Thank God. All right. T-shirt. Nice. Okay. You guys are getting tickets. Really? Whoa. Come here. Hey, wait. I'm doing my first
Just take my phone. No, you can you can hear. Okay, we don't need Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the North Brunswick Township Board of Education regular public meeting. Today is Wednesday, September 24th. Could we all
please rise for the pledge of allegiance? 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.
Mr. Ali here. Mr. Carter here. Miss James here. Miss Keith here. Mr. Lori here. Dr. Patel here. Mr. Singh here. Miss Toth here. And Mr. Wen here. Oh, we have a quorum.
Thank you. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the open public meetings law, the public
notice of this meeting, which included the time, date, and location, was distributed by 3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 26th, 2024, and Wednesday, November 27th, 2024 in the following manner. Posted on the bulletin board,
reserved for announcements in the board office, 25 Lynwood Place, North Brunswick. Mailed to the Home News Tribune, Star Ledger, NJ.com, and the clerk of the township of North Brunswick, and delivered to the nine duly elected board members. Well, good evening everyone. It's nice to see some
folks in our audience tonight. This is our first uh official public uh regular public meeting of the school year. So, officially, as a board, we'd like to welcome everyone back. School has so far so good. We've heard from Dr. Zakowski
and his team. We also officially have our two new student reps on the DIS with us tonight. So, I'd like to welcome Miss Montero again. Welcome back. And then Miss Grayson Brockman. Welcome to our team.
So, we'll call on you guys in a bit when we go into the student reports and uh we'd love to learn a little bit more about you both at that point. So, at this point, I'll turn it over to Dr. Zakowski. We do have a presentation tonight, so I'll have him open it up.
Yes. And welcome everyone. Thank you, Madam President. Our director of accountability and special programs. And for all those, it's our our person responsible reporting out test scores. In this case, our NJSLA results of
spring of 2025. Uh, Miss Mercy Chen. Mercy. Dr. Z, you forgot to address our millions of viewers today. I do want to welcome a million viewers, but during my minute I I'll circle back. Thank you.
Good evening. Good evening everyone, board members, student reps. Nice to see you. I'm going to pick this up actually. I'm sorry. I'm going to have my back to you, but thank you for coming to watch my presentation. Um, good evening, Mr. Bush, Mrs. Kea, Mrs. Hawk. Um, and the millions of
viewers online. Um, I'm here today to present our NJSLA scores from the 2425 school year. Um, before I begin, I would re be remiss if I didn't say a big thank you to the North Brunswick Township staff. Um, everyone in some way or
another assist us in this big endeavor. So, thank you to the teachers who administer our assessments and especially to the school test coordinators who we call STC's. So, you might hear that term, um, who are in charge of testing in their buildings. So, I'm the DTC, but none of this can
get done without the STC's. Um, this year we administered 6,736 tests. Um, that includes ELA, math, and for three grade levels, science. We do
test students in grades 3 to nine, as um is required by state and federal law. Um, these assessments do help us meet federal testing requirements, especially at the high school level. Um, grades 3 to 8 math students have three units. So,
sometimes you'll see that tests will be 2 days instead of one. And um, math high school courses have uh, two units, but a little bit longer. And then the science test is the longest with four units. Um,
ELA is only two units. All students must have started a test to receive a summitive score. Click happy there. So our testing experience, I mean it is obviously not everybody's favorite thing to do, including our students, but we do
try to make it um as bearable as possible. We are testing in classrooms with student with teachers that students are familiar with at the high school and upper grades. Sometimes we use the media center to test many students at once. Um, obviously all of our students have
their own Chromebooks and all of those Chromebooks are prepped by our tech department who I also would be remiss if I didn't think because there's a lot of Chromebooks being borrowed, loans, chargers, uh, things dying and everybody's always available to assist
us. Um, all people who administer the test must be certificated. Teachers can help students with technology questions and they can clarify directions, but there's really not much else they can do um to help students. Students can flag their questions and review them later and they
can change their answers. There are a few rules such as if they leave the room because they're sick, there are certain questions they can't return back to um which we have to monitor very closely. So for ELA and math, there are five proficiency levels. A lot of you have
heard this before. Um Mr. Singh, this is your first rodeo here for this particular assessment. Um you'll notice that all of the assessments have different proficiency levels and bands. So it's hard to keep track of all of them, but for this assessment, there are five. Um levels one, two, and three are
considered not passing. Levels four and five are considered passing. Obviously, five being the highest, exceeding your expectations, and four meeting your expectations. You'll see on your copy of the presentation, um, the ranges for the
levels. So, we're basically looking for a 750 or higher. Um, but we also, it's important to note, are always looking for growth in scale scores. So, sometimes you'll see a particular grade level increase their scale score by two
or three points. it might not move them up in the proficiency bands but for us that's growth. Does that make sense? Okay. So, our overall results results um we did see a decline in our average scale
score for language arts. We saw an increase in our average scale score for math from last year to this year and an increase in our average scale score for science. Oh, and then you can see on the right
how we compare to the state. So, our average scale score for ELA was a 757 and the state, what does that say? 737. I'm going to get my glasses. Excuse me. Sorry. One second. Take your time. There we go.
737. and the state was a 749. The scale score average for the state is higher, but our proficiency bands is the same. They're both a three. We've talked about this before. Obviously, we want to be on the higher ends, but at the end of the day, across the state, most students are
scoring a three, including North Benor. Um, our average for math is missing. I'm sorry about that. I do that sometimes. I will have to fill that in for you. Back to you. Okay. All right. So, now here's some data. I
don't think we need to go grade by grade. Um, but I'll highlight a few that stand out. Okay. Um, in grade nine, you'll notice a significant difference between the ELA average scale score in
North Benzo versus that of the state. When I review the nth grade data, you're going to see there was a decrease in scale points. In grade 8, you'll see a very close match and both being a four. Um, grade
eight was our highest performing grade for ELA. In grade four, you'll see there's a 9point difference between the state and our district, but still both at the third proficiency level.
And then here's a breakdown. So today we're talking about district scores. I will give you some highlights um from each school but today's presentation as required by the state is to present um overall bigger picture um data. So grade
three combines all four schools. Um you'll see that 27% of our students scored in level one. Only 4% scored in level five. That's a really hard one to get. And the majority of our students scored in a level four. That is the case
in most cases except for grade nine. The highest level five scores was our grade eight and followed by our grade seven. And then at the far ends in the lime green is our combined levels four and
five which are your two passing levels. So at the district level 34% of our third graders pass the test. 46% of our fourth graders, which is an increase from last year. Um, only 34% of our fifth graders, similar. Sixth grade,
only four percentage points higher. Um, seventh grade, they're all about the same. And then eighth grade, you see that big jump. 58% of our students were proficient. Then we have some color coding. All right. So that's supposed to be like magenta because I didn't want red cuz
it's so negative. Um but green meaning something positive occurred, red meaning unfortunately uh a decrease. So when we're looking at these columns, you want the left the changes in level one and two, you always want those to go down.
Um when you're looking at far right, levels four and five, you always want those to go up. So anywhere you see red, it's because the inverse occurred. Um, as you can see in grade five from last year to this year, we had additional students scoring in levels one and two.
We don't want to see that. Same for seventh grade. 10% additional students. Um, this is not the same. It's not the same cohort. It's just comparing static seventh grade from last year to seventh grade from this year. But then on the positive side, you see eighth grade had
a 15%age increase in students scoring in levels four and five. Um, grade four, 1%, I mean, I'll take it. And grade three, 5%. Level three, I don't highlight. Those are students approaching. Um, we want to
see more going over there, but um, I don't want to dictate whether it's positive or negative because it depends on which bucket they moved from. If they move from one and two, then it's positive. If they ended up in level three as a drop, then it's negative. So,
we just leave it alone. And we have, as always, have to provide you with some subgroup data. Um, we had 2,651 students take the ELA test. Uh, that does not include ESL students who are exempt if they are port of entry, which
is port of entry as of June 1st, entered our district or entered the country. Um, across the top, you'll see how our district fared in general. Most of our kids scored in the level four category, 32% of them.
And then you'll see a breakdown by subgroups beginning with Hispanics, Asians. So the lower the number in level one, the more positive the results. So you can see only 5% of Asian students scored in level one, whereas 48% of them
scored in level four. And then you look over at white, 8% scored in level one, whereas 45% of them scored level four. Our English language learners continue to struggle. 61% of them scored at a
level one on the ELA assessment um from grades 3 through nine and only 2% of them scored at a level four. Now, don't forget they are making progress on their access. um test, but this is a grade level um
assessment and they're most of them not speaking English at their grade level. So those numbers are pretty um on par with what we would have expected. Our economically disadvantaged students, a quarter of them scored at level one. It looks like
it's pretty even across the board. Um evenly distributed, 21, 24, and 25% of them scoring at a level four. If you prefer colorful charts, um, this gives you a nice visual
of where our students scored. So, you can see the Asian high up in the green. Multiple races always also tends to be a little higher. And then you can see the Hispanic. The bars tell the story of the
numbers if you prefer that. Now we have math. Um, and we definitely have been working on our math achievement. As you know, we have a new program at grades 5 through
nine. Um, as a result of some of these uh, results. Hopefully that will impact our achievement. But um, I'll share with you how we did across the board. standard average scale score was a three except for eighth grade which was a two.
That is similar to last year. Um we did have I think last year only four eighth graders passed the assessment and this year we had eight. So a little bit more but just seems pretty stagnant. Algebra
2 continues to be the shining star. Um the average scale score was a 777. So we outperform the state and geometry always fares pretty well as well in terms of grade levels. We can jump
all the way to the right at levels four and five where you can see that the algebra 2 students 84% of them were proficient whereas sixth grade only 24% and we already talked about 8th grade um only 4% of students were proficient and
none of them scored at a level five. Fourth grade 36 and third grade 41. We have the color coding. Uh obviously red is not magenta is not something we want to see, but it it denotes um a
decrease of some sort. I mean a 1% decrease isn't a lot per se, but I I just wanted to be consistent in my color coding. Um any place you see a red, we uh went declined in the wrong or went in the wrong direction. Um, in grade three
we increased by four percentage points in levels one and two. Stayed the same in fourth grade, but on the positive end increased our passing scores by four percentage points. In grade five, we decreased
our levels one and two, but kind of washed it out because we also decreased our levels four and five. So, we kind of stayed the same. And same situation for grade six. Grade seven is where you'll see the biggest um decline. 10
percentage points. 10% more students scored in levels one and two and 8% fewer scored in levels four and five. And then grade 8 was a positive change. 9% fewer students
scored in levels one and two. Uh, a lot of them must have jumped over to the middle because 1% fewer students scored in levels four and five, but they're still our highest perform not for math. That's still a little bit better than last year,
algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. These are combined. So, these are students in the middle school and the high school um put together. You see very tiny changes here in algebra 1. We did decrease the number of students scoring at the first two levels and
increased by a tiny bit at the four and five levels. In geometry, you saw a big decrease in students at levels one and two by seven percentage points, but um no increase in levels four and five. And in algebra 2, which is super hard, uh 6%
decrease in students at levels one and two. So, lots of green here on your higher level math courses. In terms of our subgroups, you will see very few students scoring at the level
five range in math. Um, that's pretty consistent across all subgroups with Asian being the highest 10%. Most of our students are falling in the three or four range.
For example, our white students are 38% of them are scoring a four and districtwide 29% of them are scoring a four. At the Asian category, 45% of them are scoring a four. So that is your highest achieving subgroup in this
particular content area. uh students with disabilities. You see a nice um chunking out here almost in the first three levels, 25, 31, 26, and then a drop in students who passed the
assessment to 17. And if you prefer this view, you see a bar graph. And the green obviously is your level four. The brighter green is your level five. And you can see right there
how the Asian students are outperforming the other students. Then we have science. Um, science is an assessment that grades 5, 8, and 11 students take. Uh, it's a tricky one because a lot of
what they have to test on might be things they learned in two or three grades prior. Um, it's also the only assessment that we're going to continue to use through Pearson. As you know, the assessment is changing for this spring. In the meantime, they have four
achievement levels, not five, um, levels one through four. And most of the district is falling in a two, and most of the state is as well. So, let's review some of this data. Our average scale score was a 157, whereas the state
was a 175, but we're both in the second proficiency level. Our average scale score for grade 8 was a 161 and the state was a 166. You can see the whole board is a two. Everybody's scoring at the
partially meeting expectations range both in district and across the state. And then chunked down by grade level. Um our eighth graders are doing the best. 36% of them scoring at a level one.
Our fifth graders are achieving the three at a higher rate as our 11th graders. Um but in terms of level fours which is the exceeding uh very few students are reaching that level. You have science changes. They were
pretty minimal. You did have a decline in fifth grade of 1 percentage points of students in levels one and two on the inverse 1% increase of students at levels three and four which are your passing levels. Same for eighth grade plus 5 minus 5 and same for 11th grade
plus four that's a negative minus4. So we went down in e 8th and 11th grade and up a little in fifth grade very little. And then subgroup wise, if you just take
a look at level one, it kind of matches what you already saw on a higher level, which is most of the students are falling in the level one and two category. Look at our students with disabilities. We have 70% of them scoring a level one. 88% of our English language learners um taking the science
assessment are struggling. Um 50% of our Asian students scoring at a level one. and then pretty even distribution of levels 2, three, and four. Our Hispanic students um also scoring
um mainly in the level one category and very few students getting that four bar graph if you prefer that version that visual. All right. So, some key takeaways. Just want to summarize a few things. As I've reviewed the data, which has also
obviously been shared with all principles and schools and supervisors um at the district level, you know, we've taken a peak and they're just starting to review more specifically evidence statement tables that tell us which standards our students struggled with, which is a tricky endeavor because
the test is changing. So, we don't want to spend too much time uh remediating based on this these results. We don't know, but as long as we stay um standard based, we should be good. This is why we try not to teach the test because you
never know when it's going to change. Um, thank you for laughing at my joke. Um, a couple things. Our ELA average is still slightly below the state average, so not too bad. Obviously, our participation rate is
great. We're above 95% participation rate. We we do try our best to get all of our students to take the assessment and it is an important part of our process and the state does expect us to get most of our students to take the assessments except for those students
who um have reasons why they can't like port of entry or cognitively significantly cognitively disabled. Um we do have big gaps between our Asian and white students and other subopuls.
Um those economically disadvantaged special ed and L continue to underperform. We had a big decrease in grade nine which we are trying to figure out. Obviously a different cohort of students. So we're not comparing apples
to apples but um that percentage point I think it was 15 is is pretty high. Algebra 1 is weak at the high school but strong at the middle school and algebra 2 and geometry continue to be high. And
obviously as you saw science is um an area of challenge at all the grade levels. And even though today we are not talking about school specific information, I did want to share a few things that we did notice um in the elementary levels
because the grade 5, 6, 7, 8, those we only have one building for those. So that data was already available to you. But um a few highlights, John Adams in math, 47% of students exceeded, but they did have the lowest percentage
of students not meeting. You won't find this information in your packet. Just giving you a few takeaways. Um Parson's math only 28% met or exceeded and nearly half of the population um did not meet and that was actually an increase in the
students who did not meet at Parsons. At LP pretty stable mid-range results 42% of the students exceeded or met and that was a tiny bit better than they did last year. And at JUD we did have a slight backslide.
um 45% of students met or exceeded but that is about 5 percentage points less than they were doing last year. That was for math and ELA. Um John Adams 42% of the students did not meet when you combine the two grade levels and
Parsons had the weakest performance. Only 27% of the students met or exceeded and more than 50% 56 did not meet. at LP um we had no change in meet or exceed but nearly half of the students did not
meet um 48% of them and Jud was the strongest in ELA grade three with 38% meeting or exceeding uh which was an 11 percentage point increase improvement despite 36% still not meeting some positives significant ELA gains
students at JUD grade 4 and at LP grade 4. Um, we don't want to attribute that to anything in particular quite yet. You know, obviously we're thinking maybe benchmark, but third grade didn't have those increases and both of those grade levels implemented that program. So,
it's tricky to say that it worked for one grade and not for another. Um, so we just give it a little more time before we um kind of attribute any particular thing to the increase concerns. you know, high percentage of our students remain in the did not meet category,
especially at Parson's NLP and grade three. And in ELA, you know, obviously grade four at JUD and grade four at LP had standout improvements with JUD leading at 58% proficiency.
Have any other notes? you know, math math achievement is very low in grade eight. There's no hiding that obviously. And um high school algebra 1, you know, it's it's a tricky situation because in grades seven and eight, algebra 1 is your highest course,
but in high school, algebra 1 is your lowest course. And so you see the trend of uh when you're pulling kids out of the lower courses, they perform really high in algebra 2 and geometry um but not as well when they're in the lower level course. So at the high school,
algebra 1 is not as successful as it is at the middle school. And then obviously grade 8, you know, showing off with their notable improvement of 15 percentage points in ELA. Um, science proficiency is consistently weak
across grades, all grades. And I think that's all I've got for you on that end. So we'll talk about some things we've been doing. I mean obviously we can't list everything here. Um I know that last year at a education
committee meeting we did provide Dr. Johnson provided the committee members with a slew of things we were doing to help students with the NJSLA um at each grade level in each department. I think um Miss Toth you still probably have
that if anybody else wants to see it. Uh but for now, our high school continues to provide students with opportunities to engage in AVID, which is a really cool program for helping students learn executive functioning skills, note takingaking, growth mindset, um trying
to get them ready for higher level courses. And then STAR is for remediation. We also obviously offer higher level math courses to grades 9 and 10 students. So, everybody who took algebra 1 in 8th grade is going to be jumping to
geometry in high school. And we do have 342 students enrolled in AP courses. And you guys saw those results which were very positive. At the middle school, we have higher level courses offered, which is really important for challenging our
students and enriching. But we also offer academic intervention both push in and pull out. And through title one funds, we offer tutoring. We this year and last year focused it on NJSLA prep and we did see that most of the students who were participating which is tricky
with attendance with our middle schoolers but most students who participated increased their scale score. So it is an effective way but you're only reaching a small number of students and we last year implemented a math coach to support instruction in
grades 5 through eight. and elementary school. You know, we've been doing a lot of work around um phmic awareness, the science of reading. Uh we also offer morning math and achieve with CIS funds. So, tutoring. Uh we go back and forth
between addressing primary grade needs before the gap widens or addressing third and fourth grade needs before they take the NJSLA. So, I mean there are positives um challenges to either choice you make. Last year we did offer NJSLA
tutoring. So this year since we don't know what the test is going to be like, we might offer it to our first and second graders. We continue to train our teachers and ear early literacy skills and dyslexia
identification at grades K to four and disgraphia strategies, which is something that's really important for all teachers to be able to identify. And then all of our preschool teachers are trained in SCOP challenges. I think you saw them in the
data. Our subgroups are underperforming special ed and MLS specifically. We see a lack of foundational reading skills in our multilingual students which is difficult to remediate because as they get older they have teachers who maybe
don't have the skills to teach phonics. So they are in need of like let's say first grade instruction but they're in nth grade at least first grade instruction in our in the English language and then we continue to have transient enrollment at all grade levels.
Next steps I mean we're always working um a few things to highlight our content area supervisors who are your content level experts continue to work with administrators with the interventionists. We have an amazing group of academic support teachers at each school who provide students with
tier 2 and tier three intervention services. Um we're working on learning how to analyze the data and make decisions based off that analyzation to improve or change our instruction, determine gaps, maybe change curriculum where needed. We have a very diverse
group of students with varying needs. Um, so teachers really need to work on small groupoup instruction and differentiation and we all know that's very hard but very important. We're going to continue to focus on New Jersey tiered systems of support um or MTSS as
the rest of the world calls it. And we continue to hold our data team meetings after each um district benchmark assessment to kind of dig in and figure out at the tier one level, the core level, what are some things that maybe all kids could benefit from um a boost
in. And then obviously uh the rest of the time is who are the tier two and tier three kids that we're pulling for this cycle based on these assessment results after we administer MAP. Continue to support our third and fourth grade teachers and benchmark implementation. And even though our K12
are not tested grades, they're implementing benchmark this year, which we hope um to see the fruits of that labor as the kids move up in the levels. They're doing a lot more writing, a lot more non-fiction reading, which you know is important for the state assessments. And lastly, this year we're going to
focus on strengthening our professional learning communities. This is the place where people can analyze data, share instructional strategies that work, and uh review student work to really understand where our students need support. So, we'll be doing a lot of
training on that this year. And if you have questions, we can ask them now, but also you can always email me. We have a really nice assessment page on mbtschools.org. Mrs. Kea started it and I've maintained it. Um, everything you need to know about
assessments is on there, both local and state. And as we get more information about the new NJSLA, I'll be sure to update that page. Any questions from the board? Um board members is uh time please.
We got Mercy here. She's loving and answered questions. She's Thank you. Thank you for the data. I've got a few comments, questions, and a ton of thoughts that I think I will
reserve until um the appropriate time. But um some things that jump out at me, well the first question I wanted to ask was for you to speak to the initiatives that are already put in place to address these areas for needed improvement. I
think you've already done that with the presentation talking about AVID, talking about some of those programs. Um so thanks for getting ahead of that. A few things stood out to me. For eighth grade ELA, we had 58% of our students
proficient, which is great. That is one of few categories where we actually saw more than 50% that were in the proficient area versus less than 50%, which has been across the board for ELA and math. For some reason, there is the absolute
inverse of that for math. That for math, for eighth grade students, only 4% are proficient. I'm just I really cannot even understand how there can be such a wide gap. Um and this I totally understand the nature of the work that
we do here, us getting the information, you being the representative for it. So I don't expect you to be able to fully answer this question on the spot, but this is something for you to take back to the team. How can that gap be so broad? How could it be so wide? Um,
if I may, the the ELA eighth grade test for as long as I can remember it has always yielded better results, even when I was a seventh grade teacher. Um, I obviously can't speak to the rigor of that assessment, but because of exactly
what you're stating, I have to imagine that it's not that our eighth graders all become brilliant suddenly when they haven't been able to successfully get through third grade test, fourth grade test, fifth grade test. I think there is something about that test um that makes it so that more students can pass it.
Um, let me grab um my data so I can share what the state average is for eighth grade so we can compare it to. Okay. Okay. So at the state level we had 4% of students uh meeting or exceeding and the state had 20.
still a big difference, but being that nobody's getting above 50% of their students passing this assessment, state average is 20. Again, still wide between four four compared to 20. Okay. With that eighth grade assessment,
okay, um and so of course as you all do your research with your data analyst to actually dig in, I think that's just something that we have to tap into to better identify exactly what's going on there. And then to piggyback off of that, we then went to algebra 2. And we've seen this year over year for
algebra 2. Like what is the magic sauce that algebra 2 is constantly doing well, but from 3 through 8 or 3 through 9, they're not mastering and they're not proficient. So how then do you excel in
algebra 2, which is a more complicated course? Another big theory question, but kids moving into algebra 2 are probably your eighth graders in the middle school who were doing well on the algebra 1 test. Um so you go algebra 1 geometry and then algebra 2. Um I think that there is
something to be said and a lot of research about um pushing kids into higher level courses because the rigor is amped up and sometimes that alone um affects achievement. So that definitely impacts but they're doing well in
algebra 2. It's the same cohort of students that ends up taking highlevel courses in eighth grade. Right. Um Mercy, uh maybe explain how the algebra 1 eighth grade students are not counted for the eighth grade scores. Yeah. And we've talked about that a lot.
It's separated. So the math 8, 4% of students passing does not include eighth graders taking algebra 1 or geometry. They're taking the math eight assessment, which means that they were not yet ready for algebra skills. And that was I'll tell you it was like
20 231 students take the grade eight math assessment. The remaining of them which is another 240 probably take algebra 1 or geometry. It's still I mean I agree with you. It's still something to look at and I think
it's part of the reason why the district is moving to amplify for math. Um definitely it's pretty glaring. I don't want to minimize it. Um, another probably big picture comment and
or question is, have we gotten away from critical thinking? Um, and are we possibly too reliant on technology that these are the numbers that are now bearing out for 2025? Yeah, that's a question I definitely
cannot answer because I feel like I would be um taking a big wild guess here. Yeah, I mean I hope we're not taking any steps away from critical thinking. Uh we definitely after co were emphasizing a decrease in Chromebook use. In fact, at the elementary levels
um instead of going onetoone, we are now giving teachers carts. We don't want kids on the Chromebook. There's no reason to do COVID like lessons. If you're standing in front of students, obviously Google Classroom helps our students get organized and um assign
tasks and teachers can grade them easily and that's all great for the staff member, but for the children, we we do want to see more um engaging, active instruction going on. So, I obviously do not want to say we're gotten away from critical thinking and we'll always keep
an eye on that technology piece. Yeah. I mean, I just think and this is not limited to North Brunswick. Anyone that knows me personally knows that my experience in education exceeds North Brunswick. So, I feel like I'm familiar with a lot of different districts. So, I'm just recognizing the the trend. Um,
and I'm talking statewide as to that. Um, but in that same vein, I feel like there has been a common theme that we have kind kind of gotten away from gotten away from the basics, right? Talking about phonics and phmic awareness that we need to do that. um students not
learning how to write cursive anymore, students not learning how to do spelling or doing spelling tests anymore, students not having to do book reports anymore, right? All of these things have led to a result that I don't is a consequence that I don't think that any of us want. Um and so I think that for
North Brunswick, we want to be an exemplar. We want to set the stage. We want to be a model. Um, and so to the extent that we can get back to basics, I think that I would strongly encourage that we prioritize that and do as best we can within the confines of our
curriculum within the confines of NJSLS. My last question is about tutoring. Um, you listed that as an initiative for um um what we're doing as far as interventions. Are we getting good turnout? Is there
good engagement for tutoring? Is it I mean is do we need I don't know is it marketing like what what what is it you know how it's a great turnout at grades one through four you know those teachers work really hard to incentivize students get them in in the morning I visit all
of the programs great attendance very hands-on activities um I take pictures all the time I I just don't like to share them out because they're students who are struggling so I don't want to put their faces up but um at the grades five through eight level we struggle greatly students staying after school.
Um, we only have two days that they can stay due to busing and then they have clubs, they have sports. Um, getting them to stay has been a challenge to say the least. For example, I had one grade level where only two students were showing up consistently for tutoring.
So, this is why the research shows it's most important to provide intervention during the school day, which is also complicated because then you're pulling them out from classes. Um, we try not to pull out from the class that you're in need of, but most kids who are getting tutoring probably need it in both. So
then you're trying to pull from science, social studies, music, and they do not like that. Um, we we just do our best to find little spots throughout the day to do uh targeted intervention. 20 30 minutes um two or three times a week
during the day is the best model, but we do offer the after school opportunities as an additional layer of support. But no, attendance is not great at grades 5 through eight. Okay, those are my questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Miss Chang. I do have a question for
you. Um, regarding the middle school and, uh, Lynwood, I know several years ago we had home rooms where they were enrichment home rooms or support home rooms. Um, do we still do that at those levels? And if
not, is that something that we as a board should be in central office should be considering implementing? They were incredible programs for those students that were in them. And some of them they just needed a little bit of an extra push. Some of them it was actually enrichment because they already were
doing well, but they were great at the five through eight levels and they they yielded really good results. Yeah. That that was our RNR program. Yes. Yes. And uh I do agree that it was a great model for providing intervention
high or low enrichment where needed. Unfortunately with the revision of the schedules, we do not have RNR anymore. Um we were also funding that through title one funds. So every single teacher that had an RNR home room was getting paid uh for a certain number of weeks to
run those groups because RNR technically was teachers duty-free kind of no teaching period. Um, I would love to see something like that in place, but I think that the scheduling is pretty tricky. Um, given the number of hours in the day and what they've moved towards
in terms of number of life skills that are offered, um, we just continue to try to pull them from little pockets throughout the day and provide the service as needed. But, you know, when we pull them, they're missing something else. Okay. But, thank you for bringing that up. I I would be happy to chat with Dr. Zakowski
about that. Right. and the principles again, they really did yield a lot of great results both at the enrichment level as well as propelling students forward and sometimes it was, you know, just a point or two or three and it
moved that student from level two to three or level three to level four. Um, again, they were great great programs. I heard from a lot of parents whose students were part of those programs years ago and they were very happy that the district did offer them because again they were during the day. They
were in home room anyway. So Miss Chang, I have a question actually following up um to uh Alicia's question with the whole tutoring thing. How are we gauging if that tutoring is working or not? Because I I understand we have the resources. We're putting them in place, but are they actually working?
What are you guys doing to measure that? Yeah, right now we gauge them by skill increase in NJSLA points. So we have student attendance, all their demographics, their MAP score and then their prior year NJSLA score and their current year NJSLA score. As I mentioned
previously, we did see that most of the students who attended tutoring did increase in their scale points. The the issue is how many of the students are capturing, right? Uh but I mean are you guys actually waiting that whole time period to gauge them? there's nothing that we could do as a weekly or monthly gauging.
That tutoring is very limited. Um so we offer it starting in January for a few weeks before the test. So it's not tutoring that goes all year long. Um one we don't always have staff available to teach those programs and like I said the students have a lot of
scheduling conflicts. Um so we the best way to determine it is the MAP score and the NJSLA score. Okay. Is there any way to get the parents involved? cuz again like I I feel that parents might not be a aware that we're offering this tutoring cuz myself as a child or even my daughter sometimes she doesn't tell me
everything that happens at school you know or I might just overlook it she might be talking and I'm sure we're so busy in our you know our own little world that we overlook what our kids are saying to us so is there anything that we could do where we could you know enforce or we could make people more aware that we do
offer these things and maybe during that two week 3 week period uh during the tutoring we send them a packet like a onepage packet with them with a couple of problems or whatever we're doing for the tutoring for them and they do it with the parent. Yeah. So, this is a very targeted intervention. The students who qualify
because it's title one funded you do have to have criteria are invited like fancy letters, phone calls, harassment. We do everything we can to get them here. Um, Lynwood did last year have a homework club which was more for just
getting your homework and getting a review of of tasks or skills that you weren't sure of. But the tutoring um is very targeted. It's not open to everyone and it can't be because of title one and criteria. And we do select students who are either like approaching and could
jump to that next level and also based on their um local assessment data. Okay. So, just to follow up, I mean, you're saying we're only targeting those kids that are approaching. Why not the kids that are at the bottom to help them even get to that level of approaching?
We've tried all of the approaches. You know, is it are you trying to close a lot of gaps if you have a eighth grader reading at a second grade level and it's so hard to say what what's more important, right? You don't want to get into that, but like what makes more sense right now? Are we going to be able
to in six weeks, you know, get a student who's reading four grade levels below to pass an assessment? Probably not. So, for that particular program, we choose the approaching. For other interventions, we're hitting everybody. Um, especially tier three students who
are in need of intervention multiple times a week. So, it it's just different um avenues for providing the support. Thank you. Because we don't I mean, we don't want to leave anybody behind, but often that middle kid gets left behind. All eyes on the strugglers. All eyes on the high achievers.
Middle kids. Yes, Mr. Ali. Yes. You're such a good little student. Ah, you know, I'm graduating soon. So, um, so I I know um causation does not equal correlation um all the time. Um, well, correlation doesn't equal
causation, but when we're looking at um the English language arts, right? So, two questions. Are we double dipping? for like the economically disadvantaged students with disabilities, can they also be Hispanic, Asian, black, like we we're doing that, right? Okay, great.
Yeah, they're double dipping. So, do a lot of the um like the math assessments, are they still word based? Are they like the Johnny has three apples if you take away two? Like, yeah, a lot of the math assessments do require high reading levels. Yes. Comprehension.
So, thank you. So, you answered half the question. Background knowledge. So then half of the I'm just trying to you know come to like a conclusion or better understanding right so I'm sure then a lot of what we're seeing the downfall in math and science is related to the
language gap right cuz if we have this high number of folks who are performing under lower levels in ELA it's only going to trickle over to the math and science so there's like a part of that where we're saying okay they may not be
performing as poor poorly as we think. It's just like sometimes they can't even understand or grasp. They can compute potentially but um not make sense of word problems potentially. In our local assessments, we're lucky enough to be able to um administer them in Spanish. It's the only language
that's translated right now. And that tells us if the students understand math, not English language. Um, but we can't do that with NJSLA except for a few students whose tests are able to be transcribed into Spanish and that leaves out all the Russian students, you know,
students speaking a variety of other languages or do all that. Okay. Yeah. So, thank you. I just was cuz I I know even back in the day like, you know, someone could be strong at math, but if they can't understand the math problem or the the words, the grammar part of it, it's going to really impact their score. So I
um I just I'm just asking that for my own personal knowledge without cuz I don't want to jump to conclusions. You know, the data doesn't always tell the truth, but that is I'm sure that's still impacting us greatly. Like cuz if we're have a long word problem and there's some highlevel language in there, it's
going to be pretty tough. Um so thank you. You're right. Thank you for acknowledging that. Absolutely correct. I have a quick question. It's a two-parter. Why do you think they the re what's the reasoning that they're changing and going away from NJSLA?
That's part one. Part two is when do you think you'll receive the information on the new test? Miss Toe, thank you for asking that question. It's keeping me up at night. I have no idea why the change uh we were not involved in that decision. I'm
assuming to simplify it, the contract with Pearson, you know, expired and they no longer wanted to work with that vendor. I did attend a training yesterday with the new vendor, Cambium. Cambrium. How'd that work out? It wasn't great. I'm not gonna lie. Um I
think they're kind of building the plane as they fly it. I'm just trying to be patient and figure out how we're going to get the field testing done in October. That's a ch Yeah, I did ask if they would be willing to give an extension. No one was really able to answer that question. I was the
most vocal person there. I just want to say and my colleagues did appreciate that because we have so many questions um about how we're even getting our students into this system. It's no longer Pearson. It's no longer pan. Was this training statewide? Uh there were multiple trainings, many
virtual. I did not do the three hours on a screen. So I attended yesterday in person. There were six other inerson trainings. They tried to figure out, you know, south, central, um and north. Okay. And I don't know why they changed it. I also
don't know what that looks like in terms of comparing students. If it's adaptive, sounds pretty much like a map assessment that we already do. How will we compare students? Maybe percentiles. I'm not sure. They did not even touch the content yesterday. They really just went
over the logistics of the new system, which is called Tide. Um, which our teachers know nothing about yet, and we can't train them until we know more. We'll develop a presentation. All of the SEC's and I are meeting next week in different grade level chunks and we'll
do our best to present to create develop a training based on the information that we have right now. No idea is the I know I'm so helpful. I have no idea that I mean I you know Yeah, it's that's frustrating. It's super frustrating if I'm being
honest. Yeah, it is frustrating and that's why I said we're going to be reviewing the evidence statement tables that the state puts out with all of the assessment results. Those tell us which standards our students um had challenges with. It also compares that to does it match what the state's um overall
results. Did those did the state also have problems with that standard? But for us to now spend a lot of time kind of hitting those without knowing what the next assessment is going to look like, it's almost like just keep teaching your standards, keep teaching your curriculum, keep using good
instructional strategies because you just don't want to put all your eggs in one basket without knowing for sure what is going to be assessed. Right. Well, one thing I'm confident in is that we have the staff to be able to handle this change. So, I think that
we'll be just fine. But I understand and I feel the frustration behind it. Yeah. Thank you. I want to thank Miss Chang going on a day off yesterday. She went and very happy with Hey, they gave me water. Times she won't get back and you're not
getting that holiday back, but thank you for going. I was so excited to go. Like all the SEC's attended the virtual and I just kept getting texts like, "Can you believe what they're saying? They're not like you should have seen the messages." And I was like, I just need to see this in person, right?
And they were so right. They were so right. I mean, they're all so amazing at what they do and I had no doubts that they were right, but I just had to see it for myself. Well, thank you. Please don't share my analysis with the board. I will not. Okay. Between me and you. Yes. So going back and I want to thank
um Zire for your analysis of multiple students representing you know when George Bush did the No Child Left Behind you know which was a complete disgrace and a disaster for measuring uh school districts and you know actually it left
students behind. It did highlight cohorts but even then that started the one child representing four cohorts. Yes. And when you look at true data um and you pull students that are doing well and you could analyze who's doing
well and and who are the cohorts of students not the multiple cohorts because if you add up all the numbers 2500 2600 students are tested but you add up all the numbers you see like it's 4,000 slots. So that's like um and that's one of the reason we don't want to make excuses but we are driving
deeper down into data. So I wanted to ask a question maybe explain to the board when your data teams have been created and and it's required but we've been doing data work and avoiding the drip factor right the data rich we look for information we don't want to be information poor how are you maybe share
with the board we always talk about students and being the data points but are we using to drive curriculum where we're looking item analysis and where are the areas the pain points of the curricular items you know we all know third grade when they get into
fractions, our students struggle statewide, nationally. So maybe you could explain the data teams more than just okay, last year was four students and this year was six. They're not even the same cohort. There's no correlation as Zier was saying. So maybe the the correlation or the examination of our
curricular uh areas where where are we weak, where are we not where are students struggling? It's a great question. So, our data team's goal is to look at the data and make a decision about a particular area because you can't address it all at once
that might need to be beefed up. Once you figure that out, then we decide, was there a hole in the curriculum? And then it's up to the supervisors and their coaches to fill that hole. Um, sometimes it's we just didn't realize we didn't have enough lessons on that or we taught
at the wrong time of year. Other times it's a foundational skill that's missing or prerequisite skill that's missing. So very important work for the data team to pick out what that thing is. And I I think we do have some data team members here, right, Lindsay? Pick out what that
is, which is hard, right? You got to prioritize. If you have a grade level with um four or five, you know, needs, you have to really decide which one you're going to address in a tier one plan. and then relay that information to the right people so that either the PD that is necessary or the curricular
changes that are necessary are made um obviously within reason because you can't change the curriculum every year based on this particular grade level this year uh struggled with a concept right um you might want to change your instructional strategies in that in that
case but sometimes you do find that there's a hole in the actual uh pacing of the curriculum One one thing. Did I answer your question, Dr. Yeah. No, thank you. And I I want you to illuminate that point. We've talked about it, but I wanted to illuminate for the millions of viewers and also our board who are asking very insightful
questions. Yes, they they always do. Yeah. One thing I was going to add just as a comment, less a question, but I would really like to see just the subgroup. I know you mentioned the transient students, but just seeing that added as a subgroup just to see what the performance here look like as well. So transient by with like been in our
school one less than one year our school district I mean two years you can define it well but I mean I think my point is more around like the lack of consistency right you you know that the lack of consistency is going to create issues so
maybe you know maybe look at the data and see like students less than three years in district have you know whatever you may see from the data perfect yeah we can do that we actually that was our talking point that there's a group. We we we want to look at that because we not only want to look at how that's
impacting but where we could target those folks, you know, how are our students who entered in since from third grade to high school, how are they doing, how they progressing those who are transiting or multiple stops in and out sometimes, right? Um so that they call
that that uh mobility rate which really is high in North Brunswick uh which hurts students we know only because of that consistency. It doesn't matter if they're going to West Windsor, North Brunswick, South Brunswick, all three great districts. Just the movement in different environments hurt students.
And uh lastly, one of the things we're working with our strategic execution as we're going to be moving forward is what does a portrait of a graduate for North Brunswick look like after third grade? What are the prerequisite skills? Because I heard Miss James talk about uh you know certain back to basics. So
where are those uh you know prerequisite skills and where are they happening? where should they happen? And when you're at a eighth grade, what should a portrait of an eighth grader look like going into high school? What should a portrait of our graduate look like? But kind of that, but looking at the issues and those gaps with people coming and
going really will hurt. So, but but will help us if we have those portrait those prerequisite skills as kids are coming in and out because that alignment even they're going to great schools and coming back just that change. Can you imagine that disconnect? Yeah, definitely. sequencing, pacing,
different series or whatever it may be. We can do that analysis and have it maybe at the next education committee. Dr. Ellis did do that exact work but not with this year's data um with 22 23 and 23 24. Um there were instances where what we're
noting is the case and then there were instances where we had students were with us from third to 8th and still were not achieving. So you're probably going to see a little bit of both. Yeah. I want to take a look at that. Doc just said something that just made my brain go. I know
should I apologize for that or no? You you mentioned it earlier earlier that um local levels versus the assessments are a little different and I'm sure students are assessed out the building right now, but how would you say the differential learning is really impacting at the local level? And do
those high achievers and do those grades correlate to the schools? Because I'm I know a lot of not a lot of parents. I don't have kids yet, but I know enough parents and they talk about, oh, they're doing good in school, but then they get the test back, they're like boom, like they tainted, right? So, how is that comparison?
On a local objective measure, we're matching up to what the NJSLA is showing us. I I can't say that's the case for grades, which are definitely more subjective and always will be, you know, human. Um, but our MAP scores are very
similar to our NJSLA scores. So we're not exactly like wa they are so outperforming a map and then we're like so surprised. It's pretty consistent and I mean these developers uh NWA does a lot of correlation studies. I mean they can
predict for us to the student who's going to pass or not pass the assessment based on how much growth they make between each MAP assessment. Now the the MAP assessments are adaptive. Yeah. So part of the adaptiveness of the new assessments coming our way. So I'm
hoping our work with MAP testing and adaptive testing will correlate to comfort level. That would be great. That would be really great. Yeah. Because I was just going to say how are how are we going to measure success next year? I have no idea. It's such a it's such a question mark with this adaptive testing.
No, for MAP our success is anybody who scores above 60th percentile, not 60%. That's a there's a difference. Um so you don't have to get every answer right on MAP or on any adaptive assessment. So uh passing is anybody above the 61st percentile. Maybe that's going to be the
same uh measure that NJSLA which is what it's called now will use. Um perhaps I am not sure. Uh it also if it's truly adaptive the students will not be getting the same questions. Um and that'll be really interesting. But I
guess if whatever scale score or if a map is called a RIT score correlates to a percentile, then maybe you're just comparing based on percentiles, not necessarily based on what content they saw on their screen. Also, one of the one of the more shameful things that I'm hearing about
this new test is that tech is a is a big issue. Like they don't know if from district to district if the technology can actually handle these adaptive tests from a bandwidth perspective. From a bandwidth perspective, we're going to be conducting some infrastructure trials.
It will help us, the technology department, I'm working closely with them. It will help us determine what's our max number of students we can test at once um before the computers start glitching. Right? We have never had a problem before. Uh which is why sometimes when we're testing, you'll see that other classes aren't allowed to
like show videos or watch movies because it messes with the bandwidth, right? we have to shut down all of those programs while we're testing so that the kids can test. So we are conducting infrastructure trials. They um obviously have recommendations on using Windows,
Mac OS, iPad OS. Uh but we do have to test it at different times of day. So like what's the peak number of students that might be testing at 9:00 a.m. and um let's say it's 500, let's bump it up to 600, test it there. Let's bump it up
to 700 and test it there. is it's going to make a difference in who we can test when. Right. Another unfunded mandate. Dr. Zigg, I know Miss Heric knows the answer to that, right? How many can we test? How many can we test? Well, I mean, we have a lot of questions
about the field test and why it needs to be field tested with every single student in New Jersey. But we don't really have a say in that matter. We will be field testing from grades four, honestly, it looks like through 11. Anybody who took algebra 1, algebra 2, or geometry last year needs to field
test. So that's like most of our district. Um only K3 will not be testing. Yeah. And the field test will not be adaptive. Test is just checking the quality of their questions. I bother.
Yeah. It will not be adaptive. Why bother? It's reliability and validity of their questions. That's how you do the the adaptability, right? Like when you do the We do the real one. Oh, when you they level the questions. That's how they're going to level them.
Got it. Did you think they I should have done that before? Well, if you don't have any more questions, um I'll make sure to remember to work with Dr. Ellis. I'm I'm pulling her in. She doesn't know it yet on that um transient mobility rates.
Well, we we had just addressed it. I think that's great because we said we're going to present it. That's why when you mentioned it, Mr. Carter, we had asked Dr. Ellis that she already had some of that data to kind of update it as we move forward. Thank you for your time, students. I hope you learned a lot.
Thank you so much. [Music] All right. Thank you so much for being here tonight, Miss Chang. You're so welcome. All right. We'll move to uh the remainder of our meeting. We have item six, our meeting minutes. Mr. saying,
would you please take item number six? Sure. I'd like to make a motion to approve the following board minutes. Regular public meeting minutes, August 27th, 2025. Executive meeting minutes, August 27, 2025. Committee of the whole minutes, August 13, 2025. Executive
minutes, August 13, 2025. Second. All in favor? Is anyone opposed? All the minutes are approved. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any communications this evening? No. None, Madam President. All right. And we can, I'm assuming,
jump to your administrative report. Yes. Thank you so much and good evening to all our guests here today live and of course our millions of viewers that I'm excited to be reporting out. I did have one more question as Miss Chen sat down. I forgot to ask. Was it a special test for the board and
superintendent about who stapled? Uh, that was me. I are you left-handed or I just Okay, moving on. I thought you were testing us for our dexterity and uh you succeeded. Um give me something to do while you're
sitting up. Yes. So, uh, once again, as I reported out and we had a conference meeting and we did review the agenda built and I was so grateful as I was touring the many schools back to school night and at that last Wednesday we the next day was the
high school back to school night and I just want to say again another remarkable job but not only by our staff, our principles, administration, the teachers, our uh, custodial staff, the buildings, everything look presented, our security, parking, it was really I want to thank the community
because it was such an orderly when you see people converge. It's a very exciting time and so many people visiting. Um such a it was an orderly uh well-run back to school night. Uh and um I was happy to see that we have one more which is tomorrow. So we have Lynwood
here, home of the board of ed offices. So uh we'll have we'll be completed with our back to school night uh which I'll get into our next group of parent meetings which will be parent teacher conferences which is a little bit different than our back to school night. We'll talk about that in a minute. Um,
but thank you again to all of our buildings leaders, staff, and so on. I did want to um talk about uh the board received a BOE bulletin uh uh our board president and board uh one of our commitment as a board and our our board
retreat. We talked about how do we connect some of the great things that we as a staff report to the board on a weekly basis. So, kind of a monthly highlight that we have sent out to the mayor and council and the parents will be getting a copy of. But from there it
was very exciting news and we thank um you know uh our our building leaders for sending us information because I want to congratulate our MBTHs senior Piranha Santos who participated in Rucker's uh the wake Waxman Institute summer
experience and I see u one of our founders of that Waxman Institute here and helping us with students that really it's about authentic research projects in in this case molecular biology and bioinformatics. Um so congratulates to our high school
senior uh Priana uh for her work and we highlight her in that uh that information at BOE bulletin and in our bulletin we're very happy because we got a great picture of our board members and welcome to our newest two members uh representing SGO and our uh and and the
uh class of is it 2026? Wow. 2026. So, um, well, welcome and you see you made the the BOE bulletin. You're going to be famous now millions of viewers every month. I'm nervous, but you're in our BOE, uh, uh, you know, u copy. So,
congratulations. And something I'm very, if you see in that we talked about in our, um, update in our our weekly newsletter was our 50 MBTH students who volunteered in the past weekend. I know I've been talking to Mr. when and about
creating a volunteer portal. But we have 50 students that went to Renaissance Park. We all know we're Renaissance Park in our Renaissance development and uh with Detective Ay with the MB police, you know, North Brunswick Police Department and the domestic violence response team all getting together uh
coming out and doing a cleanup. I just it was a wonderful opportunity, a community shared experience. So, I wanted to highlight that and and thank the students, the PD, the the violence response team of uh going out and doing such uh collaborative work. Uh, also I
want to uh highlight another collaborative day that I I missed being around North Brunswick the last couple years, but looking forward to it. Uh, Saturday, October 4th, 3:00 to 10 o'clock is Heritage Day. Uh, we want to make sure we highlight that and uh you
we know how it brings uh just a wonderful day. Uh we had a little bit of you know a national night out. We had a little mini I call it mini heritage day where we just brought the community out for a little day in August. Heritage day just even expands that and we look forward to that homecoming our high
school homecom. Am I going to take I'm not going to take your report. You know what you going to mention that? We don't talk about it. No. Oh, I was nervous. Oh, I'm wrong. We do. Thank you for correcting that. So, see I'm going to skip that. Okay. But I'm going to go to the parent teacher conferences. We wish everyone well. that
is really uh we know that's very well attended. We look forward to the October 15th 17th and also um in in our report that we sent out to the community will be sent out to community but we gave to uh the mayor and council uh we talk about is MBTHs was recognized in a US
News and World Report again and we were um included among the best high schools in our ranking more than 24,000 public high schools in all of 50 states. uh nearly 18,000 ranked as on six factors based on their performance on state assessments and how
well they prepare students for college. And North Brunswick received a a national ranking. So we're very happy about that. And so I would like to end there, Madame President, and um thank uh Miss Chang again for doing a great job with the data. And I know it's not easy,
but taking us through that data walk and and we look forward to even drilling down and to answering questions even at the committee level, but then also public presentations as we address those challenges that you highlighted for us tonight. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Dr. Sowski. Um, at this time, we'll move to our student reports. So glad to see you both here, like I said, a part of our team. Miss Montero, welcome back. Year two. love seeing you up here again as SGO president. And then
Miss Brockman, welcome. Our SGO representative. It's great to see a semifamiliar face as we've had your dad up here for a long time. So definitely following in your family's footsteps, so that always makes us very proud as well. Thank you, Miss Toth. Um I was going to
say I'm happy to be back here again for another year. Um and then you asked us to introduce ourselves. So a little bit about me. Um, if you haven't, if you couldn't tell from last year's reports, I do like to be very involved in the school. As Miss Toad said, I'm SGO president, um, DECA president, Kika
president. I try to do everything, which if we're talking about basically any event, I'm probably there. And I usually drag racing along with me. So, we'll give you the inside scoop. Um, to so to start this month's report, on Thursday, September 4th, SGO sponsored our annual
club fest. students were introduced to all of the clubs that MBTHs has to offer with a video in home room. And then after school, we held the actual club fest. Oh, it's on the board right now. Um where students could walk around and meet representatives from every club and it we always get a great turnout at this event. It's great to see everyone's like
excitement for the year and like see everyone excited to get involved in the school. It's just always great. Um and then the SGO general assembly held their first meeting where we chose this year's charity. So last year we raised I think a little over $5,000 for Raiders Home Plate and this year we are going to work
to raise $5,000 for Children's Specialized Hospital. So hopefully we can cross that again. And then finally, the class of 2026 sponsored a senior sunrise activity to kick the year off. They provided breakfast which was like donuts, coffee, bagels. Um they gave us like swag bags which is like a little
backpack like drawstring thing with like lanyards and keychains and stuff. And then they had like games and we all like signed this banner. I don't really know where it's going, but I'm sure it's going somewhere. And yeah, it was just a great event. It was nice to just like spend time with everybody before the year starts.
Um, to introduce myself, um, I'm Grayson Brockman. I'm so glad to be here tonight. Um, something about me. I'm not president of all those clubs, but I'm involved in the clubs. Um, and Mia forgot to say we're both cheer captains. Oh. Um so to say uh SGO is preparing for
our first pep week for homecoming. This um this homecoming theme is around the world and the homecoming game is October 10th. Uh you could come see us cheer and then the dance is the 11th. Also our clubs are beginning to meet. So our Latin American club is making
announcements to honor Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Month. And to add on to that, in the morning before first period, we play music just to start the day off on like a nice happy note. And so from September 15th to October 15th, we have been and we will be playing different songs to honor
Hispanic Heritage Month. So just tie that in a little bit. And that's all. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much. We're excited to hear about all of your updates monthly. All right. Our committees, we had committee meetings earlier this month. So we'll start with we'll go in order.
Uh human resources. Dr. Patel. That's me. Uh thank you, Madam President. The human resources committee relations committee met on Tuesday, September 9th to discuss various personnel topics. For those on tonight's agenda who are either retiring or resigning, the board thanks them for their service and wishes them well.
There are several new staff hires for the 2026 2020 2025 2026 school year on tonight's agenda. We welcome all those new members to our district and we look forward to having you work with us here in North Brunswick. We also discussed several reassignments which are on tonight's agenda and we are looking
forward to our staff taking on these new roles. As of our committee meeting, any remaining vacancies for the 2025 2026 school year continue to be on in the interview stages and will be posted until they're filled. All of our current openings can be found on our district website, social media pages, and posted
in each of our buildings. For any teaching positions, alternate route and traditional route, candidates are both encouraged to apply to apply. We discuss any current and upcoming leaves of absences and those positions will be filled via daily subs, long-term subs or six teaching periods. Also on tonight's
agenda are several staff approved for degree level changes and we congratulate them on this accomplishment. Lastly, the committee had a first reading of the following policy. Administrative employment contracts and notification of promotion, new job and transfer opportunities. And that concludes my
report. Thank you. Uh Mr. Ali, education. Yes. And thank you, Miss Do, for taking notes while I was away. Well, not away. I just couldn't make it at night because of work, but thank you. I wish I was away. Um, so the education committee met
on Wednesday, September 10th at 6 p.m. So, we're going to start with assessments and grants. So, we're continue to prioritize grants that support student learning and well-being through our Title 4 grant funding. So, the district will be advancing our social emotion learning, student well-being, and arts education
opportunities. through that grant and through the title one funding, we'll um support the the mass subject area leader position and development of the annual school plans as Miss Chang touched on a little bit earlier to help our students. So, we also discussed some new competitive grant opportunities
including RISE and impact which is essentially um we're going to be pursuing those. Um updates were also provided on assessments. So, we saw some of the reports tonight and Miss Cheng touched upon it that we're going to be transitioning from NJSLA
um through Pearson to a new adaptive system um that's going to be coming out this year. And we also, as you saw, we had a follow-up to the access testing for ELL's, English language learners. Um so, moving on to curriculum instruction technology, the high school students
were able to participate in the 911 museum. There was a digital learning experience which included a live chat with the staff at the museum. And later in the year, we're also exploring a possibility of a guided tour connected to one of our elective courses.
And some of you don't know at home, our school is a part of um our res we're have a designation of revolutionary schools and that's a part of the DOE program in the state and that provides professional development and is connected to our social studies
department. So on September 17th at New Jersey Pack, our staff were able to go for a pretty fun day of PD related to that as well as some we have some curriculum updates. So this coming year are we have new benchmarks for ELA and
grades K to two and grade three to four as well as algebra 1. they will adopt some of the new amplified math program and we're going to be we just rolled out or will be rolling out writing revolution through grades five through
eight and that goal is to really help and strengthen across subjects. So as you mentioned earlier, you can't really do much if you can't read well and that's this the goal to strengthen that foundation and on the technology side you know cyber security is really important. So
that's really a big priority here. We don't want to get compromised because that could cost districts a lot of money. It happened in my university at CUNI a few years ago. Um it was bad. So staff will be participating in mandatory training for P train training for that
and some of the Chromebooks have been rolled out you know we have a lot of those and Dr. as you mentioned earlier, we not we're trying to move away from just being strictly on Chromebooks. So, we have the carts, so students will be getting those as needed. And we will be revisiting some of our AI plans with our
AI task force. And we have a new AP cyber security course that's going to be offered at the high school. That's going to be a part of our STEM and college prep opportunities. And there is no updates for pupil and personnel services, but we had our first reading
of our new policy. It's mandated by the the state and it's going to replace policy 2422 and that's on comprehensive health and physical education and we had no second readings um for anything. So thank you Madam President.
Great. Thank you so much. Uh Mr. Carter, business operations. Uh thank you, Madam President. Uh the business operations committee met on Wednesday, September 10th. On the agenda this evening, you'll find the following items. In policy section 1A, approvals for the first reading of bylaws 0143,
0173, 0174, 0177, PNR 1570, P1620, and P6220, as well as finance items 3F, 3G, 3i, and
3J. And uh that's it from the visits operations committee. Thank you. Um, Miss Keith, any negotiations updates? None at this time, Madam President. Okay. Thank you. And Mr. Lori, our liaison to the township of council as
well as New Jersey school boards and Middle Sex County School Boards. Yeah, Madam President, I can just give two quick updates. Uh, the Middle Sex County School Boards Association has a meeting coming up next week. It's on the uh September 30th at 6:30 p.m. Uh, we'll be meeting at the lovely Pines Manor in
Edison. And among the speakers that night is uh a gentleman to my left, Mr. Bush. Uh so if board members can make it, we've been barged with emails or someone from my office hasn't been decided yet. I don't want anyone to be disappointed. Trying to pump it up to your gentlemen.
Everybody at the Bush Law Group is equally good. Thank you. Um so that starts at 6:30. There's a virtual option as well as an inerson option for that meeting. Uh and then as we all know uh the state association, the NJSBA is having their annual workshop this year. It's on uh October
20th to the 23rd. There's always lots of valuable uh continuing education and networking opportunities for board members. So that's coming up as well. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much. Um I also just want to add to that uh Dr. Zakowski and I attended the township council
meeting earlier this week um just to welcome uh you know everyone back to the 2025 2026 school year. It was great to connect with some of the council members. Um you know we invite them to all of uh you know our meetings and we look forward to working together with
them uh throughout the entire school year. All right. At this time, can I please have a motion for to approve the reports this evening? Some move. Second. All in favor? Is anyone opposed? All the reports are
accepted. Thank you. Um so at this time we will just move to um a public session on agenda items only. Uh last week thanks to Vice President James stepping in for me while I was not here. We had our
conference meeting and we walked through our agenda, reviewed it prior to tonight's meeting. Um, so at this time we will just have a public session on agenda items only. If anyone from the public would like to address the board, this is now the time to speak on agenda items. We just ask that you state your
name and you'll be given three minutes. Seeing none, can I please have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Is anyone opposed? Um, this session is closed. I would like
to, Madame President, before we uh go on to the consent agenda. Yes. Um, there is a motion on page 20. Uh, specifically, it's a it's finance 3H. Um, it asks for approval of a contract
with Schneider Electric. uh relative to replacing the detectron unit, which is the unit that dehumidifies, heats, air conditions, um pool area, um there is a 900,000 over $900,000 project cost uh contract here. Um I'm going to ask the
board for their patience and we're going to table that. Uh we have been working very closely with our construction management group, um the Bankraftoft Group, and uh we've determined that there are still some questions on this project. And so we are going to table it
just to ensure that in fact we have complete costs and accuracy in a cost estimate for this project uh before we approve it. We we weren't happy with the schedules of values as presented to us by the Schneider group. So uh we our
construction management firm uh we felt with their uh insight and their guidance it's time we pull it rather than doing that number and then have to come back to the board and kind of looking like a uh change order of things that we may have admitted. So, we want um we're very
happy with what's going on with our construction management view of certain things and we asked them to look at this and um so we're going to ask you to uh have patience with us, but we rather have the correct number, the correct schedule values than a number that was
given to us by Schneider elected. Okay. Thank you, Madam President. Yes, of course. And thank you for making us aware of that. All right. Um, Vice President James, would you please take item 12? Yes. I move to approve the following consent agenda items. Personnel,
curriculum, miscellaneous, finance items 1 through three with the exception of finance item 3H, policy and transportation. Second. Okay, I'm going to take roll call now. Mr. Ali, yes. Mr. Carter, yes. Miss James, yes. Miss Keefe, yes.
Mr. Lori, yes. Dr. Patel, yes. Mr. Singh, yes. Miss Toe, yes. And Mr. W, yes. All the motions and resolutions are accepted with the exception of the one noted by uh Miss James. Excellent. Thank you. All right. We can jump to page 22 of our
agenda. At this time, we will have a public session on any matter. If anyone from the public within our audience would like to come up to the podium and speak on any matter, this is now the time. We just ask that you state your
name and you'll be given three minutes. Okay, seeing none, can I please have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting? So move. Second. All in favor? Is anyone opposed? This public session is closed. Thank you. At this time, we'll be
motioning to go into close session. Whereas section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL1975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances. And whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances
presented exist. Now therefore be resolved by the North Brunswick Township Board of Education that the public shall be excluded from discussion of and action upon the hereafter specified subject matters. The general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is as
follows. Number one, personnel matters. Number two, financial matters. And number three, negotiation matters. It is at the this time that the above stated subject matter shall be made public at such time as the need for non-disclosure
no longer exists. This resolution shall take effect immediately. Can we please have a motion to go into close session? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? We can go to close session. Thank you.
[Music] Okay, welcome back everyone. Can we please have a motion to return to open session? Second. All in favor? Is anyone opposed? We're back in session. Thank you. This time we have a few
motions to move on. So, um, Mr. Carter, would you please take our first motion? Uh, yes, Madam President. I'd like to make a motion to approve the reimbursement for expert testimony expenses to the OD tools SCREO firm under the professional services contract with North Brunswick Township Board of
Education in an amount not to exceed the 40% contract aotment or $56,000. Second. Thank you. And I am going to do roll call. James. Uh, Mr. Ali. Yes. Mr. Carter. Yes. Miss. James?
Yes. M. Keefe. Yes. Um, Mr. Lori. Yes. Dr. Patel. Yes. Mr. Singh. Yes. Um, Miss Toth. Yes. And Mr. W. Yes. The motion is approved. Thank you. Dr. Patel, would you please take the second motion? Sure. Thank you. Uh, I'd like to make a
motion to approve the reassignment of Sarah Tam from purchasing secretary to interim employee services support coordinator at an annual salary of $62,151 effective October 1st, 2025. The reason for resignation of Espano
second. All right, here we go again. Roll call. Mr. Ali, yes. Mr. Carter, yes. Miss James, yes. Miss Keith, yes. Mr. Lori, yes. Dr. Patel, yes. Mr. Singh, yes. Miss Toe, yes. and Mr. Wen. Yes. Uh, the motion's approved. Thank you.
Miss Keefe, would you please move on the next motion? Yes, Madam President. I'd like to make a motion to approve the sidebar agreements between the North Brunswick Township Board of Education and the North Brunswick Township Education Association for the 24 to 27 contract agreement relative to articles Xia9A
and XVA1 and appendix E1. We have a second. Second. All right. Roll call again. Mr. Ali. Yes. Mr. Carter. Uh, I have to abstain from Thank you. Uh, Miss James, yes. Miss Keefe,
yes. Mr. Lori, yes. Dr. Patel, yes. Mr. Singh, I abstain. Miss Toth? Yes. Mr. Wen, I abstain. Um, the motion still passes. Thank you. Thank you. All right, everyone.
Great meeting. Good to see everyone. Good to have the whole team up here. At this time, we will adjourn our meeting. Can we please have a motion? Some move. Second. All in favor? Anyone opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you.