231 public law 1975 entitled open public meetings act. Adequate notice of this meeting had been provided as a spe as a specif as specified in the act. Proper notice of this open public meeting was provided in the notice of January 6, 2026. said notice was posted at the
entrance of the board of education offices, sent to the Nutley Township clerk, sent to Tap into Nutley, sent to district uh newspapers on January 15, 2026, and posted on the district website. Flag salute.
>> Roll call. >> Mr. Balsamo >> here. >> Mrs. Danek Martin >> here. >> Dr. Dia >> here. >> Mr. Delpiano >> here. Mr. Fragginels, Mr. Gilberty, Mrs. Quirk, >> here >> Mr. Scotty, Mr. Ferraro.
>> Uh, have we any correspondence? >> No correspondence. Okay. Uh, need a motion for approval of the minutes. >> Motion second. >> Everybody. >> I.
>> Okay. So, I guess we have uh a couple of presentations from Mr. Ba. Uh, thank you, Mr. Vice President. Can I invite the board down to the seats so we can bring the screen down and present Thank you, Ian. Uh good evening, uh members of community board of education.
Um we have two presentations for you tonight. Uh the first is a update on our technology um plan and some of the upcoming changes um we see for September. The second is a mandatory reporting of our performance reports as well as our HIPB self- assessment grades.
Um, this presentation is really three-fold. It's to bring the community um and the district up to speed with the new guidance coming out from the New Jersey Department of Education. That's also to inform the community the results of the survey that we provided or we
asked for um last spring. And third, just to talk about the first action steps the district will be taking in September of the new school year. Uh we will be emailing um especially the first part the guidance from DOE out to all stakeholders and community members um
later this week. Um will be the first of many emails discussing the changes headed our way. Next slide, please. Um, so if you're not familiar, um, New Jersey Department of Education, um, provided guidance based on a law from
the legislature, uh, that came out January 8th, 2026. And that law mandates a statewide ban on students use of any device that connects to the internet, um, to take effect um, in the 26 27 school year. Uh, this is first thought
as a ban on cell phones. Um but it is more than just cell phones, any device that can potentially connect uh to the internet, either the district internet or um private internet. Um it is a ban um that includes smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, laptops, smart
glasses, and any device that can connect. This law requires us to put provisions in place uh to ban this bellto bell as well as have devices off and away. Um so over the summer every district in the state is working through
policy regulation uh and guidance um to find their version of fulfilling the state's directives. Uh this will impact um the bring your own device policy as student own devices will be limited to only those required in certain
situations, medical reasons, 504s, IEPs, uh a very few allowances the guidance provides. Um so we are um taking action of course we are updating and and um looking at our student handbooks. We're talking to
the board about policies and regulations being provided by Strauss Esme. Um Strauss put out a policy and a regulation uh maybe the second week in July. We had a chance to talk about it in some of our committee meetings and since then Strauss has updated that
policy. Um so we're going to keep discussions going at the board level and bring that um in August uh to to a resolution. Uh there is also a webinar this week um I would like to attend to get more information on um the guidance we're receiving from them. Uh but for
the most part um all unapproved devices, phones, tablets, laptops uh should be stored in lockers in our secondary schools. Uh the middle school, every student will have a locker as well as the high school. Um, and the elementary schools, they'll be often away in bags
or personal places. Um, approved devices, district Chromebooks are allowed um, and will be used in class um, with administrator and teacher approval. Um, and you know, we we really think that by putting our devices away
as a lot of the research shows, as the studies that linked that the guidance linked to, uh, it will greatly benefit our students in the classroom. Um, so the board is, as I mentioned, we're currently um reviewing the guidance and updating our policies and regulations,
revising student handbooks. Later this week, um, I will put out an email to the community. As mentioned, we will link to the guidance, the law, um, some of the research. They did a study on self cell phone use and teens, some of the findings of that study, um, all in the
email, so you can click on it and read through, um, the materials coming out from the state. Um so before knowing this was coming and and just you know wanting to reflect the community and the best interest of you know how the community feels about
internet devices and such in the classroom uh the district uh created a survey uh with the help of our academic committee um and our technology department and we put out the survey I want to say went out in late April early May around there was open for about a
month uh we had great turnout response to that survey um we had 632 responses and I believe if you add up all the students attached those responses it came to about a thousand students that's about 1/4 of our population um of the school student population of the school
so um we put out surveys from time to time and I think this survey um was a hot topic and we had a lot of people respond uh to this survey um so you know the first question just asked you know if if you had a member uh a child in the school district and the survey
represents mostly people with children in the school district. Next slide. Um I'm going to go through this. I'm just presenting information. I'm not going to talk through opinions or inferences or analysis of this information. Um but I just wanted to share the results of that survey.
[snorts] So this is a cross-section of um who responded, where their kids are in district. Um you can see the bars illustrate a high uh response rate mostly in elementary and early childhood. Next slide please. Uh this
this question was interesting. Stack columns bar graphs next to one another in uh different groups at the bottom. The school day is approximately 6 hours long by grade level. How many hours is it appropriate for a child to be in front of a screen a personal device
during the school day? Um so the blue represents pre preK to two grade band red is 3 to 5 yellow is 6 to 8, green is 9 to 10 and purple is 11 to 12. You can see um kind of the respondents uh none.
The first cluster of bars on the left up to a half an hour. The next cluster up to 1 hour 1 to two hours the fourth cluster 2 to three hours the fifth cluster four to five hours the sixth cluster. You could see how it separates
by gradeband level as to where people's thoughts lie in the community. Next slide please. Um then we came up with a a bunch of different liyker scale type questions to understand um how the community felt
about certain um certain aspects of technology use and screen time. Um how concerned are you about uh children's screen time? [snorts] One being not concerned, five being extremely concerned. Next slide please. How concerned are you
about children's social media use? Again, the trend is one not concerned, five extremely concerned. How concerned are you about the mental health impacts of children's technology use? Five extremely concerned, one not
concerned. How concerned are you about cyber bullying andor andor by children online? Um, five is extremely concerned. How concerned are you about children's online safety?
How concerned are you about children's physical activity levels during technology use? How concerned are you about children's sleep disruption due to technology use? How concerned are you about the impact of children's social interaction levels
due to technology usage? How concerned are you about children's exposure to inappropriate content due to technology usage? you could see those follow similar trend patterns. Um and uh having two children in middle school myself, I can
understand um the the community's response to that. At what grade levels do you believe the following technology usage is appropriate? Again, an interesting way to look at this. Um you have your same grade bands. pre-K to blue red is 3 to 5 yellow is 6 to 8
green 9 to 10 blue I'm sorry purple is 11 to 12 then the light blue all the way on the right is never so the first cluster is office tools word Google docs those things when should they come into play right so so you could take this the
top of the bell curve as kind of where the community feels um this should be most appropriately used uh the next would be Google classroom or learning management system. Uh they seem to peak around six to eight in both of the first two clusters. The
third cluster um is adaptive learning. Right? So you start seeing that uh come in uh in three to five. The next one would be u I'm sorry AI right
um I'm sorry that one I can't read that I'm sorry it's my eyes it is AI I second guess myself because we have two AI it's the AI editor then the next one would be AI generative AI
like chat GPT where that comes in Um and then we have the the AI tutor at the end. Next slide please. Um more leard scale. Should instructional and supplemental studying tools and materials be primarily physical or digital? One would be
physical. Five would be digital textbooks, labs, and science. Digital versus physical things of that nature. Next slide, please. Uh, does using classroom time for adaptive computer-based diagnostic testing and individualized digital
learning systems help support student learning and give teachers information to help teaching? Uh, strongly disagree. Strongly agree. One versus five. Next slide is should classroom interactions in Nutley school be primarily face toface or virtual?
One is face toface and five is virtual. Should Nutley schools prioritize hands-on learning experiences or digital learning experiences? One is hands-on, five is digital. Do students benefit more from collaborative in-person learning
experiences or individualized digital learning programs? One is collaborative, five is individualized digital platforms. Should generative AI skills be taught in schools? No is one. And you have a little more
there. Five is yes. Um so those are the results. U it's one set of information the district is using um as a steering force um along with the DOE guidance to start looking at um technology usage in the public schools.
Many districts are going through this right now um and we're taking a lot of information. Um one of the things uh we value also is our educators. Uh we have um had formal conversations, informal conversations with groups of educators,
with grade bands in learning um kind of how they're using technology and how they feel about technology. We also have observations where we go in and take a look at its effectiveness um and things of that nature. So, all of these items are coming together um and we're
beginning with um a fresh start in September along with the guidance the district is moving to listen to the community and listen to our educators and take strategic steps uh to move forward. Uh we will continue to reassess
and um understand the different flows of technology um as we evolve. Um we are going to block all social media's access on district student devices. Uh these unregulated um platforms sometimes uh
lose educational value. Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Reddit um and anything else in our filter social media category. Um so theoretically if if students do not have their personal internet devices and we're blocking this using our um filters
on our devices um we should see less traffic to these areas um there's always going to be workarounds students have there's always going to be ways to get to certain things we have to evolve with our students and as technology evolves. Uh we are going to review data on in school internet usage on an ongoing basis. I think one of our board members
brought that up. They'd like to see reports of where our kids are going. I think that's a great idea and we're going to prepare those. But again, theoretically that number should be pretty low if we're filtering out the social media sites and we're limiting our personal internet devices. Uh we are
going to reinstate classroom device monitoring software for teachers. That was a huge piece of feedback from our educators. um something like HPA where when the students are on our devices in their classroom they could monitor lock
out and understand where they are. So we're moving in that direction listening to our educators. Uh we are going to reduce screen time in elementary schools and we're going to severely limit it in prek to two um and listen to the community, listen to research, listen to
our teachers in many cases as we roll out technology in different ways. Um we are going to monitor appropriate screen time use in secondary schools and make recommendations once we understand how it's being used for what purpose and how our educators feel. Uh we are going to
repurpose I ready personalized learning to be a tiered intervention not a universal application. Um and we're going to limit diagnostic testing to three times a year 20 to 30 minutes um each session. We think that data collection is very important and I ready
gives us another layer of understanding where our kids are at. Um but that layer has to be combined with information we get on our common assessments on state testing data on grades on teacher um feedback and it's all part of the package to explain where our students
are. Uh interesting enough I think Janine will tell you that the state has delayed the release of their spring cycle testing to be December. Um, so for us to get data is very important because it looks like that the data coming from the state may be delayed.
We're going to evaluate our co-curricular technology programs um to make sure they're efficient. Uh we are going to uh incorporate technology into our curriculum even more so um spiking at our sixth grade seminar class as students move to the middle school uh
get their onetoone device and begin using different tools um in their learning management system and different things in the classroom. Um so that's another piece. We are going to move our 1:1 uh take-home
uh device uh program to sixth grade instead of fifth grade. Our fifth grade and our elementary schools will have devices needed for in-class technology usage. We have plenty of devices in the buildings, but we're going to delay the issuance until our secondary program uh
takes hold. Um so I want to end there. I'll open up to the the board first and then the community for any questions pertaining to this presentation. This is uh the beginning of a conversation. This is a this is a step one with technology usage. Um and we have to be committed to
letting this evolve as technology evolves, which happens very quickly as we all know. Uh does any member of the board have a question based on this presentation? Stephan, so I'm looking at this slide and and I've said it in committee and I
really stand by this. I I see in this slide um what I would consider um six nine actions rather than goals, right? And I really um would love to hear um
what the district's actual goals are in terms of what we're looking for. I agree with you that I mean, you know, you know that I'm working with you guys, you know, closely. So, like I I understand it's
evolving and I understand it's um a a response to what the public is asking for, but we are at the heart of it. um an educational institution. Their main job is to make
sure kids are learning the most they can in the most effective way they can while maintaining you know high uh what social emotional you know like you know like morale. >> Yes. Um, and so I'd really love to see
some some goals somebody can say, you know what, these are the things we are going to monitor so we know we're hitting what we want to hit rather than lowering screen time to for the sake of going to screen time. In all honesty, if
we can have higher screen time but better efficiency in learning, then why won't we have more, you know, screen time? You know what I'm saying? So that's what I would love to see in the next like month or two as we move forward and start Um my
>> um thank you trusty delpo. I I did reach up and grab that. I do have prepared for the board. I know we start a conversation on goals in some of the committee meetings. Um I was able to develop four concrete goals from the feedback in those committees. One of the goals um which I could probably read in draft here because it isn't an open
topic um is to college and career pathways. some of the things we talked about I don't think I have it here but I have copies for the board members and there is a goal as we discussed that's overarching on understanding technology use and education and to your point I
think you made in committee there is a goal part of the action steps of that goal is finding you know if we do take screen time especially in early childhood from what we're seeing what the research is telling us what fills in its place how do we best use that time with students the curriculum the resources to to support student learning
to your If screen time is able to do that, why not increase screen time? I think that's something we have to understand and look at. Um, but before you leave tonight so we can have a fruitful discussion at the board retreat, I've prepared draft goals for you and what every stakeholder in
district can do to support those goals and I would value your feedback as we go into the board retreat. >> Excellent. >> You got it, Mr. Fragile. >> Who created the survey? Uh the survey was created first by myself and Ian and Stefan uh helped us uh from the academic
committee. So it was kind of generated out of the academic committee uh to give us understanding for um kind of what we're looking for. Right. Well, I think what what some of the research shows in the released DOE guidance is uh if we could limit the
screen time in school because they're getting three hours of screen time, let's say in the evening, but they're also getting another three hours of personalized screen time in the schools. That's something we can control in the schools, not necessarily uh what that is.
Yeah, I I don't think we're taking technology out of the hands of our teachers, using it the right way in this, and that's not we're proposing. We're proposing taking a look at the amount of time on screen. Some of the some of the preschool guidance we've received from the DOE. Um, and I I may have this incorrect, so I think it's up
to a half an hour a week of screen time is what they're performing. Maybe it's an hour a week. Um so it's very limited um especially in early childhood. Yeah, I I'm just reporting I'm I'm just reporting the data. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, all data, you can
look at all data a certain way depending on what you want. >> Yes, Mr. Bel. >> Yeah. For the purposes of this conversation, would it would it be correct to say that the spirit of the law and future policy isn't necessarily
to stop technology classroom, but the distractions that come with their own personal >> Yeah. the the um >> you did have up on the slide that they're going to maintain the Google and >> Oh, yeah. you know, the science labs that work with software, those things
are still happen. >> Oh, yeah. >> It's just so that kids aren't pulling these out, uh, you know, every >> correct. I think we're talking about two separate things. I think to your point, the DOE guidance limits personal devices and social media in particular. And the studies that they've linked social media
usage to certain things, mental health, other things, um, is based on where kids go on their own device. What Mr. Fragile was talking about is technology use in the classroom and to this presentation we're not pulling out technology from our schools. I think that to m to Mr.
Delpiano's point I think we're taking a look at it. We're we're bringing it in. We're appropriate and we're listening to our educators um as well as what research tells us about um when to start rolling that out. If you go back to the slide when people thought Google Classroom should come into play, uh that
band is somewhere and I have to go back, you know, fifth grade, sixth grade, I believe. This that's a very telling slide right there. So the second cluster is six to eight, right? Where you see that peak. So Dan, to your point, I don't think people are saying pull it out. I I I think they just are looking
for um where it's best suited to meet the needs. I think our educators may also agree with um phasing in different pieces of technology where appropriate. Most some of our curriculum also depends on uh some technology usage in the classrooms. Our social studies and science curriculum and later elementary
school rely heavily on not heavily but on on certain parts of Chromebook usage and screen time. We're not changing those aspects for the next coming upcoming year. I want to say I I agree with I don't think that we
have any right at all to ask about anything the kids are doing outside of the school today. I really don't use things and I know that and I have had conversations about it and I agree with a lot of what he would
argue about um a lot of times the technology fails in the educational because where teachers aren't trained enough you know not trained well enough and the data this is something I brought up in
academic committee data we get um is just dies of the vine, right? We have this information and we don't have ways to use it effectively and bring it um to bear um through in our classrooms. And so um we wind up, you know, to show for an investment
>> and so yeah, I absolutely agree that's we have we have no right to ask about what a kid's doing when they leave nothing high school or elementary school. >> And to be fair, the point that Some of these are
there are you can alleviate all those concerns by absolutely blocking social media and bad websites and nothing would technically have to change in the classroom. I'm not saying it should >> Dan I I I think I think I I understand your point. I I know this is a it's
actually a great conversation, but I think some of the things we're talking about is putting adaptive uh digital learning on for a kindergartener 40 to 60 minutes a week. Um, and I think it's the screen time and digital interactions where a teacher may be able to use group
time or other things. Those are the things we're talking about in this conversation. This is the the reporting of the results of a survey. uh we're all making inferences to how the data is linked, not linked, you know, and what I'm saying is as a district, I think we need to take a look at um especially in
early childhood, how much screen time our kids are getting. Outside of that, I'm not looking to remove any useful technology tool for our teachers to use. Seeing no more questions, um we have one more presentation for you. Um yes.
Do we have the district tracking historical data on district traffic? So see where students >> we have. Yeah. >> So is that information? [snorts] >> Well, I think we report out to the committees. I think Mr. Delpiano
reported out publicly in the last uh board meeting. Um I think uh we are going to start tracking I think quarterly. We plan to present it either publicly or to our board. Um so you understand but theoretically um the traffic should be limited to our educational technology use because we are going to limit uh personal devices
and we are going to filter out social media and things like that. Thank you. [clears throat] So I'm going to be presenting on the 2425 school performance reports. Um, I want to thank you for joining us to learn more about the school performance
reports. We present this data annually in accordance with state code, but also to provide the board and the public with information on our district's progress and inform next steps. Again, just keep in mind that the data that we're going to see is not from this past academic
year, but the previous year. So, the school performance reports reflect the NJ DOE's commitment to providing parents, students, and communities with a large variety of information about every school and district in the state. These reports can
be used as a tool. We look at the data in there often when making um instructional decisions and decisions for priorities within the district. Detailed reports for each school and district are available so that you are able to access information on any public
school in the state in one place. So the homepage for the school performance report website allows you to search by district and school name. We've linked the actual website into the slides in this presentation so that they're available to you. This
presentation will be posted on the district website as well. So you'll have a direct link right there to the information I'm sharing. The kinds of information that the school performance report includes um are data points about schools and districts
across the state, including demographic information, student growth, which is MSGP information, information on staff, um you know, their level of uh degree and education, how long they've been in district, and compares all of those
types of data to state averages. There have been several updates this year to the performance reports and their overall structure. So, in general, the reports now contain more interactive graphs and tables. So, when you do
access them digitally, there's a lot more um menus that you can click through and drop downs to really drill down into more specific information. For the sake of this presentation, I'm going to be focusing more on the summary data, but I will be talking through some of the more
detailed data as well, and you can access those reports. So, in general, some of the updates include um additional chronic absenteeism data showing four-year trends in chronic absenteeism um instead of three years in
the past reports. And we have some promising information to share on that in the coming slides. Uh the new reports also include additional CLA by literacy data showing trends where in the past it was not showing those trends
year-over-year. Uh expanded ELA and math performance by grade level data with state comparisons drilled down to specific grade levels and expanded AP dual enrollment data showing five-year trends. In the past, it did not show the
previous five years. So looking at the reports themselves, um the summary report is now easier to navigate. It actually lives inside the district report. So everything is in one place. Uh the summary is a very high-level overview providing
demographics, staffing information, enrollment, and highlights from the district. I purposely screenshotted this whole piece. Oh, I'm sorry. Can you go back for one minute? I purposely screenshotted this whole image because I wanted you to be able to see in that red
box on the side where the menus are. I know you can't read the text, but I just wanted to kind of show you that when you navigate to the state site, you'll see that dashboard on the side. And when you click on any of those topics, they will open up uh more options. So now I'm
going to zoom in and actually let you see the data a little bit more closely. So here's a closer look at the summary report for Nutley. You'll see here um information on enrollment, 4,297 students, um 313 staff,
17.4 free and reduced lunch percent of free and reduced lunch, 20.9% students with disabilities, 3.8% multilingual learners. For example, further down in the report, you can see
information on ESSA accountability status. Currently, we have no schools designated for comprehensive or targeted support. So, you'll see those numbers zeroed out in that top bar. Um, underneath that you will see performance
summaries. Uh this is related to student performance on the NJSLA, the New Jersey student learning assessment. Uh typically we would get that data back around this time of year for the previous year, but as you may remember and as Mr. Ba spoke to this year we
transitioned to the adaptive NJSLA. So just um for the current year data that we just ended, we are going to see a little bit of a lag. Typically we present that in October, but I think it's going to be later this year. And that data is also related to the DLM
assessments for certain students. So here you can see our performance compared to state averages where we continue to exceed state averages in meeting and exceeding expectations in ELA and math. Similar below the percentages
proficiency percentages you can see student growth percentages or MSGPS. Here again, we continue to outperform state averages in both ELA and math. Under that student growth, that bottom section there, you'll notice gray boxes
uh that say more information on the right of each set of data. This provides information such as explaining some of the information that's provided. So, for example, when we're talking about meeting proficiency standards, if you hover over that more info, it will give
you details like students need to score a four or a five overall um to be considered meeting proficiency standards. So, it just drills down and gives you a little bit more information if you hover over those areas uh on the website itself.
Another data set that's included in the performance report is the district's WEDA access scores for our uh multilingual learners. Access is the name of the assessment. Um and it measures multilingual learners ability
to understand and produce English used within school settings. There's four sections to the access test. There's listening, speaking, reading, and writing. And here you'll see the 2425 data um where we saw a decrease in the
number of students tested but an increase in the number and percentage of students scoring a 4.5 or above. This tells us an interesting story, right? It tells us that fewer students took the assessment. So that could be due to the
enrollment of multilingual students um or that students are exiting the program u which is great. So, it's great news to either know that students are exiting the program or that they're moving up in proficiency with less students taking the test 118 and more students at a 4.5
or above, 30 or 25%. Under the college and career readiness section, information on absenteeism, graduation rates, and AP and dual enrollment participation is highlighted. Here you'll see that we are far below
state um and district percentages for students who are chronically absent, which means they're absent for 10% or more of the school year. So that's where we actually want to see our numbers decreasing, and that's something to celebrate. our percentage of students chronically absent continues to
decrease. So one of the changes that I highlighted in one of the first slides talked about looking over four years of data at chronic absenteeism. So just to give you an idea based on this new structure of the report, we know that in
2122 we had 25.1% chronic absenteeism. In 2223 we were down to 19.6. 6. In 2324, we were down to 15.1 and in 2425, we're at 12.9.
So, we cut our chronic absenteeism percentage in half over the past four years. Additionally, in the third graph under advanced coursework, um a particular point of pride here is that 62.9%
of Nutley 11th and 12th graders take dual enrollment courses. This is more than double the state average of 30%. And it's something that uh I know our supervisors and our high school administration has have really prioritized and worked hard on.
Continuing on the summary report, there's information on the number of 12th graders earning the seal of biiteracy. In 2425, 11.2 two of Nutley High School 12th graders took this assessment and attained proficiency in at least one
other language other than English. That amounts to 41 seals earned, almost double the 21 from the previous year. The report also includes the percentage of students enrolled in approved CTE career technical education programs
where we're over 10 percentage points over the state average for students enrolled in approved CTE programs. So, just to reiterate, the state posts the school performance reports publicly to ensure transparency around student academic performance. You'll see here on
the state website that you're able to search a specific school or district. You can also look at a school or district's growth over time by accessing performance reports from previous years or this year with the new um past five years of data that's included in a lot
of the different data points. A quicker way to find the presentation and all of our presentations to the board is through our district website. You can click on that top green box where it says district and then down to the office of curriculum and
instruction. Um, and here you can view all of the presentations uh that we give publicly. We'll be adding this presentation to the top there under the NJ school performance report section. There are also links provided to the NJ
DOE performance report homepage and frequently asked question sheets as well highlighted in the presentation. Thank you for your attention. At this time, we'll take any questions related to the school performance reports. >> Yes, sir.
Um I noticed on the report there was a really precipitous drop in PSAT performance in 242 for previous years. Is that is that something that anybody knows that? [clears throat] >> Yeah, we we um throughout over years and I don't have
specifics for you. We've taken a step back from requiring students to take PSATS or even funding it ourselves to the school district. Therefore, I believe participation has dropped and it may affect those numbers. I'd have to look at it more significantly. I haven't noticed that but I'd be sure to follow up with you after taking a look at the
data sets a little closer. I would like to comment on some of the things you need mentioned that you know for couple years back we've set goals district goals um to reduce chronic absenteeism to increase dual enrollment um and this is very lagging data. So this is really
a year back right and it's showing um significant growth in areas we've set goals to to achieve. Um I do think that speaks to the power of our education system, the way we set goals, the way we ask every stakeholder to help us in district. Um and it's evidence that the district can move when set setting
legitimate goals. So as we enter, you know, this next cycle, it's very important to set um important goals. So fun. [snorts] >> Yeah. So, so that goal, so so when we when we set goals, one of the things we put out an accessory document, we start
with our administrative team and we we talk to them at the retreat and then we go through in in pre-conferences, teachers, other stakeholders. Um, multiple ways. Every every role in district has a couple ways that they could help us achieve that goal. So, people know how they can help. I'll tell
you some things I've noticed. Um, here at the high school, probably, you know, one of the bigger areas to move, um, they had a movement. It was called Every Day Counts and the video classes made, you know, short clips. They put signs up. The vice principles really hit this
home. Every day counts and it was kind of a movement to get kids to school. Um, I think with attendance though, you know, parent responsibility is a big part of that. So, I think a lot of the work was with the parents. Uh, we made a lot of attendance action plans as well as at the high school. We kept on it as
far as making phone calls at certain things. We kept after parents really. I think those two things, you know, and this is going back two to three years significantly moves these data sets. Okay. I'm sorry, there's one more part to this. Any other qu Thank you, Janine.
That was great. Um there's one more piece to this and this is just our our um self assessment uh anti-bullying bill of rights grades. We must present this publicly and post on our website and I will go through this pretty quickly. every year over the summer um our schools and our buildings they have to
self assess um everything surrounding bullying with the with the bill of rights anti-bullying bill of rights and uh the assessment scores go to the state um they released them in April we're presenting them now these are actually 2425
um so I'm sorry this is this is wrong that's a wrong date there this should be today's date uh we pulled this from a previous presentation I apologize next slide please. Um, so this goes for July 24 to June 30th, 2025. It seems two years old,
right? But it's the state cycle for reporting information. Um, and really what we're doing is we're assessing ourselves on eight core indicators. Each team at the building has a rubric. They have a scale and they have documentation they pull to fit the rubric and meet the
scale. Next slide, please. Quickly going through the uh elements um our programs, our approaches, our other initiatives is core element one. Core element two is training um on the board, training a new teacher orientation, training as new staff comes in, things
of that nature. Core element three uh staff instruction and training program, you know, our instruction on uh hip prevention, our anti-bullying specialists provided time to participate and push into classrooms, that type of thing. Next slide, please. Coral number
four, what's embedded in the curriculum and instruction on harassment, intimidation, bullying. Number five is the personnel that we have a principal with anti-bullying specialists. We have someone in the district to look at everything. Uh school level HI incident reporting procedure. We use hipster. We
follow the days that the law provides. Next slide, please. Um we notify parents. We have a written report. We have an appeals process. This all fits [snorts and clears throat] core element 7. Core element 8 is uh you know
reporting from staff member uh through our system to administration. Um and that we have access on our website for reporting. [snorts] These would be our grades. Um the max would be um 78 over there. So you could see uh we have um Lincoln
school 76, Radcliffe School 70, Spring Garden 70, Washington School 76, Yaneko school 71, John Walker Middle School 75, Nelly High School 63. Next slide please. Um so we will ask the
board to um to post this on our website. Um I will certify this and submit it um that we have self assessed ourselves with anti-bullying. We presented it publicly. We posted on the website website and we put it on a board agenda. Um, next slide.
Other than the date, I apologize for that. That is our presentation for the um anti-bullying u self assessment. Any questions about that? Thank you for the, you know, little lengthier presentations. We appreciate
your time. Um, and we could return to the stage. Dial it up. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Um, I think we're ready for our superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Uh, good evening, members of the board,
members of our Nutley community. Can you hear me, Miss Mabel? Okay. Okay. Although school has been out of session for several weeks, our district remains extremely busy preparing for the opening of the 2627 school year. This summer's work is especially significant as we
prepare for the transition to a 68 middle school with the addition of our sixth grade students. Earlier today, I had the opportunity to walk through John H. Walker Middle School to review the progress of our summer projects. I am pleased to report that the new middle school library and renovated classrooms
have been completed and furnished and they are ready for students and staff. The classrooms on the lower level are also largely complete with only minor finishing touches to the painting taking place. Our buildings and grounds department has already begun moving furniture, instructional materials, and
teachers classroom supplies into the building and this work will continue throughout the month of August. Thank you Timmy to you and your men and Mike Pariji. I am also pleased to report that our HVAC improvement projects at both Lincoln School and Washington School are underway. Uh from a staffing
perspective, we are in the final stages of preparing for September. The district has successfully filled the vast majority of our faculty and staff positions with only a few vacancies remaining and we are confident these positions will be filled in the coming weeks.
As August approaches, our focus will shift to uh from construction and preparation to opening our schools. Our board of education will participate in its annual retreat on Monday, August 17th, followed by the administrative retreat from August 18th to 20th, where
our leadership team will finalize plans for the upcoming school year. We will then welcome our newest teachers and educational professionals during new staff orientation, which will take place August 25th through August 27th. as they begin their journey in the Nutley public
schools. In addition to the transition to a 68 middle school, students and families will also notice changes regarding the use of personal internet enabled devices during the school day as presented tonight. In accordance with the law signed on January 8th and the guidance issued by the New Jersey
Department of Education, the district will implement a bell-to-bell and off and away expectation for personal internet enabled devices. The board of education is currently finalizing required policy and regulation to align with new legislation. Once adopted, the district will communicate the
expectations and implementation procedures to all students, families, and staff well in advance of the opening of school. I would like to thank Mr. Hanley and all the extended school year faculty and staff for a successful summer program that ended last Monday.
Um, the work taking place this summer reflects the tremendous effort of our administrators, custodians, maintenance staff, buildings and grounds department, tech team, and central office staff. Their dedication ensures that our school will be ready to welcome students back
to safe, engaging, and well-prepared learning environments. As we look toward next school year, our focus turns to moving our sixth grade into the best learning environment possible. Our work continues to harness the potential of a 68 middle school in combination with a
high school campus approach and to develop academic career accelerated pathways on our campus. The district will also look at our elementary schools and the possibilities they now hold reconfigured. I look forward to sharing additional updates as we approach the
start of what promises to be exciting 202627 school year. Thank you, Mr. Beña. Uh, [clears throat] business administrators report, Mr. Dvita. >> Thank you. Uh, on for approval at tonight's meeting, uh, will be the lunch
prices for the 2627 school year as for the recommendation of our food service provider, Fontonian. Uh, also on for approval are contracts for the nonpublic schools that are located in Nutley, which are Abundant Life Academy and Goodshipeperd Academy. The state annually awards them grants uh but the
funds are funneled through the local school districts and then we distribute them to them. Uh we will also be accepting grant funds for the 2627 school year for the ESA and grants and also extraordinary aid funds for the
2526 school year. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Dvita. Uh now we uh reached our committee reports. Uh academic committee report uh Mrs. Dante Martin. >> Um yes Mr. Vice President the academic committee met on July 13th. In
attendance were myself, Miss Quirk, Mr. Delpiano, Mr. Ba, Miss Loans Solo, and Mr. Vmeister. The committee previewed the public presentation on technology. We also previewed the public presentation on district school performance reports and HIV self-
assessment grades. We reviewed goal topics for the next academic year. Reviewed current elementary class size projections. We reviewed the open positions in the district. We also reviewed the rubric and criteria for the district's gifted and talented programs.
We reviewed an updated policy and regulation on internet enabled devices and discussed an opportunity for students at NHS to enter a journeyman pathway for electrical license this fall. Uh the next meeting is uh scheduled for Wednesday, August 19th at
5:30. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Danchek Martin. Uh administrative administration committee uh report, Mr. Girdie. Um yes sir. So the uh administration committee met on um July 13, 2026. Uh in
attendance were Mr. Balsamo, Mr. Scotty, and Mr. Galberty. Um we went over the technology presentation. Um the committee previewed the public presentation on technology uh performance report presentations uh with the HIP grades. The committee uh had
previewed the public's presentation on district school performance reports and HIP self- assessment grades. Uh we we went over class size projections. The committee had reviewed current elementary uh class size projections um goals. The committee had discussed goal
topics for the next academic year. Um we had updates on the hiring position, uh internet enabled device policies, uh the electrical pathways, and um we received the uh we went over the donation. The committee had reviewed the donation from
Spring Garden School PTO. Um our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 19th at 4 p.m. >> Thank you, Mr. Gilbert. Uh finance committee report, Mr. Fragginals. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Uh the finance committee met on July 22nd. In
attendance was myself, President Sal Ferraro, Michael Dvidita, and Terresa Lori. The board received a monthly update on our health benefit and our insurance claims. We received an update on facilities projects, including the middle school media center. We are waiting for a new thermostat and we're
changing doors before the final completion. The middle school classroom conversion. We're waiting on an AC unit, which we should have by mid August. the digital signs at the high school, the concrete pads were higher than expected, so we were waiting on more quotes. The Washington and Lincoln school HVAC,
which work is currently in pro progressing in both schools, lockers at the middle school, we're still waiting for delivery. The middle school freezer, which work is scheduled to begin the first week of August. We have multiple summer projects currently going on. We have the middle school classroom floor repair, middle school fire alarm
upgrade, high school wood shop heating repairs, painting the hallway at the early childhood center, the middle school gym floor repairs, middle school basketball backboard repair, hanging whiteboards and televisions, the new classrooms at the middle school, moving desks, moving desks, and the high school
roof repair. We also re reviewed and designed we reviewed the design for the sign at the early childhood center. We reviewed payment application three for the basement project and we discussed our contract with the electrical training academy. Our next meeting is scheduled
for August 19th. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. >> Thank you, Mr. Fragiles. Uh negotiations committee report. Mr. De Mr. Deia, do we have anything? >> Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Uh no report at this time.
>> Thank you. Um, now we've come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board. In this uh section, we allow questions or comments on reports, resolutions, and all school related matters. Our board regulations 167 uh
allot 20 minutes for these communications. Each person shall be limited to three minutes, and we ask that you try to stay within this requirement. Speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard. All statements will be directed to me as the
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. Um, is there anybody wishing to speak at this time? Please remember
to state your name and address each and every time you address the board. Does anybody have any questions? We're good. Motion to close. >> Okay. Um, Mrs. Danchek Martin, will you take academic?
>> Yes, Mr. Vice President, I'd like to move academic resolutions one and two as written. >> Second. >> Roll. >> Oh, any comments? Uh rope. >> Mrs. Danek Martin. >> Yes. >> Dr. Dia. >> Yes. >> Mr. Delpiano. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Fragginals. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gilbert. Yes. >> Mrs. Quirk. >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott, sorry, Mr. Bosamo. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, administration. Mr. Gilbert. >> I'd like to move uh administration
resolutions one through four is written. Uh discussion. >> Oh, second. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Okay. Roll. >> Mrs. Danek Martin. >> Yes. >> Dr. Dalia. >> Yes. >> Mr. Delpiano. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Fragginel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Quirk. >> Yes. >> Mr. Balsamo. >> Yes. >> Um, finance. Mr. Fragginals. Second >> second. >> Second.
>> Second. >> Okay. >> Uh discussion. >> Mr. Vice President. >> Mr. Vice President, if I may, I'd just like to thank uh again the item number six, the donation by Spring Garden PTO. Uh their generous uh Nutle community
just always being generous to our our students. Um it's just wonderful to see such um uh such items on the agenda where the community is continues to give to our our children. >> Thank you, Mr. Dia. Um
>> roll. >> Mrs. Danek Martin, >> yes. >> Dr. Dia, >> yes. >> Mr. Delpiano, >> yes. >> Mr. Fragile, >> sorry. >> Mr. Gilbert, >> yes. >> Mrs. Quirk. >> Yes. >> Mr. Balsamo.
>> Yes. Um policy. Uh Mr. Gilbert. >> Uh yes, sir. I'd like to move policy resolution one as written. >> Anybody second? >> Second. >> Discussion roll. >> Mrs. Danek Martin. >> Yes.
>> Dr. Dia. Yes. >> Mr. Dpiano. Yes. >> Mr. Fragile. Yes. >> Mr. Gilbert. Yes. >> Mrs. Quirk. >> Yes. >> Mr. Los. >> Yes. Um, personnel. Uh, Mrs. Quirk. >> Yes, Mr. Vice President. I I'd like to
move personnel resolution one as written. >> Second >> discussion roll. >> Mrs. Duck Martin. >> Yes. >> Dr. Dia. >> Yes. >> Mr. Delpiano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fragginel. Yes.
>> Mr. Gilbert. Mrs. Quirk. >> Yes. >> Mr. Balsamo. Yes. Uh, is there any old business to discuss? Any new business to discuss?
Okay. Seeing none, where is the board of education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursuant to NJSA 104 through 12. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of education recess to close the executive session at this time to discuss personnel, contracts, and legal issues.
be further resolved that the results of the discussions will be made public by inclusion on the on the agenda of a subsequent meeting of the board of education or when the reasons for discussing such matters in close session no longer exist. Need a motion to
>> move motion to close. >> I need a motion to close. >> Motion to go to executive. >> Go to executive. Hi. >> That's it.