##VIDEO ID:9uWufJz0GFo## e up we are live good morning everyone thank you so much for being here um it's pleasure to have you happy New Year we'll start by calling the meeting to order the New Jersey open public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies that which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the State Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the Department of Education Secretary of State's office and notice has been given to the State House Press cores the governor's office and the state board agenda subscribers and as a quorum is present this meeting will come to order may I please have a motion thank you very much board member Bennett may please have a second thank you very much board member shahada all those in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries and now I'd like to adjourn to Executive session whereas in order to protect the personal privacy and to avoid situations where in the public interest might be deserved the open public meetings act permits public bodies to exclude the public from that portion of a meeting at which certain matters are discussed now therefore be it resolved that consistent with the provisions of njsa 10 col 4-12 B the State Board of Education will now adjourn to Executive session to discuss personnel and legal matters may I please have a motion thank you very much sir may I please have a second thank you very much board member Barry all those in favor please say I I all right we will go into executive session having unanimous consent thank you very much we will be back at 10:00 a.m. thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we're fine thank you good morning everyone nice to see you happy happy New Year 2025 woohoo all right I'd like to be begin please by reconvening to resume to our public session of the meeting whereas consistent with the provision of njsa 10 colum 4-12 B the state board will now adjourn from executive session and resume the Open Session portion of our meeting so may I please have a motion thank you very much board member Bennett may I please have a second thank you very much board member Barry all those in favor please say I I thank you um anyone oppose hearing none motion carries and now I'd like to say the Pledge of Allegiance please we could all do so I pledge allegiance to United States America stands one nation liberty and justice to all thank you okay so now that we're back in Trenton and starting our meeting beginning 2025 we have a lot of good things to look forward to this year um our meetings are accessible for the public and viewing our YouTube channel I would like to advise you that YouTube provides readily accessible language translation options for Clos captioning if if you are viewing our simoc cast at this time you can you may use the settings option in YouTube for information about subtitles Auto translations and close captioning in multiple languages um I would like to please ask if everyone has gone over December 4th 2024 uh minutes that we had and if if there are any questions or or changes but first I'd like to ask where motion to approve them thank you very much board member Barry May um are there any questions or any any um anything that people would like to comment on at this time hear none um so we have a motion may we have a second thank you very much Dr Johnson all those in favor please say I I any opposed please say a the minutes are accepted thank you public testimony the state board will receive public testimony on the proposed amendments to chapter 32 School District Operations today related to State excus absences for civic events additionally our state board of education will also receive testimony from registered members of the public on any educational topic of their choice as the January public testimony session is an open topic public testimony session vice president Ned Johnson and state board members Amed Shada Mary Beth Barry Claudine Keenan Mary Bennett and I will hear from the public today on public testimony for the month of February the State Board did not receive public testimony as there are no educational topics for discussion so now we have the pleasure of having our state School Board member Miss Anna paskowitz she's a senior at palmara High School in Burlington County her advises are Miss Kelly Jones and Miss Keem Martino I Believe Miss Martino are you here thank you but you want to stand and we'll thank you properly you bring us a wonderful student this year so we'd like to hear from you please thank you president Goldenberg and good morning everyone as technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented Pace artificial intelligence or AI is becoming an integral part of various Industries including education in recent years AI tools have been introduced into classrooms transforming the way students learn teachers instruct and schools operate the potential benefits of AI and education are vast ranging from personalized learning experiences to efficient administrative processes however these advancements also raise important questions about Equity privacy and the role of human Educators now the paragraph I just read to you was written by an AI website however most people would never be able to tell I specifically asked chat GPT a very popular AI source to write me the introduction to a student rep Board of Ed report on the use of AI in schools it didn't take any fancy language or any complex question for a free website to spit out exactly what I was looking for this sheds light on the power of AI which has the potential to be both a large resource and a large threat to education to begin with some of the negatives AI is a widely used source of cheating and plagiarism in schools having such complex and well-developed websites write on students personal devices opens up the potential for students to rely on technology for all sorts of school work including major grades 56% of students who use AI said that they are most likely to use it for writing essays and completing various assignments such as homework a potential solution to this issue is the are the websites created to analyze students work and tell whether it's authentic or AI this solution doesn't come without drawbacks though the tools aren't perfect occasionally resulting in students with authentic work being accused of cheating or not being able to tell when AI is being used which is becoming more and more common as AI evolves and is beginning to sound more and more humanlike using AI to complete assignments may seem like a far-fetched idea however utilizing the websites to cheat is becoming increasingly more routine over the last year alone the percentage of K to2 students who claim to be familiar with chat GPT roast from 35% to 75% this number is astounding especially since it includes grades as low as kindergarten many of children's most critical learning years are through elementary and middle school and when students become too reliant on technology at a young age they miss out on critical skills they will need in high school and Beyond AI is also very harmful to a student's worth work ethic using AI repetitively can become so routine that children don't know how to function without it this has the potential to lower class engagement in grades as well as standardized test scores despite how concerning the negatives to AI may seem the technology certainly has its benefits in the classroom AI can be an incredible studying tool when used correctly for example I could go to the chat GC website and type in create a practice test on AP Statistics lesson 4.4 and in less than a minute I could have a comprehensive list of questions pertaining exactly to my class's curriculum in front of me to learn from and study in addition to creating study material AI can also explain concepts for example if a student needed further explanation on a math theorem they were learning in Geometry AI has the capability to give in-depth explanations and answer any follow-up questions the knowledge that AI possesses is inherently unlimited which can make it a tremendous tool for research projects using AI with just the touch of a button students have the ability to be given large amounts of information in a relatively brief amount of writing saving them Time by eliminating the need for searching through textbooks or numerous websites the negative aspects of AI are extremely serious and it's important to find ways to prevent things such as cheating and the abuse of Technology however with AI evolving at such a rapid rate a full ban on AI in schools could be considered harmful as AI continues to make its way into the everyday lives of Americans students need to be taught how to utilize the technology in a safe and ethical way it's important that students are taught preferably at a young age how to use artificial intelligence as an assisting tool rather than a substitute for thinking with schools being one of the first places children come across AI it's extremely important that there are policies in place to control and implement the terms of AI usage thank you thank you very much such a big part of all of our conversations today and um I myself look forward to trying it out I have not done so um in any way yet but I can tell you that my children are looking to move across the country and we're given a whole plethora of budget and and how much things are and and different different areas to live in it it's incredible what it's able to do it's also quite scary what it's able to do so we appreciate your words are there any other comments at this time just like say um um as always you are incredible um I'm so thrilled you're on this board because make us think about things we have um we have our our meetings and we were talking today about achievement Gap and AI has so many opportunities to help young people but you're right we really need to be ahead of it we need to be thoughtful about it we need to not say we're afraid of it and put it away we need to harness what's out there and I think you as a young person making us as the adults who are working on on how to really bring you guys to the next level need to be mind of it so thank you for um your words and thank you for always being on this board you're you're a breath of fresh air we appreciate you thank you past president Aon has some words I needed that sort of and again thank you very much for the presentation I completely agree with uh Mary Beth's comment and I guess for for in our instructional community and teaching community and and uh the department I guess we have to sort of also think about redefining uh cheating what does really me are students cheating or being more resourceful our students embracing new technology that we as sometimes older adults fear uh um and so you know I'm looking forward to continuing the discussion around AI certainly fascinating and as you pointed out what you can do in a matter of a few clicks is uh just tremendous amount of material that you have access to but again I think students are are being resourceful in many ways and um you know certainly up to the uh teachers their teachers and and you know their the school leaders has to determine uh the best for AI and um uh how they incorporate that into the curriculum and um you know again just better prepare our students for the world they're going to uh uh have to address when when they enter the workforce and certainly I don't think we have the answers today so um you know again but I greatly appreciate your comments today thankk thank you anybody else yes please commissioner so thank you you so much for bringing and I think this is a Forefront of our conversation I really appreciate you bringing up the the the notion of cheating and I think how that's evolving I had the opportunity in uh a large uh school assembly to ask kids to raise their hands if they if they used AI in their homework by a show of hands then when I kind of tampered down the fear that it wasn't cheating necessarily more hands went up and I I think that's really we have to change our thinking about what this looks like and arilia to your point about what the world that our students are going to be entering this exists this is part of our our work life going forward so understanding how to use the technology in an ethical way and to make sure that our students still learn the basic concepts and things like that this is this is going to be a struggle that we that we need to embrace over the next several years and as we go forward um but like many Technologies whether it's personal computers the Internet Etc cell phones um this is something that we have to wrap our arms around and and and work hard on collectively and together so I appreciate you bringing it up and also I'm really hardened to see that our students are thinking about it just as much as as everybody else is so thank you and I'm very grateful that you're going soon to college and university and you will be able to help lead all of us in the future so we appreciate it I understand you have a meeting to go to so you must leave but thank you so much thank you you and now we'll continue and go ahead to our CTE committee report which Mary Beth Barry is the chair and will'll provide us with the report first thank you thank you president Goldenberg um yes the CTE committee met on December 19th um board members and attendance were Kathy Goldenberg president um Jack venaro Mary Bennett Janette pener and Claudine Keenan and myself um we were um in attendance um from the Department were Lauren cou um who's the chief of staff Jesse young Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Huber uh Special Assistant Kaylee um shuker senior policy advis Jordan ship assistant commissioner Lisa habol um executive director Kathy pette division of teaching and learning services and Diane shaer Beth Oswald and Stephanie Russo um we were very happy to um convene with the um CTE committee meeting um and received updates on the implementation of uh the Career and Technical education programs across the state and we specifically talked about the supermarket program which Services um students who have um more um uh special challenges so it it was really um it was something that um we really wanted to focus in and see how we're addressing some of our special needs populations at the end of the meeting I think everyone came away with the idea that CTE is Alive and Well in New Jersey amazing amazing programs going on um and we're looking forward to February when our CTE committee will be Pro um the the um Department of Career and Technical education will be presenting to us so that all of us can get a a sense of what's the newest and the greatest things um amazing programs and I'm happy for the public to have an opportunity to hear about thank you very much and um now we have a resolution in honor of the New Jersey school board recognition month and um i' would like to please have a motion to continue with that resolution at this time thank you very much sir we have a motion from board member Amed shahada may have a second second thank you very much uh board member Barry um and now please board member Mary Bennett will read the resolution resolution in honor of New Jersey school board recognition month whereas the New Jersey state board of education has established rigorous standards through its promulgation of the New Jersey student learning standards which set the expectations of academic achievement for nearly 1.4 million public school children and whereas New Jersey's locally elected and appointed Board of Education play a vital role in ensuring that their local school districts meet state standards and adhere to state and federal education statut and regulation with the goal of preparing all students for college and the workplace thereby enabling them to compete in a global economy and whereas New Jersey's 5,000 nonpartisan local Board of education members and Charter School trustees are public servants who dedicate their time without pay or benefit to the oversight of School District Operations through sound financial practices and comprehensive policies on curriculum Staffing and other areas to ensure the well-being and academic achievement of all students in the district and whereas the local Boards of Education in conjunct Junction with State education officials and local Educators have built a foundation of success that has led to New Jersey status as a leader in student achievement as evidenced by the national assessment of Education progress scores and whereas the New Jersey school boards Association has declared January 2025 to be Schoolboard recognition month now therefore be it resolved that the New Jersey state board of education and the acting Commission of Education recognize the contributions of our state's local Boards of Education to the academic success of its public school students and expresses its sincere appreciation to local Board of Education members for their continued focus on the achievement of children throughout New Jersey and be it further resolved that the New Jersey State Board of Education and the acting Commission of Education encourage qualified New Jersey citizens to consider serving as members of their local school boards thank you very much board member Bennett um all those in favor of accepting the resolution in honor of the New Jersey school board recognition month please say I I I any opposed please say nay any extensions hearing none of this time I would like to please ask Dr Karen calino president of the New Jersey School Board Association Miss Janet Bamford Chief public affairs officer um and do Mr John Burns legislative councel and Mr Tom paraly manager Communications and of the publication of njsp if you would like to come up front please and say some words we would love to have you thank you good morning come on colleagues come up and join me thank thank you thank you John it's my pleasure to be here today to celebrate the 23rd annual School Board recognition month in New Jersey a time to raise public awareness of the role and responsibilities of local Boards of education and to thank school board members throughout the state on behalf of New Jersey's 5,000 local school board members and Charter School trustees I want to express express our sincere appreciation to the state board for its support for local Boards of Education now more than ever Citizens need a voice at the local level the work of local school board members and Charter School trustees helped make New Jersey a national leader in student achievement over the years there have been many state board members who have served on their local school boards of education and I'd like to take a moment to point out the local Schoolboard service of three current state board members first the State Board president Kathy Goldenberg who served on the moristown Township Board of Education from 2007 to 2017 and as president of that board from 2015 to 2017 and as vice president from 2011 to 2015 next Dr Dr Ned Johnson was a member of the Pitts grve Township Board of Education from 2007 to 2010 next Janette Peña served as member of the Union City Board of Education from 2003 to 20121 and as president from 2008 to 2021 thank you for your service because I believe it gives you a unique understanding of what Schoolboard members members face on a daily basis thank you for that service recognizing that local Board of Education members and Charter schol board trustee members oversee the education of the state's nearly 1.3 million public school students and devote countless hours without remuneration to the oversight of school operations njsba initiated the state's first school board recognition month in 202 in 20 2002 to honor the dedicated local school board members and board trustee and Boards of Trustees we are grateful to Governor Phil Murphy for proclaiming January 2025 as Schoolboard recognition month in New Jersey citing the meaningful contributions that local Board of Education members and charter school and Renaissance school project board of trustee members make to public education and to the quality of life in New Jersey I thank the State Board again for joining the New Jersy school boards Association in recognizing the commitment passion and dedication of local Boards of Education together we're advancing the quality of public education for all children in New Jersey thank you thank you you know what I'm all everyone rest thank you I'm a huge fan of what New Jersey School Board Association does for our state in training in every sense whether it's accounting principles whether it's legislative whether there are five dominions that you go through so much training and it's fabulous and I just enjoyed every bit of it so congratulations and now we will go ahead please to our commissioner's report thank you madam president there are no uh commission reports this month so we're ready to jump right into our agenda items that's all right and our first item on the agenda is appointments and today I'm presenting two candidates for appointment the first is Ronnie Singh for the position of director of The Office of recruitment preparation and certification and she will report directly to the assistant commissioner of the division of field sports and services and the second is Natalie dhy who will be our first director of The Office of learning equity and academic recovery uh again reporting to the assistant commissioner for the division of uh teaching and learning services so with that I'll turn it over to president Goldenberg for consideration thank you so we had the pleasure of meeting our two candidates and speaking with them prior to the meeting um I would like to please ask for a motion for the appointments do you want to do them together or individually let's do them individually I'd like to please ask for a motion uh to accept Ronnie Singh first for sorry sorry no no it's great I love your enthusiasm the year has started enough um for the office of recruitment preparation certification uh may I have a motion motion thank you sir may I please have a second thank you very much all those in favor please say I I I any oppos please say nay okay um any extensions hearing none motion carries congratulations thank you and next we would like to please have a motion for Natalie dowy director of The Office of learning equity and academic recovery may I please have a motion thank you very much board member Bennett may please have a second second thank you very much appreciate it board member shahada all those oh um any discussion at this time I just want to say we've interviewed them extensively upstairs and I think they're both going to be great leaders welcome to the team okay thank you um all those in favor please say I I thank you any opposed please say nay car none any abstentions please say so at this time motion carries thank you so much and now we'll continue with the certification of school districts thank you madam president uh the there are no districts for certification this month so we can move into the next item on the agenda and I would invite assistant commissioner Ambrose Ducket and Robert Gregory to join us at the at the table um to today we're presenting at second discussion amendments to chapter 32 School District Operations uh these proposed amendments relate to State excused absences for civic events well that'll turn over to assistant commissioner thank you commissioner board president Goldenberg Vice President Johnson and members of board education I'm just going to digress just for a minute about one of the failings of AI um uh just over the break um I missed an important anniversary with my wife and wait you better put your microphone closer so she can hear this she's not tuned in right now um but if she is I I do apologize greatly um and I went to chat GPT to search for a script on how I could talk myself out of missing this important anniversary and the response I got was good luck so AI does need some extensive work moving forward with that being said that's not the reason why I'm here but if my wife is listening I do apologize babe I love you dearly and um whatever you want I will get and bring home for you so um we have chapter 32 um this is actually the second time we're bringing this forward for a second um discussion there was actually no comments in between first and second uh reading uh there's two distinct changes that we needed to uh discuss and this aligns with public law um chapter 274 this was established in January of 2024 and this is State excused absences for civic events for grades 6 through 12 and I just want to highlight it's one excused absence per year for a Civic event given five days notice with the school district um and just to review a Civic event is an event sponsored by the government entity a community- based organization a nonprofit organization that incorporates elements of of service learning whereby students learn and develop through organized service a cific evental address an issue of public concern such as community health and safety or environment economic or Community well-being so just to highlight again for the board members and the community members that are listening and all the stakeholders it's one per year and this has to be a cific event that's approved uh at least five days in advance of the student missing the uh school and this will not um affect their uh rate of attendance and with that being said um I'll leave the floor open for any questions if a school uh like a civics class wanted a student to attend more um is that something that would be offered to the students that's a good question it'd be a local control local control issue and something that the district would work through with the families that's that's a very good question thank you thank you but this is um the overall for the state for the state yes thank you yes okay any other questions at this time hearing and none thank you so much thank you thank you thank you includes our agenda items for today I'll turn it back to Madam president thank you um are is there any new business to discuss hearing none um I think that I'd like to please ask for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn thank you sir board member shot is on it may I please have may I please have a second second thank you I believe I saw Dr Keenan waving her first thank you very much um all those in favor please say I I any opposed please say nay any extensions hearing none Happy New Year be safe in the weather and thank you very much for attending thank you for those of you coming to give public testimony we will resume in 30 minutes thank you so much e e e e e