e e okay welcome everyone we're going to call the meeting to order in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the ACT proper notice of this open public meeting was
provided in the notice of January 6 2025 said notice was posted at the entrance of the Board of Education offices sent to the town Nutley Township Clerk sent to tap into Nutley sent to the Nutley son and Star Ledger on January 17 2025 and posted on the district website
everybody please stand for a flag SL flag United States of America to the rep stands Nation indivisible roll call Mr Mr balamo here Mrs Dan Martin here Dr deia here Mr
fragels here Mr gilberti Mr kazinski Mrs Quirk Mr Scotty here Mr feraro here I get a motion for approval of the minutes make a motion need a second second everybody in
favor anyone opposed okay um with us tonight I just want to welcome we have the Nutley Boy Scout Troop 147 in attendance um they are here tonight to observe for their citizenship and Community merit badge so we welcome you
and I believe it's uh Joanne Missour kblock is that is she here hi she's the uh Committee Member that has put this uh together tonight so thank you and welcome Mrs loas SK we do the presentation of the service award
good evening everyone over the past several years we've partnered with Korea take wo Center here in Nutley to recognize Nutley students who have worked towards and achieved an outstanding honor tonight as we've done in the past we
recognize several students who met the requirements for the president's volunteer service award the president's volunteer service award award began in 2003 to encourage and reward America's proud tradition of volunteer service the
award recognizes individuals families and groups that have achieved a certain standard measured by the number of service hours over a 12-month period or cumulative hours earned over the course of a lifetime in the case of these
students volunteer hours were completed at Korea Taekwondo center under the direction of Master Kim in addition to a certificate each student receiving the honor receives a pin that corresponds to the tier of the award that they received
tonight we honor several outstanding nutly students who have achieved this honor please come forward when I call your name and if you don't mind just standing up until the end so we can get a picture of everyone together first we have from our Middle School Jason n
Alco and from our high school Felix aalana Charlie balanos Lucas sequera and mateline Nasco can we invite the board down pictur yeah we're gonna you could take pictures and then we'll come down with as a board
take a picture as well invite the board down take a picture can we get one more round of applause for the student students picture every con thank you Mrs loans
solo Mr B our superintendent report uh thank you Mr President before I get into my report I would also like to welcome the Boy Scout Troop uh now more than ever we need young people to come to the board meetings and learn about them make decisions evaluate
things thank you for coming tonight I remember troop 23 in Clifton right I was right where you are the things I learned probably transcend a lot of what's going on in school and the community so welcome to the meeting uh good evening members of the board and our Nutley School Community it has been three only
three weeks since our last meeting and I am pleased to share some updates on the work happening across our district earlier this month leadership from the Board of Education and I had the opportunity to meet with State assemblyman venisia assemblywoman
Morales and state senator Timberlake we discussed our District's priorities and reinforced our commitment to advocating for increased resources and support for our students we will continue these conversations to ensure that the needs of our school Community remain a priority a top priority at the state
level and I would like to thank them and our board uh for their time and commitment uh some recent events we had our spring production of Mean Girls Jr congratulations to our talented students and staff uh on a fantastic production their hard work and dedication were
evident in every performance and it was great to see our community come together to support the Arts our college fair in March 4th a special thank you to Meredith girkin and her team for organizing a successful college fair uh this event provided students with valuable insight into their
post-secondary options with repres represent Representatives I'm sorry from a wide range of colleges and universities uh we also had the second meeting of our sixth grade transition committee on March 12th uh I want to recognize the 47 members of this committee for their time and dedication
this group has been divided into four key areas academics school day operations fifth grade Transitions and resources and resources the fourth group uh during the their last meeting they worked collabora collaboratively to identify key challenges set goals and
determine the necessary resources to support students as they transition to Middle School uh the spring cycle of New Jersey graduation performance assessment is underway at Nutley high school we appreciate the efforts of our students in uring a smooth testing experience uh
throughout our schools uh last since our last meeting we have hosted several parent nights including a session for families of students that have been selected for the Middle School strategies program which will begin shortly a multilingual learner support night to connect families with District
resources as well as a Career and Technical education pathway Parent Academy led by Mr Vin vicarello to showcase the many opportunities available to our students in our district uh these recordings can be found on our district website uh looking ahead we have several exciting events on
the calendar uh the Nutley High School Asian American Student Union will host um is sponsoring a holly themed holy themed uh family fund day on Saturday March 22nd from noon until 3: in the Nutley high school parking lot entry is
free and children can enjoy face painting as well as the arts and craft section also our science fair is on March 23rd the academic booster club is sponsoring the annual science fair for grades uh in students in grades K through six the event will run from 9:00
a.m. to 2 p p.m. it's a great event we encourage you all to attend and check out the science projects as well as um other people showing animals other live things uh we also have some preschool parenty coming out uh preschool mental health will be hosted by Daniela jernick this Wednesday March 19th and
establishing routines in early childhood will will go uh will be held on Tuesday April 9th uh both sessions will be led by our early childhood social worker Danielle jernick and are designed to support families with Young Learners if you cannot attend recordings can be found on our website under the preschool
tab we also have a pre uh a sixth grade parent orientation uh at John H Walker Middle School uh for upcoming sixth grade parents to provide important information for the upcoming school year I'm sorry I don't have the date on here I believe that
is I want to say it's April 9th I will I will post that on our website the 7th April 7th I would like to take a moment also to thank the Nutley Educational Foundation for their continuing gen generosity in supporting initiatives that benefit our students
they're currently working through supporting many of our initiatives and many Learning Tree requests finally um I want to wish everyone a Happy St Patrick's Day May the rest of today and Future Days be filled with a little bit of luck a lot of laughter and the warmth of family and
friends thank you Mr President thank you Mr B Mr Dita our business administrative report thank you um I just want to point out on for approval on tonight's meeting resolutions pertaining to the approval
of the tenative budget for the 2025 26 school year after approval at tonight's meeting the budget will then be uploaded to the state uh with the along with the required supporting documentation by the due date of March 19th and then reviewed
by the county office at our next meeting on April 28th there will be a detailed presentation on the entire 2025 26 budget thank you thank you Mr Dita um just wanted to just clarify for everyone that tonight is just the introduction of the budget
and there'll be a public presentation at the next meeting for anyone who has questions um you can come to that meeting obviously there'll be the presentation and you could ask any question that you'd like um with us tonight we have not one but two student Representatives uh Matt Lee
and Tessa Murray hello everyone happy St Patrick's Day what a month this past month the Juniors completed the NJ GPA testing we're glad that's over and uh student council last month we did
a staff versus student student volleyball game um our teachers put up a valiant effort but they came up short in the end the students won um the the class of 2025 also hosted a fashion show which was a huge success the theme was a night at the movies this event was
certainly Oscar worthy speaking of Oscar worthy congratulations to the cast and crew on the amazing run of me and girls the musical there was a great turnout the energy and talent that was displayed during each show really shine through
the students did a phenomenal job they were so fetch coming coming up this Friday is our March Madness Tournament um we anticipate there being it being a great event we have over 30 student teams signed up already and we're looking
forward to have a great day of competition in addition to that stugo and the Key Club are sponsoring the Red Cross blood drive for students this program saves lives while fostering leadership skills we are also looking forward to an event under the stars for
the junior formal that will be held on Friday April 4th and lastly in April we're also planning a campus and park cleanup uh for Earth Day to make a change in our community while also inspiring students to preserve the environment thank you
thank you you guys are more than um happy to stay if you like if not if you have homework to do or other things that you have to attend to you're more than welcome to uh leave don't feel that you have to stay uh same thing for our uh our service award recipients if you
don't uh you can stay if you'd like and if if you have other things to do don't feel like you have to thank you we're GNA move on to committee reports Mr fraginals finance committee thank you Mr President uh I wish you would have had me gone first
that's going to be a real tough act to follow uh finance committee met March 13th in attendance was myself president F Dr deia miss makus Mr B Mr D and Miss Lori we received an update from our health benefits broker regarding claims
for the current school year and projections for next we went over updates on facility projects uh including Lincoln's Auditorium chairs Lincoln's hallway floors a 777 building middle school media center pscg direct
install program digital signs at the high school in Middle School the generator of town hall HVAC issues within all the schools and summer projects we also reviewed resolutions including the decommissioning of Technology items shared service agreement for school for school
Physicians Transportation agreement for 2025 26 food service contract contract with Northwest Essex Cooperative purchase uh Cooperative purchasing programs Insurance Reserve submitting middle school media center project to
the state ten budget resolutions and submission of preschool budget for the 2025 2026 year next meeting hasn't been scheduled yet that's everything Mr President thank you Mr fragos we now come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to
address the board in this section we allow questions or comments on reports resolutions and all School related matters the public can also ask questions or make any comments regarding the proposed um on I believe this was a
sorry our board regulations number 0167 a lot 20 minutes for these communications each person shall be limited to three minutes and we ask you try to stay within this requirement speakers may speak more than once only after all those wishing to speak on a topic have been heard all statements will be directed to me as a chairperson
and no one may address board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy abusive obscene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated please remember to state your name and add address each and every time you address the board does anyone have any
questions you can come up say that are thank you yep just want to make sure it was on okay I want to thanks s for sticking up for some of the parents on the nly parents website because some of the comments that parents were making were absolutely horrendous and I'm sorry that I missed
the last meeting um because I wanted to thank you as you were saying that when I was watching online so thank you for sticking up for the people that actually aren't some of the people that are speaking on nly parents um my second is my grandson is at Washington school he's
in a special class um it was originally taken over by Bergen County for two years and it was a wonderful program but I know there was a lot of issues that were going on um when it was taken over by Nutley we got told it was being taken over by Nutley and of course
I panicked because I panic with anything that has to change for him and I have to tell you it's the best program he's ever been in it was taken over by a teacher named Mrs Grant and let me tell you she's the best teacher he's ever had and when they put her in there I was Panic
stricken again because she's never been in a classroom like that and it's a tough class and it's the best teacher he's ever had he's doing wonderful he's on level with everything he's included in a regular ed class
for um all his specials he's now doing science um I think social studies he still doesn't want to go to Spanish because he's afraid that we're going to send him to Spain but we're working on that um so I just want to thank you guys I know a lot of times people be you up when they're up here but that's not my
um it's just not my personality to be people up thank you um my third question is and this is actually from some of the first grade parents and I don't even know if you can actually answer these questions I have copies here I'm sure you've probably seen these um it's about the I ready
program we got the reports and some of the parents are panicking because like for instance this says like needs Improvement needs Improvement needs Improvement um approaching grade one now my
granddaughter is in I'm sorry do you need stop talking you good no okay my granddaughter is in first grade at Lincoln school and she has the attention span of maybe five minutes um my question with
this testing is I really actually like the program because I've watched her do it do does anyone know whether the testing that this is this data is representing is it just the data that is done at school while they're at school
or does it also count towards the homework because the homework she does by herself she's probably done by 3:30 um I know sometimes she's not paying attention when she's doing it and then
I've heard from other parents saying well we just help them but you're really not supposed from my understanding just from doing it with the kids at school we're really not supposed to help them so I'm not sure where these testing scores come from uh correct um can I
answer yeah um so thank you first I want to thank you for what you said about Mrs Grant I I've been in her class I think she's an amazing teacher we have great teachers here and that's a tough class our special services department Mr Jones at Washington School are making ER work very well and uh thank you for recognize that to the board Mr Jones is my
grandson's best friend and believe me I've heard you know I don't believe I don't listen to other people what they say by people if you're a good person and you're good to him I don't care I don't care what anybody else has to say um second I like to comment on I ready um I ready is a is a a testing system
the district has piloting this year in early grade levels and Mrs loen solo behind you is probably better off speaking better it than I am but um they they're working through I ready to get more diagnostic information to understand our students uh more U informative information to help us group our students to use it to see where our
students are it's one of the tools in the tool box that we have as Educators to understand where our students are I know parent reports went home and your questions are about Fidelity of the testing is it uh just in school or is it at home as well um I would encourage um conversations to happen I think the data
going home to parents is a conversation starter with the teacher with our people in central office so we can understand how they're interpreting it how we're using it um so we can move forward a little better using that data to to support learning I just think as a I've been in that school for a 30 years I
think as a grandparent and honestly some of the kids that are in that school are children of students that I've had through the years and I say to them listen some kids take tests great I'm sure Ela does not even half the time pay attention she just answers yeah um and it's hard when you're six years old to
sit there and actually and and like I try to talk to her but I also I don't want to say you have to do a good job because that you know she's really is doing the best she can do I think as we on board I ready and we learn about its use it's more of veral screener diagnostic tool that we can give
throughout the year to to take the temperature of where students are at various points and see how they're growing and it's very important education to do that and and this is year one of I ready and that I think was the first report we sent home to parents that should be a normal occurrence in our schools and we should be talking
about student progress frequently so uh with your feedback with the feedback of the first grade parents our office would be very interested to talk to them and hear how they're interpreting it as we look for ways to move this forward I think the younger parents just panic with with a test score but believe me
what the test score says and what I see her doing in that classroom doesn't really even compare absolutely you know um my third question is actually they the her teacher actually was the L teacher and we don't have that
program anymore do you know if some schools have a first grade resource because I know Lincoln School does not do these the do things like these test scores would that make a a program with like that available maybe next year yeah
correct so you're talking about lli I'm talking about even a resource you're talking about resource replacement which is a special ed program and then you're talking about data data will help us in form moving our students through strategies through um you know referrals and things that you're speaking to but
uh every every school in our district has a strategies teacher that are identifying students to bring into extra help pull out and with hopes to return the grade level within a short amount of time and move them back that's not to say that you know most of the work in District I feel needs to be done with our tier one interventions in the
classroom supporting our teachers providing PD and helping them with students in their classroom and then using diagnostic tools to help pull out students that need extra help so this is this is a layer that we have and it's a piece of data that we have to bring in to help inform strategies education what
we call strategies basic skills in some cases if they have questions about these do they they should reach out to their teacher first okay and then then that's what it does say up the chain yeah I mean that these are conversation starters any data set invites you to a conversation about your child to see
where they are and to start talking about academic growth okay all right thank you very much for your feedback happy St Patrick same to you thank you Mrs Callahan uh anyone else wishing to come up and address the board hello my name is Carla CIO I live at 499
Center Street happy St Patrick's Day I was actually GNA ask kind of a similar question about the IR ready testing so when I got my son's results I was kind of confused he's in kindergarten and he actually tested better in October in October and I looked at it and I said
how could he have tested better in October and you know I spoke to his teacher and um you know she said it's one tool that that they use so and I know it's new for the district so I guess my next question for you guys is
what does that part of my son's story like tell about him or how does it affect I guess what he's learning or like how he's going to progress like what's like I guess like the weight involved and like what does it do down the road
potentially so specifically and Mrs L Sol if you want to jump in you maybe better apt to answer this question but the data set I've been seeing coming from my ready gives teachers very specific information to where each student in their class needs help how to group those students and even suggest
different strategies they could use once we get better at using that tool but really it's it's one of as you mentioned one tool in the toolbox to to indicate where your child may need support and as we go through um so when when reading is happening or writing is happening um and
that lesson is occurring a small group of students that need this specific skill can be pulled to help give them that skill and if the data starts piling up where additional supports are needed we can identify those supports and provide them as well maybe at you know add a class pull out kind of kind of support uh so it's it's just another
measure that we have as we grow into it as we help teachers understand how to use it as we understand how to use it um the potential could be very very high uh to how it could help students grow U but there's also a piloting period and a period of getting to know the tool
especially with parents as they go through okay um are they going to get tested again like at the end of the year this year or no yes oh they are okay yeah because when I spoke to his teacher I said well if he did better why why would he do worse now and I guess because they're so young and they're
getting used to the the environment like his teacher was saying it could be more like maybe they just weren't you know focused enough or you know it could be one of different things but of course as like um you know a new parent you're you know you get a little worried like oh
what is he I mean his report card was a lot better than it was you know well his twos went to three so that was good but I just didn't know if there was anything else and I didn't know if they were going to get tested again so yeah I I would encourage you to to start a conversation and look where the data is and and start the conversation with your
teacher and ask the teacher these questions they'd be the best person to help you understand how your child's doing and then if you're not finding the answers you're looking for move to the principal on up the chain and we will get each child the support they need in District awesome thank you and then just had two other quick questions and I missed the last meeting so I don't know
if there was any update I know previously um the board has mentioned about the forensic audit I think that we had to apply for something to see if the state was going to pay for the forensic audit I was just wondering if there was like a status update on that yeah so we
did provide an update uh Miss makas provided an update I believe it was in the February meeting oh yeah I missed that one sorry yes and it was that we um we're talking Miss makus is uh requesting that from the state and we're waiting to hear back from the state on
if it's something that they are going to move forward with okay and then one other quick question I was just going through the agenda and on page 11 um under bullets um 20 um1 and 22 um it's approval for capital reserve withdrawals
and I the only thing that popped into my mind was I know when we you know we had budgetary issues last year you know and we had to obviously you know get money from from the state unless I'm incorrect I remember that there was money taken from the reserve accounts and I guess
the board wasn't made aware of that like you know in years past and it was my understanding that those accounts were pretty much depleted I don't know if that's accurate but I was just wondering if those accounts were like built back up through and where is this money coming from because if those
accounts were like low then I'm just making just want to make sure we don't wind up in a bad situation Mr Mr de he'll be able to address that question yes um the resolution um on page 11 that's for next year's budget oh okay okay um so we were able to um with
our audit from last year we were able to um set aside some money for for our reserves um so we do have some money in there so it's just um we're required to if we take money out of reserves in our uh budget for the following year we're we're just required to do a resolution
okay and the calendar year how does does it go again is it like June to May or like what's the fiscal year for you guys it's a July 1st to June 30th July 1st to June 30 okay that's all iead thank you so much anyone else wishing to come up
and address the board could I just clarify some of the the I ready questions that came sure go ahead thank you um for the diagnostic I know you had a question about if the score that you're receiving now is just from that one diagnostic or from the
work that's done in between those two and it's just that one diagnostic so you're spoton and saying that if a student has trouble sitting during that diagnostic period they have an attention span maybe they're interrupted that could affect that score so we're telling
all parents to really take this with a grain of salt this is one more piece of information that we have to help Drive instruction but it's similar to the way we think about reading levels right we've always communicated that information to parents on report cards and things like that and that's focusing
on a comprehension lens and we know that teachers pull small groups based on a reading level this information is actually allowing us to pull strategy groups for really specific skills that students need support with so now with the science of reading and with more
focus on foundational skills right we can now use I ready to drill down specific phonic Les phonics lessons that specific students need so it's really a tool for teachers um and it may help inform some scores on the report card
but really the report card is your best tool along with reaching out to the teacher on how your child is doing because they're looking at the standards on the report card each teacher and then they're putting it against I ready they're putting it against classroom observations and classroom assessments
and what they see students doing um to make sure that that's the most accurate information so again this is just one piece of the puzzle um and again it's a pilot year so your feedback is really important to us so please continue to provide it thank
you just a couple questions um what grade level is that this does the test um cover right now it's k123 um but it can go all the way up um so right now we're using it for K K1 two3 two3 yeah we're still using EXL for
four or five okay so um maybe it's something that we want to look at to see if we do some type of a formal presentation that to show the the parents exactly how to how to read the scores and understand it yeah absolutely and we do have a um recorded Parent Academy that it might be helpful to also
push out you know maybe when the reports come home next time and maybe even you know as we start to get questions to push out that information because we've had a lot of professional development for teachers on that too but the parents you know they need that as well okay thank you thank you is anyone else wishing to come up
and address the board okay seeing none can I have a motion to Rend the public comment portion make a motion all in favor okay we're going to move on to our academic resolutions Mr
bosam N I do that all the time I don't know why Mrs Mrs Lisa danek Martin thank you Mr President I'd like to make a motion to move academic resolutions one through three is written second anyone discussion roll
call Mr balamo yes Mrs Dan Martin yes Dr deia yes Mr franel yes Mr gilbery Mr Scotty yes Mr Faro yes Mr basam Administration I got it
right yes Mr President I'd like to move Administration resolutions 1 through three as written second discussion roll call Mr balamo yes Mrs Dan Martin yes Dr dulia yes Mr Fels yes
Mr gilber yes Mr Scotty yes Mr Faro yes Mr fraginals Finance resolutions thank you Mr President I would like to move Finance resolutions 1 through 27 is written
second discussion roll call Mr balamo yes M Dan Martin yes Dr Delia yes Mr frels yes Mr gilberti yes Mr Scotty yes Mr fararo yes Mr Scotty Personnel yes Mr President I'd
like to move Personnel resolution one is written second discussion roll call Mr balamo yes M Dan Martin yes Dr deia yes Mr franel yes Mr
gilberti Mr Scotty yes Mr fro yes is there any old business to come before the board any new business whereas the Board of Education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursuant to njsa 10
col 4-12 now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education recessed to close executive session at this time to discuss contracts and Personnel be further resolved that the results of the discussions will be made public by inclusion on the agenda of a subsequent meeting of the Board of Education are
when the reasons for discussing such matters in close session no longer exist I get a motion to adjourn into executive session motion okay thank you everyone and I hope our stud uh students here learned something from tonight and uh we
appreciate you coming out and continuing with all the your efforts thank you and happy St Patrick's day everyone SC