e e e okay Mr secretary can you take the role M Cherry present Dr Connors present Mr King Dr Nelson Mr Patel Mr
[Music] Patel Miss Rivers Mr Cowen present Miss Smith here miss Stafford a present thank you Mr secretary hereby be it known that the Piscataway Township Board of Education
has complied with the notification requirements of the open public act for the announcement of this meeting dat in place on April the 19th 2024 in a following manner posting of the public notice on the posting board for the Board of Education in the administration building email notification to the
newspaper servant Piscataway the home News Tribune and CA news email notification file with the municipal clerk at the municipal building on H Lane this meeting is being videotape the recording is not an official record or supplement to the minutes and is intended only as a source of information
that the public might utilize at a later date to familiarize themselves with the board activities executive session be it resolved that the board adj to Executive session for the purpose of review and discussion of personnel agenda litigation HIV monthly reports and other
matters persued to to njsa 10 semicolon 4-12 B can I have a motion move can I have a second all in favor we're in executive session e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e SCH being resolved that the board reconvenes the public session some have a second second all in favor hi good evening everyone
tonight students we have a presentation coming to us from Norwood Elementary School and highlights their peer mentors program and here's their principal Brian V to tell us more about it good evening and uh thank you to the board for having us us here tonight I'm Brian Voit principal at nolwood school
um we have members of a special program that we started at nolwood last school year um it's our peer mentors program it was started by uh Mr Terry Lin rigan who is a learning consultant on our child study team also uh Dr Sarah abdar our counselor behaviorist you cannot be here
tonight um we have a brief video to tell you a little bit more about the program and then you'll hear from some of the peer mentors in their own words my name is Dr Sarah abara and I am the behaviorist and school psychologist Atwood Elementary School my name is
rigan and LC child we're here to tell you about started at school called theer mentors programed of and stud
andring what it toeses will help ofn why do you like being a ment iids OPP do you like being aor I like being aor you can playtivities with your
friends I just found out Jerry that you're aure mentor to some of the younger kids so what are some of the things you like to do with the younger kids that's a great idea how about you what do you like to do ra as a mentor excellent
answers do you like having some [Music] taking the time to learn about the mentors program Atwood school we are proud of how much our mentors have learned in such a time this year and looking forward to what the rest of the
year we can't wait to continue pram at we have eight eight of our peer mentors are here with us this evening um so I'm going to ask our peer mentors if if you're able to come up and join us please we're going to share a little bit more about the program about what you like in it come stand in full stand in
front here we're start with s go ahead introduce yourself and I'm also my favorite being about being a teaching my budy how to play games and
coloring I also like helping them to learn how to play nice with others when I see when I see them in the hall I say hi good job good job
and a in Miss's class and also a my favor about being a is to me and helps and together as school I am happy and excited [Music]
I am in class and also a pure Mentor the most important qualities that a pure mentor needs to have are to be kind to be respectful and to be helpful my name is lanco I'm a third grader in also
appear Mentor my advice for anyone who wants to be a mentor is be kind respectful and help others who need something that they have trouble with awesome job guys amazing well one I want to tell you how
incredibly proud We Are of you yes we're proud and you're shining like the scatter students that you are um I'm going to come around to the front and each one of you are going to receive a certificate with your name on it and today's date to tell you just how proud We Are and you'll get to have it at home
and you can put it on your wall and when you get older you'll be old like me and you'll be like oh I remember when but the thing is you'll remember you started being a leader in a leadership role back in the per mure program and I haven't met you all yet but I'm Nancy Salgado count and I'm
actually your school board representative I'll be coming to some of your events this year okay do you all want to come forward and turn around so your parents could take pictures come on come forward by come forward by the table and turn around let Mom and D take pictures first then we'll give you certificate then they'll take
another picture they have plent of pictures now we'll give them their certificates and then you'll get to take another one don't worry about got rock stars yeah so Kyra Pala
yeah Za Jerry [Applause] Delany way to go Fisher woohoo R all
right [Applause] woodo put paper behind certific certificate
true mom thanks for coming out tonight parents and bringing the stud us sh us what's going on over Inwood because have a mam put into leadership gos early in life and hopefully they'll continue on that PA and thank you again for bringing them
out I know some of pass times Tom they don't have all night job byee you're good no you're good I was just run no I'm good I'm good that was so invigorating
okay now we've had our elementary kids now we're going to go to our high school senior and our senior represent and it is Miss Tomi hello so it's just me tonight unfortunately Tyler had a game so he couldn't make it um but happy February um a lot of fun things happening at the high school especially
for Valentine's Day so to kick things off um the choir is having their $5 singing grams um Key Club is also having their grams um GSA is hosting is holding their rainbow grams um and HOSA is also doing a doughnut sale tomorrow so that's
really exciting um speaking ofosa is also finishing up their sponsorship runs um I believe this Saturday is their second to last um so they've been doing this for about like 3 to four months now so this has been a really exciting experience for them um a lot of the kids go um and it's really nice to see people
go and interact in the community um also exciting news on HOSA um this year mark pasato hosa's first attendance um at the newly introduced NJ HOSA central region Regional Conference they had nearly 40 competitors this year um which reflects
a great increase from previous years um competitors traveled to Kean University for testing they enjoyed lunch and networked with other chapters um and state officers while also embracing the spirit of competition um piscato HOSA just continues to expand and it's really
nice to see how actively involved they at the high school um moving away from HOSA the day of dialogue Equity team here at the high school recently got approved for the no hay in the Garden State proposal um which essentially is a proposal for the New Jersey the office of Eternal G
General um which is a competition so that's really exciting we are planning to implement our project um so that's something to be looking on on the lookout as well um right in center of the superintendent of report you'll see sad um which I'm actually the president
of so that's really exciting sad students against destructive decisions um it's a new club here at the high school and we have been collaborating with the police cascat police department on the Safe Streets campaign um and we have a lot of exciting things coming up this month um so starting off this
Wednesday was supposed to be our what to do when pulled over event um in collaboration with the uh Safe Streets campaign however due to the weather it is now postponed to February 26th um and we're really encouraging students and families to come out um especially because it's really informative like
what do you do when you are pulled over I think that's really important so that's something um students are really looking forward to as well as we are hosting a collaborative event um next week with Chick-fil-A um at Wednesday so in case you guys are hungry please stop by um we will be um marketing and also
helping uh give out the food so that's something to look forward to um as well as this Monday we just had our bucket filler event um which essentially just promoted good notes and uh collaboration here at the high school and we will be delivering those messages tomorrow so
that's also all the fun things that are going on with sad right now um girlup they are hosting a girls night on February 28th in the comments um just to promote bonding with one another they will be painting tote bads bags making slime um and just chatting so that's
something to also look forward to Kem Club is hosting an event with Dr Connor on Wednesday Fe February 2 um so definitely stop by if you'd like to see Dr Connor talk about his experience in his PhD in chemistry so
that's something really exciting um I hope I show up um FBA had their second High School Heroes last Friday MLK um Intermediate School just again promoting entrepreneurship teaching about financial literacy and in presenting to
fourth and fifth graders um always a really good time I know the students absolutely love that and it's really fun to see the high schoolers come and interact with the Intermediate kids um fbl SLC is coming up very soon um I feel like I've been mentioning this quite a lot but every month it's coming closer
and closer in time um which will March 10th to 12th so a lot of preparation for that all the students um I believe this year we have 118 students that placed which again is the largest we've ever had um so a lot of preparation for that um uh National English Honor Society um
is hosting their read Across America field trip in the upcoming weeks I believe it's March 6th I want to say the first week of March um again a really good way of getting high school students to go interact with the elementary and on that note um safety ambassadors which is the program here at the High School
in collaboration with Robert with Johnson they had um their first presentation to Randell Elementary School last Friday um and this will continue until April which then they have like the summit um in May but again really nice really important focusing on all the safety topics here at the high
school and just safety in general um spring sports are also coming up I know track um track oh I'm blanking on them all the fun sports are coming up right now so that's again something to look forward to um cble us which is the vaping and tobacco prevention Club at
this High School which I'm also the president of so that's really fun or we're planning our um next big meeting which is next week um we're finally trying to expand as much as we can um and today we actually had a lunch event um just you know promoting messages and
focusing on Tobacco and vaping prevention um last but not least science National Honor Society is hosting their science night which is a huge hit of the year um essentially there are are over 500 attendees from Grand View randil gwood and Eisenhower Elementary Schools
um which get to experience the interactive exper um experiments and demonstrations hosted by science National Honor Society um it'll be taking place next Friday from 5: to 7: p.m. so that's February 21st um and they'll be talking about Sciences from all different fields including
environmental Sciences engineering chemistry physics and anatomy and biology um so some of the things that they'll be doing is volcano eruptions elephant toothpast slime creation which I'm doing slime so I'm really excited about that um and making towers with
Legos um it is a great opportunity for the students to come and see what the Sciences are offered here at the high school and what we do to promote science um on behalf of the science National Honor Society we'd also like to invite the Board of Education to stop by um and check out the really cool event and see
what all the students are up to so that concludes my report what was that date I'm sorry February 21st thank you from 5 to 7 5 to 7 p.m. okay thank you so much tomv for all information yes you will definitely see some of the board members up there on
the 21st without a doubt I'm sure we're going we're going to put Dr Connor to work don't worry I'll wear my lap coat oh God right oh no we're not letting you go that far but I know you have work to do thank you for coming out and updating us again on everything that's going on at high
school and get home safely it was good seeing you next we have the president's report February is Black History Month a time for us to celebrate all the important contributions made by African-Americans to our community and our nation our role as school districts is particularly
important in this effect effort to make sure our children learn about the great men and women when they are young and continue to build on that knowledge as they grow older our schools our schools many celebrations observations and lessons for black history man are
available to be seen on our website black history is an American history so our administrators and teachers work hard to celebrate this diverse diversity throughout the year but this month it's important to emphasize figures who may have been historically overlooked and
deserved in all respect our respect and recognition congratulations to the sad club for making a great impact in its first year at Piscataway High School sad which stands for students against destructive decisions has teamed up with the pasaway police department and its safe Street campaign to create a new
safe driving initiative and aimed at Team drivers the pway you know drive safe drive slow logo and message can be seen throughout our community on our school mares the sad members have been at events to discuss road safety and our host and police officers on February the
26 for a seminar aimed at teens and their parents about what to do if you are pulled over these great efforts by sad will help keep our young drivers safe when they are behind the wheel I'm excited excited about the ad program uh with a house full of teenage drivers
it's because I still call them teenagers uh it's very scary I see some of the kids leaving the high school that scare me even more um but just to give them the reality of how one second can change their life forever and that if they for
some reason accidentally hit somebody someone unfortunately if a death was caused and that they could be charged a vehicle manslaughter would break my heart so hopefully a lot of the students in and their parents come out just to listen and see what they can learn and try to encourage their students to slow
down and take their time and wherever they're going it's okay to get there late or they should have left yesterday that's just my philosophy and that's all I have for Madam president is there a um a Mothers Against Drunk drivers group do we have one in theway I can't answer that that I'm
aware of something out of high school no um next on the agenda we have the superintendent report all right thank you very much as always check out our superintendent report online at our superintendent Corner this month highlights include our winter sports update uh Rotary Club is fantastic we
appreciate their donations every year they continue uh the tradition of giving our third graders dictionaries and I know some of our our kids they say they still have them when they're in high school and Beyond so we really appreciate that partnership with the Rotary Club um our PHS science alumni
coming back to speak to our current students which was great uh and many other many other uh school activities so when you get a chance please check that out yeah it was thick yeah it's nice yeah had black history month and then sports update so uh Mr Miller is doing a fantastic job he's got a big role tonight so we're going to put him to
work too tonight so um our district has taken uh many positive steps to communicate with our community uh different languages different ways our next step will be a change in our messaging system which will have many different facets for families to be able to take advantage of and um ultimately a
website change which again help the communication through our District so um here tonight to present an overview and what our next steps are is Mr Gary Miller Mr John bof and then when they're done we'll explain kind of what's next and what fam should expect uh as the
week and next week roll out so Gary thank you so yeah we wanted some of you are aware already but we wanted to formally int uh introduce you to parent Square um there's a slay there I got it
launching this next week is our new District communication platform to keep staff and families informed and engaged so uh as you know we currently use School Messenger as our primary communication tool but there are many platforms that staff and families need
to keep track of the goal with parent squares to eventually have one place for all Communications as we make the transition next week we will be focusing on Communications from the district and the schools parents will be able to receive
these communications through email and text message as well as new parents Square mobile app that will offer push notifications parents and self will be able to control how and when they receive routine notifications so we're going to be able to share every day information through a
series of posts similar to a social Med social media feed these would include upcoming events letters from Principal photos Flyers uh and more individualized for each user parent Square also allows us to
send alerts for more urgent messages such as closure schedule changes attendance and emergencies as we said parent Square features a userfriendly app that we will urge all users to download but they can also get messages through their desktop they can receive messages through email
text or app notification and they can get messages immediately or opt for a daily digest which comes at 6 PM Eastern with all messages from that day we'll be able to override that selection in case of emergencies with instant alerts John could you go back a couple of slides
sure do that on this can you go ahead can you go back to where it had the list of now keep going one more I think okay here so once parents understand that they can have this screen and be able to choose okay I want to get text email and
and and voice calls or push notifications like they'll be able to uh do whatever they want all of these options and really customize it to their liking a lot of times a lot of U I'm not going to say complaints but feedback that we get is we get too many phone calls we get too many emails we get so
this will allow them to individualize how they receive it a lot of parents want all it give me all of it but what happens is if we give too much it gets to be where we don't even read it y right so some personalities would like that they want they want to be able to read everything but we want to make sure we can customize everything
specifically to families so it meets their personality number one and number two and they'll talk about in a little bit their language right we have a lot of languages here and this will interact with our website have the app and also the community but the messaging system
for Safety and Security reasons is fantastic so I didn't mean to interrupt but I really wanted to hit this screen so they can customize um one of the main reasons we're going here is to meet the personalities and be able to communicate with families how they like it and not how we think they should like it that
make sense sorry guys I didn't mean to interrupt no problem so parents will also get all messages in their home language right to ensure all families are kept informed the individualized Post Feed will include all the messages intended for that user
from the district and their specific School eventually that will include class or teacher messages as well as club and sports so we're g to um launch parents Square next week and that will be followed up in April by our smart smart sites website launch that'll be our new
website which is also provided by parents Square uh we hope to roll out parent Square even further next year with two way parent to teacher and teacher to parent communication we're very excited about this new tool we'll be happy to answer any
questions exactly how many languages you again do I can't count that there's a long list I mean don't how many we have at the scway I think it's about 45 45 yeah one of the features that I thought
was very interesting and um important was that even though the original text or the article or whatever the message is created in English when the user the parent speaks a different
language they're going to see it in their own language I think that's phenomenal like that's really cutting edge and that really shows the commitment that our district has to being Advanced and on the edge of what technology is all about so G explain to
me today that he could put a link in the parent square and how they receive it they could receive it like this or they could click convert and the entire text of this will be converted to the language yes so I mean amazing it's just fantastic right so we really want to be able to say that we we're doing everything to be able to communicate
with our with our families and make them feel comfortable and and the fact that all these resources are available now they can actually see them so it's it's it's fair these guys are have done such a fantastic job you to I I can't thank you enough this is for board members as well as administrative staff or anyone who wants to download the software yeah
so go ahead yeah so this is pretty much the entire Piscataway School District Community okay so so we'll all get an account how is this going to work how is that like so so when you say we're launching it Tuesday what does that mean for the the end user the end user will
receive an invite to participate and sign up with school with uh parents Square so we already have um our parents actually of the district all populated within the system so it's a matter of just getting you connected and you're on
you'll start receiving communication so this will what we use School messenger for will now parents SC will replace um however we'll still have transportation messages we still go through um School messenger and attendance for a little
bit attendance for no attendance I have a question for Mr Bart yes can you hear me y yeah um so when this system goes active does that mean that whole system will no
longer be in used immediately or for the time being while parents are signing up for this new site uh selecting their communication preferences would you still be sending
out messages through old system so for example this uh this week we had no events messages went out uh via email and and phone would that's still continue for
timeing we we're we're going to when we switch to parents Square we're going to just go to parents square but that does it doesn't mean if you haven't signed up for an account that you won't get the messages the emails and texts will still go to everyone um and those emails and texts will prompt them in there to sign
up for the app they'll get the messages whether they sign up or not but they'll it work better for them once they sign up I think the superintendent asked about attendance before you didn't get to finish that yes attendance will go out through parents Square okay they'll still receive that how how will you keep
track of the number of parents or people that register will there be an opt out uh as well or is it how are you going to be able to say of our population of this many people that we
currently communicating with in this first week 10% signed up 15% because you're relying on them to sign up and register so how are you going to make sure that the people yeah we we will get all that data feedback from our parents
Square Hub okay um like I said whether anyone signs up or not the emails will still go to them it's just the email will then an emergency calls as well snow calls if there's a you know emergency at the school something like that I'll still go to them right but they they they would not have customized it to receive it how they wanted I'm
just saying I imagine them here two months from now and say well we launched this on February 20th right and two and it's been doing it for two months we've only got 45 people that have actually read 45% and they could break it down by school and and things like that yes we're able to get to obtain those
analytics to be able to see that okay I have a question um schoolo is going to be housed in that too or like everything going to be hous into the parents sare so School Achi will continue to be used um for communications uh predominantly
for Teacher parent Communications until we are ready to turn that piece on for classes and then we will switch over the teacher parent Communications over to parent Square we don't see that happening we don't see that happening quickly we want to make sure students
will still stay on schooly have access SCH schooly is the learning management system so they're going to be doing their classes their courses and communicating with their teachers through there no matter what no matter or what uh anything that would be outside of that would be some of the club activity umta thing on there
exactly that we're going to you will find more through parent Square yeah and when you see ultimately the the website change over and how the and how the app works with that and all of this it's it's seamless it's it's really enduser friendly um and something that that
takes the communication to another level yeah post post through parents Square will automatically populate onto the website so how how secure is it in terms of cyber security it's secure it's and it follows um for princial
law um from the cccr Vantage Point um we had Gary and is in part of our meetings and so we had a really preview of this because that committee really tries to see how we can better communication what are we doing
with communication so we kind of got a a glimpse of what was going to be coming and the uh parents that are in that um committee really really loved what um was going to be coming in the future and they were like why can't we do it now it
takes time in education to get things done we all know so um does very small sampling of of uh parents but I can tell you that as a vantage point of you know culture and climate Community it is only
going to up up up our relatability our engagement being seen you know just knowing just the knowing of all the things and keeping it keeping it in one spot or in one
square okay well it says parents square but this is this has nothing to do with um the students have their own laptops and so on yeah so they don't have access to this at all or there there is an aspect of it called student square right that we're holding off on oh so there is
a student Square in the yes there is a student to teacher communication piece as well cool we're starting out with the district and school messages going out to parents we're hoping to eventually roll to teacher parent possibly teacher
student how much does this cost I don't remember give the exact figure I just want to know I mean you know we vetted several proposals I don't remember but I mean are we voting on this tonight
or is it no we already already this starts Tuesday this is launching time we're at the launch no no stopping this train is out one of one of the things Dr Conor to also note is that parent Square which um
you know I could say on behalf of Gary and I is that we have witnessed them evolved the feature set and really improve the product continuously um which is why we're very pleased with going with this as opposed to some of the other products that we've seen um you know and today I was watching
another webinar of more things to come that will help enhance this platform so we're very excited with what we have rolling out now and what's coming so yeah and I know Gary's got the camera but I think he should take a picture of both of you guys in those t-shirts with the same thing because you look you look
you look like identical like it looks it looks great no great great great J I have another question I know when schoy came out for the parent Parent Portal right a lot of parents were like kind ofes it was very hesitant to log on
because I'm I was one of those parents like you know I was in my daughter portal I I didn't know if I was in my portal she was telling me to get out her portal I was in I was like in the school the class so this is this is just for parents right this is just for the right now for right now just for the parents
and um I think someone did mention that uh it took me a while to get on to school because I was like hesitant just doing the mix up but you know you said parents will be more seamless I think I think it's very user friendly um you'll get an invite and
there's a big button right on there so sign up you know start your account click it l in in the invitation does it describe like what some of those benefits are yes okay yes um yeah it
walks you right through like if you want to change you can you can select you want you want to get everything by text you want to get everything by app you don't want any emails or you want emails at the end of the day you want texts immediately you know it's very but we can override any of that with Safety and
Security stuff yes anything any emergencies we we'll make sure you know we have settings where all every every way to communicate we will but i' really like that you can get the digest because if there's multiple messages coming out people sometimes feel overwhelmed that they get one digest at the end of the
day with everything then I think I like that possibility for people prepare that way and to be transparent the business administrator just told me it cost $54,000 so many per year that was for the first year it goes down to 43 and
subsequent Years thank you nice job gentlemen you're all you you all have your buttons and stickers yes I have mine on already help you spread the word about parents I'm a techy girl help spre the word we're communicating
the word thank you guys uh to continue with the um communication and equity and all things that we try to do to help families feel comfortable our district takes every effort to ensure that we deliver as much uh as many experiences as possible for students for staff uh
for families uh we recently completed a district Equity audit and here to share some of those uh pieces of information and data we collected is Dr Alex Gray uh he has a few slides right we're try to get through them tonight sometime tonight I was joking with them before so
we'll see uh but no really great information and what we do with that information is going to be really important so Alex thank you Dr Nelly um this pongrass just asked me how long is my presentation said it's a few more slides than the parents Square um but we're going to we're going to try to
move through them um pretty quickly um I I I wanted to start off and I hadn't planned on doing this um but I received something in actually an inner office mail this afternoon uh it reads Dr gray thank you for organizing the lesson led by the high school students it was a
great presentation and the material was engaging and accessible for our students all students were included and involved it was a great experience for all thank you um this is from uh tomv mentioned the FBA had a high school Heroes program
so I work with Junior Achievement in our fbl to coordinate that program and to the point where every when she said every student fourth and fifth grader at King school we also did it in Arbor early in the year every class has high school students presenting to them this
note of thanks that arrived today came from two of our specialed self-contained classes where we have high school Heroes for those classes as well and we changed the curriculum we put additional
students in there and they have special training and that was a custom note of thanks unprompted because that's what this is all about making sure that when we're pro we have programming when we have activities that we're doing the best job
that we can to include everyone regardless of their background or their experiences and so um going to briefly go through the overview and timeline the measures in demographics celebrations areas for improvement and some general Universal recommendations as well as
some next steps um just as a overview for those who are not aware uh the equity audit is a very comprehensive process that we've undergone and I've I'll go through the timeline in a moment that brings us to today but it basically
captured information from these four stakeholders and we this that'll resonate throughout the presentation students families faculty and staff and leaders this process began um Mid 2023 where we administered surveys and
I'll show the survey um participant data in a moment um it went then to October where Dr lenise Stevenson came to a board meeting and gave the preliminary findings I presented that and then we
engag in some policy and practice review focus groups and interviews the qualitative component and then the final dat data analysis which led to um the end of 2024 us receiving the final report and so this is a summation of that Alex I I don't want to blow up
any of your information that you're going to give but we really wanted to try to get to the root of Are We Equitable in every aspect of our district so not only do we offer Equitable courses and do we have representation but our our Athletics and
activities Equitable uh is our Lunch offerings our lunch offerings Equitable our policies Equitable so part of this process was to review all of those um and the expertise that uh lenise had she was able to identify good good parts and
bad parts or bad is the wrong word but areas of improvement in all of these areas so that's why you see policy and practice review right um you know are policies Equitable right are some outdated where we have to update them things like that so uh I didn't mean to interrupt but I think it's important for
that kind of breath of what we did here yes and no problem at all and the final report is close to 200 pages so this is a very very condensed version of some more Universal themes guys we're supposed to read it before you got you
know so um these are like Universal themes that will come out of universal celebrations for the groups Universal um areas for improvement and then we will drill down at another Point by school um in terms of what this means for each
school for each demographic group but again just keep in mind that this is a close to 200 Page document that has been condensed um to provide some Universal feedack back um so for the newer board members because I I pulled this folder before I came here so what you're saying
is that this November 2 2023 that woman presented here about this so this is a a year later of what the findings were correct correct so these this is the summation of the final report all right
got it all right and so the measures and we're talking about the survey measures again captured information from our student population families faculty and staff and leaders and these are the areas the key target areas that were gleaned
from the surveys that the focus points and pretty much it varies but the one thing that is consistent between all four is belonging School belonging um families do they have belonging faculty and staff as well as Leaders yes um sorry leader survey that would be like
administrative teams like principles like you guys like that's who leaders are correct so students students were middle and high school students we did not survey students below Middle School families were families that volunteered um to to be surveyed faculty and staff
were certificated and non-certificated staff so teachers as well as lunch lady secretaries all you know so there's a breakdown there and then leaders were all like supervisors principls central
office staff okay and the such all right and so these were the response rates that we had so we had close to 80% response rate for our students grades 6 through 12 our faculty and staff 30% um
which may seem low but that is very strong um for this type of voluntary and this the comprehensive survey it was close to an hour long so this is not a five minute you know I went to Wendy's and how did you like the food you know quick five minute survey this is a a long survey so for 30% of staff to
complete a 45 minute survey that is excellent then we had 90 a 90% response rate for our school and District leaders and um close to 450 families which again um we have about 7,000 students but still four to get 400 families and to
note that of those families it reflected our population ethnically socioeconomically linguistically and that was the strongest point is that those families that responded did reflect the
demographics of our district and again these are the key areas student engagement Family School relationships faculty and staff proficiency and Equity focused leadership so starting with student belonging in identity again middle and high school students these are the key measures that
were looked at engagement disengagement School belonging their classroom experiences and how they identify in terms of their ethnicity ethnic identity and so just some a few of the again General celebrations uh overall middle
school students tended to have a greater sense of Engagement than the high school respondents uh female students as well as generally black and Asian students Had A Little Bit Stronger senses of belonging um in their schools
and then across all groups generally students felt that their teachers provide clear instructions and they provide provide structured learning environments and that was against across all groups and then our Hispanic and African-American students tended to have strong levels of connection to their
ethnic identity which is important for us to know because that is that's a strong piece of who they are we have to make sure that as Educators we're understanding that in terms of how we provide instruction to them in terms of some key areas of improvements that came
out uh engagement declined significantly from middle school to high school um especially with high school juniors and seniors um male students and some of these things may be surprising or not surprising male students in particular had much lower rates of
belonging than the female students um male students also had perceived that their teachers were less supportive and again we say perceived doesn't mean that they were less supportive or are less supportive to the male students but male
students perceive them to be that way to support the female students more than the male students um and finally again generally high school students reported lower engagement in terms of their ethnic identity than their middle school
counterparts so overall um stemming from the students um they tend to thrive more when we Foster inclusive environments when we celebrate diversity we have strong connections to them and we provide Equitable access so our students
have Equitable access as their peers to resources um it's a better environment for our students so again some key points from our family and school relationships um these were the key areas that were measured in terms of in communication which is a big piece that we just
focused on with parents Square School engagement barriers institutional and personal belonging as well as um ethnic identity as well for families and so some of the celebrations the things that came out strong in a positive way um
families generally perceived that their students were engaged all right uh academically motivated and so they perceive that it's a it's a good environment and a good engaging environment for their children they also felt that their
children have a strong sense of belonging so families and that's as a parent that is comforting to know you want your child to feel like they belong when they leave you for school and families feel that they also feel that they have a sense of belonging so not only do their children they feel that
their children have belonging but they feel like they belong in our school Community generally yes um this might be a silly question but these parents that came forward to do the survey are generally parents who volunteer correct
they're parents that correct right so like so okay that's all there Al a lot of areas Improvement as well okay so it's not all celebration for families so you know some people like to respond to
surveys so they can gripe and tell you what they don't like as well so it's not all celebrations for any other respondents so you count for like negative perceptions besides the other there there is areas of improvement for every category netive and celebrations
for every category okay yeah we start with the good yeah yeah I always start with the good and so some of the areas Improvement uh family engagement again some of this is not surprising engagement decreases um as in and the one thing I want to note for the student survey we
only surveyed middle school and high school students so we don't know how our k3s or four or five students feel but for the family surveys it was prek K12 so we have data to break down for how K3 families felt how four or five families
felt how Middle School families felt so I just wanted to clarify that that this is for K12 um the family responses um also busy schedules and workload stress and workload stress is the stress of their children the
workload on their children um tend to be barriers um there was some concerns there about the minor workload and that was not just high school but across the board um there's concerns you know about just the workload or the how much time
they have to spend on homework uh and then finally um communication and so parent square is right in line with some of the concerns about communication because sometimes we look or districts look for what is the one way we can communicate with our families and there is no one way and the
data showed that it varies there are all different ways that parents want to be communicated with and so parent square is a direct response um to answering that concern addressing that concern that there is no one way we're allowing
now parents to choose how they want to receive communication yes Dr Dr Gray um in the busy schedule number two yes um student workload stress also include like students who work so there's less engagement with their family plus their
schoolwork yes so the stress level is high for those students who are working and going to school yes and then there's also and and if you dig down into the research um families their workload their stress level depending on their
economic status how many jobs they're working that's a barrier and so some of the things that are recommended are really getting to know your families individually and finding out how can you engage them traditionally and also non-traditionally to adapt to their to
their busy schedules as families right um again uh families feel valued and connected to their children's education through fle flexible communication parent Square culturally responsive practices and workload management
uh faculty and staff um and again the faculty and staff surveys were were pretty long um and so they covered all of these areas um throughout and the surveys some of those areas did not apply to non-certificated staff so most
of those areas apply to teachers but in terms of secretaries other staff members they may be filled out you know four or five of the seven so number of celebrations U teachers were confident that they are able to adapt instruction to their
diverse needs as well as build trust with their students they're very uh confident in that they also feel that they understand how to create belonging and inclusion um that they greet students that they listen to their students they felt strong about that
generally as faculty um they also feel that they're pretty culturally responsive that they acknowledge the the racial differences the different cultural differences of their students um and they also perceive that you know
they are comfortable here in this place of work that they feel that they have belonging themselves our our students have belonging our families have belonging but most of our staff generally feel like they have a good sense and strong sense of belonging as well uh and finally they have an
awareness um they responded that they have an awareness of racial privilege but it was particularly among our our administrative staff elementary teachers and mid-career teachers and so I didn't do a lot of breakdown by areas but when
we sit down with the principles we can even hone in even more on what were the strengths um or areas of improvement for your school or your level what were the strengths and areas of improvement for you as a middle school principal or just Middle School in general what is meant
by racial uh privilege awareness of racial privilege understanding that some people have greater priv based on their race um just like or based on you know just like some people have greater privileg based on their social economic status things like that male or female gend situations just
understanding that better worse just having an awareness that there is privilege um and there's different kinds of privilege and some people acknowledge that some people don't want to acknowledge that but it's important to acknowledge particularly when um we're dealing with students and
families from all different backgrounds to understand that um there are certain Privileges and what does that mean when we're interacting with others that may be different than us did you have a question com you have a question Dr Nelson I was just going to make a
comment because I was just thinking about um greeting students by their name especially like in Piscataway there's so much diversity it's important that teachers learn their name I'll be at home like spelling it out phonetically
so I can like pronounce it correctly you know that means a lot because that means a lot that means you took the time to learn me and call me so you're respecting who I am but you see me as an individual individual exactly and like being sloppy like
whatever your name is yeah you know students will engage more and work even harder when you take us something as simple as getting to know their name right yeah that means a lot for for kids we all know that we like our name said properly that's right that's right I I
would not make that mistake again I would not make that mistake a few areas of improvement for faculty um High School teachers and late career Educators and so one of the measures also when they looked at staff they looked
at your tenure so there's a breakdown even for how newer teachers thought midcareer late career so there's a lot of differenter like okay like the 30s 40s yes so there's a lot of different layers to this um again I'm giving you
the surface but when you if you want to read that 200 Page report you can look at um how people responded based on their race how people responded based on their gender how people responded based on the level that they taught how K3 or prek teachers responded um and how new
teachers responded versus you know 25 30 you know year tenure teachers responded and so that's when I I I dropped a few of those in there there um and so there's a weaker sense of belonging for those teachers um and then there where
lower perceptions so students from upper grades and underrepresented groups had a different type of perception a lower perception of support and so that's an area of improvement we don't you know have to drill down and see why but that was what
came out that teacher support was not as strong for students in high grades as well as from underrepresented groups all right and then uh finally across all grade levels um staff or teachers responded and reported that they had
lower confidence in providing culturally responsive teaching strategies um and more of the structural so there's some relational cultural responsive teaching strategies but there's also structural ones and they had less confidence in the structural ones like being able to adapt
their classroom structure to accommodate the needs of their students or fostering autonomy in students or designing certain learning tasks based on greater Choice maybe to adapt to you know the different needs of the students sitting in front of
them and so when we equip faculty and staff effectively um and structure things the way that they should be we help Foster more engaging learning environments that Empower all
of our students so we have to balance that involvement the support and the structure in the right way to get the outcomes that we want for our students and finally uh our leaders and again there's a lot of categories for our leaders so I really appreciate that we had such a strong response rate for
our leaders because again these were not short uh surveys that they responded to uh celebrations leaders generally believe in the strength and the positivity of cultural responsive teaching um which is great especially for such a diverse
Community uh it's important that they believe in that uh regardless of their particular roles As Leaders across the district there was a belief that there's a connection to their communities so our our leaders feel that they are connected
to their Community to their schools um and they're confident in fostering those home school relationships which is important um as Leaders they're generally aware of racial inequities and privilege so they're aware that those things exist um
which also is important and overall our leaders um the theme of the night our leaders also have a strong sense of belonging in the district and they want to be here which I think is very important that there's just overall over an overwhelming strong sense of
belonging across all four groups some areas of improvement our leaders need a little more strength in support in guiding teachers and engaging our elll populations our elll families um I'm
sure they want to be able to but they just don't know how right and so we need to support them on that I'm also in addressing assessment biases and it may not be something that's pervasive but there are some biases in terms of Assessments absolutely um and so we you know we need to be able to recognize
that and support leaders and helping address that as well as helping their teachers provide culturally inclusive classrooms um so that all students when they walk in and when they're in instruction that it's customized for the varied needs and the varied backgrounds
of the students um additionally um in leaders of in observing their teachers they realize that teachers need support in integrating real life experiences into
the classroom so which is important for kids they like to know that you know the latest songs and know what's going on and things like that they don't want you to act like them but they want to know that you're aware of what they're dealing with as teenagers and so there's some support
that leaders need to be able to provide teachers in providing that yes well I'm glad you mentioned you know equity and teaching instruction but where are we as a district in having teachers um reflect the uh diversity of our uh of our
students we're still working on it yes we're working on that and that that's a are we here are we there it's a work in progress It's not a level it's not and it's tough It's not an overnight thing because we don't roll over our entire staff every year to
be able you know it's it's a a longer process cuz it's attrition right so um you know we don't have you know Fortune Ely we're not a district with a lot of turnover right some districts have heavy
turnover we have because our staff has a strong sense of belonging uh and want to be here um which is a great thing um we don't have maybe the turnover that some districts have um but we can take steps continue to take steps um as I know Miss
pong I just wanted people to know that for years we've been trying in terms of recruiting to make this you know the best we Poss just give you a little bit of an answer if we if we look at the last two hiring years we're probably at about a 50% minority rate which is great
right um you know what we what we struggle in now more um than the minorities is finding East Indian teachers right which makes up most of our population cor so um Colleen uh is working on a report that will be able to give you a little bit of
a of a of a of a focus of where we are but just those two little bits of of information help out we're very conscious of it uh trying to make our staff look resemble our our students I'm aware that I me just asking sense that I know a we're moving we're moving along every
year we're doing a better job but what I'm hearing him say is that the effort a stronger effort has to be put on the leadership to continually keep up with the changing uh with the changing um ethnicities of of the student body and
the changing cultural contemporary conditions and what's going on with them it it's not only um the students and their cultural norms that are changing it's the teachers that have to put in the leaders
that have to put in the effort to keep up with them because the students are coming and going and those things are continually Chang the leadership is probably pretty stagnant so the effort has to be put on them to the leadership that level to maintain the Contemporary
what's going on in the world yeah and then that's and that's hard sometimes as you you're more stable and you're more and that's a big piece to the study is is both looking at hiring but also what are we doing with the staff that's here right because they're going to pretty
much stay you know they're not going to change over much more eloquently than I was trying to say there always going to be we just want to get it done you said to be existing St but that's what I was thinking there's always going to be more existing staff than new staff right
exactly and so while we're you're trying to verify staff you can't ignore what are we doing to keep the current staff to speed on the Trends on the cultures on the nuances of the population correct
to make sure that they're regardless of what their background is because I say this often none of us understands all of us that's correct so no matter who who you know as a black man I don't understand all the backgrounds of our
community so it's nice that I'm a black man in this community and I'm you know I guess I represent diversity but I still have to constantly educate myself on all of the many backgrounds in this community that to which I don't come from and I'm unaware so anytime we're
hiring whoever we hire everyone is going to have to continually be made more culturally responsive right correct right I saw a hand over here Dr so I was just thinking um Dr Gray like that last little sentence in three parent expertise and
cultural knowledge I was just um you know you're talking about bringing in um more teachers that with a W A Wider diversity but also like that's a good statement parent expertise and cultural knowledge because from there I know you
think I like me a parent Academy and as things develop they be responsible for pushing out some PD on a volunteer basis this way you're not spending a lot of money out of District money because they're helping the community they are part of
the community and that's the engagement yeah the building engagement who work with our families reg have our next uh CCR meeting you can definitely bring that up we'll talk about it we do have a wealth of knowledge in our parent in the community we talk weth of knowledge and and some of the things
that help us grow as Educators is not the ped or the instruction it's understanding the students that are sitting in front of us exactly and a parent does not have to have even a college degree right to help educate us about a particular
background about Traditions about cultural norms about values about religion about all these things and so that is an often umt resource in our community and so it's there for Improvement because as
Leaders is in coming upon us to help our teachers understand how to appropriately tap into doesn't mean every day a parents in your room replacing instruction but there are definitely opportunities throughout any given year where we need to do a better job of
tapping into the the parent resources that are right there in front of us so I'm going to give you my vision okay okay get my out I I know but from his vision I'm jumping on to it so okay so
let's say this Super Saturday where teachers present PD to the community and where the community presents PD to teachers and other families this way everybody's learning everyone's learning it's a Comm a large
community engagement if it's very successful I'm sure you'll do it the next year and I just think that that's something that could be done you know everything diversity Saturday right it see all right all right let's do it so
we we're gonna talk a lot of work to do we set up time to talk you know cuz I can't be in the meeting but y'all gonna plug me in so I'm wrapping up uh that but just just about at the end wrapping up and we may have a few more questions
um these are just some Universal and again there are there is a tremendous list of recommendations if you read through that 200 Page document very specific recommendations um but here are some just Universal recommendations uh enhanced professional development on
cultureal responsive teaching uh inclusive communication and representation which again parent square is really hitting on that um supporting marginalized groups and understanding who our marginalized groups are they're not always just the ones that we think
there are a variety of marginalized groups that we may not realize are marginalized groups and it may vary by school it may vary by by grade band I'm focusing on student and I put uh in parenthesis and family transitions so we
know that engagement for students and even for parents tends to WAN as students get older there's the strongest in preschool and the least in high school correct and so we talk about transitioning our students um let's be mindful of
transitioning amilies because if we get families on board then we'll get the students on board so we have to consider are we working hard to transition our families or do we focus sometimes more on just transitioning the students um and then building strong relationships
and that means a lot of things student staff you know staff family staff staff leader leader you know there all these relationships need to be strengthened and then just ongoing monitoring and adaptation and that word adaptation
realizing that I've been here 25 years and this community has changed in those 25 years and if I dig deeper back to as a student growing up here it's changed even more over the course of my I'm not even going to say how many years I've been a part of this community so we have
to continually Monitor and adapt as our community adapts to meet the needs of our community uh in a few quick next steps um it's called a public facing document that we want to have so that we know not many of us are going to read 200
pages so we I'm going to work with Dr Stevenson to create a public facing document um and working with Dr relli as well to capture this in a way that's digestible for our community and not too
much and too complicated but can really they can glean the key points from this from this audit uh also meeting with principles individually to share their SCH School data so they can look at what things are pertinent to them for their
building their students their staff focusing on Improvement and recommendations that align with our school and District goals this whole report we kept in mind along the way what is what are the goals here at badway what does our new
strategic plan say and this aligns to that and we want to focus on those areas that align with what our community has deemed to be important uh and finally continuing continue and I didn't say start but continue because we're
already doing many of these things to support the our school and District initiatives that already promote belonging and equity for all of these stakeholder groups we're fortunate that we're not starting some districts have to start this work we are not starting
we're continuing the work that has already begun and and that's that's what the KE point that I want to leave you with all right and again just one closing statement and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you that you have can I get a copy of the slides
please s to my email thank you very much yes I'm willing to read the 200 pages okay I can I can give that to you as well whoever um may want that yes um with the one statement on there that they said about the males feeling they didn't
belong I know we don't have a way to specifically identify the males but I'm trying to think how could we take 50 strong and try to get some more support into the into the male population not specifically but males in general
because I hate to see on a statement that males feel like they don't belong they're the hardest hit individuals with mental health M and to feel they come to school 5 days a week and they don't feel they belong as a problem especially in my
eyes um I speak firsthand because I live it I've had it in my home so it concerns me it concerns me tremendously so I would really like to see what else we can do as a district to try to get support to them so that that feeling
diminishes some to where it doesn't exist at all yeah and what we'll do is we'll drill down even by level because it's not all males um and then when we look through the that report you'll see some ethnic groups rise more than others
in terms of that feeling which is why I told you I'm willing to read the whole pag you know so we looked at so that'll give us a better picture of who we need to focus on okay and who who we need to Target but we definitely need to come up with a game plan and an action plan
immediately um only because like I say it touches me and it frightens me at this same time because if they don't feel supported here they may not feel supported at home so where do they go and in Dr Gray the way I feel I feel like I'm the board historian but I I
feel that we need to take more of a proactive approach and you know I pull my folders from the past and I look at what we've done in the past and exactly what Dr Gail Nelson said is that if we can't wait till we have a uh like a
racially charged event in our community or surrounding Community to have what's known as an equity Summit you had an equity Summit AT Middle School March 15 2022 yes but that was based on something that happened in the news with Bridgewater with on but I'm saying I
feel that we have this 200 Page report but at the same time we need to be proactive like you're saying to have those kinds of events yes I agree thank you thank you Dr agree want well I'll tell you what I told them on a side notes
uh being teachers would have to come on a Saturday I was thinking what if we could plug out a little bit of time on a teacher inclusion day where they're here and they're doing trainings and the training would be the parents giving them the trainings and it could be at different every school or different levels at different schools but I think
that would be the ideal day that we could capture the teachers are already here they're already here cuz I know if you come to me as a teacher and tell me hey you want me to come on a Saturday uh I might I might not but if I'm already here well that's you but if I'm already here and I'm
already here for Learning and don't know what I'm coming in to learn and I can actually have a parent come in and teach me something about their culture that I'm clueless about but I won't acknowledge that I'm clueless about it but I walk away from there a brighter person a better understanding of that culture then it's a wiwi situation
absolutely but I do want to say this for real teachers will come out on a Saturday I didn't say they wouldn't but I I know I know what you're saying though because we are overwork but to come out like if you have groups of teachers working on something and they're really about that business they're going to come out cuz that's
going to be special to them it's going to be like I can take my time I can get things together you know they don't feel like they're under a microphone and I'm not being judged I'm exact speak freely talk engage just showing your best s your your best practices Dr Gray thank
you very much we appreciate uh Mr Mattel thank you Mr Matel um next we'll have Personnel Labor Relations Miss Nancy s thank you everybody thank you and she's one she's my oldest
friend she's old friend here all right be it resolved that the following motions identified as a through F be approved as presented this secretary can you take the role Dr Connors yes Mr King yes Dr
Nelson yes Mr Batel obain [Music] R yeah it's yeah on all Miss Rivers
yes Miss Smith um yes Mrs Sado C yes M Cherry yes Mo car committee reports all committees have a report here so we're
going to start off with fiscal planning and operations uh the fiscal plannings and operations committee met on Wednesday February 5th uh to discuss the 2025 26 budget capital projects and more on the 2025 2026 budget the committee reviewed
uh the primary budget uh draft information worksheet the committee discussed to propos tax levy state aid and major expense categories um kitchen equipment installation the contractor repaired the electrical issue for the uh
comi ovens in the patent kitchen all equipment is functioning and final inspection is All That Remains to close the job facility capital projects Piscataway high school media center and acoustical upgrade projects uh contractor walk were held for both
project bids and were open on February 11th with the expectation for the contract award on February 13th BC high school wood shop dust collection the structural steel supports were installed the dust collection unit is awaiting installation there are several change orders for the remodeling of storage
spaces and replacement of the electrical panel uh piscato High School intercom clock system uh The District administration is reviewing the updated Piscataway High School building survey prior to scheduling walkthroughs with interested contct contractors the
district plans to solicit quotes for the work during February 2025 award a contract in March and complete the project in the summer of 2025 so this would be to upgrade that whole system and I think that also includes Public Announcement um
capabilities um through that through the whole High School complex so Energy savings Improvement uh program which is called esip the final payment applications are on the February 13th board meeting agenda for approval tonight this will officially close the project but the relationship with
Honeywell will remain as we process rebate applications and monitor performance solar panels spel architect has begun uh work on the quibbl town roof replacement specifications talva energy has prepared a scope of work for replacement of the solar panels at PC
High School in quelt toown walkthroughs were held at PC High School in kakm with the roofing manufacturer can ACAC and Shore have some solar panels that will be expiring in June and roof warranties are expected as well Mr Ola is considering a plan to bid out
the removal of the PCAT High School solar panels This Summer to address the immediate concerns a new schedule will be discussed to include solar panel Replacements and roof workk at the high school ctown kak M and Shore Food Services uh lunch participation remains
above prior year with a 177% increase and meal serve while breakfast participation has experienced a 113% increase increase in meals served reimbursable meal revenue is up 39% um Advocate um completed a site visit and
shared their findings with mashio and the business trador New Jersey school business legislative update Dr Connor uh as me discussed school business legislation including s [Music]
3994 requiring now this is about um uh Schoolboard candidate uh election requiring 25 signatures for the nominee petitions instead of the 10 and that that have been required in the past and then there was another piece of
legislation s 3917 related to State uh school aid funding that was voted out of the Senate education committee um it's a bill that now um Senator vingle pal is championing and it will go to uh for
further discussion eventually to the to the assembly but it does include we're at the end of our seven-year period of State uh school funding law and then the governor had asked them to take a look at what's next and this is what's next
and um so we'll uh we'll keep you posted on uh what what's going on with uh school school funding law as we uh as it goes through the legislature business office uh the investment account the committee reviewed the current balance
on the January 2025 New Jersey asset rebate management uh it's called NJ arm statement and current interest rates Promethean boards and payt and by the way on this one this just again I just have to give credit for the the thinking
on this one to take money that would that we we couldn't make money on and now we can we have the board administrator as in the policy that oversees this but just to say that last year loan uh you know on on $20 million
were up to about 1 .2 million in in Revenue that we wouldn't have had otherwise um and water testing the district has been conducting uh the prometheum boards will be installed at Eisenhower King kelt toown and Shore painting bid specifications will
released in February P primarily for the for these four buildings plus Arbor with contract uh award expected at the April 10th meeting water testing the district's been conducting water testing for lead in accordance with the state mandates to occur every three years results will be posted and letters will
be sent to school communities that have LEDs and um at Seance of the threshold testing expenses are ured by the state and last uh balanced literacy RFP it's it's actually on tonight's agenda the evaluation committee completed the evaluation process and recommending the
adoption of a program um at tonight's meeting uh agenda and that's my report thank you Dr Connors policy and legislative M Smith the policy legislative committee met on Monday January 27 2025 to discuss policy
updates and State Legislative action Mr Rubin reported that the administration presently sees no need for a standalone policy on cell phone use as it is currently being managed appropriately at
building level the committee reviewed and approved to be placed on the board of education agenda for for first reading updates to the following policies and regulations to reflect recent changes to the uniform memorandum
of agreement with the Piscataway police department they are as follows P 5512 harassment intimidation and bullying R 5533 student smoking PNR 7441 electronic
surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds PNR 9320 Cooper operation with law enforcement agencies p8500 Ser uh Food Service the committee discussed and approved for first reading by the board
re a recommendation from the administration to revise policy 5120 assignment of students to delete the following sentence every effort will be made to continue a student in the same elementary school once the student
has been enrolled in that ele in that Elementary School at Mr rubin's recommendation the committee deferred consideration on the following policies pending further review by the administration and
reconsideration by the committee at a future meeting they these policies that were deferred were P 5111 eligibility at resident nonresident students eligibility of resident
non-resident students excuse me P 5460 High School graduation P 5516 use of electronic communication devices p571 acad academic Integrity P 5710
student grievance P 9163 spectator code of conduct for inter Scholastic events with respect to policy 916 three in particular the committee
suggested that the administration seek the coach's input on what they believe constitutes unacceptable Behavior at their team's events Mr Rubin updated the committee on
pending Bill increasing the number of signatures required for nomination nominating petitions the committee discussed the need for Clear protocol calls for District staff concerning Federal immigration enforcement activity Mr
Rubin reported that procedures already have been developed based on current guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education which will be reviewed and modified as necessary to reflect any additional guidance from State
authorities and that's our report for the month thank you m Madam president I just have one question and then um the assignment of students in policy 5120 I know that that sentence was taken out but in the next paragraph um it mentions
that the superintendent shall assign incoming transfer students to the school in their attendance area of the resident uh provided the district school or class siiz requirements so is the class siiz requirement a separate um document or is it a
uh is it a uh so for elementary school you have a policy not to go over 25 without me having to to uh take some steps right and the other grades uh are range so why wouldn't we reference our policy under class SI can we reference
the class siiz policy and that policy can you reference one policy in another is that necessary want to do you want to I I I mean we we spent a lot of time in the past on class size as an issue and I think that we you know
to be more transparent we should put the policy on about class size in policy which one is is it the five which one 5120 and the the first one third paragraph yeah yeah yeah got you we check it out Dr coners thank
you I have a question with Dr Conor to when that um sentence being uh stried out too what is the rationale for that in this policy in this policy rale for what for why being making every effort um um they're taking out so if if
somebody moves into the uh somebody moves into an area for no one but they're there's no room in any of the in the classes we have to assign them to another building so I I instead of going over the policy that has the class size limit
right we have the the uh capability or really you're giving the the policy is giving us the leeway to assign it to another building until a spot opens up in that building and that's why I'm asking put that policy in there because it adds more clarity to like why they doing this the reason why I was asking
is that because also too maybe a child has been at a school for so long and then something happens for a reason they have to move like in a year and they have to go to different school I think that policy though if I'm not I don't have it in front of me I think it's about the assignment when they move in
when they move in only when they move in yeah yeah there's other other policies that that talk to that that's not that's why thank you so just to clarify what we I know we're not at the agenda yet but 5120 is on here for first
reading yes do it want to be removed or pending yeah pending the addition insertion of uh a reference to the class size policy or what's the herbage I think that if if uh Dr tommer not Dr
Thom Dr to Dr cow yeah no Dr Tom Conor is suggesting um to add certain language then it have to go to First reading again wouldn't it at the next meeting is that the way that works necessarily you can make changes between person the purpose of first reading is to give people the first look at an opportunity
if you're making major changes to a policy that's one thing if you're just tweaking it here or there which I would consider this to be okay I think that could be done between first and second reading but so I think it's Lost in Translation I'm going to ask Dr coners if you can send me an email just spelling out exactly what your suggestion is so okay lose anything I
mean just reference it's a school the reference that policy the policy about the class size it just says class size requirements and then in parentheses policy whatever it is so just includ the policy number yeah so if people are
going through it they'll be able to have a cross reference to why we have thank you Mr Ruben so we'll leave it on the agenda then for first all right back to committee reports Nancy Co um did anyone have any other questions
about um any of the policy stuff or no okay no more discussion okay good okay culture climate and community relations met on Tuesday January 21st 2025 to discuss positive messaging Community Partnerships and wellness initiatives
positive messaging Mr Miller shared a presentation of the monthly themes quotes social media posts and Marquee images from the end of November through mid January the December themes were generosity giving January themes were um
was Muslim Heritage Month the Marquee and social media images for Dr Martin Luther King Jr day were highlighted and upcoming monthly themes for February Black History Month and March women's History Month were shared Community Partnerships Dr Grace
shared information about students from each of the middle schools visiting Ruckers to engage in Hands-On activities and and to learn about health related careers The National Society of black engineer and minority engineer educational task Club is
progressing well um at the high school and the Junior Achievement future Business Leaders of America at the high school Heroes program took place Fe um February 7th at MLK I think it's been me mentioned a couple times today Dr Gray
has um began working with the um principal Mr baldasano and the fpla advisor um Mr citelli is that right Celli Celli um to potentially expand the high school
Heroes program to the K through three three schools using students from the future education associations the fiia club one of the FIA advisers also uh along with a few other students from the club observed the FPL at the King School
High School Heroes day um just going to flesh that out a little bit basically the um future Educators association club which is the newer Club um since that's going to be their specialty is actually teaching um having them partner with the
high school Heroes so that we can bring those same sorts of um financial literacy and and so bring that down to the elementary level seems like a perfect marriage so this way those students also will get time to practice
some presentation um King school has a financial literacy club that participates in bz toown and Junior Achievement programs where where students learn about leadership and manage managing
money um Dr Gray has been working with aror principal um Miss odonnell to start a financial literacy Club at Arbor and the advisers will will be trained by Junior Achievement um also of note just so that if anyone in the community doesn't know this partnership with
Junior Achievement all of this is completely free to our district so that's really really great and relevant um to us to receive this partnership where we get a wealth of um activities
and and so on um for our students at zero cost which is just truly amazing um Wellness Services The Haven had their family night it was held on um Thursday January 23rd at the high school H Commons and discussions are progressing
around partnership with the community outreach commission to bring back the inplane site um presentation for parents that's what we did in cccr yeah the uh Junior Achievement actually has a site in raran Center where the kids can actually go on a
field trip and they actually pretend that you're the banker you're the whatever yep that's good the culture and climate the curriculum committee met on Monday February 3rd 2025 to discuss student assessments English language arts
updates online math resources and more upcoming District assessments Dr Bas access testing runs through March the 28th with makeups after NJ GPA runs March 10th through the 14th with makeup dates after gogat runs February 17th
through March 31st for all second and third graders including elll students and students with IEPs we promote inclusion of all students into gifted and talented programs star Renaissance and mid mid school year screeners is Feb January 29th through February 9th Ela
updates Dr basille and Miss Alban Ela is shifting from the readers work readers Writers Workshop model to science of reading a committee was formed to review the request for proposals regarding the eventual selection of curricular resource program vendor the committee
met February 4th to recommend the final purchase afterward Administration will announce a calendar with parent workshops and professional development for students the module will begin on the model will begin for the 2526 school year data teams Dr basille Data teams
have been formed at all district schools where the sole focus is analyzing multiple data points the Administration has established a process for how to examine data through the use of structured protocols in our data team meetings where school teams identify
Trends areas of strength and challenges in addition to the academic academic data with identified areas in ela and math the teams are looking at behavioral data for example greaty disciplinarian office referrals at our intermediate schools have decreased 33% at Arbor and
40% at M from the same period last year by examining the data through implementing appropriate interventions and strategies online math resources miss dayon the district uses ISL as an online math resource in grades 4 through 8 and PHS it works well for
differentiations in the math classroom it is versatile and student engagement is high the administration will piloted shoes in grades one and two for the remainder of the school year and will determine if there is something else we should consider and to make sure it is most appropriate choice for the grade
level Community Based science doctor celebrates including community in Science Education extends learning beyond the classroom engaging students in real life science for a deeper understanding it is also strengthening Partnerships for enhanced educational opportunities K through 5 science
highlights include science lab visits aeroponics grow towers and visits from Karen schler an MLK parent and genetics professor at Ruckers Middle School highlights includes synthetic frog dis dissection relating phenomena within the
inter integrated curriculum and visit by Johnson and Johnson representatives to kakac letters for the culture book our local author Latricia pre previt Latricia previt a Piscataway author with children in our elementary schools
created an early learning alphabet book rooted in many cultures it is meant to be inclusive and is available on Amazon Barnes & Noble and Latricia privit.com um we had a very interesting meeting and curriculum committee we always do always
will um hearing about ISL I initially remember with my kids being involved at school and having ISL I just actually talked to Charter School in Jersey City to getl because their students who struggling with regrouping so it is
definitely the one of the best programs I've seen But it allows the kids to be engaged to learn on their own but it gives them the opportunity to master it it doesn't just stop where okay you've got five right so we go on to the next chapter um the things that we do in
curriculum amaze me sometimes but Dr be's leadership there and his initiative to always be proactive and moving forward and always looking at the unson hero in classrooms or who are not identified like this testing we're doing
for the IEP students and there are a lot of diamonds within inclusion classrooms this is going to give them the opportunity to shine I say that wholeheartedly because I have kids in who were in IEPs who were
inclusion classrooms and they're now shining throughout the high school and in college so if they're given the opportunity or given a voice of their own to voice what they know and how they know it not just be put into a square and say you've got to figure it out from the square we'd be amazed at what we
will see them achieve um and that concludes what we did in curriculum looking forward to our next meeting next on the agenda we have approval of our minutes Miss Loretta Rivers I yes being resolve that the following minutes be approved as submitted uh the
reorganization meeting January 2nd 2025 and the SE session January 2nd 20225 second M second all in favor okay and also be resolved that the
following minutes be approved as submitted the business meeting January 9th 2025 and executive session January 9th 2025 second all in favor one more more be resolve that the
following minutes be approved as submitted our special meeting on January 28th 2025 motion second all in favor I and that concludes all right Mr Patel we got you public comments from the floor and I
see no one sitting in the public comments I'm going to open public comments can have a motion motion have a second second all in favor I okay I have a motion to close public comments motion motion second second all in favor I okay fiscal planning and operations Dr Connor
be resolved following motions identified as items a through M be approved as presented second Mr secretary can you take the RO Mr King yes Dr Nelson yes Mr
patal yes Miss Rivers yes M Smith yes Connors yes Mr Sal Cen yes M Cherry yes motions carried policy Miss Smith you resolve
that the following motion identified as item a be approved presented second Mr secretary can you take the role Dr Nelson yes Mr Patel
yes M Rivers yes M Smith yes Dr Connors yes Mr King yes Mr Salado Cowen yes M Cher yes yes motion carries col will Mr Patel be able to move this or no he has a yeah curriculum Mr
Patel resol lost Pages we resolve that following motion identifi a item a approved as presented second second can you take the RO uh is there one is
this one I thought it was the next one time okay Mr Patel yes Miss Rivers yes Miss Smith yes Dr Connors yes Mr King yes Dr Nelson yes Mrs agado Cow yes Miss Cherry yes motion
carries Miss Nelson we resol that the following motions identified as items a through C the who as presented second Mr secretary can we take the RO but it's just the one where you the next
one okay oh get ahead of myself I'm getting ahead of myself calm down I'm let you okay M Rivers yes M Smith yes Dr Connor yes Mr King yes Dr Nelson
yes yes Sado Cowen yes Miss Cherry yes carry Dr Connor this is the one this is the one all right this is the one asking be resolve that the following motion ID identified as item D be approved as
presented a through D A through D okay resolve that the following motion identified as items a through d That's presented go back separately we the D we put in Personnel gotcha okay just a through C okay be resolved the following
motions identified as items a z be approved as presented right second right here all right thank you now here's where we're going to have people abstaining all the women who are attending the women conference if you just say yes I will note that you're abstaining on
yourself okay the for the four uh well under control Tom only three of you are here if you say yes I will obstain you from your own name on uh item C can I go can I okay no well you said you can go as AA okay all right Miss
Smith yes Dr coners yes Mr King yes Dr Nelson yes Mr Patel yes M Rivers yes Mrs alado Cowan yes but abstain from
say and M chry yes from motion's carried I don't it's okay D got it he got you he got all right we're on the old business we're getting near the grand finale Tom what you got for us for old business uh quickly the um Master board
certification that we are working on you got a question Mr Patel which one what about D no that was in person the last did um it was an updated this I have a print out that was updated I never got a
copy of D I was supposed to abstain from d uh that was uh are we voting Mr Patel the item you're referencing was included in the Personnel agenda which you abstained from it was not it was not included in admin auxiliary wanted to make sure yes
I I needed to abstain from that okay yes you're okay as as we all under old business as we all know we started down the masterboard certification track and um what we do is we pick topics and we have the new New Jersey school boards
Association field representative come here and talk to us about that and uh what we've been using is um their sample of service topics and so for bird certification we had a whole variety
what I'm suggesting is in the last one we actually had uh that started our Master board certification credits was um superintendent search and what I'm recommending for the next one which we'll schedule because we need every every hour is a credit so we'll schedule
in the next few months we need to get 10 credits over two-year period so no no hurry but the topics I'm trying to keep them current are going to be on board governance is strategies for success and then the second one would be on Communications which I think would tie
in with what we're doing tonight is uh key communicators yes so I will be putting together uh an email copying the board president vice president and to get get our field representative here in the next couple of months to discuss these
topics and keep going on our um Master board certification okay any new business um n okay motion for adjournment I've got one
quick one on new business because of May 10th is the New Jersey school board's delegate assembly and we have not been participating in putting together resolutions because we don't have as many contentious topics of trying to
change New Jersey Schoolboard policy which is used by New Jersey school board's government relations to go to the legislators so but there's a timeline and I'm just letting everybody know that if you have this you know urge to put in a
resolution it's due on March 6th and um and what I'm going to do is part of this topic is that I haven't been doing as your representative to the delegate assembly is once I know what the topics are from all over the state I will in the meeting probably April meeting tell
you what they are so you can have a chance that when I'm sitting there vote that you know we're all on the same page as particular topics and um that was my new business thank you Dr Connors motion J second all in favor we
areour don't forget every everybody give me your updates for uh the goals try to do it by Monday upd for thank