Everyone, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um, this is a regular meeting of the board of education. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided. Schedule of regular meetings of the board of education was adopted at the reorganization meeting on January
6th, two uh, 2026. Schedule and notice of said meetings has been posted uh, and mailed to the retrospect career post and filed with the clerk of the bureau of Oakland. All the foregoing has been done within the time required by
law in accordance with the open public meetings act. And uh roll call for attendance. >> Miss Brown >> here. Mr. Daisy >> present. >> Mr. Demarco >> here.
>> Mr. Gther >> here. >> Miss Love >> here. >> Sorry. >> Mrs. Marian >> here. Mr. McMillan >> here. >> Mr. T here. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
All right, we have no executive session this evening. So, we're going to move on to item three, our presentations. And we're going to start with our Hawk heroes for the month. Good evening everyone. So, tonight we are celebrating our January Hawk heroes
and they have been selected for being kind students. So at UPS we define kindness as a person who shows care, empathy and gratitude towards others. Students who are kind, consider the feelings and needs of others, have a desire to help and do good, and treat
everyone with respect. So when I call your name, Mrs. Soloway is here to help me tonight. So she gets to give out your award. And I'm going to read something that your teacher wrote about you. So, our first kind student for the month of January is our kindergarten student,
Theodore Dockerty. Come on up. Theoro shows kindness every day when he greets his kindergarten classmates with a friendly good morning. He shows empathy and caring when friends have hurt feelings or are sad or feeling lonely in the classroom and in the program. Theo is inclusive of others and
is helpful to those that are in need. We are so lucky to have Theo in our classroom because he makes it a kinder and better place for Mrs. Sard. Our first grade students stay right here. Joey first. Come on up, Joey.
Joey is a wonderful example of kindness in our first grade classroom. She's always ready to help her classmates. Whether that means sharing supplies, offering a friendly smile, or including others in games and activities, she listens carefully, uses kind words, and shares empathy when someone is feeling sad or frustrated. Her kindness and
caring attitude help make the classroom a safe and welcoming place for everyone. Mrs. G, our third grade Hawk, Olivia Pavone. COME ON UP, OLIVIA. I'M SORRY, second grade Hawk. Olivia, I
already graduated year a year. Not even here for years, sweetie. Olivia shows kindness each and every day in our classroom. She is always helping her classmates, making everyone feel included. Olivia takes the time to explain things when friends don't
understand, and is a true voice of peace during disagreements. She consistently goes above and beyond offering to help and doing little favors that make our classroom a happier place. We are so lucky to have such a caring and thoughtful friend in our class, Mr.
Laura. Congratulations, Olivia. And we have a certificate. We'll just hold it here for our third grade January Hawk. And I'll read the ideas. Leo demonstrates kindness every day both
in and out of the classroom. He consistently treats others with respect, empathy, and always uses kind words. He is always thoughtful in his actions, willing to help classmates, and make sure everyone feels included without being asked to do so. His positive attitude and kindness makes a meaningful
difference in our classroom. Mrs. Willan, congratulations to Leo. Hopefully, he's watching. Our fourth grade Hawk hero, Liliana Martinez. Come with Liliana. Liviana demonstrates kindness every day
in our class. She works well with others and is always willing to offer someone a partner and include a student who may not have one, making sure that no one feels left out. Despite some challenges thrown away, Liviana remains kind, respectful, and compassionate. She is
often the voice of reason among her peers and consistently chooses to speak with kindness and positivity. We are so lucky to have her kindness in our class and she truly deserves this award. MISS and I think we're holding another certificate for our fifth grade Hawk
hero, Cadence Wish. Cadence is an incredibly friendly and kind person. Her welcoming personality was evident when a new student arrived to fifth grade this year. Cadence is kind and pleasant to her teachers and fellow students. She is well deserving of the January kind award
from Mr. Bisenstein. Congratulations, Cadence. Khawk heroes. Now, can you flip around so the board can check out your certificates and give you a big round of applause? All righty. Congratulations. got down to the office. All right,
>> all right, congratulations Hawk heroes. Uh we are going to move on to our second uh presentation of the evening which is our elementary program highlights. Dr. McDow, you're going to be in charge of clicking slides.
Well, I'll get us started just by introducing uh we are presenting the Oakland public school highlights presentation tonight and I have some people here to help me do so. So, Mrs. Saloway, our assistant principal and preschool supervisor will be covering
our preschool kindergarten highlights. I will then cover our elementary and building highlights. And then we have Dr. the White House in the building and our school psychologist Lori McDermott um who will cover the special word highlights for our building. So, let's
wait till we start up and we're starting. No pressure. Okay, here we go. Our highlights, our vision and mission statement. Here we go. Preschool and kindergarten curriculum. So, I'm going to talk about
that. Let's first off talk about Kickstart Literacy. It's a new part of our preschool curriculum this year. Um, it addresses the new literacy requirement that's um early childhood is requesting. It's also more directed
um instruction when it comes to literacy letters, sounds, but it's done fun like through play um but also rhyming words. I was in there the other day watching it with rhyming words and they nonsense was they just they got it and they just ran
with it and they were giving up all of the rhyming words that they could think of uh with the teacher. It's very interactive. It's only 20 minutes a day. Uh just gives them a little bit more like not just learning through play, but just a touch of like directed um instruction there. And it gives them helps in kindergarten when they get to
kindergarten. And then we also have um Goldfinch. That's a game-based assessment tool that's also a universal screener. Um, and it will check their letters and um, sounds and how they're progressing through the program. That is
um, we haven't quite started that yet, but we will be soon. And ALS Pals, we have ALS Pals in uh, preschool and kindergarten. And ALS Pals is a social emotional learning tool for the students. It helps build like
foundational uh skills to help them cope and have show empathy and resilience and social skills. Uh things that we use as adults. So, we're starting them to give them some of those skills early and uh it's a lot of that is done through
puppet shows. The kids love it. They know the names of all the puppets and who's coming to visit them and what they're going to talk about. It's also a nice tool for teachers if they are seeing um something in their classroom that they want to adjust, they can have it uh do a little puppet show to show
what um they are looking for and to help them resolve the purpose of the lesson. Uh let's see what do we have? Oh, and creative curriculum. We are in our second year of implementation of creative curriculum in kindergarten. It
is a curriculum that we do in preschool, but two years ago, we decided to try something new in kindergarten with creative curriculum. It is still uh taught with the district curriculum, but it's a more developmentally appropriate
approach. Um it also includes what they call project learning time and they do studies. So they've done I know they've done um the grocery store study and a couple and the building or the town studies and um they learn
everything in that they're doing in the classroom is based on that study kind of like preschool but more direct instruction and goes right along with our uh uh curriculum for the district. Um, we've also noticed a huge uh
reduction in uh behavioral issues in kindergarten where we're not sitting at tables listening to the teachers talk at us all day and they're up and around and moving. So, they're learning and getting some movement and it's really seems to be uh making a big difference um there.
What's next? Oh, and here's some pictures of Owl's Pals and Kickstart uh right here from our kindergarten and uh preschool classrooms. >> Good. You want to talk about >> Thank you, Mrs. Soloway.
>> Yep. So our next slide when we start talking about K to5 we wanted to focus on our key performance indicator the attendance key performance indicator. Um one highlight is that we are super excited to see that at the end of December and
it was a crazy month of December with a lot of sickness. Uh but we were still able to stay on target to meet our attendance goals by the end of the year. I do want to point out that the um 10.47 47 was actually a number that we took with the preschool included and we did
decide to separate the preschool from the K5 because that is how we report it to the state. So we report the K5 attendance rate to the state and as long as we stay under that 10% uh we are in good standing and we do not have to do that corrective action plan for attendance. So kudos to our attendance
committee. If we flip to the next slide, I give them a lot of credit for keeping us on target. So Mrs. Solo leads that committee and with the attendance committee in place, uh we've been able to do some fun and exciting things like celebrate student attendance classwide
uh with our pretzel parties at the end of each month. That bulletin board shows the students who won first place in the attendance challenge for the attendance heroes and they get to have their pretzel party. Uh that's the fun stuff. I do want to point out that the committee has done a lot of hard work
leading up to that. They put brand new uh procedures in place for all of our cloud and teachers starting in the classroom for them to be the first point of contact reaching out to families if they notice an issue with attendance right away a few days absent reaching out to our social worker if they feel
like they're kind of not getting much of a response to find out if our social worker Mrs. Barnett can reach out to those families for some assistance. Um we also revamped all of the letters that go home uh to the families after they miss like five days and then 10 days. So
uh the letters are doing a much better job. Um and we've done some PD work with the staff at our faculty meetings just stressing how important attendance is and how it ties directly to uh you know better performance in the classroom and making sure that the staff know the proper protocol to follow uh when we do
have families that are struggling. And of course uh Mrs. Barnett's a part of that protocol. I'm part of that protocol. If it gets to a certain point, of course, we have to take other action. But kudos to the attendance committee. That is a big highlight for this school year. Another highlight this year, we're very
excited that our second and third grade team have the option to participate in the ELA pilot work. This year, our second grade is actually piloting one program and our third grade is piloting a different one. Um, piloting a program has some great advantages. First of all,
the teachers that are working with these programs are receiving a ton of PD training and collaborating together. So, they're gaining that understanding of the science of reading and all the state standards. Um, they are providing students with more targeted effective instruction this year in ELA in those
classrooms. Um, again, and they've gotten a chance to reflect on how these programs um, you know, are really benefiting the students and the progress they're seeing by using our benchmark assessments. would be excited after January is over and we do the second benchmark uh to see which classrooms
kind of are progressing slightly more whether it's one program or another. Who knows? We don't know yet. Um and I would like to thank uh Meredith for heading up for heading up that program, that pilot program with our teachers. She has been my point of contact and they've done a ton of work this year. uh they also just
took a survey so they provided a lot of feedback on those programs and um that I guess those results will be out over time. Um so if we switch to the next slide you'll see our second grade program. So these are pictures of our second graders using benchmark advance.
So in benchmark advance right now these students are participating in an extended read with the story stone soup and what an extended read is they they read the same story over and over in a week but they use it for different purposes to teach different skills. So the students are all familiar with the same text they're just using it for a
different purpose. You'll also see one of our um learning acceleration teachers using some of the decodable stories for that um intervention time in the classroom that also comes along with this program. You'll see some students working on their benchmark interactive games on the computers. Um, and even
their high frequency words and spelling patterns. So, all of this stuff to go along with the new program, Benchmark Advance. That is one of our pilot programs. Really cool to see all of that in action. And then our next slide shows our into reading pilot. So, again, you'll see my third grade teachers up
there. Um at the beginning they show a video uh up to the beginning of each module and it kind of is intriguing and it gets the kids interested in what they're learning about. They introduce vocabulary terms and practice their definitions. In each text sess section uh the students have a my book and in
that my book there are engaging texts and there are also side margins and it teaches the kids to annotate the text. uh they also use the smartboard or the computers to use their class craft slides for into reading to review their words of the week. So again all similar
components because both reading programs do have similar components but slightly different mean something different but the kids are enjoying every minute of it and so are the teachers. It's been an enlightening experience. So thank you to Mrs. Willham and Miss Mo and Miss Deloya
and Mrs. Caparotti and Miss McMon for participating in those pilots this year. That was voluntary on their part. The next slide, this is our second year with NWA MAP testing and that is if you don't I'm sure you've heard me talk about MAP before most of you, but we use
it for math right now and that is an adaptive assessment and that assessment provides us with individualized data. It'll help the teachers inform their instruction. That'll show you where as a whole where the class is showing some weaknesses aligned to what standards and then individually where the individual
students are struggling. And they can use that data right away to kind of implement interventions or whole group instruction in the classroom that's going to meet the needs of the students moving forward after they get those benchmark assessment results. Uh we are taking the winter benchmark assessment
um between now and February 4. So we're excited to see that. and we're also adding the ELA component of the math assessment this winter as well. So, we're very excited to see what the ELA data shows us. We've been looking at the math data now for a while and we're hoping that we get just as much
information from the ELA data. Um, we're also excited that this program aligns to our math program into math and if we happen to go to reading, it aligns to that program as well. meaning that it will show you if a student is showing weakness in a certain area, you can
it'll take you right to the lesson within that curriculum that can help strengthen them in that area. So, another little neat feature of the program. So, on to some of our extracurricular stuff. As you saw tonight, we had our Hawk Hero program. We're very, very
excited about how we revamped that program this year. We only select six students per month, one from each grade level. Um, and as you see that spells out Hulk Hero. Those are the traits we focus on. So, we did hardworking, ambitious, welcoming, kind, honest,
empathetic, respectful, and open-minded to spell out Hulk Hero. So, they come to a board meeting. They get their names called on the loudspeaker. We put their individual pictures and their little uh bio next to them in the big showcase. And then we put a group picture out front of the cafeteria for all the kids
to see. They get a pizza party. They get a special Hulk Hero t-shirt. So, really cool stuff with the Hulk Hero uh program this year that we're excited about. And then, um I just showed two little pictures of our showcase and our Hulk
Hero board. Very cute. And more student recognition. This is we've been doing this for about two, three years now. We have our safety patrol for our fifth grade, which we're very excited about. Uh helps create those student leaders and they do have to maintain positive behavior during
that time. So we actually use that as a reward system for them to maintain positive behavior so that they can be a school safety. Um and we also have caught being a star for kindergarten through fifth grade. Any student can earn a ticket in caught being a star for anything we're caught doing good. All of
those tickets go into one good bin in the classroom and then during lunch gets up on stage and she pulls a ticket out of the bin and she calls the student's name and um the six winners of the raffle get to have lunch with Mrs. and get some cool prizes. Uh, and we do it
very fair so that everybody has kind of has a chance if they've already had their name drawn, they get to pick the next name out and hopefully that student. So, by the end of the year, we see a lot of our students in those lunches, which is cool to show them that positive reinforcement. And I think that's a wrap for me. I'm
going to toss the mic over to Dr. White House for their special ed highlights. Thank you very much, Miss Balden. Um we're going to highlight something we're really proud of in our department this year. Um and that is inclusive practices. And we believe that when
implemented correctly, inclusive practices benefit all students. So, by way of background, um, some of the things we've talked about before that helped us strengthen our student supports include our district-wide trauma informed practices training, um,
the revamping of our MTSS process, uh, the implementation of the wellness center at the high school and the wraparound services in both districts, Collingswood and Oakland, and our partnerships with All-In for inclusive education as well as our CPAG. Um, this
year we're focusing on the all-in grant. We have we're in year two of our systemic change grant at the middle school. So, our Oakland students benefit from that. Um, we also have a grant at one of our Collinswood elementary schools and we are very hopeful that Oakland will be next. Um, all-in seems
to give one school per year, so we're going to try to push them maybe to give us an extra one next year. Um in addition to the systemic change grant, we are have some administrators and child study team members participating in monthly sessions that are a half day
um which is professional development. They offer just in the area of inclusive practices to help us look at what we're doing and how we can do that better. Um recently this winter we started the inclusion task force for both districts. Um, and this is to receive some
community feedback on areas of need for this work and um, some solutions for how we can address some of those areas of need for things we're not doing yet. And we continue to work with our CPAG. They have implemented a number of new
initiatives in our districts including inclusive schools week, neurodeiversity celebration week. Um each PTA now has a CPAD partner to help us work together with our PTAs and also some specific situations that arise. We have engaged
in uh problem solving for system level change through our CPAG. And finally uh we have regular consultation with me and every principal. Uh Miss Balden and I met today for our latest session just to talk about things that arise at the building level and and what we need to
do and also things that are going well. So, I heard the word inclusion a lot with our Hawk Hero Awards. So, that was very awesome to see. Um, and now our amazing case manager, Lori McDermott, is going to talk to you about some of our
programming here and how we are improving inclusive practices at the building level. Thank you, Dr. White House. So, I get to brag a little bit about what's happening here at Oakland in regards to our preschool. So this is just five points
of where inclusive practices in the preschool can benefit. So the first being language and cognitive growth. Um overall students in this setting uh do make a higher gain in regards to that language and that communication. Uh the
second would be interact interaction. Uh they do have a higher social competence overall. uh the kindergarten ready res readiness to uh be able to meet benchmarks with higher likelihood. Uh impact on typical peers in the inclusive
setting would be neutral to positive. Again, building that empathy and kindness and inclusive uh long-term placement inclusive settings are less restrictive and give students more time with uh typical peers. Um the next slide just highlights some of
those opportunities in our current program. Uh so you'll see on the left there, that's the opportunities for uh language and growth during our circle time. A lot of students able to present what happened in their home and family
news and letter and number identifications happening there. You'll see in the middle social opportunities. uh students able to work on uh fine motor skills. They also have an opportunity with peers to do um
opportunities on the rug, work on personal space and listening skills, attention skills. Uh they also have opportunities, it's not captured in these photos, also with a gross motor opportunity for peer interaction. You'll see readiness there where students have
goals and uh jobs working on responsibility, flexibility, schedule following. And then you'll see our long-term goals. Obviously, our students are superheroes and uh they start their preschool opportunities here in Oakland
with a inclusive uh growth mindset. Thank you to everybody who presented it. Dr. White House, Lauren McDermott, Miss Sway. Um any questions? And if it's for you, you're coming up to answer them. >> I have one um that one of the first
slides with that 1047 or whatever. Um, so that one was including prek and then the September through December was not incl. Okay, got it. Okay, thanks. >> That was an easy one. >> So, it's it's it's important to to to
clarify why the change. And so, um, education preschool is not it's not compulsory. And so, it's it's twofold. um because it's it's voluntary and it's a value added measure. Um and because
the state doesn't report on it, um we we we changed how we were tracking. That does not mean for all of the parents that are watching us online that we don't want your children here every single day. Uh it just means that we are
uh not in trouble with the state as it relates with attendance um because our school is is going above and beyond to make sure that every child is here every single day. >> Yes, we are still tracking the preschool attendance goal and sharing that with staff as well. So that's still being
tracked. >> So is that be was it presented at 10.47 47 to the state and that's why it's on there and we couldn't retract it back or >> no we we actually did get to that was that was just September to October. So last year our number from September to
June was reported to the state and we were I believe we did include preschool in that number but then the state took the preschool out and we did come in under the 10% that's why we did not have to do the attendance corrective action plan.
So the the the numbers that you see are internally um this is how we measure progress and so we update on a monthly basis our internal tracking to make sure that we're on pace. Um school leaders lead that conversation at the site level
and then the district team they provide support when the school dictates that they need additional support in a specific area. >> Ask a question about the inclusive preschool. Yes. So, is that a new initiative this year or last year? >> We've had inclusive opportunities in our
preschool program um for dating back to me starting here in 2010. Um but we're just getting, I guess, better and better at it and more opportunities arise each year and we try new things. We actually have our one preschool class completely teamed up with a gened class, our
preschool self-contained class. So they are in with those kiddos every day for definitely a couple hours a day. Is that it? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mrs. Balden, and to everybody on the team. Uh, we're going to move on
to item four, which is, uh, committee of the whole. Uh, do we have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion and second. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes. Um any uh topics for committee the whole
I did send out um goals for goals in the retreat were two that I wanted to talk about. Um I made a little one sheet with our current board goals for us to look at tonight um and sent out the big uh chart that that school board's made
for us. I have something to bring up. Um, we talked about it in committee. Um, and there's, uh, we talked about a little bit and Collins would as well, but um, that regionalization bill that's, uh, that's going through. I just wanted to bring it to public mind that it it is it
is something that's, uh, slowly being discussed there. I believe there's a committee forming in Collinswood uh, about regionalization. Um it's it's uh the bill is being written right now and uh so you know we have there are eyes on
it to to discuss how that would look um whether it would be Oakland getting absorbed into Collinswood or Oakland getting absorbed into something else or a whole lot of schools getting absorbed into one bigger school district. But uh nobody really knows uh much of anything
and I think we're going to work on the feasibility study. Um there's a grant going out there for a feasibility study and my understanding is if we take the grant for the feasibility study and the state finds it feasible that we regionalize with another school
district um then we have to do it otherwise we have to pay for the grant. If we do not accept it then we have to pay for the grant out of pocket. So um I just wanted to let the public know that that's been it's being discussed. It's something to
look at. Um I'm sure it's been showing up in news feeds now since it's uh at the state level and then um we'll see what happens uh with uh with what the state does. That's all. Any uh thoughts or ideas on uh things we
want to take a look at for our upcoming board retreat? If and if not yet, that's fine. So you guys can always email between now and then. >> I just wanted to follow up. Um, we sent a letter out to families about immigrant rights, which I'm I'm really glad that we are addressing that with what's going
on in the country right now. And I know the Department of Education recommends that we send information out. So we are following the the Department of Education. It also recommends training. So, I wasn't sure if that was something we could discuss in terms of, you know, I guess I'm I'm new here, but like what our thoughts are on seeing, you know,
kind of training opportunities for faculty um for supporting our students and families. Any other topics for committee the whole? >> All right. Hearing none. Uh motion to close committee the hall.
>> So moved >> and seconded. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Motion passes. Uh moving on to item five is our uh future dates and
miscellaneous information. Um some upcoming highlights. We have our MESAC gym night gym night coming up for fourth and fifth grade. On the 23rd, our PTO uh blood blood drive, PTA blood drive um is coming up on the 24th. Got our winter book fair
on the 25th. Um I mentioned our board retreat that's on the uh February 7th. uh some early dismissals in February and uh staff PD and then we'll be closed for President's Day and then our February board meeting um will be uh that's when
we will shift to Thursday evenings. That'll be here in the media center on February 19th. >> I did I do know it says February 7th says um 11:00 a.m. I believe you guys are in the morning. >> Yes. Yes. >> So just note that like don't go by this. I think you guys are starting off the
day at 9:00. Um, and I believe Collingswood's meeting you at lunchtime. So, just I just note that. All right. Uh, moving on to uh item six, routine board business. Um, we're looking for uh
motion to uh approve the minutes from the regular board meeting on December 16th and the re reorganization meeting on January 6th. Do we have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. All in favor?
>> All right. Motion passes. Uh moving on to item seven is our first uh public comment section. Uh to all participants uh please remember to stand, state your name and address, keep comments to 5 minutes or less. Um the purpose for this public
comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda. Addition additional more general comments uh may be made later on in the meeting during our second uh public comment portion. Uh the public's reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints
should go through the appropriate staff members and administrators. Do we have any uh public comment? All right, no public comments. Uh moving on to item eight, the superintendent report. So good evening again on this um lovely
warm evening. Um section 8.01 um is the enrollment report. Uh December 2024 was 274. December 2025 is 271 and that report is attached. Uh 8.0203
and 04 are the safety drill suspension and anti-bullying report. Just have just a few uh announcements um to share with our community. Uh on December 18th, uh the high school hosted instant decision
day in the media center. Um eight uh talented and motivated uh students were accepted into uh universities like Shippenberg, Gwynid, Mercy, Monmouth, Rowan, Kain, Ramapo, Stockton and the likes. Um we would like to uh thank our
counseling team uh for organizing the event. And these students not only uh received instant decision of acceptance, but uh the majority of the students also received uh tens of thousands of dollars in um scholarships in order to help pay
for school. And so, um, we are incredibly proud of of all of our students and we look forward to, uh, this is the season where on a weekly basis, uh, we get announcements of acceptances of scholarships and committals for both, uh, academics and
also athletics. And so, congratulations to our students. Um we would also like to share uh that uh the uh high school also uh awarded or received notice official notice from the
department of education that we had nine um of our uh students meet the threshold and will earn a distinction of the New Jersey seal of biiteracy uh during their uh graduation uh uh ceremony this June. And so the seal of
biiteracy is a a statewide um a statewide um confirmation but a national recognition uh of students who have studied and attained proficiency um in one language in addition to English before they
graduate from high school. And so this is this is a really it's a big deal. And so it's not only the academic work that students go through, they're also tested, interviewed, and evaluated by independent um evaluators. And then it is certified by the state. Um and it is
uh a specific distinction on their high school diploma. And so uh congratulations to the nine uh students that met that threshold. Uh and we will continue uh to make sure that we are um growing that out because what it does
from a family perspective is um it assists with uh students being able to in in many schools um uh they get to bypass their uh foreign language uh requirement when they get to college. uh that immediately puts money back in the
uh the pockets of families and it gives students flexibility to pursue other goals and dreams in their post-secary endeavors. And so there's a very real world uh benefit for students participating. Um we'd also like to uh congratulate um our high school students
uh for being named to the College Board 2025 advanced placement honor roll. And so this is a national recognition based on criteria that reflects a commitment to increasing collegegoing culture uh providing opportunities for students to
earn college credit while maximizing college readiness. And so our high school um this year had 45% of their seniors who took at least one advanced uh course exam during their high school career with 36% of of all seniors
earning a qualifying score on at least one of those exams. Uh and 10% of our seniors took five or more of these. And so what this directly translates into is that students who earn a qualifying
score um have the opportunity to also receive college credit. Um which adds which is in a in a real world scenario provides tremendous financial benefits as well as opens doors for additional college scholarships and acceptances in
prestigious schools because students have already demonstrated that they're taking college level courses and that they can handle that rigor. And so we would just like to continue congratulating our students as well as our staff um for uh creating a collegegoing culture and then providing
and adding value back in the lives of our students in our community. Um and that concludes my report. Thank you. >> I ask a question about the languages that receive that like the students took to get the seal of literacy. Do you know that? >> Um Spanish, uh French and German.
>> Dr. McDow, another quick question. And um how long has that program been around? I've never heard of it before. >> The seal >> uh about 20 years. Yeah. Um it started uh predominantly in uh states like Florida, Texas, California um due to
large numbers of students that were coming in proficient um uh in more in more than one language as a a means of um recognizing um uh achievement and and and and a skill set that is highly
desirable. Uh and it's continued to expand. Uh years ago, um I was the regional superintendent of of all of the high schools in Denver. Um we started in Colorado back in 2013. Um and then expanded it. It started off
with a dozen kids um and now it's about 3 to 400 um in in that district. Uh and then it's continued to grow and so more and more states um at least half of the states around the country are now offering it. Um but we fully anticipate
more um states to offer it. >> And do we know how that compares to other neighboring districts? How many students they tend to have earning that seal? >> We we do not. We do not. >> Curious to see how we're comp how we're doing comparatively to similar schools of similar demographic. And then I was
wondering were we ranked in some way for the AP testing? Was there special recognition we got or was that just that the numbers? I couldn't remember. So we received what's called uh bronze uh bronze ranking. >> Yeah. >> And then um again how how do we compare
in terms of our percentages to schools of similar demographic? >> So the the school by the the school by school comparison um to my knowledge that um that has not been released
through college board. Um they tend to be really tight on their data. Uh, and so as soon as we have that information, we'll we will share we we'll come back and share that. >> Can I ask one other follow-up question? I think that's as a comment wonderful
that we have that. Um, and you know, there's a lot of talk in our district about the advantages and disadvantages of sending our kids to Collingswood High School. So, I was very, very happy to see that. Um, is this the first time or have we received this recognition before
or has Collingswood High School? Sorry. As a parent, I feel we. So, >> um, this is the first time that we have received the, um, the AP honor role, at least in the last 5 years. Um, I cannot speak prior to 2021.
if we're going to toot the horn of our teachers and our students, I will add one additional component. Um, and so when we think about academic performance and achievement, um, the New Jersey District performance report tracks, um, collegegoing culture. And so as it
relates to collegegoing culture, students having the opportunity and the ability to be able to not only take college credit bearing courses but earn um credit. Uh Comicswood High School and in the district we are at uh 60% of our
students have the ability um to not only take but also earn college credit bearing courses. The state average is 30%. And so we are double the uh the state average of students having the opportunity to take um college credit
bearing courses. That's a testament to not only our students but also the talent of our staff. Many of our staff have master's degrees in content areas and they are certified through our university partners um to be able to offer college credit bearing courses
that our students are not only taking but they're passing um and then earning the credit. Kudos to our teachers and to our to administrators for earning that great um ranking. All right. Uh moving on to uh item nine, which is the business administrator
board secretary report. >> All right. Uh up for approval tonight, 9.01 is the listing of your December uh monthly transfer report. 9.0 02 is your board secretary uh treasurer's report and cash report. 9.03 is the listing of the uh purchase orders that have been
issued for the month of January. And 9.04 is a listing of the warrants that will be paid uh tomorrow morning pending approval this evening. Uh and that's it. >> Thank you very much. Uh moving on to item 10, which is our finance, facilities, and shared services
committee uh report. Uh Miss Love, take it away. Uh good evening everyone. Um so I'm just going to go through all these 10.01 the approval of transfers, right? Uh 10.02 is the board secretary
certification of overexpendures. 10.03 is the board certifications of no over expenditures. Uh 10.04 is approval of secretary and treasury reports. And 10.05 is the purchase orders.
10.06 is the warrant approvals and 10.07 is the minimum wage and 10.08 is the use of facilities for the Oakland Little League. >> Oh, we're seeking approval for >> sorry
>> 10.01 to 10.08. >> Thanks. Uh, do we have a motion? So move >> and second. >> Seconded. >> And second. Um, any comments or questions?
>> Just one. What exactly would be warrants? Like what do you mean by warrants? >> Those are just the checks. >> Yeah, I just call them. It's the legal term. Yeah. No, I'm not going to arrest you any No, it's just we have that the checks are invoiced prepared for
payment. So it's Yeah. All right. On a roll call, >> Miss Brown. Am I? >> Just say yes. It's fine. Yeah. Yes. >> Yes. Or no. >> Get or stick. >> Uh, Mr. Dy.
>> Yes. >> Mr. DeMarco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gunther. >> Yes. >> Miss Love. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Marmian. Yes. Mr. McMillan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Taby. >> Yes. >> Thank you. All right, motion passes. Moving on to item 11. It's our curriculum and personnel
committee. Mr. DeMarco, >> good evening. Uh, item 11.0, we are 11.01, we are seeking to approve a field trip to the Museum of the American Revolution in April. Um, item 11.02, we are seeking to approve a student teacher
observation placement. Um, item 11.03, 03. We are seeking to approve an outofd district placement for a student to attend Burlington County Alternative Middle School. Uh item 11.04, we are seeking approval of paid medical leave for an employee from March 6 through
April 17th. Item 11.05, we are seeking approval of the listed substitutes and teachers for this school year. And item 11.06, 06. We are seeking approval of the listed travel expenses and fees related to professional development.
So we are seeking approval between items 11.01 to items 11.06. All right. Do we have a motion? >> So moved >> and second. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any comments or
questions for the uh curriculum committee hearing? None. On a roll call. >> Ms. Brown. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dy, >> yes. >> Mr. DeMarco, >> yes. >> Mr. Gther, >> yes. >> Mrs. Love, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Marian, >> yes. >> Mr. McMillan, >> yes. >> Mr. Taby, >> yes. Uh, motion passes. Moving on to item 12, uh, school community relations and policy committee. Mrs. Marmian, >> good evening. Item 12.01 is a report
from the Collinswood board. Mr. McMillan, >> good evening. Um, on the 22nd of December, um, the Collinswood had their regular board meeting. Um, we had an amazing, uh, presentation by the, uh, Madreals. Did I say that right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was um the uh they they did a whole bunch of uh they just did a whole I mean there's a lot of them a lot of singing uh musical choir and uh it was fun. >> Yeah, it was it was really good. Um they actually have a uh I believe where is
it? March 4th they have a concert at the Colin Woods Middle School which I mean I would honestly go. Uh it was it was great. Um there was a recognition for Kate Seltzer for her time spent on the board. Um, and then they did a New Jersey school climate improvement study
with Ruckers. Um, and I asked if uh if Oakland and Woodland was included on that and um uh not yet, but we're I think uh Miss Balden has been in touch with them. Um so that's going to that's going to happen. Um let's see what else.
Uh there was a student body rep uh that that said that they were taking flex time to openly discuss AI with um with students and teachers alike because there's no policy yet that's defined. So they're just took it upon themselves to figure out what they're doing which I thought that was pretty admirable of
them to do. Um and then uh since then we had uh two reorg meetings. Um and we have elected uh Kelly Maya as the president and Zakiya uh Divine as the vice president. And uh we passed committee of the whole for uh committee
instead of doing uh separate private committees. We're doing committee of the whole uh which will be tomorrow night if you uh if you want to tune in to YouTube um for for a few hours and we'll be there. And I think uh I think that's it.
Thank you. Item 12.02 is PTA leaison report which would be Mr. Dezy but um I will report tonight because he was unable to be there. Happy birthday again. Um so the PTA met on January 13th and they went over their tremendously
successful December events. Um we're talking about the upcoming events, many of which are were on our upcoming dates. Um, another shameless plug for the blood drive which is this Saturday and appointments are still available and you might know somebody who's involved. So,
um, also upcoming uh, exciting events are the um, book fair coming up next week. Uh, we're starting to talk about the PTA talent show which is March 13th. So, we'd love to see all board members there. Um, and then the very popular
glow event is coming up in February as well. Uh, so anyway, the PTA's next meeting is February 3rd. I'll get back to everybody on that. Sorry, don't have it in my calendar. Um,
and I apologize for that. It is the third. Oh, and the the other thing I wanted to say was after the meeting, there was a great presentation by one of the parents, right, on technology and parenting and uh there'll be a followup
and um Drew, maybe if you do you want to say a word or two about next steps with that? >> I'm going to meet >> to put you on the spot. Sorry. >> No, that's okay. I'm going to uh meet with PTA and discuss some discussion items and we'll go from there. Thank you
for doing that, by the way. Um, so I think that was a great service to our PTA community and our parents and PTA, thanks for that. Um, item 12.03 is the report from OMAC, Mr. Gther.
>> Um, I spoke with Adam earlier. He just wished that I bring up the OMAC gym this Friday. Um, other than that, there was not much to report. >> Great. Thank you. Um, item 12.04. 04 is the Oakland Education Foundation report
missile loud. >> Uh nothing to report as of this month. Thank you. Um item 12.05 is policies are not at this time. Item 12.06 regulations are none at this time. So um we're done.
I just want to say I did we did get a packet. I know everybody's so excited. We did get a packet for straw sess. Um I did go through it. So they will be I did review all of them. Um they will be um be up in February. Okay. Maybe before I close the committee or or or pass it
back. Um we are starting to talk about the centennial celebration. So we had um a small committee meet um just so that you know. And I know that uh one of the things we want to talk about at our retreat in addition to board goals is more town halls. So looking forward to
that. Can I add one thing too that we talked about in the committee just about um streamlining how we communicate with the public. So providing you discussing at our retreat how we can you know take our meeting minutes which might be not be palatable for everybody and condense them uh to something more user friendly
and can I add something to the to our retreat topics or should I wait? Um just that AI discussion brought that you brought up made me think that's something we should probably talk about. Um, so I just wanted to add that as well as we talked about um, taking a look at all of our events and making sure that we all sign up because we all know we
want to go to the events, but we're all very busy, so we just want to make sure we sign up so we can all have a presence at our great community events because our PTA works so hard. So, thanks. Great. Thank you for that reminder. I um want to start circulating a signup genius if anybody's ever used that platform. Probably parents of school age
kids have. Um, and hopefully we can have presence at more of these school events going on. So again, blood drive this Saturday, 7:30 to 1:30, 8:30 to 1:30. We've got to item 14, which is our
second public comment section for the evening. Um, this public comment section is for any topics. Uh, public's reminded to please stand, state your name and address, keep comments five minutes or less. Uh, public is reminded that
attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should first go through the appropriate staff and or administrators. Any public comment for this evening? All right. Hearing none, we will close our public comment section. Uh, moving on to item 15. Uh, motion to adjurnn. Do
we have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. All in favor? >> Motion passes. Have a great night, everyone.