'm the new math supervisor for the secondary from 6 to 12. So, I'm going to go through a couple of things that we did over the summer to prepare the uh sixth grade all the way up to geometry. Uh the goals kind of revolve around all the standards. So we focus
very heavily on making sure that our standards are being covered with a major focus on the major clusters that fall into all the sixth, seventh, eighth grade as well as the algebra 1 and the geometry and algebra 2 courses at the high school.
If you see what is up there on the uh screen right now, you can see that we revised everything uh going all the way from six to algebra 2 and we tried to make them in aligned in a sequential progression trying to make sure that everything is building on itself from year to year to year. Uh you can also
see at the outcome at the very bottom that our math students are uh going to be fully supported and prepared to succeed in algebra 1. That was a major focus and a huge goal for the entire department uh in the middle school and building up into the high school. The sixth, seventh, and eighth grade
curricula build on top of each other. So, you can see I kind of built it as if the boxes are being grown on top of one another. The sixth, seventh, and eth updated all the unit calendars and the timelines. We made sure that they aligned with the NJSLA for each grade and that they prepare every student for
the next grade that is to come after while also focusing on their problem solving skills. Algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2, we did the same. Algebra 1 does span from mom's all the way into the high school where we have an essentials and a CP. So
yes, all three were rewritten. Geometry, we have essentials, CP, and honors. All three were rewritten. and algebra 2, essentials, CP, and honors were all rewritten with the same goal in mind, to keep building one after another all the way up to the top.
We had three points of pride that we focused on when we were creating these. The first is our CPA project, which has been built around Conquer Math, which I'm sure you've heard many times. Our Conquer Math goes all the way from kindergarten all the way up to algebra or sorry, all the way up to geometry. So, it goes to algebra 1 and geometry at
the high school. And it's built on concrete, pictorial, and abstract learning. Trying to build the skills for our students where they can learn in three different um components. That way, it kind of helps the math stick as they move from year to year. It's also very focused on standards. We focus very
heavily on the major clusters, but we also added in the additional clusters and we made sure that we hit the supporting as well to ensure that everything is covered by the time they graduate high school. And then we end with our data analysis, making sure that we are improving and looking at our students um successes and building on
that for improvement year after year. And that's it for the math part. So I will now turn it over to our uh K to6 elementary English Dr. Jenny. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yep.
>> Hi guys. How are you? >> How are you? >> It's great to see you all. Um, I have an update on the K5 English language arts curriculum. Um, so over the summer we rewrote the K5 ELA curriculum using a comprehensive literacy framework grounded in the science of reading and
aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards. We've adopted benchmark advance as our general resource. I think you all know now we're also using I Ready K to 5 for our diagnostic and benchmark assessments to inform our small groupoup instruction.
We're also using the I Ready platform for our universal literacy screening, which I'm sure you're aware of is a new state mandate this year. So, here you can see this is the breakdown of the comprehensive literacy framework. First, it's the what we teach, the how we teach, and then how we support
struggling readers. This term and definition came directly from the New Jersey Handbook for dyslexia. This was really the foundation for the curriculum development work that we did over the summer. There are two major trends that have
come out of the more recent science of reading research. We wanted to make sure that our new curriculum really reflected both of those and that's really the biggest change from the previous curriculum to our current curriculum. The first shift is a focus and emphasis on foundational skills. This also
mirrors the revisions that were done at the state level for the New Jersey state learning standards. Um that was in 2023. They took their foundational domain, they unpacked it and expanded it to really focus on reading and writing. Really, it's prioritizing phonics,
grammar, and spelling. So, the new curriculum now includes an intensive funological awareness component for K to2, a complete morphology scope and sequence for 3 to 5, and we now really mapped out grammar instruction K to 5.
Some of that's happening daily. If it's not daily, it's definitely happening weekly. The second major trend was to really include comp content knowledge building within the ELA block. Now, we all know interdisip interdisciplinary connections. We've heard that many, many
times before. This is a little different because what they're looking at is building content alongside strategy work at the same time. So, if you look up here on this chart, you see all of the unit and theme topics by grade level and then from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. What you'll notice
is every other one has either a science or social studies focus. But taking it a step further, it's not just for that year. It then builds upon that content knowledge year after year. So you'll see everyone is in life science unit 1 K to 5. Everyone is in government and
citizenship K to 5. So again, it's constantly ongoing in those stepping stones that we're building for these students. Those are the two major revisions that you see in the new curriculum. I do want to highlight this was a completely collaborative process. Last year I
coordinated a committee of over 30 teachers representing general education, special education, ML interventionists and coaches. Our number one priority was to truly make our recommendations and decisions based on both the science of reading and the New Jersey student
learning standards. Additionally, I worked very closely with Mrs. McDermott at the end of last year to build out a robust PD schedule for the teachers so they would feel supported in this transition because we know when teachers feel supported and confident in what they're doing. The most important thing
is students will have a cohesive learning experience. So I'm very thankful for this the teachers that were on the committee for the curriculum writers and of course thank you all for your support through this process. I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Marggoiaak who will do secondary ELA. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm very excited to share with you some of the curriculum revisions that we worked on this summer. Um, getting back to basics when we talk about program goals and program outcomes, I think I've probably said this to you every single time I've come to the mic. And while we really, really
want our kids to have a love of Shakespeare and want to read, you know, to kill a mockingbird, we realize that might not be the end goal for every student. And so most importantly, we want our students to be able to take in the communication that the world is giving around them to be able to
analyze, break that down, synthesize it, and come up with their own point of view and be able to kind of support that and communicate that out. And that's really what all of our courses work towards in this program. Over the summer, the eighth grade ELA team revised the ELA 8th curriculum.
they really focused on developing those interdisciplinary connections. So, this actually started um in May and June of last year where they sat with their science and social studies counterparts and they just took a look at their curriculum maps and they just wanted to see where can we overlap where does it
already make sense without recreating every single piece of curricula. So, for example, the first unit in the ELA8 is the power of language and words. So that naturally connects to the idea of speeches. Well, why not study Julius Caesar and Greek mythology when our
social studies students are studying ancient Rome, which we think is fantastic. Um, we also made sure that ELA8 um definitely um focused on the continuity of learning those aligning outcomes, looking at the standards and
seeing where should our students be at the end of 8th grade and where are they coming from at the beginning and helping them kind of get over that gap. The second course is we brought back, I guess you could say, English 4CP. Um, we had kind of morphed that course into
students being able to choose two senior electives, but what we found is that our senior electives are so popular that students want to take more than two and they can't always fit more than two in their schedule. So, we turned this course into a survey style course which really highlighted our most popular
electives and kind of gives them a taste of each of the electives. So, for example, we included science fiction and fantasy, horror, mystery, suspense. There's some film studies in there, some poetry, um, just to kind of give the students a taste of what they might be interested in. Um, before they leave and
graduate at the end of the year, we focused on revising our film studies course. Um, something that I'm very excited about in this course is that we are now including the use of documentary films, which in more recent years, our students have actually come to us and
they've been very excited um to tell us about the new thing that they watched on Netflix. So, with the um help of Miss Jodie Bosch, we were able to bring in a unit that has the students studying one together, but then it's going to give them a choice of a different documentary
they can kind of view at home and and be able to report how that author told their story. We updated our horror, mystery, suspense unit, which is very popular with our students. Um, this unit really focuses on how do authors build
suspense. So, we just learn the basics in the first unit. The second unit is let's read a book together and figure that out. And we we read um Ste Steven Stephen King's The book clubs. So now let's on our own and in our groups let's discuss how suspense
is built. And then finally they develop their own suspenseful story at the end which students are really excited about. And really our points of pride in the English department. I would be remiss if I didn't say a huge point of pride is our our teachers. Um and not just our
ELA teachers. We work very closely with our special education co-teers who are very important. Um, and they're the reason why all of this work gets done, but we also really are excited about our interdisciplinary curriculum and we're going to continue making strides in that uh direction. Uh, the idea of the
innovation that our teachers bring to the English department. They're always coming up with a really great article that they found or a new course that they want to recommend. And finally, um the focus on the scope and sequence of writing instruction has been at the forefront and something we're really
focusing on. So this year, um with the help of the vertical articulation lead team, which was student, uh teacher volunteers from last year, we developed a official argumentative writing rubric from grades 6 through 12. And we're rolling that out not only in ELA, but in
science and social studies. So that was very exciting. So thank you so much. And now I will turn it over to Mr. Dr. Dom. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Um I'm going to go over to our what we added to social
studies over the summer. So at the high school, what we did was we um worked on our world history CP and world history honors. So what we did there was just make sure that where eighth grade ends now 9th grade begins. So there's there's better flow there. We introduced a new elective which is introduction to
psychology. We have two teachers now that have this psychert and because it's such a popular class we add introduction to psychology so kids can get a taste and then take AP next year uh if they want to because AP psych is a growing class we have five sections of it which is a huge for an AP class. Um another uh
thing that we were working on was Revolution New Jersey which is I'll give you a little information on that. It's celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Sonia Declaration of Independence. Um it's a two-year um celebration that's going to happen this year, next year. It's really just a partnership between New Jersey schools and the historical
commission um where they're going to come together and basically share resources. Um there going to be a lot of events that are going to uh come about. There's got to be a lot of um free PD field trips that they're putting together. Just something to really um emphasize New Jersey's role in the revolution, but also to promote um civics and citizenship in the K-
through2 classroom. So something really excited about this new initiative. Um some of the program goals that we did, like I stated before, we are working to make sure that we have um a precise start and end point for all of our um courses. We are definitely pushing a lot more literacy in social studies, reading primary sources and secondary sources,
but also data, maps, really evaluating the writing. Um where it's coming from is a big thing. You'll see when we talk about some of the digital citizenship, making sure that students are verifying the information, not just taking it from like the first source that pops up. Um which is really important. We're really looking at bias and misinformation. um which also is very important, something
that we want to make sure that the students are aware of and the civil engagement just to make sure that they are informed participate participants in democracy. Um so we do a lot more of the simulations um and inquiry in these positions. Um so we continue working on that. So
all the assessments are dealing with questioning, analysis and argument creation. Um the units are b are focusing on these sorts of things where there's a lot more um seminars and debates. doing a lot of case studies and uh briefings in all the subjects. Um we are also emphasizing diverse perspectives. So we have a lot new
resources that we brought in to make sure they have these um counternarratives and community connections and they're all basically to make sure that all voices are being heard in our social studies um curriculum and that students can analyze these historical events and understand how they affect our society today. Um so
some of our points of pride is again we're really focusing on the civil action not just the content. So they're not just learning about government, they're learning about the history and participate through government through debate, simulations, and really problem solving and reting to real issues, local and global. Um they're really producing
products with their creation aspect. So they're doing museum style exhibits, policy briefs, multimedia storytelling. Some students are even doing podcasting, which we're really excited about. And um again, we are focusing on our inclusive storytelling. So we have a curriculum that's diverse with a lot of different
uh perspectives. Um we are working on uh basically to make sure that everyone in the community has their voices heard. And um next I will introduce our science supervisor, Mr. Christopher Jensen. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good to see everyone tonight. I'm going
to take you through the uh the summer work that we did. Um just kind of going through the goals that I've gone through kind of every time I've come up here about what we are looking for with the program and what we really want to foster here. Um the big thing is that you know science is pretty and
especially the tech fields now that I'm supervised of that this year last year and this year um is that they're often offputting and intimidating to a lot of people and a lot of students. Uh so one of our big things is creating opportunities to for students to get involved and engage in science and then also the technical fields you know
robotics, engineering, all those programs. Um so we've really tried to open those up and have opportunities for everyone to be involved. Um the next thing uh we want to have you know every student to be exposed to as many different things as possible.
What's going on? Uh and then the other one the last one is career exposure. So these are things we've done for a long time. Um this last year when I inherited the you know innovation and design department which is like historically the maker space and things like that.
Um, I was taking a look at national trends and one of the current things that's going on in terms of these types of programs is that uh we're seeing like in Pennsylvania they have the steel standards where science and engineering are all in one standards document. So we
wanted to create one department out of the engineering robotics programs with the science department. So we ran joint PLC's uh we ran everyone together but we decided to focus around the science and engineering practices which are a subcomponent of the science standard. Uh
so we actually chose to write those in as primary standards within all of the you know related arts programs. Uh so that was the one of the things that we've kind of centered our conversations around this year. Um you know and then just general goals every you know get
everyone involved. Uh but some of the programs that we worked on this year, it was a relatively light summer for me curriculum writing wise. Um so again we rewrote the innovation and design seven cycle in the middle school. Now that is a program that every single student in the middle school takes. So we started
with that one that everyone takes and then subsequent program writing in the future is going to focus on the sixth and eighth grade versions to kind of see how things play out and what we might need to get more kids involved. and then you know follow through with the program
later. Uh the science department we updated some electives that haven't been touched in a little while uh with which forensic science and astronomy. Uh one of my plans for this year was to run through other electives and try to revamp that a little bit. Um we rewrote
AP computer science principles and computer science A. um they're new to me but compsai a test changes this year so we needed to get ready for that test and the principal test changed in 2024 so we just wanted to get in compliance
and alignment with that assessment going forward uh and then finally we have uh a great reemergence of our architecture program uh so the intro to CAD we rewrote it's a that's a a halfyear course uh focusing in on you know
AutoCAD and on shape And then architecture 1, uh, I think we're running three sections of architecture 1 this year. So that that program is now back up to a full course load for one teacher. Uh, it's really blown up again. And, you know, it's just a Dan's a great
teacher, so everyone takes it. Um, some of the other rewrites that we did last year have really shown um, big gains in enrollment, especially in related arts. The automotive program is killing it. We're turning kids away just because of space.
>> Um, you know, so referendum. >> Yep. >> Get get it going. >> Can you say that again? >> It's all good. I can say whatever I want now. Um, and then also the uh materials processing class has proven very popular
and that's kind of like the embodiment of steam where you know it's a very technical course but a lot of the student end products were very artrelated. It was it was great to see the first year run through on that one. Um I think points of pride I think I've kind of gone through everything a little bit already. Um but the mindset stems
for everybody. Um the huge thing that's been here you know in my tenure for the last >> 19 years. Um so you know really that's that's where we're at. Thank you guys. I think >> Christiey's on my daughter.
Hi everyone. >> Hi. >> Okay, so uh this summer we had revisions to the K to5 math curriculum and our goal was to embed best practices, emphasize the major content areas of the standards and provide students with adequate time to build a deep
understanding of all their math skills. Um, we are continuing to use the the board um approved envision uh resource, but we're also including the concrete pictorial abstract method into all of our teaching and instruction. Our process was a little bit different than
what we usually do. We had all of our teachers meet ahead of time. They facilitated staff meetings, compiling notes, talked to their colleagues, and then we met at the Conquer Math headquarters where we did a standards inventory, a reflection on what's working for us within vision, what's not
working. We created a pacing guide and added our own supplemental materials. The product was we had our full curriculum was written. We also have an at a glance which shows the teachers at a glance what their month looks like. Um
and we also updated all of our pacing guides. Some highlights from our curriculum rewrite is that our units are based in standards as opposed to a sequence of the program. We include the CPA method into all of our instruction. They got new pacing guides, the at a glance, and
every teacher got a curriculum binder, including the interventionists and the administrators that had the curriculum, the calendars, and all of the supporting materials. Some of the binders are 500 pages long because we had a lot of uh extra materials to put in there. Other highlights, thank you to the board um
for approving the purchase of manipulatives because our teachers got a hall of manipulatives to support that hands-on approach. And we also created an unpacking the standards hub where the teachers can go in and learn more about uh each standard. And really our points of pride is the teacher owner ownership
and investment. Like I said, everyone got a binder and their goal was to mark it up this year and let us know what works and doesn't work so we can rewrite it and update it again for next year. Our dedication to the hands-on approach and our emphasis on deep understanding. And um a shameless plug, Dr. Dr.
Mastriani and I will be doing an elementary curriculum night to talk more about language arts and math on November 12th at the middle school. Thank you very very much everybody. And uh now Mr. Aruro Rodriguez. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Hi everybody. Nice to see you. Uh for those of you that don't know me, my name is Arturo Rodriguez and I supervise academic intervention, gifted and talented, our multilingual learner program, as well as our world language program. Tonight's updates um are not so
much curricular focus as they are programmatic and systems based. Um and I do just want to say as you're going through the program goals and the program outcomes as you see them projected on the screen, our focus really was on ensuring that we were able to provide support for our students early on whenever whenever it was needed
as well as making sure that we had consistency across all of our schools when it came to program identification as well as program requirements from building to building to building. All right. So the the things that I'd like to highlight are um as far as our academic intervention, we have now
developed a consistent uh approach to identifying students and providing academic intervention across all six schools now. So we all have the same entry and exit criteria. We have uh common resources to pull from. And the thing that's kind of holding it all together is that we're now rolling out
intervention manager. So, a lot of the work over the summer was setting up some of these requirements or setting up some of these parameters so that all six schools can now proceed in a similar fashion when it comes to academic intervention. Uh, regarding gifted and talented, uh, last year, one of the
things that we did was we gathered a committee at each of the buildings and we created identification committees to be able to start identifying gifted and talented students and bring the program back during the school day. This year is the first year that we're launching it during the school day and at the elementary level it's happening during
win periods. At the middle school it's happening in a in this the schedule for the students. Right. Uh and then one of the other things that I'd like to highlight is that we did hire a dedicated gifted and talented teacher to service the elementary schools. So the students who are identified as being
gifted and talented will also have the opportunity to work with Mrs. Williamson. Um, as far as our multilingual learner program, we did refine our identification, placement, and exit process to streamline everything a little bit more. Again, one of the things in developing this process
was consistency, making sure that whatever process is followed is followed across all six schools. And the uh platform that's going to help us do that is we brought in elevation platform. And elevation platform really has two components. One side is data data
driven. So, it's a a way for us to track our students and see how they're scoring on access to see how they're scoring and their screeners and see if there's growth. But the other side of it is also is uh is called uh elevation strategies and elevation strategies is a PD
platform for professional development. So specialists and teachers and administrators will have the opportunity to go onto the platform and there is a list of modules that we can choose from and you know we can go through and see how what we're learning within the modules applies to the students that you know are in front of us every single
day. And then finally for world language one of the things that we've done is we've initiated vertical articulation to happen K to 12 to ensure that the world language program built on builds on itself every year so that we're avoiding any repetition. we're avoiding uh same
concepts being taught every single year. So the focus of that is to really make sure that we are in alignment with not only the New Jersey standards but also with our own curriculum as well. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. That concludes our
presentation. Um and thank you for your support. >> Do we have any any questions or comments from the board? I have a a kind of question. How much of AI are we using for all this curriculum based stuff? Is it uh like are the
students using it >> as far as anything for >> we do studying research? >> We use um magic school which is an AI. >> They're all using magic school. >> Yes. So as far as student perspective is and also the teachers have an AI comp um component that's aligned to magic school
as well. So they have resources. You know, our approach to AI is this is a new world order and it's really important as school districts to really ensure that they understand what AI is when it's not and develop learning opportunities for them to feel safe and
really understand how they can maximize their learning without replacing their learning. Does that is that a fair? >> That's important. >> Yeah. >> You know, I would just like to u take a moment to um a big appreciation to the curriculum instruction team. So often your work goes unnoticed
because a lot of it takes place in the summertime or or behind um scenes. As you can see from this presentation, there is a great deal of work that happens in order to ensure that you know when students come back in September, the work that the supervisors along with the teachers do is instrumental in order
to hit the ground running so to speak in September. So certainly we would like to thank the board for the resources and the approval that allows them to work to get done but certainly all the hard work whether it be attending PD you know going to classrooms observing we greatly appreciate the hard work and certainly
the you know differentiated approaches so that um all our students in Mount Olive learn and that's a key thing theme I hope you took away from this presentation is that while the standards are where the state tells us where to go that is not where we end every child who attends our school is someone who that
we value. We want to see them. We want to hear them. And we're going to create programs and allow ensured resources are um developed so that they can be successful. So, thank you for your leadership and certainly thank you to the staff that goes into the classroom day in day out and doing all the wonderful things for our students. So,
thank you. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> And with that, I will I think motion any other questions from the board comments? >> No. Um, I'll take a motion to go into uh confidential session then for the board. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor?
>> I. >> All right. Re be it resolved that the board meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing negotiations, personnel, matters of turning client privilege, any pending anticipated litigation, pupil matters, real estate. Be it further resolved that matters discussed in confidential session be
disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists. And we're in close session. laughing. I'll bring us back to session. Can we um take a roll call, please? >> Sure. Mrs. Aino >> here. >> Mrs. Fenton, >> here.
>> Mrs. Vaggera >> here. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> here. >> Dr. Gordano >> here. >> Mrs. Marciss >> here. >> Mrs. O'Neal >> here. Mr. Orzillo >> here. And with that, we'll pick up right where we left off. Do we have any board
subcommittee or parent teacher association leaison reports? >> Can we actually go back to my superintendent report? >> We're going back to Dr. >> We did not do the um class of 2025 graduation report. >> Push it to the next meeting. >> Real quick,
next slide. >> So, this is merely a sum summary of what we had discussed back in August. I just wanted to make clear as far as how our students um have a pathway towards graduation. For the class of 2025, we had a total of 364 students who graduated. Um of that 248 were the ones
who passed with the um NJGPA, end of year uh year exam assessments versus um substitute 46 of those students then were um graduating under substitute competency test like PSAT, SAT. Um 70 of those students then graduated using our
portfolio process. um three of them dealing with their IEP were given um alternative requirements based upon their IEP and about three students were denied graduation for various purposes and none of them um um did not were denied graduation because of did not
they did not pass NJGPA. So we the reason I wanted to bring this up is that we go above and beyond really to ensure that every student that walks through our door are not being hindered by one assessment. So this is just um something I just want to be clear that we take every pathway available to ensure them
to get them cross over that finish line. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Questions or comments from the board? >> All right. Seeing none, we will move forward to subcommittee and parent teacher liaison reports. Do we have anyone from the audience tonight?
No. Any board members that attended parent teacher association meetings? >> I do. Let me just get it up. Okay. So, on behalf of the FPTA, I have a couple of updates. Um, the first ever parent popup coffee shop was a success.
They had a Jersey Mike Jersey Mike's fundraiser over this past weekend, which was also a success. Um, their mum their fall mom's fundraiser was a huge success. Um, they are now in the process of working on their custodian
appreciation. They've raised $185 and are sending in treats and thank you cards on Friday. The Scholastic Book Fair is this month. Um, there's a popup school store this month. Trick or treat, uh, trunk or treat scheduled for October
17th. Um, that date still stands. And I believe that's it. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board? >> I have a question. Do we have all uh uh elementary schools doing trunk or treat?
>> Yes. My to my understanding, yes. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Oh, okay. Seeing none, we'll move to public comments on action items. Members of the community may comment on any action item prior to board discussion. Please state your name and address for
the record. All comments must be respectfully presented. Abusive herbs scene comments will not be tolerated and the mic is open for agenda items and action items. Nope. One more minute. Okay, I will close out
public comment. And with that, we will move to I will take a motion for the approval of item 7.1 all the way through to 11.2. And Dr. Gana, I'm going to call on you. >> Super. Make a motion on the recommendation of superintendent to uh
consent agenda all action items. >> Second. Any comments or questions from the board? >> Real quick, Miss Narcissis, will we um >> is that contractual with MOASA that uh Miss Z is getting paid $100 a day or is that something we came up with? >> Um that's um within that we've come up with. >> Okay. Do are we comfortable with that
number as a board? I mean, she's double she's doing double duty. We can look into that at this point because for the long longer duration, she's going to be appointed through in the end of October. It's a little different. >> And as I think we're looking to explore getting some um administrative support in there as well because as you can see
that we also have um an interimm sign supervisor position that we're opening. So we're looking to maybe somehow wrap it into one. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Can we discuss that? Can we back to personnel? >> Personnel finance. >> Any other questions or comments?
No. Okay. Seeing none, I'll take a roll call, please. >> Sure. >> Mrs. Aikido? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pentton? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Vigger? >> Yes. On everything um except I abstain on 9.2. >> Okay. Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Dr. Gordado,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Nars, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Neal, >> I abstain from anything for Christian Humphrey or special education and yes to everything else. >> Okay. And Mr. Orizilla? Yes.
>> All right. And then we will move to public comments. Students, parents, employees, and community members may comment on any item of interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District. Please state your name and address for the record. All comments must be respectfully presented. Abusive or obscene comments will not be
tolerated. The mic is open. All right. Going once, going twice. I will close out public comment. And with that, we will move to old business. Any board members with old business? All right, we'll move to new business.
Any board members with new business? All right, and we will move on board members and administrative comments. Members of the board may comment on any item of interest pertaining to the board to the Mount Olive School District. And like usual, I'll start at the end with Dr. Gardano. No comment, Madam
President. >> And Miss Fitzgerald. >> No comment. >> No comment. >> No comment. >> We're going to go with no comment. >> I have Mr. Rosello. >> No comment. >> There's nothing for me. >> I have a comment. I just
>> I'm sorry. I wanted to say that the ROC students at the 911 memorial and at the PMIA visual did such a great job. I always love watching them and I think that um they just they do wonderfully and they're very there's something to be
very proud of for our district. Um and our sports teams are all doing really well too and thank you to all the supervisors that came. I'm sorry. >> Did know all that. >> Yep. And Dr. Banch, anything to close us out? >> I think I'm good.
>> All right. With that, I will take a motion to adjurnn our meeting. So moved. >> All those in favor?