during that time. >> Okay. >> Hello. Welcome to this public meeting of the Princeton Board of Education. The board is an elected unpaid group of 10 citizens who set policy and make decisions on educational, financial, and personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all
residents. We're always pleased when members of the community attend our meetings. The board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education. Each meeting includes two opportunities for those attending to comment on items on the public agenda or other matters of
interest to them. The board reserves a right to limit the time allotted to public participation. Law limits discussion of individual personnel and confidential matters. We hope our meetings provide useful opportunities for communication between the board and the community. Thank you for attending. >> Notice of open public meeting as
required under the open public meetings act NJSA 1046. Adequate notice was given for calling this meeting. It was authorized by the board of education and forwarded to the municipal clerk, Princeton packet and the times on January 9th, 2025 and distributed to the schools and others on the standard
distribution list. The board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the board of education. Board policy 0168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this in-person meeting that the proceedings are being recorded. This meeting is being livereamed.
Notice on votes pertaining to the sending district. The representative of the sending district is authorized to vote on such matters that affect sending district students or affect the governance of the Princeton public schools as more specifically designated in NJSA18A 3881. Sending district votes pertaining to personnel actions refer to
high school, central administrative, and districtwide staff only. Votes otherwise are considered abstensions. In the event that NJSA18A 3881 is amended, the law shall take precedent over this bylaw. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. >> Thank you.
All right, roll call. Daffany Kendall here. >> Susan Caner here. >> Beth Bon here. >> Adam Beerman here. >> Debbie Bronfeld >> here. >> Laura Franchesky >> here. >> Ellen Huard >> here. Ariel >> here. >> Christopher Sanpio >> here. >> We have quum. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. Can I get a motion for the adoption of the minutes
for uh November 18th? Ari. Second. Chris. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Thank you, Mr. Harris. So, uh, we're going to switch things up a little bit. Um, we're going to, um, start. I have a few comments. Dr. Dr. Lassusa has uh a student uh that will be speaking with us. And then uh we have a little tribute to our departing board or exiting. I
love how it says exiting board member. I guess it's better than departing. Exiting board member Debbie Bramfeld. And then um we're going to have because Debbie told her children that we would have a 15-minute break for cake. Um so we'll be I didn't want to let anyone
down. Um, so we'll have a 15 minute break and then we'll have cake and then they can leave and we can get on as Debbie told. Right. That's what you told them. Okay, great. >> Um, so anyway, thank you. Welcome to this meeting, our last meeting of the year. And um, to quote one of my
favorite artists of the year, Shabuzzi. Um, oh, what a hell of a year it's been. And so I just wanted uh to sum it up. I was going to sing, but I didn't. Um, so I want to we started the year by appointing uh Dr. Lusa uh as superintendent and you know so that
seems to be going uh beyond expectations. So thank you for that. Um we also uh um Mr. Harris also joined us uh over the past year and as did um Miss B Mrs. Baldo. Um so um we're excited to
have you all here. We're a better district for it. Um so for that thank you for that. Then also in January, uh, we passed an 89 something million dollar referendum by 70% to 30%. Uh, and you know, one of the great things about
being in this position is that our community truly supports public education um both financially and um with our content. And so we're grateful for that. Um, in March we signed a um
it's really a a pilot agreement, but it's really a shared services agreement with the town where we're one of the only districts uh in the state that um has revenue sharing with a pilot. Um so again, we're very grateful uh to the town council for that participation and
you know, we hope it's the beginning of um many more such arrangements. Um but in the interim, people have reached out to us from across the state asking, you know, how we did it. So again, thank you uh to especially the town council, but especially uh Mia Saxs and uh Brian
McDonald. And so now we're here today. And I'm going to turn it over to you, >> Dr. Luca. >> Thank you for the retrospective, Miss Kendall. That was very nice. And it's great to be here. Um there are two parts to my uh section of the agenda. Uh one
of them is a curricular presentation that Dr. or two we'll introduce in just a minute after the cake. >> Yes, I want >> and uh but the first is a stu a student presentation and um about a month ago uh couple of students at the high school
asked to interview me for a piece they were doing on students devices and and website access and so forth. Uh, and the young man who's with us, uh, was funny because he he was interviewing me and he was asking me about the websites that we
had decided to block this year. And of course, I have no idea what which websites are blocked and explained that really is part of the the algorithm or the the software package that our tech department um, deploys. So I asked him, "Well, which ones can you give me some specific ones? Maybe I can take them
back." And he's like, "Well, you know, it's just ones that students like." And I was like, "Come on, can you just give me one?" So finally he coughs up, well we really like to order online from Mammuds. And so I of course I pounded the table and said I will rectify that immediately. That's
an outrage. Uh but after our interview we spoke for a couple of minutes and I asked the students if they were interested in journalism. And this young man, Ori shared with me that he had authored a grant and won a grant uh from the New Jersey Civics uh consortium uh
in the amount of $13,700 that is going to the Princeton public schools. It's actually on our agenda under o uh number 10 or so. Uh but we will be accepting that donation tonight and uh the the award will be used
basically to bolster uh the tower and everything that his classmates are doing to keep journalism alive and keep civics at the front and center of what we do. So I've asked Aritra just to come and share a little bit about what the grant
is about and what he was thinking when he wrote it. and then uh of course we can ask him a question or two uh when he's finished. Thank you Ritra. >> Yeah, thank you so much Dr. Lusa for the introduction and thank you for the board for having me tonight. Um as Dr. Luca
mentioned, this grant has been a process for the tower, but it has been such an excellent experience for all of our members. Uh my name isra. I'm a junior at Princeton High School and I'm the managing editor of the tower. The tower is now in its 97th year and it has been a cornerstone of the Princeton High
School experience. Um, and so I just want to start by thanking our adviserss Dr. Lev Dr. Lewendowski and Miss King for their continued support for all our journalistic endeavors. Um, and so what I want to start with is this grant was
all about breaking down barriers to entry within our newsroom. And when we were writing this grant, we really had to dig deep. We had to understand what were the implicit barriers to entry that students face when joining the tower. And one of them we noticed was iPads and
cameras that visual staff had to provide when they wanted to take photographs or draw graphics for the tower. And this isn't really spoken about, but when we thought about why our staff wasn't as diverse as we liked it to be, this came up as one of the main issues. So, as
part of this grant, we decided to invest in iPads and shared cameras for our staff. And all of this goes to say is that the main reasons we chose to pursue this grant was to bolster the journalistic pipeline within Princeton, but also to make the tower a more
diverse and true representation of the students it is for. Um, and so our grant is titled building a 21st century newsroom. and that is embodied in every part of this grant. Um, one of the other key parts is are their modernization
efforts. So, as part of the grant, we're purchasing printers. We're purchasing new um, transcription software that builds journalistic integrity within our newsroom. It boosts our journalistic ethics, and that is something we want to always emphasize, especially in our
current 21st century media landscape. Um, and we've always, um, had the pride of being one of the few print public high school newspapers in Mercer County in the surrounding areas. And we are continually, um, thankful for the board
for that support when it comes to our printing expenses. But it also means that we often don't have funds beyond our operational expenses. And that is where the grant came in. It gave us an opportunity to invest in our long-term. It allowed us to invest in keeping the
tower alive for more than just the next month, more than just the next invoice for our printing. Right? So that's what this grant was all about. It was about helping more students participate in the tower, but also allowing new stories that often go overlooked to be pursued.
As another specific example, we have a multimedia team, but as um we've grown, we've noticed that people really don't take you seriously when you're filming using an iPhone. So, as part of this grant, we decided to invest in cameras and new pro video recording software.
And all of that is helping us build a more robust multimedia team. And as part of this grant, it helps us modernize and really build together the tower as a um modern 21st century newsroom. So yeah, thank you so much.
>> Very exemplary because um as a grant I person can keep the lights on next month and it's great that you're giving some some leeway, padding, endowment. I appreciate that. And does anyone actually read the print part anymore?
>> We hope. We distribute over 400 copies each month within our um school. So I often get comments from Miss Burge, the principal, but also, you know, teachers saying like, "Oh, I read your piece or you know, this is great reporting on this issue." And funny enough, uh, Miss Kendall mentioned all of these great
milestones for the board and the district this year. And the tower has reported on every single one of them. We've tried to bring in new perspectives from community members and really try to um help the students understand the important issues and the developments going on within the district.
>> Guys, question. >> Sure. >> Um did did you find you did get diverse students showing up, ones who never thought about even joining the tower? >> Yeah, and we're actually hoping to directly collaborate within with groups such as MSAN, so the minority student
achievement network as well as Latinos Uniditos. These are often groups that, you know, have stories that want to be shared but don't know the avenues for that. So through this grant, um, we have actually very specific targets we need to hit to, you know, receive all of her funding. Um, so through this grant, we
want to really do targeted outreach to these groups and others to help bring their stories to life. >> I think I'm going to see you in the news someday. >> Yeah. >> Do you want in a good way? >> Thank you so much for for this. And can you remind us again how many students
actually participate in the tower every year? I mean it's a lot kids right? >> So we our newsroom consists of 70 high school students and 40 of those are staff. So it is one of the top you know clubs you know activities within the tower. >> 40 40 kids and you produce every month you produce an issue uh how many pages approximately?
>> Uh 16 >> 16 pages and can you remind for people it's possible to subscribe right it is. >> Can you tell that I had two children that were very involved here? This I think the tower is an amazing um and the fact that we still >> Yeah, they'll mail it to you. My my
point is we can adults and and parents can subscribe and get it at home in the mail or dropped off at their house, however you do it. >> Exactly. Yep. >> And in Is that available on your website or how do people get that information? Yeah. So, our website is the towerphs.com and right when you get get to that website on the top left, you'll see a
subscribe link and that those subscriptions are really so important to, you know, helping us continue our mission. And yeah, so we have so many parents that subscribe, but we're always looking for more adults, you know, to, you know, help spread the work that we're doing. So, yeah, thank you so much for >> as as a parent, I'll just say often your
child doesn't really tell you much about what goes on in high school, which is normal, but you can read the paper, you know, read the paper and and find out. It's quite quite informative. Thank you. >> As a Princeton High School student, I do want to say the tower is very well respected at Princeton High School on
distribution day. Aritra is going around. Kylie, who is one of the senior editors, is going around. They're always like coming into classes. They're like, "Do you want the tower? Do you want the tower?" We have like news stands in the hallways. Um they have it. It's printed on like it's looks like a newspaper. Um it's like the kids love it. It's it's
really good. Thank you. >> The kids love it. >> The adults love it too. Thank you so much. and we appreciate, you know, your efforts to expand um, you know, the access to other students in the district. So, thank you for that. >> Can I just ask one quick question? Um,
thank you so much for your efforts. I think this is really great work and it is an institution in the high school. So, one of my favorite pieces of PPS swag is my tower sweatshirt. Are you guys going to be selling swag again to help boost the newspaper funds as well? >> We hope to be this December. So, again, keep an eye out for that.
>> Please send it to Valley Road as well because I know Dr. Lassusa was checking out that sweatshirt, too. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> I'm on it. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for coming tonight. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we're moving on to item
E1, tribute to exiting board member Debbie Bronfeld. So, um, I'll say something if some other board members want to say something and then we'll open up to public comment if anyone wants to say something and then we'll adjourn for cake. Um, and that's not in the order of priority either. Cake is
first. All right. So, I just wanted um to say Debbie, uh, as you conclude your service on this board, uh, I want to take a moment to thank you not just for the time you gave, but for the spirit in which you gave it. Board services is demanding, often invisible, and rarely
simple. And Debbie approached it with, "Oh, I didn't give you tiss. Do you need tissues?" Deja vu, right? Deja vu. >> Okay. She's like tearing up. Ready? Okay. Debbie approached it with thoughtfulness, preparation, and a
genuine commitment uh to doing what what was best for our students and our community. She asked um many many many many questions, listened respectfully to differing viewpoints um and never lost sight of the responsibility we carry as stewards of the public trust.
Um but Debbie's most important focus was the students. Debbie, they say I wasn't able to find out who that public service is about leaving a place better haha than you found it. I was talking about the tissues. Thank you. Um they say that public service is about
leaving a place better than you found it. And looking at our schools today, it's clear that you have exact done exactly that. For nine years, you have been a steady hand and a passionate voice in the room. Whether the task was navigating complex budgets, advocating for equity, or simply ensuring that
every student felt seen and heard, you approached it with a unique blend of tenacity and heart. You didn't show just show up for to meetings. You showed up for our community. Um, and we always knew that when Debbie said, "Look it," we were in for a
problem. Um, you Debbie, thank you for the late nights, the tough decisions, and your unwavering belief in the potential of all our students. We're a stronger district because of your leadership, and we wish
you uh the very best in your next chapter. All right. Anyone else want to say anything? >> Sure. Go ahead. >> Well, I just want maybe a different perspective. Congratulations. >> Oh, congratulations. Um, Debbie, we've had some disagreements, but to me that's
a good thing. Um, I think our founding fathers um wanted democracy to be contentious, at times messy and slow. And um sometimes consensus could be overrated. But for the past nine years, you've not been on the sidelines. You're in the game. Really in the game. And
some, as my dad said, anyone who would go on the board has to be a little crazy sometimes. But but through tumultuous times, COVID, renaming schools, a lot of superintendent. You've also been willing to go, in my opinion, against the status quo, status quo at times, disclosing
sometimes not helpful emails, raising concerns about high tops. To me, that's real courage, though, because um it's it's not about protesting some vague issues that don't always directly affect you. Sometimes it takes really courage to go against rigid thinking, sometimes in your own circle. And also, you showed
courage and you showed me you would go through 60 pages of financial statements each month keeping your eye on the cash register for the public good. I that's I respect that. >> Great job. Um, I'd like to speak to um my personal
and some of our board members personal relationship with Debbie being on the board. Uh, Debbie's always one of the first people to welcome new members to offer to show them the ropes of how things work. She was with me and as a leader both in and when you're on a
committee with Debbie, whether she be a leader or a member, she's always willing to help you understand the past issues and the current issues. And it has made like board service such a pleasure to work with someone that is so um dedicated to what we do, dedicated to
our community and I now consider a friend and so we wish her we know she's going on she can't help but serve continue to serve the community. She has that that gene in her. But we're so glad that she spent nine years here helping us.
>> Can I say something? >> Sure. >> Debbie, I have utmost utmost respect for you. The way you have served this community on this board for the last I've been with you eight years and I think we've grown together. We've certainly been through all sorts of things together and
I've watched you and and admired your tenacity and your meticulous note takingaking and those note I can't imagine how many notebooks she's got. I don't know, you know, >> they're going to be for sale soon. >> I know it's going to >> the book is coming >> future big book deal. But I just wanted
to say that it's been, you know, it's been a pleasure to to grow up as board members together. I think that many of us have been through so much and I think we've evolved and we've come to such a good place together and it's been a honor and a privilege to serve with you.
So, thank you Debbie and we'll miss you. >> All right. Oh, you want to say something? Okay. >> Sorry. >> I didn't want any awkward pauses. Go ahead. Um, getting to know you has been a true true privilege. Um, sorry. I'm
gonna move this so that I can kind of look and talk. Um, you always read every word of every doc and then and and and it's awesome. You dig into every detail and it's really really um admirable. Um, I love how you respectfully disagree if if if she's like, "Wait, did was that
about me?" And she'll call me up and be like, you know, "Do we have a problem?" And and then work it out and then there's no problem. And I love I resp I respect I'm like I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful for that. Um your advocacy of all of our students has always been absolutely admirable and um
you're going to be really blessed. It's been a pleasure. >> Best to you. >> All right. Uh now we'll go to public comment. Um so if there's anyone who would like to speak now about anything, but um Debbie would be preference. Then
we're going to have cake and then but I can't tell you what to speak about. So, if there's anyone who would like to speak, please come up. >> And if you could just let us know your name. >> Sure. And we don't need to know this. We don't need your home address. We're not coming over. We're just
>> Hi. Hi, everyone. It's very nice to see everyone. Um, I'm Betsy Calberio, Lafayette Road. Uh, first I have two items on the agenda in my agenda this evening. First, to congratulate Daphna Kendall and Susan Caner on their re-election to the board. Um, let me
publicly state how lucky this community is that you each have decided to remain for another three-year term. I also want to congratulate Erica Snyder on her election to the board and I wish her a really productive and fun and meaningful board service. But my main reason for
coming out this evening um is to add my voice to the many accolades for my friend Debbie Brianfeld. I was lucky to serve alongside Debbie for eight of her nine years on the board, and I got to witness firsthand her commitment, her problem-solving skills and her humor.
While we often bonded about raising boys or our love of Boston and the Red Sox and snow, so see you got some snow. Uh, we got snow. We also worked together um very closely on topics usually related to equity, student achievement, and
personnel. Debbie is proof that it is possible to hold the needs of students at the forefront and still be financially prudent. Further, Debbie is a board member who follows up. It would not be uncommon, someone else um referenced this after a long or difficult meeting for hers to be one of
the first texts or phone calls in the morning or for a committee or for board leadership to receive an email from Debbie the next day with maybe eight to 10 suggestions uh for solutions or additional thoughts. I would be remiss not to mention her eye for detail. Mara,
I think you just mentioned that as well. Um, which was enormously helpful when reviewing agendas, proposals or presentations. So, we are all grateful to you for your service the both for the public schools and the community. And I thank you all for your volunteer service
to the board and to all of you staff. Happy holidays and congratulations to >> All right. All right. Do we have anyone else right now? Public comment. All right. Can I get a motion to adjourn? >> Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I got something. Oh. >> Oh, she's here all night.
>> Oh my god. It's two pages. >> NO. NO. IT'S ONE. It's only one. It's only one. >> Okay. >> All right. As long as today is a bit bittersweet for me. Nine years is a long time to be a school board volunteer on the one hand, but it
also feels like a short time when there's still so much to do. There's a huge learning curve to be an effective board member and I appreciate the work we have all done for the students during the time I've served. There's always been three main areas that I've put my energy into since I joined. Special
education, accountability, and the budget. Margarita is a breath of fresh air for our special education community. And I'm so happy she has joined our district and is here to support all our special education students, families, and staff. Uh second is accountability.
This includes the board, top leadership, all the way down to our students. As a board member, student education is our northstar. And reaching it means everyone must be accountable for themselves and what they need to do and what they shouldn't do. The political
environment in Washington this past year has really been attacking public education on all fronts. Not just in what they want us to teach, but how we are also supposed to financially support educating our students. The district and board need to keep thinking outside the box budget-wise so that Princeton can
continue to be the best district for every student that walks through our doors. I want to thank my boys Harrison class of 2015, Max class of 2018 for being my liveaction case studies
about AP classes, math, music, extracurriculars, friends, homework, stress, talking in class, college, and having fun. well at Littlebrook, the middle school, and PHS. Um, you are the reasons I joined the board, to ensure every student at PPS
received a free and joyful education, and your experience as students and now adulting have always been the structure of how I view issues and how I have ultimately voted on them. I love you both. I've always thought school board was the lowest level of government,
especially since we're nonpartisan. But boy was I wrong. School board members have a lot of responsibility to the taxpayers, the community, the staff, and especially to our students. I've worked hard and smart as a board member, and so have my
colleagues, always putting students first. I want to thank all my fellow board members for sharing their lives, families, opinions, and views these past nine years. as we s as we work to support our staff and oversee the district. I hope you all continue to
cause a bit of good trouble for our district. And thank you to my friends who have voted for me, put lawn signs up, and been there for me even during the tough times. Daphna, I want to thank you for nine years of being my board colleague, my neighbor, my ride to many,
many meetings, and my friend. Jason, my husband, thank you for being by my side these past nine years and supporting me each time I ran. Thank you for listening me to complain about a few things and for just nodding your head
when I said I had another board meeting. It has meant everything to me to have you in my corner. >> Over the years, I've learned a lot about myself, about education and our local and state government. I will miss the school board and I'll miss making a
difference for students, their families, and the Princeton staff. I am a very proud product of public education and giving back to my community has truly been an honor for me. And I want to give a small shout out because my family and friends said they would be watching
tonight. Thank you. We're good. >> Yep. >> I can do the I can do the motion to Can I get a motion to adjourn, please? Mara second. Beth, all in favor? >> Okay, we'll have a 15 minute break. It
is 8:00 right now. >> Oh, 758. We'll be back at 8:15. Thank Oh my god. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey dip. Heat. Heat. D. Black.
That's And then all right, thank you. >> All right. Well, welcome back everyone. We lost every now. >> Welcome back everyone. Thank you. Uh we're moving back to the superintendent report. >> Can I get a motion to restart the
meeting? Beth second. Mara. All in favor? >> We're good. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Dr. >> Sure. Thank you, Miss Kendall. So, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Tu and her team, and they are going to give a uh
brief presentation and summary about uh the roll out of Arts and Letters, which is our new literacy program in grades uh in the elementary grades. >> Uh good evening everyone. Happy December. Happy holiday season. Thanks so much. We're going to try to, you know, uh be short on time tonight to honor everyone and get home to do all
the tasks that they have to do uh before the holidays. Uh so we are really excited to present tonight. Uh with me is Sarah Moore, our elementary supervisor, and also Mary Alan Wallower, who's one of our K5 instructional coaches who does such deep leg work with our teachers and really supporting them um in their capacity to deliver
instruction to our students and especially in implementing this new program. Uh just briefly, um why are we here tonight? Uh we presented last year uh to SAC a few times about our elementary ELA program pilot. We came to the board meeting to talk about it and then this fall we um attended four uh
elementary PTO meetings to talk about the process of the why and the how and we also went to CPAG and so we figured why not kind of share an overview of the the major questions that we were asked uh during those meetings and share them with the board and the community tonight. So thank you for your time and attention. All right, I'm going to turn
it over to Sarah for a second. >> Fantastic. >> Thank you so much for allowing us to speak tonight. So a few reasons of why these shifts happen because the Y really cementss everything that we do in practice. Um last year we began on this journey because teachers college reading and writing project which we had been
using for many many years was dissolved in October of 2025. Um because of this dissolution 2023 because of this dissolution um that was no longer a usable curriculum. So, Miss Al Miss Wallower can speak more to this. Um, when we went to support teachers with
instructional materials, there weren't materials to use. There were bad gateways. Things were being taken down by the company because of this very public dissolution. It was on the cover of the New York Times. It was a really big deal. In addition to that, right at the same time, New Jersey adopted new ELA standards. Um, those standards would
have not supported the previous curriculum. There were a lot of great things in that previous curriculum, and there were a lot of areas that needed bolstering and support to meet the new standards. and exactly what we know is best practice for young readers. Um, a group of over 25 educators from all four of our elementary schools came together. We had representation from every grade
level, from general education, from special education, and from admin join in this committee to look at different vendors and have them out to present to us to say what is the next path forward. Knowing the dissolution was happening and knowing that our standards had changed and updated,
we did an extremely thorough review of about seven to eight different vendors that came out, brought us presentations, gave us curricular materials, and our committee delved deeply in. Um, we know that we wanted to be rooted in a few non-essential things um that included high standards of quality education,
diverse book offerings where students could see themselves. We wanted rigorous content, structured writing opportunities, and close deep reading experiences and various genres. One thing that we know from testing, again, while testing is one little dot around the whole profile of a learner, we did see pretty consistent trends that our
students were lacking in non-fiction. So, we definitely wanted to make sure that students were exposed to a variety of text um and genres. We wanted things like poetries and poetry and play to be brought into the forefront. Um, and we wanted an entry point for all learners. So, we wanted to look at how our
multilingual learners were acquiring language and literacy skills. Um, we wanted more structured approaches for students with IEPs and more on-ramp so that all students could be successful. We did launch pilot classrooms across all four buildings in our district and across every grade level. Um, we had
both general education, we had um self-contained settings, and then we had co-taught inclusion settings. So, we wanted a variety of viewpoints as we entered into this work. Non-pilot teachers were invited throughout the entire spring last year to view come join us in informational sessions. Um, Miss Waller was hugely instrumental in
getting pilot teachers set up in bringing in our other teachers to view the work that was happening across. After all of our piloting and delving and talking to vendors and really seeing what was best for Princeton and the students in front of us, we had 95% of our committee vote in full adoption of arts and letters.
Okay. So, what is it? Um it's an English language arts program that delves into the world of rich authentic text and a topic of discovery. Um these classrooms are bringing with curiosity. They are loud. There are socratic seminars happening. Students are actively engaged in discourse. Um they are looking at
diverse information text, non-fiction, fiction, plays, poetry. They are looking at exemplary writing models and using graphic organizers to structure their writing around text. Um we have seen great results with the program so far this fall where students are heavily
heavily engaged in the coursework in front of them. Can >> I just add something here Sarah? So when we looked at some of the new uh program providers and vendors as the committee um one of the things that we saw was sort of the you know there's shifts in education and and pendulum um swings and
so with teachers college it's very student centered and teach and students read what they want to read uh that that graes their interest up topic genre and they write sort of in this big open um bucket and then the other vendors that we saw that were not arts and letters were like basil readers. So when we were growing up, if you remember, it was sort
of like short excerpts and then comprehension questions. And we really felt it was important as a committee that children were reading whole texts, diverse texts, and really applying their knowledge in new ways. Um, and in this chart here, you can see uh K through five uh the different uh what we call modules in arts and letters, and they're
very high interest. So there's a myth unit in fourth grade. Um, and in every module there is a a piece of art that sort of lands the unit and it's a really great connection to our new updated university museum. Um, so uh we have an upcoming PD day and we have um one of
our elementary art teachers and one of our first grade teachers um co-planning a PD visit site with our uh PPS teachers to go to the university and connect even further with this work. So, we really love these interdisciplinary connections and as a social studies educator to see the experiences that these kids are
talking about with civil rights or the American West. And what's really nice too is even in that module, there's fiction, there's poetry, there's plays, there's video clips, there's multimedia presence because the standards really emphasize that. Um, so when we talk about teachers college, it wasn't all
bad as Miss Moore had shared. Um, but when we know better, we do better. And what we were seeing is without explicit reading and writing instruction, kids were falling behind. And that's not okay. We want to support all kids um in Princeton. And we also want to align. We're a public school to the new New Jersey standards. Um so do you want to
give your example, Sarah, about the music? Um so I'm an arts person. I'm sure you can tell by my affect. I did theater and opera and play piano and ukulele. When I was eight and learning piano for the first time, someone didn't play a symphony for me. And I said,
"Okay, my turn. I I can do this now, right? I learn notes and scales and how to read music and then I put that together and eventually I was able to play Moonlight Sonata. Learning to read requires the same explicit instruction and build. It is silly to expose a child to a text and say, "Okay, now your turn.
You go. You go write like this, you go read, but I'm not going to teach you the foundational skills that you need to access." Right? It's it's a build. There are multiple components of teaching young children how to learn to read and write. And we wanted to provide explicit on-ramps for all students so that all of our students felt they had a successful
entry point into curriculum. Okay. Writing. Um writing is something that we've heard a lot about this year. Arts and letters focuses on three main genres. Those are standards aligned genres. They are also the same genres we had in teachers college. They are narrative, opinion, and informational. They happen across K through 5 continuum. Creative writing
opportunities are embedded in um several different tasks throughout a student's time in arts and letters. Hearity writing was also purchased because we wanted even more touch points for explicit writing practice. So, Hegarity Writing is a supplemental resource. It has about five minutes a day of daily writing quick lessons with teachers. Um,
and it also provides students additional work. So, if they didn't get that lesson on nouns, here's another touch point for you. Or if you need a little bit more of a specific practice with adjectives, here you go. We have this for you. It was just something else that a teacher didn't feel like I had to go to the internet to search for that it was provided for me. Creative writing is
promoted during certain units of arts and letters. It is not in every unit, but it's promoted in certain units. And then a lot of our staff have been leveraging volume of reading and focus blocks in the day um to promote creative writing and tie it into their arts and letters sequencing. Um writing is expected to occur every day within the
60-minute ELA block. It is an embedded program where reading and writing happen simultaneously. >> Integrate. >> Yep. >> Um so here are some examples. Miss Waller and I get to do a lot of classroom visits. Um yes, feel free to chime in. So these are some poems that
we saw around being kind and good and bravehearted in fourth grade. Um their whole unit, Miss Waller, if you want to explain. >> So Arts and Letters works on a lot of analytical work. So we always think of um fiction andformational writing and reading together. So we are examining figuratively what it means to have a
great heart. Um and then really what is the circulatory system and systems of the body. So this knowledgebuilding curriculum is an excellent way for students to tap into their curiosity and that sparks a lot of creativity in writing. So this teacher decided to do some poetry work with her class um
surrounding that that module. Um I think we have a few >> we have a few more examples. Um this teacher chose in third grade to have students write stories um and tie them into some of the topics they had experienced in the module thus far. This third grade it was the module of see and space. So students had written some
stories focusing on those as settings or different tieins for them. >> This was our favorite. Um this was first grade. If you want to explain a little bit about it. >> Um first grade tapped into their first module was um um why why are books
important and not just the joy of reading and writing but also the importance of keeping it close. So they um as a culminative project culminating project they made little free libraries. They were reading a lot of books about ways to, you know, get books into hands of everyone and throughout, you know, history how important that is. So, they
created their own little free libraries. The students authored all the books that are inside of them. The teachers, um, were able to get some Amazon, um, bakery boxes and then displayed them throughout their school. So, uh, and I think actually they took them out to the community if I'm not mistaken. So, just
an excellent way to kind of celebrate that joy of reading and writing. Um, and that was from a first grade class. Um, so you heard me mention that volume of reading and focus time. So that time equals out to an hour a day. Um, the great thing about Princeton is that we offer so many programs for students. The
hard thing is we only have so much time in a day. Um, so to not disrupt core content, we do provide these times of day where students get exactly what they need, whether they need to go for a related service or they're doing small group work in the classroom. It is a time that our teachers can leverage things like that additional writing
heardy writing component, creative writing outlets, book clubs in fourth and fifth grade specifically. They really love to bring in book clubs and have discourse around novels that they love to study, reading groups, projects based learning, math tasks, um exemplars, which are higher level math application problem solving skills and
open-ended tasks. And then versatiles, which are another math extension activity, teacher support. Um I will just take a moment. And um this time of year I think it's very important to express um gratitude. So I am very grat grateful to work with an excellent board that
supports when we say that we need to look at new things and we need to figure out a new program that you were on board to do that with us. Um I'm very very grateful for Dr. Luza and Dr. 2 and Dr. Valo who really have supported this. Um I've called Dr. 2 at all hours of the day saying help her. What do you think
of this? Um, Miss Wallower is emailing back at 10 PM and 11 PM and texting me at midnight saying like, "How can we best support this teacher? What do you think of this idea?" This is truly an all hands-on deck approach. And I'm the most grateful for teachers because it's very uncomfortable to launch a new
curricular program. Um, I know there are many teachers who are in tears on the weekend saying, "How can I make this?" Or, "This feels uncomfortable for me right now. I've been a teacher for 22 years. This is brand new. I I feel uncomfortable with this." Um, I'm very grateful for everyone for sticking with us this fall in a new program because it
is uncomfortable to learn something new and to be vulnerable in that way. So very grateful for everyone in the room for for doing this work because it is what's best for children. Um, so extremely extremely grateful. Thank you all. Um, so as we navigate new curriculum, teacher support is at the forefront of everything that we are
thinking about and planning. Um, teacher support is offered in the following ways. We have monthly grade level curriculum check-ins. U, Miss Wallower, myself, Mr. or heartache or a math coach and the building admin principles join each grade level and say what exactly do you need? If you are a second grade teacher in this building, what is the second grade team's need here? How can
we best support you? This happens at every single grade level at every single elementary school once a month. We have four times a year coaching cohorts for both math and ELA. If you want to share a little bit about what they look like. >> Um so coaching cohorts are building based. Um we've tried a variety of of um
ways to kind of implement them. Sometimes we have cross-d district uh cohorts where teachers from each grade level come and meet and share ideas but really it's facilitation of resources launching new units making sure that everything is prepared for the teachers so that their first and most important
priority is to focus on their teaching work. So any of the leg work that's kind of behind the scenes is done for them. So when we launched our we had our last um cohort and every single material that the teacher would need to launch their new unit was prepared and made for them.
any assessments, any instructional um overviews, any materials list, getting ready guides, uh samples, examples of your volume of reading book displays, what that could look like, and then time for Q&A and to talk together as colleagues, which is so important and vital when especially when taking on
something new. So together, we can do so much more. This work is so important to have those thought partners and to really just have the support of the district to give us time to do that means everything. So I think that um at once we had that first cohort where we
were able to do that work, I felt like it was lighter. You know, this this hard work of launching something new becomes lighter when we do it together. So those cohorts are vital in addition to those grade level meetings and then just our our run-of-the-mill like you know instructional meetings, we co-plan, we
co-e, we um talk together, do lots of Q&A with Sarah. So any anything we can do to support teachers in this important work is is a part of our job. We also wanted more direct tailored Pey from the company specifically. So, Arts and Letters will be on site once a month. They were supposed to start with us this week, but our rep got really ill and
didn't want to spread illness to us, which we are thankful for. Um, so she will be with us hopefully the second week of January launching um and will be with us once a month with every building um doing this deep work with teachers and making it relevant for Princeton. And then we have faculty meeting time on Mondays. So, lots of teacher support
frameworks built in. >> Um and I'm I'm just want to wrap it up with saying um two things. One of the things and one of the reasons why I think arts and letters is also really impactful is that it's a knowledge building curriculum. Um, so what that means is is that a lot of times kids can decode but then they hit a roadblock
because they don't know about the context that they're reading or they don't have the background knowledge in what they're reading. And we did a really great exercise with the uh program provider and it was an article about cricket and if you know anything about cricket it's very technical and it's very different than our sport. So I
had studied abroad in England a very long time ago so I could get the gist. I could read it. like, oh, this is about cricket. But most people in the room did not have that context and didn't understand what the article was saying. And it was a really good exercise to understand that not every kid gets to go to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Not every kid gets to read to at night or goes to different experiences or doesn't have the opportunity to go on trips with their family on the weekend or during the summer or maybe it just hasn't they haven't been exposed to it. They're interested in one thing and not another. Um, so it's really important that we provide that access and
opportunity for kids within the school day to learn about these things and build that schema and grow. And so, um, we had, um, I had a parent last week reach out. Her daughter was writing about buffalo on the weekend and she was interested. She got inspired by the decimation of the American bison. It's
it's a horrible tale, but was really hopeful and talked about uh, conservation and how we can support our wildlife. Um, because she read a couple books about the American West and our school. So it was just the mom was like she wanted to talk about buffalo like very you know it is very interesting. Um so these are the things that we want and
um all of us have um children and we wouldn't put something in front of children that we wouldn't put in front of our own. I'm actually very jealous that we have this program here um and not in my daughter's home district because I see what kids can do with it um and the the quality of writing that they are producing um is amazing. The
the discourse that's happening in the classroom. So I really want to give kudos again to um our teachers. This is the hardest thing you can do is implement a new ELA curriculum. It's been it's been a tough year, but I think the burden has been eased a lot by the support of the two women behind me. Um I
can imagine when anyone needs help with pacing or figuring it out, they're in the classroom co-planning with them, giving them resources, setting it up. Um they really anticipate needs. Um so I really want to thank them um for the time and energy um because often, you know, they're the sounding board and and
really keep things going. Um, so I can we can take questions from the board if there's any questions. >> Sure. So, thank you so much. Uh, we appreciate you coming here tonight, uh, and sharing this with us. So, um, I guess the arts and letters, they're going to
they were supposed to be here this week, right, to talk about with some teachers, >> right? And so the rep was sick and so they'll be coming in early January. And then are they meeting with all the teachers together at that time or by building? >> No. What's great is they're here for 4 days. And so each day of the week they're here at a different building and
then there's going to be grade level check-in. So there'll be blocks of time for each grade level to sit and co-plan uh with Sarah, with Marielleen, and with the rep. >> And you know, you said that um >> what was it? Teachers College was disbanded, right? But there's also some
uh concern about um like some of the credibility of the research that was done by the founder, right? >> Oh, yes. Yeah. I mean there's there's a a lot of controversy there and and so what we say is is like you know it wasn't all bad but when we know better we do better and there was a lot there
was >> I I think some kids specialed kids >> some I would say some kids could no matter what you put in front of them flourish we know that a lot of kids including my own daughter needs explicit reading and writing instruction and um there's a lovely graphic s I forget the
researcher's name maybe Sarah remembers of a ladder and it talks about there's only 5% of kids who who can go on without explicit reading instruction and 95% of kids benefit from it. >> Well, it's so funny because when teachers college and it was all the rage and blah blah blah and everything got their own book and there was no group
discussion and I was just thinking this doesn't like make any sense, right? >> Right. >> And but I'm not an educator so what do I know and it's Columbia University. Yeah. Right. >> And so it's really interesting now. So let's not I don't know if we have a non-disparagement agreement against Lucy Caukins but >> let's let's say it was it did not serve
all kids. Um and on top of that it disbanded there's no more curriculum. So it's not like >> we had to switch. Yeah. >> Yes. We got to the fork in the road and we took it. Yeah. Right. >> And we're a lighthouse in this area. I would say that other districts are now piloting arts and letters because of
Sarah's leadership of saying like we need to be ahead of this and we need to be beyond this and that's why we instituted Orton Gillingham training and certification a few years ago and that marries beautifully with this arts and letters program. >> Sarah, don't don't be helping other districts. We need we need your focus
here. feel a moral obligation to help. You know, Miss G, I will say I you what you were saying speaks to me, right? I will share anecdotally very quickly because I know it is late and I know it is the holiday season. Um when I was >> going through my master's program and I was in classrooms, right, and I was
doing the student teaching aspects. I remember being so excited to go into a second grade classroom, this, you know, 21-year-old kid, and I I couldn't wait to work with the students. And literacy for me is the biggest equalizer. It is a civil right. It is not an option that a child leaves us illiterate. It It is
not. That is a moral sin to me. Um I remember being 21 and being like, I I'm so excited. Teach me how to teach them to read, right? It's going to open up a whole world. And I was a reader. Um and then I didn't understand because my cooperating teacher, who was lovely and had been in the classroom for many years, told me, "They just get it." And
I said, "I don't understand what that means." She's like, "No, no, no. They're going to pick it up like through osmosis and you know, we're going to read these books with them and they're going to get And I said, "No, no, but when do we teach them how to learn to read?" >> And that was a question that stayed with me very early on in my career. When do
we teach them to learn how to read? And I'm very privileged to say now now we teach them how to read with us here today. Um and and that always stayed with me. So, thank you for bringing up that point. Yeah. >> Elanor, >> sorry. >> Yeah. I'd just like to say um I have a fourth graders who's, you know, been
experiencing arts and letters. So just as an example of what it's like for the kids in the program like recently in her class um they've been reading Greek myths uh and then um uh looking studying the statue of the winged victory you
know the lady with no heads um so that she came home talking about that uh and then writing stories set in ancient Greece with uh characters who interact with with Greek gods. Um, and then I hear her and her friends talking about, oh, do you know Perseus? Do you
ne nemesis? Like this is a story. And they they now have this shared sort of >> Yeah. >> You know, this shared understanding of Greek mythology that that builds their conversations. So, I appreciate it. >> No, that's great. >> Yeah. I I also just want to thank you because I know I had three kids that
went through the system and like Daphna, we would get this words their way or these strange things would come home about spelling and and we we were just perplexed um by what they were doing in school and we tried to do all these other extra things outside but to hear that all the children are being given an
access to literacy and to you know be able to move on and I guess what I'd love to hear in the future to be continued is how we're articulating this all the way up. >> Yeah. Um, I'd love to hear what you're going to do in the middle school. What we're doing, how it fits with the high school. And the one thing I'll say in the high school is that we don't do a research paper. We never teach them how
to do a research paper. >> They learn now in fourth and fifth grade how to do. >> Yes. >> Miss Moore is K5. So, we'll we'll bring someone else in to talk about that. >> But we but we are doing a humanities program review and there should be surveys and focus groups going out in the late like like January, February. So, this leads to the work.
>> Adam. Yeah. >> Anecdotal too. It's funny. things going back when I was in we did reading recovery which kind of doing now >> what you're doing now but I guess my question is what you're doing now is is prescri prescriptive and diagnose you can diagnose things catch people earlier
get them up to grade level by fifth grade >> I mean that's the ideal I will anecdotally I know it's late but I I think this is really important I um was observing a staff member in an IEP meeting yesterday and you know there was staff there who you know I wasn't there for them but I was so impressed by the
gened teacher who came to the room talking first of all they talked about the student as a human being right um but then had so much great data from the child she had the child's arts and letters uh work she had the OG writing
she had um uh siteword analysis she had the I read like so you could clearly see that this child needed support beyond academic support or beyond our tier three tutoring it was like it was like someone was like she was a lawyer presenting to a judge like bup like this
is evident that this is why this child needs more support than we want to go to an evaluation and it was just handled so well. And so that is our goal, Adam, is that early intervention so that we have these different things. Kids are more than numbers, but we also want to rely on some of these systems so that we can
address concerns later because I was a middle school teacher years ago and they get to sixth grade. I'm like, how did you get here without anyone knowing that there was reading issues or learning issues here? And we don't want that on our watch. >> And and so we're trying to do better. So >> and I guess the second one there seems
to be that the curriculum disconnected the elementary school and the middle school and that's being addressed through this. I think touching on that though. So there's some uniformity the teachers can still teach in discretion but the uniformity. >> Yeah. So that's what the whole point of the program review then for the middle and high school is is kind of saying
well what's working and what's not and how do we have a scope and sequence for teaching these skills and and and improve upon there as well. Yes. >> And the last one parents buy into this too. Their students are improving. I'm sure they have confidence but parents can see the support. >> I think it's new, right? So I I have some parents who have a lot of questions
which I think that's fair. That's the whole point of of being a parent and so what we because it's very you know with teachers college a lot of kids who were really bright like they just got to read on their own and write on their own and now they have to have this shared experience and some kids like that and some kids don't. The early grades it doesn't they don't know any different.
it it you know so I think as units go on like mythology is always an easy win like you know kids love mythology they get more and more excited and love it more >> and and I just want to say change is hard right especially for educators so I appreciate your patience with them and
I'm sure they they all appreciate your support and whatever we can do to help you >> thank you >> thank you we appreciate it and and thank you for letting us present tonight I think this hopefully closes our grand tour >> is it saying that he protects you at 11 Yeah, that dedication.
>> Well, um, >> we really love kids and care about them the most. So, >> these are two of the hardest working people in the world next to me, but they do need to take some some breaks. I would agree with that, Adam. So, but thank you both for being here. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, moving on, student board member
report. Annie, >> I'm sorry, not Annie. Ash, sorry. >> Yeah. Um, yes. So, Anie is not here with us tonight, but that's all right. >> Okay. So starting out so following our last report uh where we talked about AI, we are currently in the process of
surveying the whole student body on their use and perception of AI. Um and we've hit a little bit of trouble in terms of voluntary response versus like random sampling. Uh but we're working on solving that right now. And our goal in conducting this and future surveys is to
give the board more insight on both students perception of AI and their usage of it. um so that pol policy can be collaborative and better understood and respected by the students. And then these are just our general inquiry questions. Um these aren't the questions that we're like we're serving on. They're just the general ideas that
we're um creating questions based on. So number one is how are students currently using AI for academic, creative, and personal purposes? And then number two is what impacts both positive and negative does AI usage have on students learning habits, skills, and academic integrity? And then the last one is how do students perceive AI's role in
education and what support or guidelines do they feel are needed for its responsible and effective use. Um and then we will continue to survey and report data on these questions through the year. And then for the arts and extracurricular update, Spectacle Theater had four fantastic performances of Clue and there was a great turnout.
Uh I don't know if any of you guys saw it, but I saw it. It was pretty good. Um and the tech crew had a really cool set with rooms that slid across the stage. It was very nice. And then last week, the Legally Blonde castless also came out and that'll be performing in early March. And then the Princeton Student
Board, which is a township organization, hosted their annual dodgeball tournament at PHS and there were 200 student participants across 20 teams. Um, and there's always playful rivalry rivalry between the boys from each school. Uh, so this year was no different, but it was great to see our Princeton boys
working together. There was a lot of great teamwork. And then student council is hosting stew cocoa on Wednesdays where we do we sell hot chocolate after school and we're also doing candy cane grams and doing holiday movie nights with the students. So that's pretty fun. And tomorrow's spirit day is dress in your best festive headwear if anyone
wants to do that. Um so yeah. >> Oh, thank you. Um I have a question about the AI uh survey. So um are you asking about um integrity? Tomorrow is ready to go. >> Pick somebody up.
>> Okay. Sorry. I tried um with AI are you so right AI is part of our lives now right but in um I don't know if you've seen some of the headlines but I just read something where teachers are looking in college are now doing oral exams right because they're so worried
about uh a AI being the voice and so I wonder um right it's like a dual part like AI is very valuable for some things but how do you how are you are you asking If students are aware that there
are consequences for the misuse. >> Uh just to clarify, do you mean consequences on their own learning or consequences like from the school? >> Everything, >> right? So consequences on your own learning, right? What is it? How does it affect your learning? And second, are you disclosing
that something that is not your own work? >> Yeah. So, well, we don't have incredible data yet just because when we sent out a survey, but it's voluntary response, which if any of you I'm currently taking AP statistics um and um so voluntary
response is you can put out a survey and whoever wants to respond responds and so usually that attracts people who feel very strongly either one way or the other because they want to make their voice heard as opposed to random sampling which is where if we had a list of all the students, we randomly selected them in some way and we sent them out. So we're getting some very
strong opinions on both sides. Um but in terms of consequences um we have like a section of the questions which is impact on learning skills. Um and one there's two questions that I'll just read for you. Um one of them is I rely on AI to complete work that I might struggle to
do on my own which is a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. And then one of them is AI has improved my writing, studying or problem solving skills which is also a scale. Um, and then for academic integrity, we have a couple questions on if students believe
that they understand the AI policy and if they think that it's like good or effective. Um, and then asking if they have ever used AI in a way that would violate guidelines. >> A lot of students don't want to admit that they have. Um, so we're trying to
>> find ways to get around that. Um, >> get around it. get around it in the sense where uh making students not feel like they don't want to self like tell on themselves. >> So yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Um we'd be interested in seeing the results of that survey. So
uh definitely some quotes we would love to hear. >> Thank you. Thanks very much for your report. Uh moving on now. Um we have a public comment. So if there's anyone who would like No one wants to talk to us. You just came to say hi. Yeah. >> You miss us.
It's okay. All right. No one wants to take us up on public comment. So, uh, we're moving on to J um, one and two, harassment, intimidation, bullying, acceptance, harassment, intimid intimidation, and bullying affirmation. And then we're going on to K1 board committee reports. We're going to start with long-term
planning. Beth >> Beth, >> she was looking at me. I don't know. >> Yeah. Um, >> it's going to be really brief, right? >> Yeah. We met >> tomorrow's alarm went off. I just realized I don't even have my notes in front of me. We we met >> Do you want me to go to operations first and then we'll come back to you?
>> Yes. >> Operations. Thank you. >> Hi. Um we met on December 11th at 1 p.m. on Zoom. Um we first um went over very briefly the final actions to close out some of last summer's referendum
projects. Uh we also, as we always do, discuss sustainability. We discuss potential uh solar that the district is exploring. and we discussed a lot about trees and where we're putting in trees and where we might remove some trees
that have been causing some issues. Um, on the agenda tonight, we have some uh referendum bids that had gone out that we'll be accepting. The first one was on HVAC equipment at Princeton Middle School for a total of 1.853316
million. Um, this bid did have to leave out one or two small aspects of the project and we did discuss how going forward we might be able to um do those parts of the project but not through um the referendum. We have a second um bid
that will was uh will be accepted but we'll we will not vote on it tonight. We'll vote on it in our next meeting which is on the site upgrades at Littlebrook JP and Riverside uh for 1.67. 67 million um due also to slightly
higher bids. There's a couple smaller aspects of the project at PMS that we're also going to have to discuss ways we might be able to do but not through uh this referendum to keep us on budget. Um also on tonight's agenda are two projects from the capital reserve for
approval. there um for 195,000 and 135,000 to update communications and PA systems throughout the district. And our next operations meeting is um on January
2nd at 1 on Zoom. >> Thank you, Susan. Do do we know why the bids came in higher? Is that Are we experiencing an effect of tariffs? >> I they didn't say it was specifically to tariffs. It was just I think it was again another year has gone by since we got bids and prices go up.
>> Okay, thank you. Uh you ready, Beth? >> Yes, I'm ready. >> Let's go. >> Long-term planning, long-term planning met on December 9th. And actually, the most exciting thing is that we spent our time talking about getting out the bids for the projects, uh the capacity projects that were approved in January,
the 89 million dollars worth of projects at four schools. So, I believe um we're first going to start launching the bids for um the middle school and community park um very soon. And then shortly thereafter, we will be doing them for the high school and for Little Brook. Um
they'll be spaced apart slightly. There's idea of how do you stret strategically space them to make sure you get the the most options and the most choices and the best pricing. So, we had a very robust discussion about that in our meeting and um we really appreciate the team. There's been a
number of state approvals that we were waiting for that have finally kind of come through and the ones that are left are more a matter of course that we expect to have in hand. So the bids will be happening I think they start next week this week and then we will open starting
January 27th and then February. >> So we expect to award early February. >> We will probably call special meeting in early February. >> So it's very exciting to move those things forward. >> Yeah. >> And um we do have some good news. um with kind of like a change. I think it's
good news with the high school. Yeah. So, did you want to >> Well, I think that we were we were very pleased to hear that the we all thought that the high school work would be done at the very last, right? That you'd have to wait until the middle school was all finished. And >> so, let me take a step back. So, we're going to add three to four classrooms in
the high school where our tech department was, right? And so, the tech department has moved out really of that space. So that space is unused now, which will allow us to move quicker to renovate that >> and make more space in the high school. >> And make more space in the high school or that was going to be at the end. >> Yeah.
>> So do you want to speak to how um that might affect the middle school project or are we not ready? >> I I don't think so. I just think it's uh you know, we appreciate that the tech group is kind of, you know, >> using their space most efficiently and has moved a lot to Valley Road and so we'll be able to be moving forward on
all the projects. Um you know, up in and the high school in particular sooner than we thought. >> And that's really good news because the high school is at a utilization rate of like over 90%. Right. So >> 95 I think. Yeah. >> Even though the enrollment hasn't ticked up yet, this is going to allow for some
more flexibility in programming. So this is really good news. >> And these projects again to remind the public, they will take through 2028, 2029 before they're all finished. I mean it's going to take a while. These are significant changes in our schools. So, we've been anxious to get moving and kind of get things started and we hope
you've been >> doing a great job, Beth. >> Next summer, >> Beth has been doing Beth has worried for all of us >> single-handedly. No, we've got a great team. >> No, we have a good team, but you've definitely been, you know, >> keeping that sense of urgency. So, thank you. >> I do bother people. Okay. And our next
meeting, I'm used to it. Our next meeting is January 20th at 1:00. >> Thanks so much. >> All right. Um, moving on. personnel. >> Yes. >> Oh, Debbiey's last personnel. >> You know, I did forget to say that this is Debbie's personnel report. It was all
confidential. >> I did I just give it to you? >> Close. Close. Uh the personnel committee met on December 9th. We were given an update on the first round of tenure observations for all six schools and then we discussed a lot of personnel issues.
>> It's confidential. That's not >> um I don't know when the next meeting is. You'll have to look at the calendar. >> I do. It's confidential, >> but I want to thank my co-chair Mara uh for making our pre and regular meetings informative and fun. And thanks
to the rest of the committee, Daphna, Elanor, and Beth, for a productive year. And thanks to Susan, and Chris for always being able to sub in. And Angela and Lucy, thanks for being so flexible with adding and looking up many personal items for us.
>> Thank you. Um policy. >> Oh, okay. Policy. >> Policy. >> Okay. Policy. Um, we don't have a lot on the agenda tonight. We don't have any formal policies to push forward. We met on um, we did meet on December 4th and had some good discussions about things that are kind of perking along and
hearing what what's being worked on internally. And of course, we we keep we always continually are looking that at the um, cell phone issues and how we use technology in the schools. So, we look forward to moving moving that forward and being proactive about some of those things as soon as we can. And the one
thing I will say just for my fellow board members, tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. is the Garden State Coalition of Schools monthly meeting and it's going to be kind of a press like they're bringing in members of the press to talk about current issues and important issues and I think for all of us it's really important that we kind of pick
our heads up and pay attention to what's happening at the state level and we're at a time of transition and there is you know I I keep saying we have an existential threat to public education in New Jersey because there's still people pushing for charters and there's things that are are stressing our finances and there are issues with um
staff staffing and there's federal issues coming down. So, I think for all of us to be most effective at our jobs, you know, we need to pay attention. Um, and I invite you all to join tomorrow. It's 9:00 a.m. via Zoom and we all had an email about it. And if you didn't, I'm happy to share those details, but >> I don't think I had an email.
>> We'll be talking about hot topics. You know, >> I But, um, you know, you're our person there, so keep us posted. Well, I I will keep you posted, but I do think it's important for us all to be kind of um you know, knowledgeable about what's going on at the larger level because it
affects us every day. >> Second that. Yeah, this it's whether what whatever side of the aisle are you on, there's going to be some heavy changes. >> Yeah, it's going to be a meet the press type gathering tomorrow with Karly Citroen of Chalkbeat and Julie O' Conor of New Jersey Spotlight. She's the new person. Um and they're going to ask the
audience and people are going to talk about their pro their the things that they're most concerned about and hoping that happens with the new uh governor and you know there's it's it includes um the reworking of the sephra formula formula. So that's really important to us. >> That's a school funding formula
>> school funding formula um coping with the uncertainties of the federal level um possible outcomes of desegregation lawsuit that suit that's ongoing in the state. There's lots of structural discussions about what we do with we consolidate districts. you know, how is that going to be addressed and um the
new assessments that have come out and also staffing shortages. So, I just again 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. I'm putting a plug for that. >> Thank you. Keep us posted. >> Our next policy meeting is January 13th. >> Great. Because I did not get an email, but all right, moving on. Student achievement.
All right. Um, so the student achievement committee met on Thursday, December 11th at 9 for what was sadly um our la my last uh meeting with Debbie as co-chair. Uh, and we had one item on our open agenda which was the high school's program of studies which is on the
agenda here for approval tonight. Two notable changes are two new science classes and the elimination of the rule against taking two AP courses in the humanities uh concurrently. Both these changes increase the breadth of educational opportunities open to our
students. Uh, and our next meeting will be on January 22nd at 9:00 on Zoom. You should come. >> Okay, I'll write that down. >> All right. And then last but yep, it's the last Debbie, your last committee report on equity.
>> Yes, the equity committee met on December 4th in person. We had a presentation from Brian Dinsky about athletic participation for the fall season. We discussed several winter sports and the number of students participating. We discussed coaches and the inc increase in rental fees for
fields and courses. We then discussed the afterare program including the YMCA princime and PTO activities. Again, I don't know when the next meeting is, but I do want to thank Kathy Foster, Kim, and Mike for continuing to support the equity
committee and thank my committee, uh, Daphna, Ari, Eleanor, and Adam. >> That's it. Yep. And we will continue it on. Okay. Uh, that's everything. All right. Moving on now to the rest of the agenda. Uh, we have L1, um, resignation,
L2, retirement. I just wanted to wish um Olive Giles, who's been a secretary at the high school for 32 years, uh has submitted her retirement and she's she's done. She's leaving this week next week. Uh we want to wish her all the best. She
she was always uh a smiling face and we wish Olive a long and healthy retirement. Um, moving on. L3 appointments. L4 personnel items. L5 leave of absence. L6 curriculum and instruction. L7 student services. L8
substitute student placement. L9 transfer reassignment. L10 uh six period compensation. L11 FA appointments. M1 the PHS program of studies that Elanor mentioned. This will be on the website. Uh Kim >> probably by the end of the week.
>> By the end of the week. >> Yep. So it'll be on the end of the week. Um and then M2 we have our chronic absentee absent tea as an action plan. Can we just really speak very quickly to what that is and why it's on the agenda?
>> Any school in the state of New Jersey that has an absenteeism rate greater than 10% over the course of a year is deemed to have a chronic absenteeism problem. Uh so the year before last uh both the middle school and the high school exceeded the 10% threshold and
then last year we're waiting uh for the public release of what the absenteeism rates uh are at both of those schools. But in either case we need to a requirement in the state is that we place both schools on an action plan and during QAC uh our county executive
superintendent will look for two items a board resolution to that effect and then a parent survey. So, we will be sending out uh a brief parent survey at both the middle school and the high school about uh attendance at school and obstacles and barriers to attending school.
>> And also um there was some question about our record keeping and we're part of the action plan uh as written involves taking a closer look at our student information system uh which is P school. how we have been maintaining records in P school, how we've been
moving records and and recognizing students who transfer out of district from school to school and looking just at our internal processes for making sure that we're accurate in how we account for students. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, moving on, we have N1, student services,
special education, educational placement of students, and now we're going on to the business. Um, 01,2 and three are word of contracts that Susan mentioned. Building management system, HVAC and PA system upgrades. 04 is construction payments. 05 is financial reports. 06
fire and evacuation drills. 07 is formal bid transportation award. Uh, 08 is funds transfer. 09 is grant donation acceptance that um the student from Princeton High School uh and the tower
wrote um which is $13,700. and we appreciate very much his efforts. Um 0 >> 10 thank you is I forget the the letter that's why anyway 010 items for disposal
or sale 11 SJS grant resolution um which uh we are making a grant for >> we're getting a grant >> we're getting a grant in 10200 I think it's drip irrigation
uh the 10,000 grant Princeton High School will help renovate the courtyard. That's excellent to make the space useful for student research and gardening. And Community Park School uh will revitalize their garden with new pots, beds, and fencing. And hopefully that will be unaffected by the upcoming construction. >> It's on the other side.
>> Excellent. I couldn't remember. I remember there was a >> No, I know, but I remember at one point we were talking about disrupting the G. Anyway, never mind. Um 012 registration travel agenda. We're moving on to our our third public comment of tonight. Anyone?
Jess? Nothing. All right. >> Oh, okay. >> No. What were you saying? >> I was trying to see what you just talked about for the high school the courtyards, but I don't see it in >> it's it's 01 SJS grant resolution. So, sustainable
>> I missed it. Okay. Thank you. >> But what is sustainable Jersey? What's the other S? >> Oh, for schools. >> Got it. Okay. >> Yep. Pleasure. Um And now we're moving on to approved consent agenda item. Uh, can I get a
motion? Beth second. Debbie, >> yes. >> Beth Bing, >> yes. >> Adam Beerman, >> yes. >> Bronco, >> yes. >> Francesky, >> yes. >> Ellen Hubard, >> yes. >> Susan Caner, >> yes. >> Ariel, >> yes. >> Christopher Sanpio, >> yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Excellent. Um, so, uh, this is our last board meeting of the year. We wish everyone happy holidays, whatever they are celebrating. Our reorganization meeting is January >> 6. >> Tuesday. >> Tuesday. Um, and do we have a time?
>> I think >> six. >> It's six. >> Six. >> Yes. Okay. We can't though because a new board member isn't sworn in. >> Anyway, we'll talk about it. But I also really quickly wanted to talk about um
the main board meeting. So, Dr. Lassus and I have been talking just about uh the meeting cadence and everything. And um when I first joined the board, these meetings started at 8:00. >> Yeah. And so, we moved it to 7:30. And so, uh, I was just again thinking out
loud. I was like, "What if we moved it to seven so we could have I just Debbie's okay with it." >> So, yeah. So, um, so that means we would start if we need a longer, uh, close session, we would start at 5:30. Otherwise, we would start at 6 and then we would do the open meeting at 7. That
would give, you know, we'd be done half hour earlier. Our our admin are here >> our student rep is supporting it but our admin are here you know at 7:30 in the morning. Uh what does everyone think? >> I like it. >> Yeah. >> I'm in favor.
>> Eliminate >> owner. Yep. >> Yeah. Good. All right. So, um if you're okay with that, I hope you don't have to renotice a whole bunch of meetings. >> We haven't noticed the um the next round of meetings yet, so we're fine. >> Okay. So great. So, uh, in the new year,
our public meetings will start at 7 pm. >> Yeah. No, thank you. Um, and with that, uh, can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> Debbie second. Ari. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Have a good night. Thank you,
Cass.