Mr. Gibbs, will you please read the statement of compliance? In compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act, public law 1975, chapter 231, notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the daily record and suburban trends. It agenda has been posted at the
appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with Bquamanic Township Clerk. >> Thank you. Please call the role. >> Mr. Bloomer >> here. >> Mr. Sesi >> here. >> Mrs. Espazito >> here. >> Mr. Gon >> here. >> Mr. Ao is absent. Mr. Mcweeny is absent.
Mr. Rapo is absent. Mr. Senic >> here. >> And Mrs. Shenton will be late. We have a quarum. >> Thank you. Will everyone please stand for the flag salute? Good evening everyone. Welcome to our October 27th regular business meeting. Tonight the board will receive two presentations. The first will be from
Dr. O'Keefe covering the results of our district HIV self assessment. The second will be from Dr. Portoris and Miss Venickle who will discuss the results of our latest state assessment. Next, you'll notice that the board is wearing pink tonight to show our support for breast cancer awareness. And also, the
board would like to congratulate our student rep, Caitlyn Zgler, for reaching 100 career points for our soccer team. Congratulations, Caitlyn. [Applause] Uh, and last, uh, a few of the board members attended the annual school convention this past week, and we will
share our thoughts on the classes we attended during board member announcements. Additionally, the board would also like to congratulate Mr. Brian Boyce for being selected as an unsung hero. And those of us that attended the convention were present to see Mr. Boyce receive his award. So, congratulations to Mr. Boyce on his
welldeserved award. All right, that's it for me. Pass the mic to Dr. Poris. All right. Thank you, Mr. Senic. I'm gonna actually send it right over to our 100 point scorer and uh actually is 100 as well, but nevertheless, and
Olivia as well. We have our our our trinity of stars. Take it away. >> Good evening everyone. So glad to see you all again. Last Thursday was four years and beyond for the class of 2030. Tonight started off with an octaves performing the Star Spangled Banner and a short piece they have been working on.
The marching band also performed a small piece from their show. After families and future students were able to watch a video about what PTHs is all about, highlighting our student and staff life from clubs, activities, sports to inside the classrooms. The class of was able to get a sneak peek of what their next four
years will be about. Mr. Hazler gave a presentation following the video to students and parents and talked about chasing her horizon. To get familiar with the school, the peer leaders gave tours to parents and students. There are many activities that students were able to participate in such as taking photo
playing pickle ball and more. There's activity and sports fair held in the small gym where the class of 2030 was able to walk around, sign up, and learn more about different activities that are offered at PTHs. The students were able to talk to current PTHS student representatives and athletes to get an
insight of what each activity is about. There were also many lessons taking place inside classrooms where students and parents could go and see what some of the classrooms are like and meet the teachers. To conclude the night, there were academic Academy presentations for those who are
interested in joining an academy here at PTHS next year. Over 220 sophomores and juniors took the PSAT on Wednesday, October 22nd. This was a great way for sophomores to learn about the test and for juniors to prepare for the upcoming SATs. Any junior, the Noctives
rehearsals are underway. Thank you, Mrs. Barbosza, Mrs. Milner, and Mr. Hazler who have been assisting the students at rehearsals. The marching band had a competition at Metife Stadium and this week the marching band was at Ridgewood or Ridge High School. Middle school
students played with the high school on senior night at halftime and learned a lot about the marching band and music program. Senior Academy students visited PV on Thursday to talk aboutmies offered with the eighth graders. Students from the
allied health program will be going to Lincoln Park this week to talk about talk to the Lincoln Park eighth graders as well. The allied health students visited Rucker Piscat Pisc Piscatoaway on campus last week. Students were able to explore the the many health professions Rucker
School of Health Professions offers through live demonstrations, information sessions, and conversations with program directors and current students. Students were also able to talk to Rucker University admission counselors and financial aid staff to answer questions and give students advice about the
admissions process. There have been many athletic accomplishments. Congratulations to Coach Mcernney on 100 career wins as head coach for girls soccer. Caitlyn Ziggler on 100 career points in soccer. Ava Shikman on 100 career digs in volleyball. Sienna Castle
and Olivia Mansera Mansero on 100 career kills in volleyball as well. And Fiona Arnold on 300 career assists in volleyball. Congratulations to Jake Marie Roby on 300 career saves in field hockey. Congrats to Chase Salafina for finishing the top 15 at the Morris
County Championship for cross country. And girls soccer, boys soccer, football, and cheerleading had their senior nights within these past two weeks. Thank you seniors for your hard work and dedication over the past four years. And thank you to everyone who came out to support the seniors.
The girls soccer team had their pancreatic cancer game on 1016. They help spread pancreatic awareness and raise funds for friends of Franco and team Jenny in search for a cure. Boys soccer has their pancreatic cancer game this Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. The girls
volleyball team also had their dig pink game to help support breast cancer awareness. Congratulations to Michael Zerflu who was nominee for the Steve Gario Super Bowl conference um super football conference young man of the year award.
The fall season is drawing to a close and with state competitions coming up. Football will be finishing up their season with a consolation game on Wednesday at Jefferson. Emily will finish the rest. Good evening. District principles and M
and Dr. Poris did voiceovers for the district promotional video for the marketing class. Mr. Hazler said that his was better than Dr. Portoes to kick to kick off Red Ribbon Week for this week. Students were able to put
their name on a sticky note and put it on a poster during lunch last week pledging to live a healthy and drugfree life. Today, faculty and staff and students were read. There are various activities planned throughout the district for this week.
Deadline to sign up for AP tests is November 15th. Seniors are preparing for early decision and early action deadlines that are coming coming up on November 1st. The first marking period is coming to an end for PV and PTHs. The
marking period is over November 5th. NHS is hosting a Halloween movie night playing the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas on Thursday, October 30th at 6:30 p.m. for grades 6 through 12 at the auditorium. Doors will open at 6. There
will be snacks and and free crafts will be available in the cafeteria. Tickets will be available for $5 at the door. Bring your friend and watch a movie. Thank you for your time and have a great night. Thank you. That was very well done. Um
I'm just going to point out that when I did my voice over for the promo video, um it was completely unedited. It was one take and it was it was all clean. Um I believe actually one of the people was part of the technical team was actually moved to tears by the beauty of my
presentation. So um if you get a chance to catch up with your principal, Mr. Hazler, maybe just let him know about that just so we could set the record straight. I'm sorry I'm not trying to use you as a pawn in this. Um but very important just that the record is memorialized there. Excellent. Well,
thank you very much. All right. Um and I have a I have a quick report to share which little pale in comparison to what the the girls just delivered. That was really well done. Um, and also I just want to say I'm not wearing my shirt, but I do have my shirt uh to support the the pink initiative.
Just figured if I'm helping with a presentation, I should probably wear my my red shirt, which is for Red Ribbon Week, which is of course this week. Thank you. Uh, few few quick updates. Uh, on Thursday the 16th along with Mrs. Milner, Mr. Rafo, Miss Bronco, Mr.
Foglio, and Mrs. advance school. I attended a significant disproportionality training that was held on the campus of Ruckers, Newark. The focus there was on supporting students with ongoing behavior needs. The real emphasis there is on helping with adult implementation of interventions to provide a ladder of
support rather than just consequences for students who are behaviorally at risk. Um it was something that I I told the presenter I was very impressed with the energy he brought. There was not a single person in the room who probably woke up that morning saying, "Oh boy, I get to go to Ruckers, New York today for this training, which is a state
requirement. It was really well executed and we'll be back in December and then there's a third session in the spring." Um, also that week, Tuesday the 14th, I attended a Mckin Vento training. Um, this is this was provided by the county and it's on the program that we have in
place. It's it's a national thing to support students who are experiencing homelessness or displacement. Mrs. Vans is our liaison for that program. Um she was not around that day. She was at something else. So I figured I would attend and also learn about it. It's very interesting. There's there's a lot
of legal requirements involved with it. Um and it's something that is it's a good um safeguard to have in place to support our families. Uh on Wednesday the 22nd, I was I participated in the Jersey Mike's fundraiser in Lincoln Park along with Mr. Searowski and Mr. Rafo.
We had a lot of fun while we were helping to make sandwiches for pretty good crowd that came in that night. Um I am not allowed to do anything other than the paper um because apparently I have OCD tendencies which I don't know if that's been confirmed. A lot of fun
though and thank you so much to our friends in Lincoln Park who allow us to do that. Um as Mr. Senk also mentioned I was at the New Jersey school board's workshop um earlier last week. uh some of the workshops I I attended I thought were pretty interesting. One was a communications in a crisis that was
hosted by Jeff Gail who is um works for the state and he is a part of the um organization for emergency management uh former state trooper too. Great presenter u he was also with a gentleman named Vincent Campbino who was not from the movie my cousin Vinnie um but very
very well done a lot of really good information. Uh I also attended a similar program that was hosted by uh New Jersey um public relations association. Theirs was also well done. A bit of a different angle for it. Um there's also mention of the unsung superheroes presentation which is
outstanding. Um our district honore was Mr. Brian Boyce. Um he was the this unsung superhero for the entire state in the um category for security guards or security employees. It was great to see too he had a couple of his colleagues
who were down there to celebrate with him. One of my comments to the board members is true measure of a team is how they celebrate. They celebrated for one another and with one another. And it was just great to see such a humble guy who worked so hard to get recognized and otherwise it was a really good event for
networking not just with the board members but also with colleagues and vendors and I think we all picked up some some pretty good information. Um, something that I'm going to have to submit or not submit before the weeks end is the cell phone grant. Um, their state pushed something out that if we
apply for and receive the state's cell phone grant, we'd receive $4,559 to put towards staff training and storage solutions for the phones. Um, the catch that I I don't particularly care for is that um, the state would then dictate that we have to implement a policy that bans phones from bell to
bell in grades 6 through 12. Right now, we haven't banned bell-to-bell in grades six through eight, but in grades nine through 12, we allow students to use them during passing time as well as during uh the lunch block. So, the state didn't legislate necessarily that there
had to be phones um sorry, bans for the entire day, but now they're providing a grant that is a financial inducement that should that is intended to direct policy. So, I'm on the fence about that one. um if we if we pursue it, I'll make sure I communicate that to the board.
And likewise, if we do not pursue it, I will do similarly as well. Bit of a catch 22 on that one. Then finally, two other items. Uh one regarding CQAC, we've conducted meetings with our committee as well as the internal team that is most responsible for the submission of documents. Uh we'll be
submitting the DPR, which focuses on self-evaluation for board approval for the November 10th meeting. Shortly thereafter, uh those documents will be submitted to the state and then we'll also be submitting our supporting documents to county on or around December 15th in advance of the county's
January 21st visit. We will be the second district as part of this year's cohort for QAC. We traditionally have done quite well with this and I I really don't expect that to change. Then finally, um had an incredibly as part of an incredibly productive meeting on
Wednesday the 15th regarding the preschool and sensory playground project. Um this is something that was initiated by a couple of uh grandparents in the community. We saw the need. Most playground equipment is designed for students um ages 5 through 12. Preschoolers are ages 3 to four. So
they're at a bit of a deficit there. And also um inspired by a community playground for students with sensory needs as well as other special needs. Um this one went up in Wayne quite recently. We wanted to make sure that we had a completely inclusive playground that could serve um a wide group of
students from our community as well as other communities. So um we met on Wednesday that we've been working on this for at least a year now and we have a team now of two grant writers who are super knowledgeable and really motivated. They really helped center our focus on what we need to be able to
generate in order to get approximately $190,000 in grants that we're looking to get. Um, and what was really good too is one of the grants um is focused on a green acres through the green acres program which requires the township to be involved and township manager who's incredibly generous with his time as
well has also gotten involved and um we're making a lot of progress towards this and just a note that I jotted down for myself that a lot of people are going well beyond what's expected um which is not surprising but it's great to know that our our students and their families will certainly benefit. So, um,
that's my report. It's a little more comprehensive perhaps than I initially planned it to be, but lots of good things to report. Um, speaking of good things to report, uh, Dr. O'Keefe is going to be presenting on the HIP self assessment. Admittedly, a dry topic. Um,
and I know that you're going to do your best to really breathe some life into that one. And then, um, once he wraps that up, uh, Mrs. Vancle and I will present on the state assessment results. Um, and full disclosure, it'll be more Mrs. Vans presenting and I'll be the
proverbial pip to her glattest night. Dr. O'Keefe, podium is yours. >> Or is that or is that the John Oats to the Hall of Notes? I don't know. That was the Yeah, the Hall to John Oats something like that.
>> Uh good evening everybody. So, as part of our uh responsibilities under the um the New Jersey ABR, every um every six months we present um our our grade for our HIB implementation. Just to note, these are scores uh for as
it says 7124 to 63025. Um so just I'll get into the scoring if you don't remember uh momentarily but we self assess just as we do in our own practices as educators. Um in response to this bill which is now well over a
decade old um it's intended to make sure that we are practicing with fidelity everything that's uh that's under code and and in certain cases uh doing better than that. Um it's every indicator is on a zero to3 scale. um as you can see from
what what you will see and everything will come out to a score out of a possible score of 78. So there's different core elements uh for each one there's a different amount of total points that are possibly assigned. You'll see in the score at the bottom what that total point value is.
Uh core element one and and as Dr. Poris said, I will try to breathe some life into this while giving I feel like enough detail, but if certainly if you have questions at the end, please I'm happy to address those. Core element one really just talks about that we have programs, approaches, and initiatives
and that they are schoolwide. They're not just um at the administrative level, for example, and that we also have school safety teams at each building. 15 out of 15 here. We've uh over the last couple of years formalized our feedback process. I'll get into what we've
changed and can and stayed the same with with respect to our climate surveys a little bit later. Um as well as what our focus will be. Um I will say our climate surveys are very strong. Um we've used the same tool now two years in a row. What we're looking to do next year is
individuate the data uh between the three elementary schools. We individuate data right now between elementary and secondary. Uh but we're going to look to do that this coming spring between uh Hillview SJ and North Boulevard. Training uh the board of ed uh on the
the board of ed approved policy. This is everything from our new teachers that we do training with in the summer to PD during the year and everything in between that includes our um our ABS's and and myself the ABC. This also includes lessons that we do with
students in the classroom. Um so at every building that is done in de developmentally appropriate fashions whether that's actual lessons for example that's done at PV or lunch bunches or folded in with morning meetings and caring schools communities things like that so we achieved
everything on that core element three remains the one point that we do need to get and I will address how we're I plan to get that point this year this has to do with other staff instruction and training programs. Um, you can see all of these bullets with the exception of one we do already. We provide the age
appropriate instruction. We do the two hours of instruction on suicide prevention and HIV prevention. We do the week of respect. Our abs's do have time and do attend multiple trainings throughout the year. Many of them that are self- selected. The one thing that is logistically difficult, however, is
to sometimes have all members of the school safety team provided with in-house uh I'm sorry, in-person professional development in effective practices of school climate programming. Um so I've reached out to the New New Jersey Bar Association and I'm happy to
say that uh we have planned on our PD day on uh 33 uh this coming March. um for any school safety team members that would like to be part of it, that's parents as well as teachers and administrators that are on those teams. We'll have time and that day we will have somebody from the uh New Jersey
State Bar Association talking to us about certain protected class activ um categories as well as how to differentiate further between social conflict and HIV. The rest of these we full, you know, spoiler alert, we got 100% on the rest
of these. um which knock on wood that'll that'll stay the same. Uh curriculum instruction, this is simply providing further uh for as far as students go age appropriate instruction as well as adhering to things like the week of respect. We do well above the week in respect. We we do programming in
multiple buildings throughout the year. This has to do with the actual people that are involved with the HIV investigations. Every building has an ABS which is an anti-bullying specialist. that's the person who is typically charged with conducting the investigations. The only exception to
that is if there is a case involving a staff member in which uh I have that lucky job of of doing that that as the as the district person um I meet more than two times with all of the ABCs ABS's excuse me we're actually planning
to meet more than four times this year in addition to our session on 33 and in each building uh the school safety teams meet at least two times per school. You can see the 2324 average was 3.2. I believe last year 2425 was uh it might have been an even four if I'm not
mistaken, but we're well above the two. Our reporting procedures um I'm happy to say are pretty ironclad. We use hipster. We adhere very closely to the timeline. Um all the reporting in terms of letters that go out to concerned parties, internal documents, uh everything we do
is up to code and and adheres to the timeline. Core element seven is closely related to uh number six. We notify both alleged offenders and victims in a timely manner. We adhere to the 10 days um rule and that's by by law. That's not a
panonic thing. Oftentimes we're well within that. Um I prepare a written report um that I know many of you have enjoyed many of mine over the last couple of years and um I prepare those within uh within the two days of the completion of the investigation and Dr.
Poris reports that to you. Core element number eight again has to do with reporting. This has to do more from Pquonic to the NJ DOE. Uh we do always do that in a in a timely fashion. So as I said it was just that one point that we uh are planning to get this coming March. Um I kept this slide from
2020 to the present because it's not just one and done. We want to uh ensure that we're continuing to do these best practices. We want to continue with PD. Our ABS's are continuing to do that. Um, we're increasing the times that the SSTs are meeting and I'm meeting with the
ABS's just to kind of keep my pulse on what's going on in all of the buildings. Um, as I said, one of the things that I was happy to see is that we're going to be having this one uh in-person professional development session. Uh, and then I'll just draw your your attention and then uh this thrilling
presentation will be over. Um, the last bullet as far as the climate surveys go, as I said, we're actually looking to combine data from our culture club, cue the cue the band. Um, along with the climate survey data, um, we over the
summer started to layer some of this and saw some similarities between the two and a lot of good programming has come out from that. As I said, we're looking to individuate the survey results this coming spring between the three different elementary buildings. And with that, I believe that's it. I just always want to give a thank you to the ABS's
because they really do a ton of great stuff, not just with HIV, but just uh school climate in general. So, thank you. Any questions? >> I know. I know. Not not this year's this is the year. I'm telling you this is Thank you everybody. Thank you.
Good evening. Do you have a question? >> I just kind of Okay. So, um good evening. Uh welcome to the annual NJSLA um and dynamic learning maps presentation. Uh order of the presentation is following what we've
done over the past several years. As always, we just uh make a note to let you know that um we're looking to identify strengths, but we also notice areas for improvement. So, as with all presentations on any type of data, it shouldn't just be all uh roses, but
there should be some areas that you're like, okay, this is great, but here's the areas that we are going to look uh to get better at. Um and percentages, if you're noticing the data, sometimes they don't add up to a hundred because we're dealing with um kids.
So, long story short on NGSA and ELA, for ELA math, uh there's five levels of proficiency. Our goal is to have students in levels four and five. That would be passing. This is just the number of students that or the number of valid scores I should
say per grade level and per course for the tests. Some students in eighth grade, as we know, take the eighth grade math and some students in eighth grade take algebra 1. So there's a discrepancy in the numbers there.
First we will do English language arts. So overall our district had 73.6% of students uh score in the four or five level meaning we've met or exceeded expectations. And you can see each of
the grade levels there. When we break out that information by level again, you can see how our overall proficiency rate is above 73%. And the first column or the second column shows the average score students
received across the district on that particular grade level assessment compared to the state average in column three. So our students are well above the state average u in in our average score. levels one, two, three are always
the levels that we're looking to improve and shift them up to level four. One nice uh one nice section of this is in grades seven, eight, and nine, level five, that's exceeded expectations.
We've got an average of about 35% in all three grade levels in that area. So in ELA, we're doing very well. Um and we're one of these slides coming up in the future. Um, we're looking to increase those numbers in the exceeding area. As
we reviewed the data last year, we talked about informational text and writing as areas for growth. Um, this year we are looking specifically at the craft and structure um of their reading as well as continuing our work with
writing. And as a sidebar, we did revise our writing curriculum this summer for grades three to eight. Um and uh Miss Bellardino has continued to look at where else we'll be doing some revisions. That was the highlight there. Um we also need to show you the data
broken up by student groups. So we look at female versus male. We look at our different ethnicity and races. So um we do have a couple other ethnicities in there, but when the numbers are below 10, we don't show the data. ML is our multilingual learners. So
those who are multilingual learners versus not. Students without IEPs and students with IEPs. 504s are non-economically disadvantaged students versus economically disadvantaged students. And again, the overall score
for the district when we Yep. multi. Yes, thank you. um students can definitely be a part of more than one student group. When we break out those numbers, this is where the numbers for the chart come from. So this is the uh
very raw data um that we don't necessarily go into quite a lot of detail in the presentations because we could spend probably an hour here. Um but this is definitely going to be on our website as well for um community members to look at. Um n less than 10
means again if there are less than 10 students in that grade level uh we don't report the data on that. Uh one nice bonus here is we want to note that our passing rate averages 20 over 20 percentage points higher than the state
average for students in all grade levels and our students without IEP scores are remaining incredibly strong. We are also required to do a trend analysis. So we look at a two-year comparison. Um short story green arrow,
the green we want to go up. The red we want to go down. So we look at 2024 to 2025. We want the red columns to go down. We want the green columns to go up. So that's where our elementary schools are right now with grade three, four, and
five. And again, this is all students, all student groups. We also do a five-year trend analysis. Notice it's 2019. Skip a couple years, 22, three, four, and five. So, this looks like we're kind of holding about
steady just about getting up to where we were in 2019 with the exception of that grade four number. But I want to point out um what we actually looked at was our third grade in 2022 to that cohort being in fifth grade
2024, they rose. So that those students over two years went up. So we're really interested in that. And if we look at our third graders in 2023 to them as fifth graders in 2025, again, the
percentage of students in that cohort, we have more students passing. So, we're very interested in how the students go because each year you have well while you can compare like grade three to grade three, you have different students. So, it's it's better to compare apples to apples, which is why
we like to follow the cohorts. Middle and high school, same bar graph setup. Seventh grade, we had a nice jump. Similar, we're looking at we want those trends to go up as much as we can. Again, we took a peek at um this would
be our grade six students to grade eight from 2022 to 2024. that cohort rose our students in grade six in 2023 to again grade 8 and 2025 again that those cohorts grow grew.
So in terms of intervention and supports we have a lot that went on last year. Uh we added phenemic awareness curriculum um including heerty to our K and one CLA uh grade levels. We rev revised the K to3 foundational reading curriculum over
the summer. Uh we added grade three to eight writing curriculum that was revised in summer 2025. We're using variety multiple data sources. We've added dibbles, which is the dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills to K to3. Um, which we
were going to do anyway, but we did it quicker to be in alignment with the requirements from the state. And we we our teachers are really getting into analyzing this data to help drive their instruction. We've increased training on how to use this information for small
groupoup instruction. Just this past half PD day, uh, we had all of our K to3 teachers, special ed up to fifth grade, sixth grade, um as well as CST members doing training with um a vendor from the
outside who came in and really did a fantastic job going over um how to now use this Dibbles data in the classroom. It was really, really, really well done. Um and uh one other thing that Miss Meerina want me to point out is how much we are now trying to push ownership of
learning through literacy conferences and feedback with our students. Tier two and three supports that would be like small teacherled small groups in the classroom as well as uh some work done with our MLSPs and our reading specialists. So we have writing interventions in small groups using
progress monitoring. We utilize pause and panther periods for personalized instruction and our teams are having regular data meetings and collaboration uh to go over this data and really help to plan um for students based on their needs.
This year we're going to continue all of that um and basically just do some refinement of the work that we're doing including pacing and alignment of our reading and writing units um calibrating those uh rubrics that were done over the summer to make sure that they are working well.
Um and we're looking to implement so we've done a lot of work with uh kind of top down data where we come to the teachers and our data means we say here's the data. So now we're kind of trying to reverse that and have teachers come to us with data and let's explore the data that they're finding in their classrooms and how can we use that to
help the students grow. Grades six to 12 similar we're increasing volume and stamina for reading and writing. We are doing a lot of work cross content uh especially with since our focus has been heavy on informational text. We're really trying to do a lot of similar
strategies across ELA, science and social studies, so that students are doing the same strategies but applying it in different contexts. Two different areas that I'm going to just show a little bit of the deeper level data that we're able to pull from the heat maps I I create is has to do
with research simulation tax test research simulation tasks and our literary analysis task. um in order to just kind of show you a little bit of how we are trying to push the needle. So last year we said we wanted to work
onformational text and writing. So research simulation task that combines sorry that's an error on my slide. I'm doing literary literacy and science and text subjects. So let's talk about that. So there's a reading
task on the um on the test that is actually it's both. So, it's going to be science and technical subjects. They could have had history, but fortunately for us, every grade level had science and tech. So, we could actually compare apples to apples instead of one grade
had history and another grade had science. So, if you look at the blue, the blue is what the students basically the percent of students who scored a particular amount of points in the test. So bear with me for one
second on this. This particular item in the test is worth 20 points. We figured out that students who get 60% or more of those 20 points have a really high likelihood of being advanced proficient. So as I mentioned in the
prior slides, we have about 35% of our kids in exceeding expectations. We want to push that needle up even more. So, we're looking closely at that data and we noticed that um we saw growth from if
you look at grade six, we had 45% of the kiddos who had 60% or more of the points in the zone that gets them into advanced proficient. They went up to 63% of them in grade seven. That's awesome.
our grade seven students in 2024 went up to 61% in grade 8. So we really are showing growth at that deeper level um based on what teachers are focusing on. The one we want to look at is what happens from 8th to 9th. So in grade 8
that cohort 63% of them were scoring at that higher point. But in grade nine was only 48%. So as I mentioned not everything can be all like okay it's all fabulous. We want to make sure that we're identifying areas for growth. And this for us is one area that we're going to look at and be like, "All right, well, what's different between grade
eight and grade nine?" The literary analysis task has to do with them reading and writing. Now, these numbers look small, but again, what we're looking for is pushing the needle for exceeding. This is not overall. So, that's why the numbers are smaller. So if we look at grade six to
grade six, we see that the students in the same grade level 7.8% to 14%. So that's great. That means our grade six team was able to increase the level at for the same for grade to grade. And in
grade seven going from eight or nine% to about 24% of those kiddos jumping over that line into that higher percentage. That's fantastic. But the cohort the cohorts also did well. So going from
7.8% to 24% of those same students improving in that particular type of task is great. And then for our seventh to eighth graders again going from 8.8% to 35% of those kiddos getting up into
that higher zone. This is really strong data. And finally, grade nine students did not have the literary analysis task. So I cannot compare for the eighth and ninth. Um all the ninth graders take had a narrative task. And finally with the research sim,
another writing task withformational text. Um again, we're looking at some nice increases. So I pulled in grade I was able to pull in grade five on this one as well. There's so much data we could spend all night. Um but from 13%
to 19% in grade six. Grades six to seven they went from 40% of the kiddos to 56%. Grades seven to eight 30% of the kiddos to 51%. These is really great growth underneath it. And then again that grade 8 to nine an area for us to look at
slight dip there. Any questions on ELA? >> Where? I'm just literacy and science. Is that being addressed within the ELA classes or within the science classes or a combination?
>> I would say a combination. So, we've gotformational text in our ELA classes. But again, as we mentioned, we're working really closely across content areas. Um, I would say from K through because K to 5 is easy because same teachers teach it. Um but six through 12
we're doing a lot of work uh with departments meeting together. Okay, moving on to math. So I know we've had conversations on math, but we do have some really good data happening in math and some really good growth. Uh one thing I want to point out, so the
district overall is 60% 66% proficient in math, but in 2022 was only 54%. So we are and last year it was 62%. So we're pushing that needle although I know we would love it to go faster. Uh we are definitely pushing that needle um a
little bit higher. Grade 8 um is definitely one of the areas that we're focusing on. We revised the curriculum this summer in grade 8. We did a little bit of rework of the order of things. We're spending more time on geometry up front because geometry is is about a
third of the test. It's a heavy it's a heavy lift for grade eight because it's different than what they've been doing the previous years. So um so there is some good progress happening here. When we look at our average scores compared to the state average scores in
those two columns two and three um we have an average of about 19% higher than the state or 19 points higher than the state. We looked at modeling and reasoning as an area for growth. We're going to continue working on that. We've seen some growth, but we
want more growth in that zone. We definitely need to do some more work. Um, and we'd like to get, again, as I mentioned, eighth grade. We want to pull some more of those numbers up to uh get into that exceeding zone. The algebra scores include both our
eighth grade and our nth grade algebra students. And geometry, that's our geometry honors class. So with the student group proficiencies again we break out all the scores by um the different domains and uh this helps
us do a little bit deeper dive as well to see are there particular student groups that we need to support uh a little bit more find out um you know why are some scores lower than others and I thought there was some good news on this slide.
Um, if we look at our passing percentage compared to the state percentage, we're even higher than ELA. ELA was a little over 20 percentage points higher. In math, we're over 25 percentage points higher. So, that's good news. Um, we
also have some great news in some of our student groups. um some of them getting I mean 88% proficient for some of our student groups 92% um 81% 90% so there's definitely good
news in pockets here and there's areas that we've already identified and are working on um meeting with teachers and having conversations about what else can we do what more can we do in our trend analysis again we want red to go down green go up and that held
pretty strong for elementary. We looked at this cohort piece again. So, um the one group uh looked like they dipped um from going from 2022 to 2024. That's third grade to fifth grade. That's an idea to look at that particular group. They are now that was
fifth, sixth, they're now our seventh graders. So, we'll be watching that. Um, but our third graders, our um, third graders went up from 2023 to 2025. That arrow should be higher a little bit on that blue. For middle school, we have our, again,
we want the red to go down, green to go up. Um, so again, looking at some we're doing, we had good growth in sixth, great growth in seventh. Um, eighth grade, we want to look at where did that um, kind of drop off a little bit. And again, looking at these, oops,
sorry. I could not do the cohorts on that one. Let me go back real quick. I cannot do the cohorts on this one just because of the fact that in seventh grade, we split to two different courses in eighth grade. So, it's it's not equitable in terms of being able to compare those.
Algebra 1 again considers this. This takes both our eighth and ninth graders into consideration under that 59% proficient that held strong there. And geometry, again, that's our honors class. And that geometry line has gone up. We'd
like the algebra line to go up. So, some of the things that we're doing this year is um we're adding an algebra one tutoring program after school. Um so, that's being set up right now. Tonight, you'll be voting on tutor or voting, you'll be approving our title one tutors. um some of them will be used for
that purpose. Um I'm also myself uh Miss Marada we're working closely with our algebra and teachers. We're doing some work in scaffolding and how do you build out guided notes and different things? We're looking at the pacing guide. We're looking at the new program already. What are the things that are working? What
are the things we have to supplement? So we're doing a lot of work behind the scenes. Um it's not just algebra one though. We know that this is really six, seven, and eight. we need to look at that whole continuum because um when we look at modeling and reasoning which I
will show you in a minute um that starts earlier it's doesn't just happen in algebra 1 and nth grade it starts younger so it's a continuum of support we need to create across all grade levels so just some quick things on intervention
we revised our math curriculum K to8 and algebra 1 up to get updated to our 2023 standards we are continuing to work with modeling reasoning with teachers um integrating more of those type of questions and we're continuing to send teachers to conquer math. We have
additional tier 2 and three supports. So again, working with our MLSPs, um, working with teachers in building out center stations and teacher le small groups, doing work with middle school and high school with Panther period, and we have title one tutoring both at the
high school and the middle school in math and ELA. Um this year our goals are to utilize more data meetings across K to2 um to talk about how do we adjust things for the whole class as well as individual students and analyze those progressions
across the different grade levels so teachers in one grade level know what came before them and what's coming after them. That really helps them make better decisions when it comes to their coursework. grades six to 12. We implemented I Ready math in grade six and algebra 1 and we implemented I Ready
Diagnostics in grade nine to again help us identify how we can support students in grade nine math better. Um we increase the number of students scoring 40 well we want to increase the number of students scoring 40% or higher for points in modeling reasoning. So math's
a little different than ELA. In ELA we're looking at the 60% mark. in math for whatever reason, you get points for having a lower percentage. Um, so we wanted So the 40% is the cut score we're using, um, because we notice students above that have a high, um, a high
probability of passing and getting into the exceeding zone. So, um, a lot of other things we're doing in terms of special education as well. Um, reviewing instruction, content, accommodations, modifications, and special ed math classes. talking to the teachers there,
uh, looking how we can make recommendations to help try and close some achievement gaps in that zone for those student groups. Um, and giving training to both general education and special education teachers on scaffolding their prior grade level into the on-grade level because it's really important that we're doing as much
on-grade level work as we can. So, as I just mentioned that modeling and reasoning score, again, we have some there's some good things happening, but we need to get better in modeling reasoning. So, we're going to continue on this path. Um, this is it's a little
different looking at the math than the ELA because again, we do that split in eighth grade. So, it's not as nice and neat as ELA, but our goal, and we were looking at this with some eighth grade teachers today. Um, our goal is to what
are we doing to build the modeling reasoning? So, again, we already have been attacking this by revising the curriculum, adding more things in, looking at our pacing, and seeing what it is that we need to do. One thing we noticed is that um when the students are
taking the state test, it's really a challenge for them to type into the equation editor. It's not the same as typing an essay. You have to be able to use the buttons correctly to actually prove your argument. And as adults, I
personally have had to type in for a student who took a paperbased test one year. I have difficulty typing on a Chromebook into that equation editor. So, one thing the math teachers have uh told me they're doing is they're now going to bring that in different times during the year and add that as like let's just practice today. Let's type
out for me how you would type an argument to help get students um we want to make sure tech isn't getting in the way of them being able to show what they know because some of the for some of the students um we are concerned this might be happening and um again with our
algebra one. So, this is looking not just at students who are passing because obviously we have a lot of students passing um in our algebra 1 courses. We're looking at moving the needle up to the next level. And that's just showing there's a split between this from seventh grade to our
grade 8 and algebra 1 of PV math questions. >> So, for eighth for ninth grade only 4.4% of students receive 40 or higher on the modeling and reasoning. >> Right? So that's an area that so when it
comes but it's not just the nth grade work. If we go back and we look at the work being done in sixth, seventh and eth those modeling reason scores AC because again when you pull out a percentage of the students to eighth grade algebra 1 we want to make sure
that we're looking at how we support that work into nth grade. >> Okay. But in 2024, we didn't do well on that either because it was still 5.5. Correct. So it >> were we addressing it in 2425 in order to get it higher. I I'm just
>> Yep. So >> but but we went down. >> So the difference there is again these numbers are so small. This is going to be like maybe one student difference or it might even be the same number of students. It's just the percentage is so close. It's about the same. >> Okay. But the so last year, yes, we
brought in more conversations about modeling and reasoning. But this year, we've brought in, we revised the curriculum. We added in the new program, >> the I Ready, >> the I Ready program, which is much more rigorous in terms of word problems and multi-part steps. So, I think we did a
lot of work behind the scenes to start to set that up. >> Okay. So my question is >> clearly there's a deficit in algebra 1 and now we have these kids going to algebra 2 who don't have a great
foundation. How are we now addressing that because that's impacting whether whether we're taking a state level test or not that's impacting their ability to function within algebra 2. >> So when we focus Yes. So when we focus on the modeling and reasoning there are
that is a piece of the NJ score. Now remember the reason I focused on modeling reason is because last year we talked about it's an area you want to improve. I could have gone to the five other domains as well. So the five other domains make up about 50% of the test. If we go back and look at
>> modeling and reasoning is 40% of the assessment. >> It's about correct it's about 40% of the assessment. So it's a piece of it but it's not the majority of it. >> Yes. Um, >> but it has a big factor as to whether or not they're going to do well on the assessment
>> in terms of getting more kids that are exceeding as well as proficient for sure. So again, we're looking at small pockets that we can start to move the needle because we notice that's an area we need to get better in terms of instruction. >> Yes. >> If we look at their NJGPA data though,
which we did over the summer, >> we only had about seven students not pass the NJPA. So by so when they're going and that is algebra 1 and geometry on the NJGPA. So as they're going through sophomore year and junior year,
we are making up that difference which allows them to pass that graduation requirement assessment which very much mimics the eighth grade math test. >> Okay. Which is awesome. >> It's Yes. However, again, they're
not, in my opinion, they're not mastering a great foundation in algebra. Whether we're taking this um algebra one, whether we're taking this reasoning whatever modeling and reasoning, there still overall our scores for algebra are not great, right?
>> Well, they are. So if you look >> for nth grade, >> yeah, if you look at our algebra one scores here across the board, like the different student groups, >> bottom row, although overall it says for grade eight and nine together, 58% is
proficient, right? Which our grade 8 is about 100% I think it was 98% proficient in grade eight when we look. So here we're looking at different student groups and also looking coming at it from this end in terms of how can we
support the different student groups in terms of getting each group proficient as well. >> So if we took the eighth grade algebra out what is our algebra one ninth graders because my I was under the impression that that was not a good that
was not super proficient. So my concern is now regardless of tests, GPA, you know, and whatever the case may be, our kids are lacking a foundation in algebra one, right? They're they're lacking the modeling and reasoning. Now we're sending them off to algebra 2 and
saying, "Here, do algebra 2." And how are they doing overall? Are are we addressing those gaps? because even though they're high school students and we you know >> they we still need to address those gaps in some way because they need to have a
good foundation for future. So that's that's just it I don't need an answer tonight like it's I know it's something we can discuss going forward but I just want us to be cog you know realize that that these kids maybe have missed something and we need to make sure that those 11th graders are their skills are
being addressed as well. >> Yes. And I would say and we can continue the conversation but I would say in our geometry classes in 10th grade there's a lot of modeling reasoning work done just from the nature of geometry work proofs and all that that those different things. So they get a lot they get
another round of that type of work there. And then when they're in algebra 2 again this is we're looking at algebra 2. We're looking at our um what are we teaching in algebra 2? What's our pacing? what are the um how can we move through uh work more quickly in algebra
2? There's a lot of different aspects we're looking at there. But again, overall, we seem we seem to over the past couple years when we get to the NJGPA, a high percentage of our students are passing that assessment, which again is algebra 1 work and geometry work. That's
really what it is. The NJGPA is algebra 1 and geometry. So, we are getting them there by the time they need to hit that graduation assessment. I I think we need I mean I get the test scores and the GPA you know the but how are the kids doing in class is is part
of my issue as well. Are they struggling? How many are getting extra help? How many are still lacking the basic foundation that now that they have to you know I mean where are we going with this? That's and then for the
tutoring for math who is eligible for that tutoring. So when we use title one funds for that tutoring, we have to use the title one criteria >> and that's within the school day or is that before? I can't remember. I'm sorry. >> It'll be it will be uh most likely after
school. I reached out to my tutors to see if they could do before school just because that might be easier but right now um they have availability after school. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you. >> Sorry. >> Let me just get to science.
Oops. Okay. Um, so in science there's only four levels. Um, level three and four would make um would have a student pass and compared to the state. So science is difficult to compare cohort to cohort um just because it's only done in three
grade levels and each grade level assesses three years of science. So grade five compared to the state we have 40% passing compared to the state of only 30%. Grade eight we almost double the state proficiency rate which is
actually a very strong score comparatively and grade 11 um again the state is about 31%. We were at 45.6% for grade 11 students and that was an increase from last year. Um if we look at our average scores
compared to this state, we have very strong average scores as well. And uh the rest of the data is just broken up by levels one and two. We want to move more students out of level two into level three and four. And in terms of uh the again we have to
show the demographic data. Um I don't get as much data as I do for ELA and math when it comes to science. they just don't provide us with as much. But um we have a new science supervisor as we all know. Um so she's reviewing our current practices and making recommendations on areas where uh we can hopefully move the
needle on our science assessments as well. This year uh ELA and math NJSLA as well as the NJGPA will be with the new format which will be adaptive. It's with CA Cambium assessments but science will
remain with Pearson. So there should be no changes to the science test this year. Um and with the trends as I mentioned last year um we have um some nice growth in grades eight and 11 and um the with
the grade five went down a little bit. We want to keep raising five-year trend analysis. Again, kind of hard to do when you're these are all different cohorts of kids, so I can't really compare them as I can with the others, but we like how that maroon line
for grade 11 um is increasing nicely. Any questions on science? >> I have a question. Sorry. And I apologize because I come in came in late and you may already have answered this. If that's the case, just tell me to >> be quiet and watch and watch the video.
>> How are you? So I the science I see we're doubled in the state and that's great but when the state are 20% passing and we're 40% that's still not great like as a regular person. Do we have information of like schools in the area
and what their data looks like and are how are we comparing to many of the many of many of the schools that we would compare to are very similar to us. It it is a mystery like so many of us um so so many of my
colleagues and we talk about it all the time what else can we do to get better at science um it's like there's some mystery with the state in terms of just giving us better training or more they've done training on some through these 3D assessments that they call them but it's still not enough for us to like
capture like what is it that they are actually looking for now the science tests are are difficult so you have four units And there's writing with every unit. So they're doing 45 minutes of um it's 45 minutes is all they get and they're
doing reading. They have to interpret graphs or diagrams. They have to answer multiple choice response short answer questions and then they have to do a writing essay for all four units. So it is cognitively a tough test. Plus, they
say they're looking at our scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and um disciplinary practices. So, that's what we're like, what exactly does that mean? And then they don't give us enough data for us to break it down to actually identify areas that we can grow in. ELA
and math, I get a ton of data that we've been able to break up into heat maps and really get down to the individual student. I cannot do that with science. So, um so we keep pushing forward. We keep attending trainings. we keep uh talking to our co our colleagues and be like what are you doing that's different
um but most of us seem to be in the same boat. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Uh one one question back to the elementary uh results. Were we able to look at the R3 different schools and see any differences between our schools in
terms of state uh the state assessments? >> That's a good question. And since we don't break out by elementary school here, I actually have to go back and double check it because I don't want to say something. I just don't remember off the top of my head, but I can I can get back to you on that one. >> That'd be great. I'd be interested if there was a difference. And if there are, you know,
>> I don't remember a big difference off the top of my head, but I want to double check it before I just I say that. >> Okay. >> I can look it up while we're here. >> Sure. Thanks. >> Any other question? One more slide. Dynamic learning learning maps. So the
dynamic um learning map assessment is um for students that have significant cognitive disabilities. Um they have four zones that um four different levels that we look at um from emerging to advance and these are just the numbers.
We have 15 students that we're accountable for as a district. Those are in district and out of district placement students. Um and those are where they fall currently undertaking those uh those tests. Thank you.
>> Anything else? Okay, thank you. [Applause] Hi, Mr. Gibbs. Do you have a report? >> Yes. Good evening. On tonight's port agenda, there's a motion for the approval for the amendment to the long-range facilities plan, which will include the purchase of the new board
office located at 494 Newark Pton Turnpike. It is anticipated that the school district may go before the town council on December 4th to have the zoning and variance applications approved. If approved, the school district is looking to close on the
building in January 2026. The test results of the soil samples taken at 494 pump and turnpike on October 10th have been determined that there is no evidence of oil discharge into the ground. The appraisal by the post office for the
sale of the board office property located at 538 Newark Pton Turret Pike was rejected on October 2nd as the comparables listed in the post office's appraisal were not based on commercial property but residential property. The post office's appraisal came in at
612,000 and the school district's appraisal came in at 88,000. The post office is in the process of having their appraisal re-evaluated. Also on tonight's board agenda is the approval of the M1 maintenance plan for the 2026 2027 school year that will be
submitted to the county office once approved. The amount to be budgeted is $959,029 that encompass encompasses the maintenance of all five schools for the 2627 school year. On October 22nd, the fieldwork for the
school's 2024 2025 audit was completed. It has been determined if there are no audit findings and no recommendations. Once the audit is board approved, the audit will be filed with the state in accordance with state guidelines. The auditors will give a presentation on the
2024 2025 audit at the November 10th workshop board meeting. The New Jersey Equality Single Accountability um continuum or also known as CUSAC audit continues to gain momentum as the school district continues to gather information for the
upcoming deadline. It is anticipated the county state will be coming to the school district to review the request documents in February 2026. Thank you. Thank you. At this point, I'll open a meeting up to public comment. Members of the public comment members of the public
may speak for a maximum period of five minutes during the clock during that portion of the meeting. Uh and if they do have a question, they can ask that question based on an agenda item in their five minutes. If they have a question, direct it to the board president and state your name before you start speaking.
No one's coming to the mic. I'm going to close that. Move on to approval of the minutes. Mr. Sesi, would you please move the minutes? I would like to approve the minutes from September 15, 2025, October 2nd, 2025, October 6th, 2025,
and October 14th, 2025. >> Second. >> Any question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi, >> yes. >> Mr. Giten, >> yes. >> MO is absent. Mr. Mcweeny, >> yes.
>> Mr. Monteo is absent. Mrs. Chanton, >> yes. Mrs. Espazito, >> yes. >> And Mr. Senic, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay, that brings us to approval of our action items. And first up is PMC. Miss Shentton, will you please move the items under PMC? >> Sure. I'd like to move PMC 74-26 through
PMC86-26. >> Second. >> Question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi, >> yes. >> Mr. Gibon, >> yes. >> MO is absent. Mr. Mr. Mcweeny, >> yes.
>> Mr. Mo is absent. Mrs. Shenton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Espazito, >> yes. >> And Mr. Senic, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Brings us to CIS. Mrs. Espazito, would you please move the items under CIS? >> I'd like to move CIS- 35-26 through CIS 47-26.
>> Second. >> Uh, Greg Mcweeny. Second. Question discussion. >> Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Giten, >> yes. >> Mr. Ao is absent. Mr. Mcweeny, >> yes.
>> Mr. Pompeo is absent. Mrs. Chanton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Esto, >> yes. >> And Mr. Senic, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay, that brings us to FFA. Mr. Bloomer, would you please move the items under FFA? >> I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 53-26 through FFA68-26.
>> Second. >> I have two questions. First one is related to uh Genesis and the switch to from real time and the question is what are we going to do as far as training to get the parents up to speed um for next year.
>> Thank you. Um I can answer this one. I've had discussions with Mr. Sheay about this. He's actually played a really pivotal role in the the transition um not only with staff but also focusing on how we can help parents and students uh get bless you more familiar with it. uh he shared with me a
video that he used from his uh time in Vernon. Just a quick little nine minute video um taking parents on essentially a guided tour through how to navigate Genesis. So that's one uh tool that we intend to employ. Um also he wants to um
really look at a big push in August because that's usually when you get people's attention the most. If you push it out too early, they tend to ignore it. Um but he wanted to do something to help parents get signed in and then also figure how to navigate their way through. Again, the video helps with that, but also having um guided
documents to support um parents for that. And then um in early September, he wanted to work with kids to help them navigate how to how to open up the portal, how to um check out their grades and and anything else that they need to see. Um something that's important for
August too is that Genesis will house all those different um documents that you need to sign off on. So he wants to make sure that he has something to break that down as well. Um and then I just appreciate that um board's willing to vote on the resolution for tonight. I
realize it is end of October. We didn't have this on the workshop. Um as we've been working with Genesis, they won't begin the transition process without assigned PO for the 2627 budget. So there's a little more urgency on our end because we we really want to get this
going so that the the transition from real time to genesis will be seamless. >> I have a question about the transition if I may. Dr. Poris >> showing everything >> the plans also to take all the historical data from real time into
Genesis so parents will be able to see their entire child's Yeah. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Yeah. And that's a that's a really important component of it too because you don't want to say oh we can't we can't reach that because it's from three years ago. Um everything has to be able to cross over. Um when we did
this when we transitioned from Genesis to real time back in I believe 2016 I was still a principal. Um it was not seamless. It went pretty well, but we we we lost a few things. And I'm excited about getting it start getting that process started now in earnest so that
way we can identify any bugs and any issues because that historical information is really important. Even um Mrs. Vans gave a wonderfully comprehensive analysis tonight of our district data. We have a community that
I I feel like is hungry to see their uh individual students learning data. So to lose that to me would be awful. So to your point, short question, long answer, but u we're going to make sure that everything migrates as we make the transition.
>> So I just have um two quick things. Uh I want to thank Mr. Shay. I did have some some of my own questions and he went above and beyond. So I very much appreciate that. My question is um
in the meantime are we able to update real time to provide more information in regard to our student data? Um because I don't know if I'm just like not looking at something correctly. I you know I
can't you know I can't find report cards or transcripts or testing data updated testing data. if if we have the availability to do that. I think that would be really helpful in the meantime until this change happens in August. Um
uh because I I do think that's important for parents to know and I know that we switched to score which looks amazing and I think I'm saying it correctly. However, I'm not able to find data on there either. So, I just think it would be, you know, it would be nice if we had
that now until then if it's not like a tremendous amount of work. >> Can I um just I know um that we talked about that and I had reached out to Matt about that and I thought he said he turned it on. Um he did have an issue. He said real time had an issue with some of the site.
>> It did, but what it is is it's the DRA levels from from um and benchmarks from SJG. Okay. >> So, it's nothing from middle school. There's no transcript. I can't see any past report cards. And I can't see a grade point average. >> Okay. So, the middle school is where
you're seeing the issue. >> No, I'm at the high school. >> The high school you're seeing the issue, not the middle school. Okay. I just want to make sure no like I can't see any pass report cards. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, you know, when your kids at junior it is a little, you know, this is
this is a stressful time. So, like for me to be able to go and look at some of that stuff would be great. When last year when my son was in middle school, I was able to see past report cards and the transcript, but not for live in the high school. Never. So, >> I just want to follow up on that because
I know I did follow up on we had that conversation. >> No, I know you did and it was great, but it's all like DRA from it's no NJSLA scores. It's it's nothing. It's just DRA levels from SJ. Thank you. And then um so I know
there was brief discussion about frontline. I just um Dr. Porz it is a big undertaking for frontline as well just an FYI. So if that is the way that the district wants to move it probably has to be done pretty quickly because you have to input a whole bunch of
information. >> Yeah. And um apparently Mr. didn't get the notification that I'm incapable of multitasking, but he did just send me something that um he's working on adding more data in real time in the interim. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, real time customer service has not
been up to the expectations that they established earlier in our relationship with them, but this is something that if we can't do it internally, they should be able to provide us the support to ensure that it happens. >> 100%. We've paid them a lot of money over the years. They should be able to
absolutely do that. Um I did um I do really uh for front line it is a big undertaking if that is the avenue that you want to go. >> I had one more question related to FFA 6826 which is the dumpster pad
installation at SJG. Just the the place where the dumpsters currently are now. Are we just planning to just grade that and then just seat it? >> Yes, we are. And it's going to be done by our own staff. So it's no, you know, no additional cost to the district. >> Anybody else?
All right, Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi, >> yes. >> Mr. Gon, >> yes. >> M I was absent. Mr. Mcweeny, >> yes. >> Mr. Pompeo is absent. Mrs. Shenton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Espazito, >> yes.
>> And Mr. Senic, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> I'd like to thank um Honor M. Conland Connell, sorry, with her $50 donation to PTHs Courtney Ranken Scholarship Fund. >> All right, last up is policy. I'm going to ask uh Mr. Maxweeny to please move
the item on items under policy. >> Yes. I'd like to move PO5-26 and PO6-26. >> Second. >> Question of discussion. I have one item related to legal services. Uh there's selections in there
as far as the contact persons in the district that are able to reach out to the legal representative to either seek advice uh or for any other reason. I just want to make sure we want to keep that the same. Right now, it's the superintendent, the BA, and the board president. So, if that's the way we want
to keep going, I just want to make sure that everyone's aware of that and uh we make those selections in that policy. >> I think that's fine. It helps put some parameters around uh reaching out for legal services. I think the wording in
the policy is should go through those three people. Doesn't say must. So >> I think it's shall >> or shall I guess say if between shall or must >> shall is a requirement. >> It's a requirement. >> Yes. Shall makes it a requirement. Yes.
>> Okay. >> All right. Anything else? Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi, >> yes. >> Mr. Giddon, >> yes. >> Mr. Ao is absent. Mr. Mcweeny, >> yes. >> Mr. Pompeo is absent. Mrs. Shenton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Espazito,
>> yes. >> And Mr. Senk, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> All right, that brings us to second opportunity for public comment. This time, members may speak on any item for a maximum period of five minutes. If they do want to speak, please uh address their question to the board president, state your name, and sign in before we
begin. Hello, April Gonzalez Boulevard. I just wanted to share some recent updates of the music department at PTHS on behalf of the amps. Some of which were already mentioned earlier. Uh we would like to first extend our great appreciation to the staff and the
administrators for your quick action on finding an interim music teacher. We look forward to meeting Miss Foy and providing our support to her and the music program. Uh some just some other standard updates are the Annie rehearsals and octave
practices are now in full swing. Each are practicing twice a week now and we are very excited to see their upcoming performances. Auditions are now underway for area honor choir and area band. Mr. Hazler spoke directly to the students and
provided them with the necessary information needed for auditioning. The knock uh noctives and marching band both performed at our four years and beyond October 23rd is an exciting night to avail um to showcase the available programs to future students and families.
Another item that I wanted to mention is that some of the marching band students were kind enough to join in on the fun and participated in our unified sports soccer game on Thursday, October 23rd against Dover. I would like to extend my appreciation to those students. This is
my son's first year being able to participate in the unified sports program, and my husband and I are already beyond thrilled with the program. Brendan is having a blast and just told me today that he doesn't want it to ever end. Lastly, on Saturday, October 18th, the
marching band participated in the Leadwig Muser Classic competition at Metife. They scored an impressive 87 and took first place in all caption awards. They competed at Ridge High School this past Saturday and continued to improve their score to an 88.8 and earning
second place. We invite the community to come support the band at our state competition this Saturday at um I'm sorry at 5:15 at South Brunswick High School and then at nationals on November 8th back at Metife
Stadium. Hope to see you all there and have a good night. >> Thank you very much. I just want to point out too that the unified soccer team is scheduled to play again tomorrow at four o'clock uh on on the grass field. So if anybody can make
it um it's always it's always a great event. And one thing I'll just throw a quick comment in that my interview with Miss Voit was absolutely wonderful. It's the first time I've ever interviewed anybody with these strains of deaf leopard in the background. Um I I was
the person I guess providing that because I was down at down Atlantic City for the conference and I happened to be in a ostensibly quiet spot. Yeah. At at the Hard Rock and um yeah, the ostensibly quiet spot was not terribly quiet. I couldn't get my earbuds to connect. She's a great sport about it. I
know she's really excited to to pitch in and help out and just um lead our kids. We're really excited to have her. >> All right, that brings us to unfinished business. Any board member have any unfinished business?
How about new business board member announcements? >> Uh yeah, I'll go first. Um so I had the pleasure of attending the uh Lang City Lang City workshop this past week and uh I had the pleasure of attending the class about uh picking a food vendor and
it was hosted by my own colleague Miss Ao. Uh the class taught us a lot about the free and reduced lunch program that the state has um and what makes a district and student uh qualify for that. But mainly the class focused on a balancing a healthy lunch for the students. Um they had many different
examples of what a good lunch uh looks like for a student and um I feel like I took a lot away from myself about what a good lunch would look like for myself. So wanted to um and she's not here but I would thank Misso again. I'll I'll be happy to go. Uh I also
attended uh quite a few classes down there. Um it gets harder and harder for me every year to find something that I haven't taken already since I've been down there for a hundred years. But um the one I
always like to take is ethics in the schoolboard trenches or something similar to that. And um every year I am still surprised at some of the stories and the nightmares that are going on with other school boards and other
districts. It's just uh amazing to me. But um evidently we have very good ethics on our school board here. I'm happy to see that. That's all I got.
>> Uh I'll go next. Um two courses that I'd like to highlight. Number one was called um out I forgot the actual name, but it was outdoor learning and uh Spring Lake Board of Education presented with their uh superintendent principal. Um it was a
combo position since it's a 300 student district and they took the whole class was with uh Speizzel I don't know if I pronounced that right Speasel architect and they were just talking about how they take un you know underutilized or
unutilized land in their on their property and created you know learning spaces. Uh this wasn't about playgrounds and sensory type, you know, this is actual like outdoor. Let's take the class outdoors and get some fresh air
and take class from there today. Um it was some great examples that they used. There are sustainable Jersey grants that would help qualify. So, you know, I I took this class because I was thinking about all of our land, all of our courtyards, things that are
underutilized that could really become something. Um, and again, there's sustainable Jersey grants there. There's other there's other grants that they said that you could really look into. And what was great, which sounded a lot like Pquanic Township, they worked
within their town to make this happen. So, they partnered with the environmental committee in town. They partnered with their DPW in town. They partnered with, you know, all these people around that we today have great relationships with and would probably
get that support if we ever wanted to explore a learning center, a learning space um outside. A big thing was that they currently don't have internet out there, an access point because they want it to be a disconnect. But at the same
point, if you're taking it's not written into curriculum, you're taking the curriculum outside. So that's something that they're discussing whether they should have an access point there. Um but I thought it was really really good information and something that I think we have kind of property to kind of
consider something like that. The second one, um which I think is really important, especially being part of negotiations for so long, it was called it's 10 p.m. Where are your healthcare dollars going? So, it was presented by two um two individuals. First was
Michael, Dr. Michael Salvatore, who is the former Long Branch Superintendent. He's also currently a uh a teacher um he teaches at at at I think a university, but again, he was there because he was the Long Branch super for
many years. and a gentleman by the name of Douglas Forester who is works for Integrity Health and that is the they are in charge of partnership health centers. I will say the reason I'm bringing this course up is because I would like to follow up with them versus being excited
about the presentation. presentation was a little salesy, but I understand where they were going. And it was really a whole class about looking into selfinsured plans versus the crazy rising state
plans that we face each and every day. Now, this is part of my industry that I work in. So, I I understood the jargon and and the lingo that he was saying. Many didn't. So, I was asking those I was double clicking on some of the things he said. I don't think he was expecting it and I didn't get enough
from the class but the topic was great. So I really do feel that there would be a great conversation to have um with um Mr. Gibbs, Dr. Poris if you want to be on like just to talk to them and and hear out what they what their plans are. Everything was about the model the model the model but he didn't tell us what the
model was. But um Tom's River is the ideal model that incorporates Integrity Health uh into their plan. There is a facility almost you can almost call it like the Tom's River Board of Ed like
urgent care like there's a center that teachers staff can go in zero co-ay there's a chiropractor there's there's there's doctors there's all these specialists um that they have access to through this plan and of course there is still a network so you're also seeing
your doctors that you're used to seeing but it's a self-insured plan and you're not just contributing all this crazy money that we're seeing go into um the state plan. So, obviously it's not an easy thing. There's, you know, there's negotiations part of it,
but there it's there's it's an idea that I haven't seen brought to the school levels in this fashion. So, I do want to talk to this individual again. Again, I wish the class was a little bit more about it versus more of like, hey, call me later. But it's a it
was a great great um introduction I'll call it to something that is going to be an a rising trend I believe across the state and who knows across the nation but across New Jersey in terms of
self-funded plans. So really really strong there. All right. I went to a couple classes. Um I went to the class with food service with uh Miss Ikeo. Uh Mr. Sesi was a guest speaker. He uh put together a lunch for everybody in the class. He did
a very good job using props and everything else. Very demonstratively was it was a really good uh class. Um I also went to a class called Life After Chapter 44. What's next for benefits? Similar to what Mr. Bloomer just brought up. Um it was a class uh given by Brown
and Brown and they spoke about what's going to happen when chapter 44 sunsets and they talked about where where it came from. Um how it got uh renewed and and and what's going to happen after it goes away and then what uh different districts are facing as far as the cost
of healthcare and what some of them are doing particularly with their prescription drug plans in order to try and offset some of those costs. Um, just to shorten the summary of it, it wasn't a very good picture because it's not a very good situation as far as the the cost of health care versus the portion
of the the health care cost that's being contributed by the people that are receiving the healthcare as well as the cost of some of the prescription drugs primarily GLP1s that are taking up most of the cost of that. So, they had some ideas and we use Brown and Brown. So, something there. Um, went to a
negotiations class given by the people from Livingston. That was a good class. And the best class I thought I went to besides the one that involved Mr. Sesi was uh the board governance class given by Clinton Township. And the the title of that class was from reactive to
strategic. And what they went over was the process that they went on over over multiple years to make sure that the board that they found when they got on it was changed through their action into a much more efficient and much more documented and well functioning board
when they left. And they want to make sure that those changes that they helped implement aren't then lost when they leave the board and the next group that comes on has to start from scratch and because nothing was written down. So essentially what they did is they they wrote a board handbook, they wrote an
onboarding process for all their members. They came up with a board calendar and they really focused a lot on governance. So that way they leave a structure in place for when they step off the board, the people that come in can just pick it up and the board will hopefully continue to function well. So that was I think my favorite class.
>> Great. I'll go um had a number of classes when I was down there. uh two that come to mind. One uh was the expanding opportunities for teacher recruitment that I attended. It uh was focusing on the statewide well nationwide teacher shortage and looking
for ways to um solve that. Uh the presenters were from the New Jersey Department of Education. Um they really focused most of their presentation on the teacher certificate fee holiday that was offered. Um so the some of the stats that still that stuck that kind of
jumped out before the fee holiday during the time period before there were 50,000 applications in the year before the fee holiday. During the fee holiday there were 90,000 applications. So that sounds great, right? We have a lot more people applying to be teachers. Um unfortunately uh only 42,000 of those
applications were approved because people were just kind of throwing their applications in there because they were it was free and they didn't get all the information in. didn't really didn't get approved. That was 46%. So that was down from the year before when it was 58% people actually getting approved. Um the
really scary thing was six months afterwards they looked at those 40 um 2,000 that were approved and only 6,000 were actually teaching. So, it really showed that, you know, while the FE while the the fees for certificates are
they're costly. Um, and it does help to to lower those costs. That's not the main reason why they weren't getting teachers. Um, there's a lot of other things that go into being a teacher. It's the additional education you have to get, the additional certificates, um, more classes they have to take. And
then, unfortunately, when kids are coming out of school with, you know, a lot of debt, they're faced with, you know, lower uh entry salaries than they would if they went to the private sector for something else. So, it wasn't a great end to the whole discussion. We really
didn't have a solution. They didn't offer a solution, but um it was a little disappointing if you're looking for a way to hire more teachers. Uh the other the other the session that I went to that kind of stood out for me was about communication and a cornerstone for stability and
growth. And really I went to this session because it was being it was presented by the administration from Ramapo Indian Hills and they've been obviously through a lot of stuff in the last couple years. So I wanted to hear how they were kind of turning things around. Um and seems like they're on the right track. Um they were talking about keeping their communication simple,
keeping it straightforward. They talked about crisis communications. You know it should be clear, correct, and quick um during a crisis. Um and their main focus was from superintendent was hey look, you have to have a clear vision about where you're headed and where the district's headed. Um, and it was
refreshing to hear that they kind of went in, took kind of a pretty bad situation and kind of turned around pretty quickly and got everybody moving in the right direction. So, that was a that was a fun session to hear. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, we do have
reasons to move into executive session tonight where we will discuss personnel and attorney client privilege matters. No action will be taken and we will adjourn from there. Our next meeting is November 10th here at the high school. Is there a motion to go into executive session? There second. >> Second.