Thank you. Good evening. 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 are 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 New Jersey State Board of Education. Each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the public agenda or other matters of interest to them. The board reserves the 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. >> As required under the open public meetings act, adequate notice was given
for calling this meeting. It was authorized by the board of education and forward it 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. 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 NJSA 18A 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 NJSA18A38-1 is amended, the law shall take precedence over this bylaw. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris, would you like to call the role? >> I would. >> Thank you. >> D McKendle >> here. >> Beth Baron.
>> Adam Berman >> here. >> Debbie Bronco >> here. >> Mara Franchesky >> here. >> Ellen Hubard >> here. >> Susan Caner >> here. >> Ariel >> here. >> Christopher Santarpio >> here. >> Katherine L >> here. >> We have quum. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. Um, moving on.
Now, can I get a motion for the adoption of the minutes from September 30th, 2025? Ari second Debbie. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Francheski. >> Yes. >> H. >> Yes. >> Susan.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes, >> great. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Um, so welcome to this meeting. Uh, it's October, the end of October already. Uh, great things are happening in our schools as Dr. Lusa is going to share
with us. So, thanks for attending our meeting and I'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you, Miss Kendall. Happy October, almost Halloween. I know everyone's excited. So, there are two um substantial items under my report and the first one is a student presentation and I'm going to ask um Miss Balto to
introduce some of our high schoolers. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Margarita Balde. I'm the assistant superintendent for student services. Um, October is disability awareness month and I'm really excited and have the privilege of introducing some of our amazing students who participate in our school to work
transition program. So, at this time I'd like to present Richard Ryan and Mrs. S Mrs. B if you can come up and we'd love to hear from you. Okay.
>> Okay. Well, thank you for having us this evening. We're very excited by this and uh at the same time very honored that we get the opportunity to be able to speak in front of the board tonight. Um our topic of discussion is basically our school to work program. So, do we There
we go. Thank you. Um, basically, for those that don't know, school to work is basically a partnership where we combine the school itself, job coaches, families, and community members. Um, and we all work very closely to help out
with getting our students ready for the next transition from the high school stage to future uh, adulthood, I guess you could say. Um, basically what we do with school to work is we look for what are students interested in, what are
they curious about, what do they like, what are they strong with, what do they struggle with. Um, and we make students hold accountable for all of the above. So if there's something that we struggle with, we take ownership to that and then
we learn how to overcome and um deal with our challenging situations. Um, basically a lot of our opportunities are done through structured learning. We utilize community- based instruction, which is basically where we take our students out and we learn in the
community. So, our classroom, I like to say, is I have the biggest classroom in the whole school because I can use my community outside of my classroom as where we're also learning from. um we develop what we call career awareness
and a lot of our students come in and of course they don't know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. So at that point what we do is we expose them to many different careers. Um that's why I'm always reaching out because if I were to say everybody raise your hand.
How many people are employed? Everybody's going to raise their hand in some respect. Do you know anybody that's employed? Everybody's going to raise their hand. So with that being said, we want to learn about what other people do. Um students are getting acclimated
and speaking with their families. What do their family members do? Because that becomes part of our networking. Um we utilize um work-based learning for our students that generally are from 18 to 21. that age um is
basically set up so that students that continue to stay at our high school um will be exposed to work situations be able to apply their soft skills and again that's more internship but the whole program deals with when they first
enter all the way up till 21 years of age. Um c and if a student leaves prior to that that's fine. Also we get them prepared so that they're ready for what is your next step whether you're going to the workforce or whether you're going
um straight to a college type of program. So we will we we are able to just because we're called school to work doesn't mean that we don't utilize the educational part. Um and this is a a quick little breakdown. Year one, we uh
introduce all of our students to what we call structured environments. Um where we explore the interest of roles. Uh we do a lot of roleplaying. We have a lot of fun basically is and this is a little bit of what the boys are going to share some of the activities that we do. But
we do career exploration. Um we help work on critical thinking and trying to solve our problems. And even if we can't solve our problems, what do I do and where do I go to solve our problems? So, Miss Baldo, thank you for dealing with some of our emails this week, but some
of our students had questions. So, instead of me asking the question, I want them to learn how to write their own email and how to find their own answers out, and then I can help clarify if they're confused from that point. Um, year two, we work on what we call unpaid
and paid internships. We allow the students the opportunity to um basically again continue on from where they were in year one but identify some career interests and you start to see you know what I like this more than that. um the
whole time that students are in the program, we create what we call um working portfolios. And um this year we're actually working on trying to devise some um um videos and trying to add that into our
resumeumés and our portfolios and um you know our IEP presentations. So um year two again it goes into the interests. we'd still develop skills that might be needed for the areas of interest from the students um while developing uh
basically employability skills. So I uh work on 20 top soft skills that were given by the top employers and basically what they look for in a a successful employee. So we take those skills and we apply it and we
will work learn to how do we problem solve? How do we work as a team team member? How do we um use our communication skills etc. Um year three and above basically students will develop their workplace uh skills again
and they hone in even more each year. It gets a little bit more and more challenging for them. We also start our community- based instruction and utilizing our structured learning environments. Um that will be more of our internships. So where students are
placed at a site for example uh the university store in Princeton has been very kind with us. They have two sites. What we do is we take our students there that have that interest and we give them exposure to working there and what types
of things do you face and we work them through so that we can get to the point that after they leave us they're ready they're ready to go. Um you can see the benefits of the program skill development. Um and again getting to know 16 different career clusters. If
one person's interested in one thing, we don't admit that because I only have these two jobs. That means that I have to hustle a little bit and I need to get out and find whatever that student is interested in. Um we also have career exploration which is good because again
we're getting our names out there. People are starting to know us. It's just as important for community members to know us as it is for us to know them because they're suddenly we get a really teamwork bonding developed and I I find
that really exciting when we walk in and I see an employer's face like okay so how do we do this you know and right away the kids show show um our community members the talents that they have um we build confidence the fact that I have
two gentlemen here this evening I am so excited. You have no idea because this is what it's all about. I want them to stand up. I want them to share what their likes and uh needs and desires are because what a what a great networking
crew we have here. Um and then language development. This is very important to us because again, somebody's not going to always follow us around and answer our questions. So we need to know how to use our language, how to be able to filter that and develop our
communication skills along with problem solving. Okay. Um also um again we we have the portfolios mock interviews. We set up interviews for our students so that they can get practice with how do you
interview? As you can see our gentleman dressed up for the occasion. And I actually had I I thought it was humorous, but one of my uh students actually told me I needed to snaz myself up a little bit more this evening. So, I had to leave school to go home to snaz
up a little bit. So, so I thought that was really good because they're taking note to those things. They're being very responsible and professional. So, I like that. Um that's all a part of interviewing and understanding and and being able to give each other feedback and accept it and and be able to filter
it, right? So networking opportunities, I already pointed that out, but getting to know our community and what are our resources. If I like technology, where do I go in my community and how can that apply to what I I like to do? Um, and
again, we have informed decisions where basically it's a team of individuals that are working together to make our students very successful. So, moms, dads, community members, employers, teachers, all of the above, grandmom, grandpop,
whoever happens to be a very close member for that student will help pull together. And at that point, we're we're team bonding because we're trying to get the students to where they want to be. Um we also do prioritize because again
New Jersey for um funding purposes down the road we need to understand that New Jersey prioritizes that um employment is first. So our students can't leave us and just expect to go to leisure recreation. So employment is first and
then leisure recreation comes into play. So it's important that we develop these skills and make our students as strong as they can be. Um this slide basically represents some of the different breakdowns of of what um who participates on our team. We have
uh students obviously and their job exposures, their sampling, their internships along with assessments that we do. Students will take interest assessments. What are you interested in? We try and find that out. Um along with career awareness and understanding what
careers are. Family members, we have history of family members. uh what what types of employment in your families, what type of education in your families, what are family goals? Um I that's suddenly becomes a challenge with myself
because sometimes I find a student will say one thing and a family will say another. So I have to be the middle and we have to try and see if we can pull both together and see if at that time usually what happens is when we start to experience it together and find that
compromise we can then see the path that the students really need to take. Um again with this we have more like the academic connections in the real world. A lot of times people uh misinterpret our classroom and say that we don't
include academics. I kind of beg to differ in the sense of we include for example we're working on what does a party planner do at school right now. We had to use our math because we decided on the menu. My cooks and my
nutritionists have decided they want pizza. Well, there's eight slices in a pizza. There's this many students. Let's apply it. How many pizzas do you need? If we order it and we order it wrong, we we experience
it. So, obviously, it's it's it's a hitand- miss type of thing sometimes, but I work the students through. I could give them the answer and we'd be done, but I make them work for it. So, um history, where are we in our community?
How do we get from here to there? How do we interact with community members of different cultures? um reading and writing. That's basically an ongoing thing. Every time we follow directions, sometimes students will have job lists and that allows them to be as
independent as possible. Um and obviously self-care, domestic, social skills, they all come into play. Um when we monitor student growth, um again, just as a classroom would do, we measure the students based on feedback.
So I am required to attend all of the job sites and have interaction with employers and observe students as they work once min minimally once every 10 days. I meet with my staff every day. Um
so we talk about that and they're kind of under my umbrella of having structured learning um certificate. But basically what we do is we problem solve. What are you exposed to? What are you doing? where are your challenges? Let's come up with a plan. Um, so
student goals are in are important. I need to know where they're going and what they're looking at. I need to know data collection wise my feedback and employers feedback. And I always tell my kids sometimes this is the exception. The employer's feedback is more
important than mine. And why? Because you're going to be placed in many different situations. And as we know, many different stores and units run very different. So if this employer says, "I want it this way," it's it's the responsibility of the students to be
able to adjust and be able to follow what that store or that uh business is applying. So um again, there's a lot of data collection that's taken by the job coaches themselves and transferred into um data for us in the in the classroom.
And then we have evaluations, site evaluations that we do, headteer evaluations, data collection again, um on individual specific goals that apply to different jobs. Um we've worked in many different
locations. Uh when we're in the classroom, we're constantly working on vocational skills, speech and language, social skills. our OT and PT takes the time to come into our classroom to help with certain students that might need uh more of those skills. We also have life
skills lessons. Um I work very closely with um our autism our uh MD teachers um and we make it as as smooth as possible so that we can get skills that they're doing in classroom and apply it into my
room and into the community setting. The benefit of some of what I do is that my job coaches are actually paraprofessionals. Um, and I always tell them that they're the best paraprofessionals in the building. But, you know, and it's because they're they're doing twofold.
They're learning what happens in the classroom and we're expanding it out into the community. Um, we do things internally. A firstear students don't necessarily go out to job sites other than our school building. So, as a as a
result, we're able to help our building out with mailings. We've helped with the nurse's office and putting first aid kits together, um library and filing and inventory, you know, all of those types of things would fall into play. Anything that happens in the classroom uh or in
our building, the community basically sky's the limit. the the the sites that are listed up there right now um are all sites that we have worked with over the years. Um you know right now you know our biggest sites right now are is the
Princeton food pantry. We also have uh the university stores right now. We also have the YMCA um Princeton recreational department and such. Um, but I could keep going on and it basically is uh a
result of what students are in my room and what are their likes. Richard, I'm going to introduce Richard right now. Richard is um one of my super seniors. So, he has a quick little presentation on his slide that he would like to share with you.
>> Hey, buddy. You >> okay? Hope this holds. There we go. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here tonight. Is this working? Hello. Okay, this is working. Uh, thank you for being here tonight, everybody. My name is Hikardu or Richard as some
people call me. Uh, and I've been in uh, school of work for ever since my ninth grade. So, it's been a while. And it has really changed who I am over time, to be honest. And I want to go over everything I've learned. the three most important
things I've learned mentally which is responsibility, work ethic and time management. Let's start with responsibility. So one of the most important things I learned about responsibility is the improvements in compromising. When I'm when I started here in the Princeton
Middle School, I never did my work. Okay? And I was really just watching videos on YouTube and never did my work. And that was basically what I do. Especially cuz I didn't have anybody looking over my shoulder to say, "Hey, do your work." And this was something I
I was used to back in Brazil and since I since that wasn't happening, I was like, "Maybe it's not that important." Then little did I know it would define my future. But but but school work uh opened my eyes and said, "Hey, you do have to do this. This is your future
right in front of you and you need to actually try." Right? So I came into terms with the fact that I needed to do the work and scooter work is one of the main classes that helped me um realize that especially since they actually looked over my shoulder and said hey do
this right this is the first phase of the progress of my responsibility. The second phase is the acceptance of that responsibility. So, so the first phase talks about how I I was like I was doing the work and then but I was like not
actually really caring about it, right? But I embraced that responsibility thanks to school work and I actually tried to do it. I actually gave effort. I wrote what I thought was the made the most sense and not just wrote some mumbo jumbo and just submit it to the teacher.
I actually tried to do it and it still sticks. It sticks. Lastly, I want to talk about being trusted with that responsibility. That is the final phase of the progress that my responsibility uh made thanks to school work. And
that's the point where I where I got so good at like actually not to brag but actually got so good at at um expressing my feelings and actually like doing the work and having love for it that people
would trust me trust me with it. And that led me to do a lot of things uh little projects as well like I I um hosted a a gardening for a church that we would plant the the vegetables and
fruits give them to the church and the church would give to people in need. I I took care I supervised everybody every students saying this is how you plant it. This is how you water it. This is how deep the the seed should go. And it felt really good to have the responsibility being taken care of and
actually putting all of what I learned about being responsible to use. That happens with like another presentations that I did and present to the class and telling everybody about that and and it's generally made me embra embrace the
the love for learning which is something really important and I mean really important. Let's move on to our second uh attribute which is work ethic which is in my opinion one of the most important uh skills to have in the work industry.
Let's talk about the motivation and love for my work. This directly ties back to responsibility in general. Okay. and uh just the and like I said it it school of work got me to embrace all of that and just not only do my assignments on on
time and do it properly but as well with work in general go to work do try your best on the work and it taught me to love it and not only do it because I have to and not only try because it's required but actually love doing it and
actually have some fun with it actually like oh my god This is such an interesting fact. I didn't know and I just learned that and it's something that re that scooter work motivated me to do a lot and it led me to who I am now pretty much. The second point is not
really what I've learned but it's something I want to mention which is its diversity in job sites which m Mrs. be already mentioned, but there are so many job job opportunities in school to work that it's shocking. It's shocking. There's, like you said, the YMCA, the
school cafeteria, you can go to the pack. You can work in the pack for like making uh fixing the audio stuff and things like that. You can go to the garden and garden the plants, water them, and take care. There's so much. And just that um diversity in job sites,
it's not only gets you very flexible to what work environment you're in, but it also it also gets you to know people that that that stick with you to the end. That was my case. I met people that stick with me until this day that I
still talk to. And it's a great opportunity to socialize. Not only does it, you know, help you as a worker, it gets you to socialize, which is important since nowadays everybody's glued to their phones. So, really important. Um, last thing on work ethic
is the expanding perceptions. How I learned to about the expanding how to expand my my perceptions and the perceptions of employers. So this this talks specifically about how school work teaches us students what
to expect from those employers. How do how we should act on our interview? What the employers expect us to say in an interview teaches us a lot about interview and about writing resumeumés and about acting how to properly act in
a school in a school in a work environment in general. And part of that is like dressing properly. You can see it works. So yeah, last lastly, last thing I want to talk about is time management.
Time management is something extremely and I mean extremely important especially here. it. So, school work really taught me something that something that really really changed my the my grading of school for the better
really because which is the ownership of my own scheduling. I got to school on time finally. I'm finally getting to school on time. I never when I started I never got to school on time. Never. Never. Ever. Never. And especially especially but and the thing is that in
Brazil it's not such a big deal because there's no things no nothing as such as uh points based on attendance and stuff. So attendance is taken and like being on time is taken much more seriously here. And so the fact that school work not only provided management strategies
which is our second point to wake up on time and to manage my time and to do this assignment on this time period from and submit it this time. It the the fact it teaches me this changes a lot. It really it really con it really
constructs the grade, you know. It's a really supporting ground for it. It's and the fact that school work teaches this is great. It is amazing also because you need to be on time for work or else you get fired, right? So like it's really it was really helpful. Last
but not least, time awareness. While the other two points talked about specifically waking up on this time and getting to school or work on that time, the time awareness I'm talking about specifically is when you have a limited time to do something. So when you have a
limited time to I don't know stock these shelves or to or to run to this place and go to that other place. That kind of thing is still something that I'm running right learning right now in school work and it's something that is
seems really helpful as a far and and so like I'm like timing my they're timing me on on the time that I should do this project and this thing and do this and I was timed on my speech as well. So So
this is so I trained for this with a time limit. So yeah, and and it also and it and the time limits is also like I have a little time limit on my head to like translate certain words that people say to to English because there is a
student who who speaks Chinese and I speak a little bit Chinese and I'm like in my head I'm like okay you got a very tight timer here. This this means this and this means this and this means this. So it's a so it's kind of going on in my head and it's building at the same time while I talk in other languages. So,
it's a really helpful little tool. It's it's really cool thing. Uh, a last little mention that I want to do uh now that we've gotten over all the attributes is that school to work. It really it really helps people. It really
helps uh students um learn at their own pace. No matter in what situation they are, in what level they are, it doesn't matter. the school of work goes to their pace and gets them and gets them to learn at their pace and they and I've seen the glows I've seen the glows of
those of every students and it's incredible to see. So it's school to work really help helps everybody no matter what level no matter what their situation is no matter no matter what and it goes their pace and
it changed me it changed me I once again want to thank everybody for being here tonight including everybody here and I want to thank Mrs. for sticking with me for this wild ride of four years almost and and just being there for me and just
changing me who I am in general. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, my next student >> and I promise you it'll be a little bit faster. >> Oh, come on. >> No, it's all good. We don't
Um, my next student is Ryan Craig. >> Go ahead. I'm gonna sneak right behind you. >> Is this on? >> Yep, it's on. >> All right. Uh, hi everyone. Hi,
>> my name is Ryan Craig and I'm here to talk about things I'm learning from school to work, which are communication, respect, and responsibility.
For communication, I go to the prison community park pool. Uh when I'm there, I learn how to communicate with customers
while learning about food serving. Uh I feel great um meeting people and um getting friendships.
I also enjoy communicating with co-workers. This helps us work uh as a team uh and learn about
fruit preparation. For respect, I go to the Princeton High School cafeteria to work and I use eye contact while I'm
talking and listening to staff. Uh this one this is one way to show my respect and understanding. We use special manners
to thank people and show our respect. I also work on party planning. I have learned that there are many different ideas shared.
It's important to respect everybody's different ideas so that everybody has an opinion. And for responsibility,
I also go to the YMCA fitness center and Princeton High School weight room. While I'm there, I help organize and clean
the wait rooms. I am able to finish within the time period needed so the customers can use the equipment.
Another example of responsibility is my presentation tonight. I have the responsibility of presenting the great things we are learning
in class. When I get a job, I will know how to be responsible and help my employer. Thank you for your time and attention.
[Applause] So there there is one more slide but at the same point um our last slide is basically how can you guys help us? Um, if you have ideas, you know somebody
that wants to share what their passion is, you have a site, you know somebody that owns a business of any kind, I would love to sit down, meet with you, talk with them. Open to all the above. Um, >> what what's your email, Cindy?
>> So, it's Cynthia princetonk12.org. Um, and I obviously it's not up there, but um, I apologize for that, but um, it's again it's it's Cynthia Brener and um, it's the regular Princeton uh, K12.
Um, >> so we'll we're going to include that in our we send out a summary and we'll be sure to include your full email. >> Absolutely. That would be great. >> If if anyone in the community has uh, you know, some opportunities that our students >> Yeah. >> would be good. And like I said, I might
not know the student at that point in time that would fit into that mold, but as soon as I bring it back and I share it with our students, usually that's where we start to see, oh, I'm kind of interested in that, you know, kind of thing. So, >> and and what else can we do for you? >> I'm sorry.
>> What how else can we help you? >> I I think it's just just being able to give us opportunities. Like I said, if we can't go to sites, I am open to people coming in and talking with us about a career. I am open to doing work
at school. Um, we've done many mailings for me many different people. We've done things where we're doing shredding and such where you name it, I can figure out how to teach the students. >> Thank to to to learn those skills. >> And this was a great presentation. How
long have you been running the school to work program? So, um, I've been with Princeton for this is I'm I'm in my 23rd year, but I also worked 20 years prior to that at Eden Institute. >> So, when I was at Eden, I also worked with um individuals with autism in their
adult programs and uh getting students out in the community. So, I've >> done it way longer than >> Well, okay. So, you started when you were like 12, 10, five. >> Um, >> I I want to thank you. You do very
important work. Uh, and we appreciate it. And I have two questions. One one for Ryan, one for Richard. So, Ryan, since you're up there. >> Yes. >> What is your favorite type of work to do? >> Um, for my favorite type of work, uh, I can I'm going to say I like
helping in the cafeteria. >> Yeah. Because I'm learning how to wash the food and put them in cups. Like how I'm washing the grapes. Yeah.
The red ones and the green ones. >> Yeah. And I put them in cups. And I also put them in a cold case. Yeah. >> Yeah. But when I start helping wash food, I need to wash my hands and put on
gloves. >> Yes. >> Yeah, that's great. A lot of people out in the workforce don't do that. So, we we appreciate that you're doing that. >> I'm pretty good. >> I'm pretty good. >> That's good. Thank you, Ryan. >> And Richard, what the same question for
you. What's your favorite type of job? >> My favorite type of job? That's a tough question. I would say I would say I don't know if that counts but I like I would love to do like a work that is related to music. I'm a musician myself. I make music. I play
the piano. And if there's a like a music related job, I'd love to do it. But I think from general jobs that I've done in school work the most, I would say I would probably say I mean I really
like doing these very big presentations like I am right now. >> Yeah. I mean you're I understand >> cuz I got all eyes on me. >> Yeah. >> And that's great. That's great. And I think I really I really enjoy um I also
really enjoy I also really enjoy um like I think I really enjoy taking care of pets as well. I I'm a pet sitter. I walk dogs. I sit dogs. They're all amazing dogs. I love them. And I just love animals in general. If there's anything that has to do with animals, I I I
really enjoy it. And plants as well. Just life in general. I really like taking care of plants and sitting dogs or feeding cats or you know whatever has to do with life in general. So yeah. >> Well, thank you and thank you for coming tonight and thank you for dressing up. >> Of course. Well, thank you.
>> And we wish you all the luck. >> I know I look very good. >> I want to thank you too and and Cindy. Um, one of the other hats I wear is being on the board of the Princeton Mobile Food Pantry and we've been a partner and had the students come, which
we absolutely love. So, my other big shout out to the community is really, if you have an organization or a place because the students really it it's great. We love sharing our pantry with you. We love that you guys come in. >> So, I want to thank you for that, too. >> You are more than welcome.
>> Stand up. I I I shall forever and ever. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> I will I I will die standing up. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you again. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> And and thank you, Mrs. Baldo. That was
an excellent presentation. >> Uh not that you don't have big shoes to Go ahead. >> No. Yeah. Just a giant thank you to Cindy and Richard and Ryan. You guys terrific. Um >> I'm very flattered. you I think I need
to hire you as my personal assistant. Actually, >> please do. >> Um, please do. >> I I I will say about a year and a half ago, I got to attend a ceremony in my former district with our first cohort to ever go all the way through to the age of 20 in the uh school to work program.
And it was such a great day. Uh, and I remember two of the kids had full-time employment that day when they when when they were leaving. one um worked at Ace uh Hardware who because he was so great at helping customers and helping them find what they needed and the other we
actually hired as an instructional assistant full-time in the district because she was so good at helping other kids and listening to the teacher. So great job. We're going to cancel the rest of the meeting um because there's just no point in trying to do anything
better. Um, but you guys are doing great great work and we thank you for giving us some sh sun sunshine tonight. So, we appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Um, yeah. And now we're going to turn to something a little less a little less um
scintillating uh but important nonetheless. And that's the annual testing report that Dr. 2 will uh walk us through. >> I appreciate the compliment. >> And if you want to talk with me, hey, I'm free. can exchange it for me.
>> Um, thank you everyone. Good evening. I feel really set up. Um, not everyone wants to talk about data and then following that presentation, I know no one wants to talk about data. So, thank you Richard, Ryan, and Cindy. That was wonderful. Um, so, hi uh to the community. I'm Kim 2. I'm the assistant of curriculum and instruction. Uh, with
me tonight are some of my fabulous team. We have Sarah Moore is our supervisor of elementary education. She'll be popping in. Tiffany Brennan, our 6 to12 math supervisor and business ed. And then Jackie Catz, K12 science. Um, with us who could not be here tonight, I'm sorry, are Kesha Smith, Carrington, and John Mcichael. They had uh prior
commitments including like family commitments and they couldn't come here. Um, darn for them. Um, so what I would like to say before we get started is that I'm going to do an overview and these ladies are going to join me in that overview. Um, the details will be posted on the website. So, we're going
to talk about themes and generalities, but the next kind of steps are this will be posted on the district website tomorrow morning for people to get more in detail, and I'm always reachable if people have questions. Um, so this is also the last year of NJSLA testing. Um, some of our elementary students already
started with NJSLA adaptive field test this week. Later this week is high school, and next week is middle school. So, uh, we don't know what reporting will look like next year, but we will have a new baseline for the board next year. So, we're no longer going to be able to compare apples to apples. So,
the fun continues in standardized testing. Uh, next slide, please. All right. So, discussion topics. So, we're going to start up at the high school level. We're going to talk about AP scores, ACT, ACT, SAT scores, and then finally, we'll get to NJSLA, ELA, math,
and science next. All right, AP. So, this is for last school year. Real quick, these are all the APs we offer at Princeton High School. We also have a lot of students who self-study and those scores are reported with our scores as well. Next,
okay, here is our AP score summary. So, shockingly, um despite our high school being about 1500 students currently, we had 1,851 exams last year. Um that is a lot of um exams. And then that is the breakdown. So, u most college credit is
either scoring a four or five. Some colleges also ex accept a score of three. So that you can see if you just go back for a second, we are in really good range of looking at our fours and fives and barely anyone scoring in the ones and twos. Next slide.
Um so number of AP scholars. So um an AP scholar is someone who scores a three or higher on three AP exams. An AP scholar with honors is someone who scores a three or higher on four AP exams. And then for that distinction level is an average of 3.5 on all exams taken or a
score of three or higher on five AP exams. So you see the amount of students who receive that AP scholar with distinction is 271. That is a lot of students. Um and then the international diploma is for like international credentials as you can
imagine and you have to pass at least five AP exams with scores of three or higher including two exams in different languages. one with a global perspective like a world history and one in math science or computer science. So these are the showing that you're well-rounded across the content areas and proficient
or advanced proficient in language. Next slide. So here's our summary of AP scores. So what I'd like to highlight is that we had 59 more students take the exams this year compared to last year. So, the number of exams went up because we have kids taking multiple AP classes,
but we also have 59 more unique students who took AP exams this year. Um, students who scored three or above 701, which takes us to about 94%. So, down a little bit, but still in the 94th percentile and more students take more
this year than last year. So once again, this is going to be on the website, so I'm not going to belabor how we did, but this is sort of the transparency of, you know, how we scored across the different um content areas. Uh so you start off with English lit, we
go down to music um theory, it 2D art design at the top, you go to the next slide, Andrew, thank you there. Okay, going on to the next one. And then we have physics. Um so you can look at that score report. We also have
demographic breakdowns across like race and program, but those are suppressed for the public because we have students that are less than like the number of 10 of an N size. So the board has that information. I share that with you in the update, but it's not for public consumption. That is a rule that we must follow as a public school district because then students would be
identifiable. Um so I just want to make that clear if anyone's asking about demographic data. Um so you know, how do we do these continuous improvement goals? What I share with you is really great news. Um, but we want to continue to enhance accessibility to AP classes
that all kids consider themselves um, willing and able to take an AP class. Um, and how do we get them once they're in the class to want to take the exam um, as well because we do have students who might take the class for the rigor but maybe not the assessment at the end
of the year. Uh what we do at the um high school level and we have two supervisors here tonight who could talk more about this later is that the departments look at the score analysis and program improvement. Are we seeing patterns? Are we seeing areas that we need to address? And then we input
everything into link it so we start seeing like patterns over years and see how we're growing or maybe decreasing in particular content areas. Um, and we also really advocate for our teachers to take us up on uh, professional development about um, AP opportunities.
So, several of our teachers serve as AP readers um, each year. So, that that is the best professional development they could take because they become a scorer for the exam and see what the College Board is looking for, get uh, sort of uh, credibility in that area and then bring it back home to us which is always
wonderful. Okay, next slide. All right, SATs. So um our average score went up from last year was 1295 and we've crossed the 1300 fresh threshold. We are at 1319 this year um for our average SAT
score. So also great news. Next slide. Here are our means and you can see that we are far above uh the average score for New Jersey which is 1061 and at the national average of 1029.
ACT. Now, we had a few less kids take the ACT this year um compared to last year. The ACT remains an assessment that I think is really valuable. Um and certain colleges are known for looking at the ACT more than the SAT and maybe last year students were attracted to
different schools. Um these are great questions for us to ask our like graduating seniors, you know, when they leave us. Um so, but the good news is is that we went up our we want to look at that second row, that composite mean score. we went from a 28.2 to a 29.3 and
then all the subc scores, math, science, English, reading and writing also went up. So, great news when we're talking about um all of our high school to uh college and career assessments. Now, we're going to get to the NJSLA. Uh not
everyone, you know, values um state standardized testing, but I guess it's part of my role I have to. But I really do think it helps us because not every student takes the NJSLA. Not every student takes an SAT exam. Not every student takes an AP exam. Not every
student takes the ACT. So I look at this and say, how are we doing amongst um ourselves and pure districts with the state standards? How are we exposing kids to the student proficiency? Um the science assessment is very rigorous um as we know Miss Katz knows. um and so
how are we looking at improving outcomes in that assessment because across the state the state average is low when it comes to the science exams. The other um point about the science assessments is a lot of families and kids and across the state don't value it because it's not really like it doesn't go anywhere. It
doesn't do anything and it's not used for any kind of like placement purposes. Um but the thinking in the assessment is really good and the transfer of skills is really good. Um, so we only take the science assessment in three grades. That's grades 5, 8, and 11. Um, and we
really are looking at phenomenon like why are things happening? Like when you leave here tonight, your windows are going to fog up in your car. Why is that happening? And can a kid explain why that's happening and the science behind it. Next slide, please. Okay, so there is a lot on the screen and it's very
small. I'm sorry for Oh, thank you, Mr. Harris. H for the audience. I'm going to Oh, even better. Can you scroll for me? Okay, great. So, and I have Mike's laser pointer, but it's so it's too far away. Oh, do you see I'm like kind of poking
it at Susan now. It's not really working. But if you see, so um there are four levels of proficiency in science. And we want level three, which is proficient, or level four, which is above proficient or
advanced proficient. And so you see across the top those are the four levels. And then it says on the right hand side change in level one and two. So 24 to 25. You want that number to have a negative in front of it. Right? And then change in levels 3 to 4 24 to
25. So I am pleased to report even though we have a ways to go with looking at science across the state and in Princeton we went up on average across the three grades 9.9% um in our science scores. So that is very very good news. That's what I like
to see. Um, and the scores really help us inform our programming. So, I know Jackie is going to talk a little bit later of like what the next steps look like in that programming and how we create assessments that are really internal that really support the deep thinking and transfer skills that we
want to see. All right. So, the other thing, next slide. Okay. Oh, do you want to go back one? Okay. That we have to [Laughter] Okay, thank you so much. Uh, so the
other thing we have to report, um, when you have more than one school in a gradeb band, districts are required to report to the public how the schools compare. Um, so you see here we have Community Park, Johnson Park, Littlebrook, and Riverside. We only have one middle school and one high school as
you all are aware. Um, so you see a differential here. Um, so I what we want to think about is consistency in programming. Meaning the score the school that scored the lowest was at 52.2% meeting um or exceeding
proficiency and the highest was 75.5%. For me that is too much of a differential. We should be much more closely aligned and and looking at where we are. Um, and so our average across the district was 63.5%. Which doesn't sound high, but last year
it was 57.9%. So we are increasing and we are improving. And Jackie has really made a concerted effort. I love that she is um a secondary educator by heart, but loves visiting the elementary schools and coming down to the elementary schools and talking about science programming at
the elementary level and working with our steam teachers. and we have a PD day coming up in December and she's already earmarked time to talk about science with our elementary educators. So, we know that it's only going to get better and trying to have more of that consistency across the board. Right,
Andrew? Next slide, please. Through NJSLA, we are also required to report out um demographic data. So, we the first one we look at um is race. And so, unfortunately, our opportunity gaps continue to exist across racial groups.
Um however we are improving outcomes across every racial group in science. So you can see um for the lightest green is from 2023, the mid green is 2024 and the darkest green is 2025. So what we want
to see is that dark green being like the highest one, right? That we continue to improve those outcomes and you can see the jumps um in some of the subcategories. We went down slightly across multi-racial, but every other group went up and some significantly.
Now, here we are with gender. The same thing. Though, I do want to point out that some students identify as non-binary, but the number was small enough to be suppressed. So, right here, all you're seeing is male and female because that's what we can report out to the community. Um, but once again, we're
seeing growth particularly in our female students, but also in our male students. and then subgroup by program. So programming um is it says ELLL technically it's multilingual learners in our ESL program. FR lunch means
students who receive lunch assistance. Section 504 students with 504 plans who receive accommodations for their learning special education students with IEPs and then general education. Um so the good news is is even if it's slight for under the ELLL every subgroup
improved um compared to last year when it comes to science achievement. So that's really the effort that we want to see. Okay. So now I'm going to turn it over to Jackie Cat so she can talk about areas of strength and areas for growth
in science and next steps. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you everyone. And I've got to apologize because I have about 20% voice left at this point in time, but it's all good. Um, so thank you uh for for having me here to speak about what's happening in
the science department. So like Kim had mentioned, a big goal of ours is the K5 space. Um, because there's a lot going on in a K5 classroom and sometimes science is only dealing with limited bandwidth. So our big focus this year is how can we make the most out of those
moments. Um, so we're doing a lot of work there. The K5 teachers are working with a new curriculum map this year to really try to find the best use of our time to hit those three dimensions of science thinking and learning um that we're focused on and the New Jersey state standards are focused on. So, we
have a lot of really strong things to leverage to continue this good work. And it's our steam program at the elementary schools as well as our garden educators who are all on board to build a really robust science program for our students as well as our K5 classroom teachers that are invested in thinking about
phenomena and how we can use that to get students motivated and and asking those important questions. Um at the secondary level we're also thinking about some of those achievement gaps and how can we make sure that students in all of our classes are achieving all of our standards. Um, I was just in a meeting
with the state and their big statement right now is all students, all standards. And I think that's an important message for us to think about at the at the Princeton um at Princeton uh schools across the board. Um, so again, we have really strong things to leverage. We have teachers who are super
passionate about three-dimensional teaching and continuing to push their process. So, we're working as a department to think about our internal assessments and how that can better prepare our students um for this 3D thinking on the state assessment and also in their everyday lives. Um so,
it's really kind of an exciting time. Teachers are motivated, students are motivated. Um that seeing the growth in the numbers is always a good mood booster. Um but we we're excited for the work ahead and we're really looking forward to it. >> Thank you.
Um so everything that Jackie just said and sorry no I'm gonna save your voice please. Um you know I feel painful for you pain for you. Um so the one thing is and this is across a lot of high schools is just the stakeholder buyin for the assessments. We have about a quarter of
our uh juniors take the um assessment for science and NJSLA. It's at a really inopportune time. It's right before AP exams. As you see, we have a lot of students taking AP exams and it's not really used for anything at the state level. And so, how do we get that buy
in? Because we once again all standards, all students. We really want this is an indicator. It's a diagnostic for us. We really do use this data like we really do work as a curriculum team to say where is our programming falling short, where is it meeting kids needs or exceeding kids needs in a good way, and
how do we in constantly improve? And we can't do that if we don't have accurate data. Um, so these are the things that we're working on. Um, and those rich science tasks. And then uh Jackie is beginning the uh uh rudimentary work this year, the first steps this year and uh because we're focusing on humanities,
but next you're looking at a science program um review um and thinking about that K12 scope and sequence and how do we build upon those skills. So thank you Jackie. All right, ELA. Okay, here we go. So, um, the NASLA ELA is in grades
three through nine. Um, and really emphasizes skills like close breathing, uh, synthesizing ideas in across text, and really looking at vocabulary and writing instruction. Um, you can go to the next slide. Um, once again, I am so sorry this is small, but you will have
it online and for your own review. It's 55 slides, so enjoy. Um um we don't have as good news, but I'm not um I'm not uh that worried about it. If you look on that bottom right corner,
we went up uh 1.1% in levels one, two, and three. So in ELA and in math, there are five levels of proficiency. So what we want is kids in level four and level five. And you can see our 2023 scores compared to 24 25. Um so we went down
1.1% in levels four and five. um this school year and you're gonna see we're kind of all over the place when we look at the grade level breakdown. So if you can go to the next um slide, Andrew. Okay. So when you're looking at this, you kind of want to look at it two ways.
So you have what grade three scored last year, 70% meeting exceeding and then this year our grade three just did not do as as well or 2425 school year didn't do as well at 62%. But if you look like caddy corner like if you look at grade 3
and 23 24 and then look at grade 4 2025 that cohort of students increased 7%. If you look at grade four 23 24 and look at grade uh five 2425 they stayed at the same grade five increased from 80% to
82. Grade 6 70 to 85%. Grade 7 86 to 89%. So the only grade that went down like cohort-wise was grade 8 to grade 9 from 81% to 75%. Um so what are we missing and look at that data and that program view where
are kids not scoring as strongly in grade nine to support that those needs. So but overall the cohorts did really well and it's just looking like how do we yearto year we keep up those high scores. I really want to shout out the middle school. Um if you look we're above 80% in grades six um through
eight. When we look at our multi-tered systems of support, our goal is to have 80% of kids like consistently meeting or exceeding expectation and all three of the ELA grades in in the middle school have hit that target which is really something to celebrate for sure. Okay,
next slide. Okay, so now going across the grades. So this is grade three um school comparison. Um once again when we talk about um consistency and variability uh this is an area of concern. So um we have um a school so if
we start off with CP scoring 50% meeting or exceeding and then JP is 61% Littlebrook is 65% and Riverside is 75.6% if you add up levels four and five. Um so once that's 25% variability. So, one of the things we're doing this
year, if you haven't heard about it, is looking at our ELA programming, right, and instituting arts and letters and really teaching kids and exposing all kids to grade level text and writing ability. That's not just to score higher. So, I do this one time a year for the board and for the community. That's really to make sure that all kids
have access. I cannot reiterate, Jackie, enough. All standards, all kids. And so we really want to make sure our multilingual learners, our students with IEPs, our students with 504s, our students who receive free lunch assistance, our students who are gifted, all have um enriching experiences that
meet their needs and and push them further. Um so we're going to go to grade four. Now there's a little bit less variability, but still variability. Um so here they are for fourth grade. Um uh we have, you know, 73.6% 6% 66.1%.
So that's CP was 73, JP was 66, Littlebrook 77% and Riverside 90%. So you can see the difference there as well. And that the district average is at the bottom on the right hand side. And then finally for fifth grade, um we
have CP at 78.8, JP 66.2, Littlebrook 74.7, and Riverside 80. So that one's a little bit closer. there's not as much of a spread. Um, and overall the district um average was 73.6.
Okay, next slide. So, here is our subgroup information. And so, this goes to um race. Um, so we continue to narrow not by a ton, but we're get I'd rather see it up than down um opportunity gaps for our black and
Hispanic students. You also see a slight decrease for our Asian students. Um but you compared to science you also see that it's not as much of a gap between the the the ethnic groups and the and the races here which I think is interesting. Right. Uh next slide
please. Um so here we have female and male. Um so our females went down slightly as did our males. Um but I will say last year our females grew 5% and our males went up 6%. So we are still in a a decent area but we slightly went
down in both subgroups this year. And then finally we have um our uh ELA data across subgroups and focusing on our multi-tered systems of support. We have great news of narrowing those opportunity gaps across um programming.
Um so once again gened I think stayed the same. It's hard to see the numbers from back here but it looks the same on my end. Um, but everything else compared to 24, that dark purple is where we want to be. And you can see it's slightly above last year or greatly above um last
year. And that's for our ELA data. Okay. So, I'm going to let Sarah Moore, our supervisor of elementary ed, talk about areas and strength and areas for growth for K5 and next steps. Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's so great to see everyone. Andrew,
can you do me a favor and zoom in just a little bit? I know the text is tiny for those in the back. Um, thank you for Dr. 2 for going over those numbers really quickly. Um, again, it will be posted. Some things that we are doing at the elementary level. As Dr. 2 mentioned, we are launching a new ELA program. Perhaps
you have heard. Um, it is really difficult and one of the hardest things that an elementary teacher will do in their career to lift a new program. It is essential that that happens. Um, what we had been using previous from teachers college was dissolved. Um, the New Jersey standards for ELA have changed. They are more robust and rigorous. We
really need to lean into the analytical side, looking at figurative and literal language, looking at close reading, really helping students find pathways and on-ramps of how to access those standards that the state is asking of them. We went through a rigorous 12-month program and adopted arts and letters because it met that need. We are
working with onboarding teachers. So, we have instructional coaching uh all the time. Uh, every day you can find an instructional coach doing instructional coach work. Um, there are monthly grade level meetings. There are monthly cohorts for both math and ELA. We are doing lab sites with our new ELA vendor
starting in December. There is a ton of support around implementing a standards aligned ELA curriculum to really help support all of our students. As Dr. T mentioned, really supporting our multilingual learners. There's something called prologue in this new ELA program which provides on-ramps for students
that are multilingual learners and boiling down what are essential core components of vocabulary acquisition and getting those knowledge strands to knowledge build for students. We have fully implemented IMY Orton Gillingham K through five as of this year and bringing that structured literacy up to
our fourth and fifth grade students. It was a huge success in third grade last year. It has been going very well K through two. So now we have a full K5 implementation in the later grades. that looks at morphic analysis and how Greek and Latin prefixes, roots, and suffixes unlock meaning for students and allow
them to access higher level vocabulary content. Um, we have now adopted a cadence for benchmarking rather than DRA and best practice that is considered a gold standard at the state and national level. It looks more at a skills-based approach for students and checking in on where they are for their literacy
journey. So, we can really help support students as they move through our K5 continuum. Okay, we really want to help reduce the number of students at that minimum and proficient. Oh, perfect. Um, so moving forward, we are leveraging those instructional coaching cycles. We are
working with grade K through five at monthly meetings, but specifically focusing at three through five because they are adopting a lot this year. Uh, we are providing staff feedback and support when observing our new ELA programs. Again, we are starting with lab sites in another monthish. Um, we do have professional development around a cadence and some of these literacy
changes because as we see, they are needed. We really want parity across all of our buildings and opportunities for all students to be extremely successful. >> Okay, thank you Sarah. >> Thank you. >> And then I'm going to do uh areas 6 through 12. Um so the good news as we shared um we're of the four grades
mostly we have really great news consistent performance above the state levels of course. Um we do have alignment across our middle schools and with a disciplinary literacy focus in social studies. We try to really treat social studies and ELA as a humanities department. And that's why Kesha Smith Carine is a supervisor of humanities.
And we did add um a tier 2 like academic support ELA lab at the middle school last year. We continue to do that growth this year. Um I we were talking with math lab teachers, not ELA, but they they were saying kids love it. Like they they like they like at first like what is this last year? But now kids who have
been in it who might have said, well, why aren't I in it anymore? because they're finding that they have that extra time for that teacher support, executive functioning and things along those lines. And then we have benchmark internal assessments like common lit um to monitor internal growth across the
school year. Um we really need to continue to decrease those students number of students not meeting or exceeding and that transition from 8th to 9th grade. Obviously that's something that we want to work on and that's where that horizontal and vertical alignment always come in. And then how do we not teach in silos? So what I'm teaching you
in social studies about a thesis, how am I going back to what your English language arts teacher is talking about and how do I write with different purposes in mind or different audiences in mind? Um is always extremely important. If you go to the next slide, please. Um so next step, I'm just doing a lot of uh departmentwide professional
learning on culturally sustaining literacy practices and making sure that students are engaged. Kesha does a great job when she's observing staff about always asking about student engagement. And that doesn't mean just like, you know, were they happy? like how are kids actively participating in the learning? Um looking at data-informed instruction,
lesson design to strengthen our interventions both at tier one, which is in the GED classroom, but also outside of the GenEd classroom. Um going to skip down to that horizontal and vertical articulation and teaching to transfer and common assessments, those little checks in to like make sure that we have
um uh honoring the teacher's agency but also having some commonality across courses is very important. And then finally um you know coming soon to you um and there'll be communication forthcoming we are going to be conducting a humanities program review this year. So uh our first formal
meeting will be in um mid November and then we will start be uh sending out communication to district families once we create survey questions focus group dates etc. So, we will be engaging um students. Hopefully, some of the students we have here tonight um can be part of that process um with focus
groups and surveys as well as staff and families. >> Awesome. Thank you, Richard. >> I'm gonna sign you up. All right. And last but not least, mathematics. So, um we do mathematics um technically
in grades three through seven because we currently don't offer math 8, but th that is what is offered at the state level. algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. And it goes through all the math substandards. Next slide. Okay, this is a very big chart.
If you can just scroll down to the bottom again, Andrew. So, you really, really want to look, it's the same thing as ELA. There are five levels. We want kids in levels four and level five. You see the progress over 23 to 25. And we went down 2.7% in levels one and two.
That's good news. and we went up 2 point uh or in three and we went up 2.7%. So overall we went up I'm just going to summarize for everyone 9.9% in science. We went down 1.1% in ELA and we went up 2.7% in math. That's sort of the
headline I guess of the NJSLA. Probably could have saved you a lot of time. All right, next slide. All right, so here are last year's results compared to this year's results. Um, once again, you want to kind of look both uh horizontally and caddy corner.
So, like last year, like third graders scored 78%, this year they scored 75, but if you look at last year's third grade to this year's fourth grade, they went up three, you know, percent. Um, fourth grade went down a percent, but fifth grade went up 2%. So, we're all kind of all over the place here. And
then when we get to algebra, um some of the things that I really want to highlight, and I think this is kudos to Tiffany and the math department team and the placement um process and just really aligning because what was happening before is algebra 1 really wasn't algebra 1. We were kind of doing a lot
of middle school math skills in algebra 1 and the kids weren't getting to the algebra. Um so we kind of really streamline that and straighten that out. Um so um when you look at algebra, uh you see sixth grade 100%, seventh grade 100%. That's what it should be. These are kids who are far above grade level.
Algebra is a ninth grade course. I know it doesn't feel that way here, but it is a ninth grade standard course. Um 8th grade 58% seems low and I wanted higher, but last year we were at 47%. Um so we jumped 11 points um this year with that
cohort. And then last year um at 9% of our 9th graders met or exceeded in algebra 1 and this year it's 20 or like you know just a past administration we're up to 27%. So we are we are getting there. Um we have some great staff who really love teaching algebra 1 at the high school
and Tiffany's focus has been that algebraic thinking um with the staff and how are we building that uh with Sarah at the elementary level and then transitioning to the middle school level. Um, algebra 2, you see seven, eighth, and ninth combined continues to be 100%. Woohoo. I wish all our numbers
look like that, right guys? And then geometry is interesting. And maybe Tiffany can talk a little bit about this. What we're finding is that um, you know, uh, a lot of kids take geometry over the summer between 8th and 9th grade. So then they're not taking it at the high school level um or, you know,
they're not part of that testing thing because they've taken it at the middle school level. But also when we look at standards and how they're aligned, a lot of emphasis um of of geometry gets like kind of skipped over or taken out in lie of other like substandards. Uh so
statistics and probability kind of get always cut short as is geometry. So that is going to be a focus working at the math department of how are we really building up that thinking before we get to geometry itself because once again just because not all kids are taking geometry doesn't mean that we can't
improve um that average assessment score. Okay. Um so here we go again with our elementary um numbers. I'm pleased to report we don't have the as much variability across the four elementary schools in math that we do in ELA. Um so that's the
the good news. Um, so overall we're 74.7%. Uh, CP was 69.1, JP was 75, Littlebrook was 77.1, and Riverside was 74.7. Um, so, you know, much closer in spread
than they were with ELA. Math grade four overall 81.1%. So, it's clicking in for kids in fourth grade. CP was 71.8, 8 JP was 71.9 Littlebrook was 83.9 and Riverside was
76.3 and then grade five we have overall 76.3% CP was 65.7 JP was 71.8 Littlebrook was 83.9 and Riverside was
81.2 too. So, of the grades, that's the one we're looking at. We think that has the most variability there. And it's an important year, right? Kids are transitioning to the middle school. So, how are we solidifying those math skills in fifth grade and making sure teachers have the support? Um, so that's where
Sarah is talking about, you know, like the math coaching and the professional development and how are we really meeting um students needs um as they wrap up elementary programming and head to the middle school. Okay, so subgroups. Here it is by um race again, but this time for math. We have a slight
1% decrease in our Asian subgroup, but we have increases um in all the others um particularly in our black subgroup and multi-racial and white. Next one. Okay, here we are for gender over three
years. Once again, we're looking for that dark blue. Um so our females grew quite a bit. Um which is great. Um and our males slightly grew. So, good news in both subgroups. And then for programming, um, so that's
the ESL, lunch assistants, 504, special ed, and gened. Every group except 504 increased in proficiency. Okay, so Sarah's back. >> Hi again. >> Okay, so some strengths again,
consistent performance above the state levels. Um, we have very strong curricular infrastructure. Math matters very much to our students here. even from kindergarten onward. Um, math identity is a huge part of who they are. There are many different platforms to practice sort of being off level for
those that are ready for more challenge or those that need additional support. Um, things like I Ready, we do do linkit benchmark testing as they get older to have those metrics closer to how we think they will do on some of these state testing components. I really can't shout out our instructional coaches enough. They are an integral part of
really helping support our teachers at the ground level here in Princeton. It is a really unique, beautiful gem of the programming here. Um, our math coach was in four classrooms today. I do brief with him before and after. Really just being able to provide that hands-on level support is super helpful, especially as new staff come to us
because we know math expectation is high. Um, areas of growth, we really want to help students um that are minimal and limited proficiency and provide that tiered instruction. We have great alignment with tier 2 and tier three programming. So really talking about our MTSS process, working with our
academic intervention services that we have here just to help move students and support them at the levels where they are and increase opportunities for vertical and horizontal articulation across grade levels, especially as we get ready for that fifth to sixth transition year. It is such a big deal as students get ready to enter into
different pathways and options and really meeting students where they are. Um that was work that we did last year that we're excited to continue into this year. Uh great news. We have more Continental Math League signups this year than ever before and we already had quite a few. Um our students do really good and win national level awards for
Continental Math League. Um math workshop implementation has gone very very well. That was a huge priority um four years ago when we started that work here in Princeton. I would say you know with 100% accuracy every elementary teacher is doing math workshop. There is differentiation to meet the needs of the learners in front of them. Um additional
school resources were added to the lending library this year. So things like exemplars, versatiles, things that students can get more hands-on and again providing differentiated pathways for students. Exemplars are open-ended tasks that students solve that really look at higher level thinking skills and
application. We really want to continue to encourage and support our students where they are. And then continued implementation of our new math standards because the state loves new standards. Um really thinking about being mindful of our DLI program and what math access looks like in those classrooms and
building up math vocabulary. um and additional opportunities for things like exemplars and versatiles and extended thinking through our focus and volume of reading and math enrichment blocks. >> Thank you. And then we have Tiffany to talk about growth 6 to 12.
>> Hi everyone. Um we're happy with the scores that we have especially algebraically. We've been focusing so much on building up the algebraic thinking of students since in Princeton at this point we have all students taking algebra by the time they're in eighth grade. and our results have have
grown and shown that our our work has really been making a difference. Um we've aligned our curriculum uh standards progression alignment most notably in the middle school um what was called algebra 1 and eighth grade before was algebra 1 the second half of the
year but the first half of the year they were really wrapping up learning some of those seventh and eighth grade math standards so they could be ready for algebra 1 which also then meant algebra 2 they had to finish algebra 1. So, we've been doing making a lot of changes um largely because of the math program review that wrapped up right as I was
beginning here a couple years ago. Um but and we're finding big big changes and and big things and improvements are are really happening. Um notably this year we added at the middle school a an ESL math class. Um we have many students
through no fault of their own who've had gaps in their learning um before they came here and maybe aren't ready even if they're the age of an eighth grader. They're not ready to learn algebra because they've missed several years of school along the way. Um and so we're really working to close those gaps with
those students. We just started that course um in September and and things are going well. It's a small class. I was in there one day last week and they are happy learners in there. Um it was a really fun place to be. Um we are
uh continually talking about math placement and how we can make it a better process. Um Sarah and I meet a lot especially as the spring gets closer and through the summer um with that fifth to sixth grade transition and then throughout middle school. Dr. Tu and I
were just talking I don't know Thursday or Friday last week and I have notes already for what we can change for next year. um just always looking to make things better. We want kids to find the appropriate balance of challenge and success. We don't want anyone to be anxious um but we don't want anyone to
be bored either. Um in our growth areas, you know, we're going to increase the use of prior grade level standards and the standards of math practices. Every classroom from 6th to 12th grade has all the eight mathematical practices laminated and hanging on the wall and what we're supposed to be referencing
all the time. Um and um we're really looking to increase opportunities for vertical and horizontal articulation between our teachers. That's our plan on our next half day PD on December 8th is really giving teachers time to discuss with each other. Um planning forward and
and what have students learned so far. Um and then we're working to include grade level geometry standards in grades eight and below. While we have a class called geometry, there are geometry standards that start all the way in kindergarten just with learning what shapes are. Um, but as we've focused so
much in in Princeton on the algebraic thinking and making everyone ready for algebra, we kind of have shoved some of the geometry things to the side and now we're kind we're seeing the results of that. Um, so our our highest achieving math students take geometry in seventh
or eighth grade and they're okay to just scoop up all the extra little things here and there and they've never heard of the Pythagorean theorem before even though they should have several times before then and they're okay with that. But we're finding that our high school students who don't take geometry till 9th grade or 10th grade even or
sometimes even 11th grade are really struggling with that. they don't quite have the background skills and so trying to do the background and the current standards has been a challenge. So we want to really we're working on doing all the standards not just the heavy
lifters. Um and then the next slide which I I think might be the last one >> the last one. >> Um we're still talking about the things from the math program evaluation a couple years ago. Um, we are evaluating, revising the eighth grade math offerings to better prepare students for future
success. We have a number of students who come to us from outside our district or state or country who maybe aren't ready for algebra yet. So, we're looking at revising what can we do to make sure kids are appropriately placed and just, you know, increasing the use of our
department meetings and um research based uh best practices and pedigogy. We've made a lot of changes to make sure that in a classroom it's the students doing the thinking and not the teachers. Um we've spent a lot of times a lot of time talking about engagement in math
classrooms and you know what I someone asked me what do I look for when I observe a class and I really look for who's who's doing the heavy lifting. Is it the teachers or is it the students? Um and that makes a big a big difference for sure. And of course, maybe we have
it. Oh, it's we we're zoomed in so we can't see the bottom. Um, but we're implementing MTSS strategies. We've been working a lot with Lauren Samra um throughout all of our math classrooms. We're really starting at the middle school and and building our way up. So, good things on the horizon.
>> Thank you. Um, before we take any board questions, I I want to say two things. First of all, I want to thank the ladies who uh join me tonight. They are a dynamic team and the work is not done without their support and their leadership. And that's also folks like Kesha Smith Carrington who can be here tonight to represent the secondary ELA
data. It's it's really great when you work with people who have the same philosophy as you and who align and want to do the work. Um so we know there's work to do and these people are willing and able to do it. So thank you guys for being here um tonight uh to support our students and learning. And the last thing I want to say before questions is
I was in a county curriculum meeting today and a colleague in another district has her board presentation tonight and she timed it at 1 hour and 45 minutes. So I just want to say you're welcome. >> Okay. >> Well, well, you know that we would fall asleep. I mean, because it's 59, we're
all home. >> I know. And I had to follow a really dynamic presentation before this. I just want to say that. >> No, no, no, no. Thank you. I was going to say something about 55 slides, but that was an excellent presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you, uh, Dr. Tu, Miss Brennan,
Miss Catz, Miss Moore, and, uh, Miss Kesha Smith Carrington, who's not here. Uh, thank you. What I wanted to focus on is the math scores that are improving. And I want to say that that's because yes, it's because of you, Miss Brennan, and your teachers, but I really it's
really because of you, >> Kim, because you came here in a math firestorm >> and we had the math review and I think we did a second math review if I have blocked that out, but I believe we had two and you were a like we taught and and Tiffany the word is algebra.
We were teaching algebra. Yeah, it's okay. So, and you know, um you had a lot of hard conversations and you really changed how things are being taught and it's starting to show now in the test results and test results are only one thing and but um you it's because of
your leadership that you know we're we're seeing these results and what's most important is that we're seeing it across all subgroups and really seeing growth >> um in in the in the subgroups that we we wanted to see growth. >> Exactly. I have every confidence that
three years from now after your ELA review and you implement, not to put the pressure on you, but that we're going to see similar um results in our ELA scores. >> Um and you know, the same with science and and whatever. So, you know, thank
you because it is not whatever. >> I love science. I love it. It's great. Um, but um, you know, it's very hard to change how things are done in the district. I know that. And it's much harder to change how
things are done here. And you've managed to do that. >> Thank you. >> Um, and you haven't pulled out all your hair yet. >> It's got a lot grayer, guys. >> Well, we're very sorry. But really, um, there's a lot of meaningful work happening under your leadership. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I, like I said, it's because
of the team and the teachers who get on board with us and really support the work. But I cannot say enough like the the highlight is seeing those subgroup programs like seeing the opportunity gaps narrow. Do we have a long way to go? Absolutely. But if that's one thing that we take away from this, that's the work that we're doing and why we care about MTSS so much.
>> And I love that all students all standards. That was science uh supporting that. And I think we should have t-shirts because absolutely. >> Yeah. All all students all standards. I love that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you. And that's exactly how it should be. >> Yep. >> So thank you. I have one question on the
ELA and because it occurred to me it probably occurred to everyone else. >> Okay. >> So, um at CP the ELA is a little lower than the other schools and so we have the DI program there. Half the days in Spanish. >> What effect do you think uh the DI program has on that? And
>> uh is that common or do you think there's areas for improvement there? >> Oh, that's a very tough question that I can't really answer in like two minutes or less. But I what I will say is there has been research about standardized test scores in dual language immersion programs and that it takes kids a little bit longer to kind of click in when
you're taught in two languages, you know, throughout the day. Um so you see like our fifth grade scores were up like where the other um schools were. >> There's a lot of variables though because the other thing I would say is our fifth grade teacher who teaches all the kids in fifth grade at CP um also
piloted arts and letters last year. So, I'm wondering like did that have something to do with it as well? I don't know. I'm going to have more data for you this year. Regardless is when we look at the TC model that we were previously doing for uh ELA at the elementary level,
>> it's too much variability. Um, and so when we think about there's autonomy and there's agency. What we want our teachers to have is agency to take curriculum and make it come alive for the students in front of them. When we have autonomy, that means maybe that not all students have all standards. Um, and
that's not blaming teachers that, you know, that was the the previous model and that's how it was done and that's why that program is disbanded and that's why we've gone to a new one. Um, so I want to make sure like when we are looking at N sizes that aren't always apples to apples and things like that, it is concerning that when we look at
our um, socioeconomic demographics across the district, our MLS or our special ed, their score should be higher there. It should even with having the delay in standardized testing. So that's something that with Sarah's support um and we have to work with you know as well with um Miss Russell our supervisor
of DLI Miss Grout the principal they are looking at those scores and particularly um you know what Miss Russell Miss Guchez have been looking at that fifth grade math there um but we are also looking at the ELA that that has to be um reviewed >> and um I know we don't have time now but I don't know what we have on the
schedule for November but I would love for you and Miss Moore to come back and Miss Smith Miss Tarington and talk to us about well maybe not with Carrington but talk about arts and letters why we moved from teachers college >> what the issue with because I think a lot of um parents don't understand
>> right uh what the issue was with teachers college and you know how ultimately this is a better program for all students >> yeah great well we we did a if we don't get a ton of people at sack which you know so we have a slide deck so I think we can make that happen
>> was it I missed this okay yeah but I think it's important because I understand teachers college >> but Not everyone does and doesn't understand the approach and and so I'd like to understand what's different with arts and and parents to understand as well too. >> Absolutely. And the other thing I want
to advertise is that Sarah and I will be going to every PTO meeting in November. Um so JP Riverside and Littlebrook. So uh Riverside's the 10th, JP's the 11th, Little Brooks the 21st, and then um CP's 121 December 1st. And we will also be going to PTO meetings. So you can get it
here at the board meeting or you can come uh to the PTO meetings in a maybe a smaller setting as well. We are happy to talk about everything. Oh, and thank you Debbie. You keep reminding me. And yes, that is on my calendar. November 13th, we're also doing the CPAG meeting. Yes, thank you. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Did Oh, Adam,
>> Elanor, >> thank you. Um yeah, first I just want to give you a big shout out for the science scores. I don't think I've ever, you know, never had such a happy science uh test score moment um before. So that's really really wonderful to see. Um I
wanted to just get a clarification about the elementary school reporting because I think I know I've been told in the past that when the state reports out um data by elementary schools, they do it based on where the students are zoned for, not necessarily the schools they
attend. And so in the data that we've seen today, is that the schools that the kids actually go to? >> Okay. So theoretically, yes. But I'm going to go back to Mike's conversation we had about powers school and how things are coded and our data and
attendance and things like that. So yes, but I think we can do better cleanup about how kids are aligned. Um because we are also um because we have like an op we have like a magnet school sort of within our district. Um so that really complicates things for the state and like you create like a super school in a
sense. So our demographics have to balance and that there's a whole other conversation here. Theoretically, yes, but I can't say with 100% accuracy because of the data that we keep in powers school needs to be cleaned up. Um, so we're doing the P school audit. Um, and I'm hoping that that can help with a lot of things moving forward.
That's a great question. >> Thank you. And then one more. Um, so for those of us who sort of follow like education news um there's been a lot about how um, you know, math scores are seeing recovery after COVID, but reading scores are kind of in a slump um,
nationally, right? Uh and so I was just wondering how you think of um you know we can do things in the district with curriculum um but do you see us sort of facing I don't know general national or cultural headwinds um that are a
challenge in ELA? >> I mean I think what we are experiencing with adults and with children is stamina. The ability to sit with something for a long period of time. Um, and so you know, as we've talked about, Eleanor, it's finding that balance of exposing uh kids to grade level standards, but also reading for
pleasure. So, do you want to say something, Sarah, because she's very passionate about this topic? Do you want just come to the mic? >> I won't take up too much of your time, but it's an excellent question to ask. Um, and I would beg you to shift your attention to prep for November, which I'm very happy to come and chat with you
at. Um, shift your attention to Mississippi. out of all of the states in the nation, Mississippi has had the best ELA recovery out of any of the 50 states, which I know sounds surprising. Um, but they were the first early adopters of the structured literacy work we are doing here in Princeton and the
knowledge building alignment work when you get to the deeper levels and lenses of comprehension and looking at those analytical vocab, all of those best practices. Mississippi was the first to do it and they've had the highest recovery rate in their ELA scores. So really em embracing that best practice
which is exactly what we are doing here in Princeton. They were early adopters of it and their ELA scores are significantly higher than the rest of the country. >> Lot people up. They didn't enjoy the social promotions. There's less less than enough of those. >> Yeah. So if you look at all of the early adopters for more of those structured
literacy components, science of reading standards and states that went as early adopters, they have a better trajectory trend upward than states that are lagging behind. Um so specifically Mississippi is a good one to study. We can talk more about it when I come in November, but it's a great question. >> Thank you. What was your question, Adam?
>> Oh, just quick a quick one. Um, again, thank you. To me, my metaphor is like you took a ship, you stopped it, and then kind of slowly turning it around and everything. And I do appreciate it in the Mississippi thing. And um the second, the culture, teacher buyin, continuing to evolve and um curriculum
disconnect or, you know, >> yeah, I mean, I think most people are, you know, willing and able, you know, change is hard, right? as we know there's a lot of change theory and you have to go with those early adopters and kind of using your you know um metaphor um I always think of it like there's sardines like and when there's a school
of fish there to for them to change direction one has to start it right and then they start swimming against the rest of the group and then more come and then more come and then more come so there's always like 20% like super like early adopters and I think we're seeing that in our K5 ELA program and then we have the people who are like okay like
I'm giving it a shot I see what you guys are doing here I'm getting the vision then you have those who are like this is really hard like I need help and then there's some who are like nope I like it the old way I always want to like that's just human nature so what we also know is that with success comes more buyin so
we're hoping as they start seeing students produce work assessments things like that and engagement that we get more buyin but um to to answer your question in a short way like TC is no longer recognized in the state of New Jersey as a highquality instructional program so even if they didn't disband
like we wouldn't be able to support the work that we do here with an align it with state standards. So we had to do something and we really at Sarah led a pilot effort to look at due diligence of looking at several programs and we're just trying to find the balance of we don't want to go back to basil readers where you just read and then you
regurgitate with arts and letters they're look looking at rich texts they're doing close reading they're writing about their reading and so is any program perfect no and we're not going to say that we want teachers to pledge alignment with anything because we also want them to meet the needs of the kids in their classroom however we also need to know that that we can
guarantee that kids were exposed to things And right with CC it was too variable. >> So you know I think there's local districts that have not >> moved on like >> no West Windsor still has it technically and they're piloting Arts and Letters and CKLA >> and Montgomery as well as
>> and Hopewell where my daughter goes um has a version of it and it's it's frustrating. So you're being too modest like you took on a big >> Yes, we are leaders in this and and we are leaders and it's because of Sarah Moore and so when we we are leaders sometimes we have to take a jump right and we have to move forward and say
we're going to start that we're the sardines right we are going forward and sometimes that we we take more slings and arrows because of that but we know it has to be done >> right and if we do believe in the all students all standards then we need to run away from teachers college >> what I will say I was talking with a
special education teacher and she said for the first time since I've taught here and it's 21 years is that everyone is working toward the same goal. Our ESL students are exposed to this program. Her LLD students are exposed to the program. Resource room kids are exposed to the bike. So, we're all hitting these
things and maybe different ways and having different accommodations or modifications to get there, but all the kids have that exposure and that's never been the case. >> Great work. >> Yep. Thank you. Quick question. Um, in regards to your student buying for 11th grade when they're like being, you know,
introduced to all the APs and all the SATs and everything, >> what other metrics are you using to beef up the science program if you consistently run across that timing issue? >> Oh, that's great. So, um, I actually got to observe Jackie do a micro department meeting last week. It was at the middle school, but I know she does this in the
bio, chem, physics, content areas as well, and saying, you know, this isn't a standardized assessment. There's some really good work here, though. Like just because the state mandates assess, there actually can be value in some of these questions and how we're asking kids in transferring of skills. So how do we create internal common assessments
across bio, physics, chem, forensics, whatever class we're talking about so that we are asking those rich deep questions and tasks that model what's on that assessment. So how that's part of that program review work of like how can we make that more of a common practice and Jackie is starting that work this
year um so that we have metrics that tell us how kids are doing. So, it's a really good question. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. >> No, thank you. >> Thank you everyone and thank you guys. [Applause]
>> Did you have anything else, Dr. Lassusa? >> Yes, I do. >> Um, >> I'm glad I asked. >> Yeah. Well, I I do want to just underscore how much hard work goes into um what we just saw. And I think of the
many outstanding qualities of of Dr. 2, one of them is that there's like a genuine absence of defensiveness and she has a willingness to look at what we're doing and um what her team
does and really think about how we can do better and acknowledge places where maybe we're not doing um as well as we want to do. and it's a quality I think that uh flows through her team and uh it's something that I think is really a
tremendous asset to this district. So, I just want to thank her and her folks for um for the work they're putting in. Uh thank you. And uh the final item under my report um we need to move to some place on the
agenda for an action uh item, but um we weren't 100% sure where to put it cuz we're new. So, we're good. >> Okay. It's part of consent. And that is just that we introduced a draft calendar at the last meeting. Um, we've touched it up and um refined it a bit, adding a
a final professional development day in the fall. Uh, making sure that the dates were all accurate in terms of um holidays and such. And, um, it is pretty much good to go. Uh, we think it starts
the school year on August 31st for students. uh ends uh in in June on the 16th, I believe. Uh there are only two snow days built in, but that was just because that's what we're doing this year. If we want to build in another snow day, we can. Um but I I kind of
leave that to you and follow your lead as uh folks who are familiar with the calendar here. And um the feedback at least from the uh teaching staff is positive about the August 31st start date as opposed to waiting until September 1st and not having a 4-day
weekend on the uh Labor Day weekend. So uh we think that the calendar is ready to go and that it will give people um you know notice about the the schedule of events for next year including a notation for both high school graduation and middle school promotion.
>> Well, that is excellent. and I say we roll the dice and it's definitely going to be a very snowy winter. >> Hopefully not. >> Yeah. So, let's let's see what happens. But I think this is great and I appreciate you're taking uh the feedback and you know moving some things around.
So, we start August 31st and we end on uh June 17 June 16th. June 16th. Okay, that's pretty good. >> And that's it for me. >> All right. Okay. Uh moving on now to our student board member report. We have Ash and
Annie. Anie. Anie. >> Yeah. >> Sorry about that. >> No, it's okay. Okay. So, first is kind of just more of a situation where we've noticed a couple things. Not really a um automatic kind of solution that we have, but just something that we've noticed for over time. Um a lot we've seen a lot
we've heard within our peers a lot of conversation about just talking to counselors. Um obviously during this time we're applying to colleges as seniors and also like I know the juniors go through Mrs. Shaw with all of the like prep for that. And so it's just a
lot of like kind of these processes that are long and ongoing and kind of stressful. And so there's a lot of trying to communicate within a specific amount of time. Um and just kind of like all that. And so we've seen like a lot of it's hard because obviously Mrs. Shaw is so busy with all of these amazing
like resources that we have like all of these students are using them and really um get benefiting from them. Um but also it's just hard to get in touch with her. And so then we reach out to our counselors instead. Um, and a lot of the times and obviously the counselors also have all of the grades in the high
school. So it's obviously not just the juniors and the seniors going through this. So they have to deal with all of the scheduling and everything else that goes on and all of the small kind of more personal issues. Um, and so but it's just kind of we've noticed that it's hard to come in contact with them and sometimes they don't have the necessary the necessarily correct
information that we need specifically. Um, but yeah, that's really it for counselors. just a lot of like we need we it's kind of it would be more helpful to get in touch and I'll have kind of one consens consensus um just general idea of what's I kind of like correct I
would say yeah um and so on a more um personal note that's something me and Audi are trying to work on is like we said sorry like we said last time one of our goals for this year is to make students more aware of what the board is doing and more um involved like civically in these kinds of processes And so two things
we're trying to implement are number one um posts on um student council has a popular like Instagram like social media kind of page um that helps spread a lot of information about dances um or stucco events to students. So, what something we want to do is have like bi-weekly,
monthly posts after board meetings, maybe like a recap um on something like that because students are already on these sites and while obviously there are board recaps that are being made, most students aren't seeking them out and so to get them involved and to get them aware um we want to put these resources on sites that they're already
on um and in ways that they're already engaging with similar posts. So, like I said, we want to do um some sort of recap like that. uh what the school board does, who's on it, those kinds of things. Um and then also something we want to do is have a regular like s Google form survey open or like a
submission box where people can write their email um and issues they're having because while a lot of good things are being brought up in student council um and people are asking me and Anie questions um or bringing up issues to us, there's always things that go unnoticed. Um, and in order to make sure we're representing the entire student
body, we just want to have like give all the students a chance um to be able to reach out to us in that way. Um, so we're working with student council right now to implement something like that. Um, but yeah, so we're really but there's been a lot of student involvement with StuCo this year, which
I know was one of the goals of Nikolai and Maya last year. Um, and they were pretty successful with it. So, we're hoping to keep that up this year and then um take that energy into the school board as well. >> So, thank you. Um I think the open Google form is great and we would love to hear what's on the students mind. So,
feel free to bring that to us. And Anie, have you spoken to um Miss Burge about um what you shared with us about the counselors? >> Um as of right now, we haven't, but that is a really good idea and we will do that. >> Okay. Yeah, that's something where
there's been um a lot of talk. It's mostly obviously among seniors um bringing that up and especially as we're approaching the early action deadlines. Um it's creating a lot of stress, but we are working on bringing up to we've I've talked to Miss Lee about it, but we're also working on um organizing our thoughts more coherently to bring up to Miss Burge. >> Yeah, it doesn't have to be too
coherent. She can follow along, but you know um because it's October 28th, so um see if you can get into Miss Burge tomorrow to share your concerns. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. I I I will mention
though um part of the reason for beginning the school year in August is exactly what you just spoke about and the crunch that there is for seniors in particular to get college applications out. The first district that I knew of really that pushed forward the the start
of school was the district my own children attended and that's a high school only district, West Morris Regional. They went to Mendum High School. Uh they graduated last year. Their graduation was on June 6th. Uh, and their first day of school, if I remember right, was August 22nd. And the
primary reason that that district um explained their change was the mental health of the students, particularly seniors, and how having more time between the first day of school and Halloween, basically in terms of college
applications, um, would would would be helpful. and they from what I recall they surveyed students to find out um if in fact the beginning of the year was less stressful for them and the answer was yes and um the feedback was overwhelmingly positive from students again as a high school only district but
I just wanted to note that because it connects to the calendar and why we don't want to wait all the way until September 7th or 8th to start school. >> It's fantastic. >> Yeah. Um, moving on now to uh public comment.
Is there anyone here who would like to speak to us? Because we have people who emailed us who want to speak to us, >> but there's no one here right now. Okay, Mr. Harris, please. I believe we have two emails.
Yes. [Music] >> Good night. >> Good night. [Music] >> All right. Here's our first email. My name is Dr. Abigail Combach, London, and I live on Orchard Circle. I wish I could
be speaking to you virtually, but but appreciate Mr. Harris reading my statement. Hello and thank you to everyone here tonight working in the best interest of all of our children. I speak as a parent and scientific expert in neuro development. I have a fourth grader and kindergartener at CP and am a neuroscientist at Princeton. I address
the BOE, not the world language supervisors or CP administrators, because they have declined my attempts to meet or advise me to consider transferring my child to another school. CP is an elementary school with kind staff and exceptional children who spend 40% of the day in suboptimal immersion that can be cannot be called dual
language. Outside of dedicated Spanish instruction, there is no immersion. Dual language immersion cannot happen when few adults in the building are bilingual and English dominates the hallways. Open houses and school forums are entirely in English. Even small informal greetings in espanol, simple but powerful for
learning, are lacking at CP. Additionally, all specials are in English. Missed opportunities for immersion. Children learn language through action, gym, art, and music to reinforce Spanish naturally. Bilingual teachers and staff should be preferentially hired for any openings.
DI accreditation would be a bonus, but not essential if not teaching a DI subject. Simple ways to increase immersion immediately. Immersion in the classroom needs to be live. English songs are learned directly from the teacher, but Spanish songs are learned from YouTube videos and it is unlicensed. So our kids also watch
YouTube ads at school which should not be allowed. Immersion support at home needs to be supported. In kindergarten, we get out print we get printouts of how to support English language acquisition but not Spanish language. Spanish handouts are of new mathematical concepts and with nothing on how to
support Spanish language acquisition. here. The Spanish videos that the kids watch at school would be helpful. Importantly, Spanish language assistance should be available just as English language assistance is. Educational change may be a marathon, but for our children, we need to sprint toward immediate improvements. I ask that
district administration meet with a small group of CP parents invested in strengthening immersion. A similar meeting was granted to parents opposing diversity and equity initiatives. Here, we seek a constructive exchange of ideas from psychology and neuroscience. We know immersion works because 5 to eight
year olds brains are in the critical period of language acquisition. Let's provide stronger immersion so their plastic brains can do what they evolved to do, learn. Thank you for your time and your dedication to providing the best education to our students. Um the second one is from April Allist.
Dear PPS members, I am writing briefly in advance of tonight's board meeting to add my voice to the strong support among families at Riverside Elementary for a bell-to-bell policy regarding cell phones and glad to understand that this matter is at last being addressed in New Jersey. I'm keenly aware of the threats
to minors of excessive unsupervised and unregulated internet access beyond even its well-known potential for magnification of bullying, trolling, and doxing and detriments to attention, sleep, self-esteem, and socialization. As a parent of two young children at Riverside, I am deeply concerned yet
glad to know that many other parents share my concerns. Please read this message of the meeting if possible. Many thanks to your attention to this important matter, April. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. >> You're welcome. >> You're a gem. Thank you for reading those. Um, is there anyone else here?
Public comment? No. All right. Uh, so we're going to we we're going to have another shot for public comment. Um but moving on now uh I >> yeah so we're moving on now. So I uh is harassment intimidation bullying. We
have uh hib acceptance and hib affirmation. Uh moving on to policies J1 first reading. Wait, did I miss something? >> Yeah, the where is that? >> Oh, I'm going to move that. Sorry. I'm going to move the uh board committee
reports. Oh, no. That's my problem because usually I reflect on what people said. So board committee, let's start with I guess you're going to do operations. >> I'm going to do operations and long >> and long-term planning and it's 9:30 and
I get a bonus if we're out of 10. Just FYI. >> Well, you'll like long-term planning. Operations is a little more um is a little lengthier. So we met on October 20th at 1 p.m. for long-term planning in close session. Uh we've received an
update on our upcoming referendum and uh potential issues with the timeline for the bidding and discuss plans for uh five-year plans in multiple areas. Our next meeting is 11:11 at 100 p.m. which will also be in close session. >> That was a fantastic report.
>> All right, this one is you're not going to like it. um operation. Um we met October 24th at 1 p.m. Uh we began as we usually do receiving a report on the outstanding referendum projects all of which are very close uh
to being closed out. We then as we always do discussed our sustainability initial initiatives. Jenny Ledmer reported on the successful deployment of our two electric buses with Mr. Harris. And then we work she's work going to begin working on a district tree
planting plan with the district and we and she also updated us on the continuing energy saving competition among our schools uh which has been very successful. We then received an update on uh potential uh building management
system vendors and progress on signs uh for the school schools that are being done uh inhouse. So that was exciting and one school is nearing completion. Uh so that was exciting um to hear. >> Which school? >> Johnson Park.
>> Okay. Will we have pictures? >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Next time I will >> I want to see the changes. Um, so then in uh finances, we got updates on our referendum balances on some conra construction payouts that will be that
are on the agenda today, plus some uh contracts uh for district work approval this also on the agenda uh today. And uh in transportation, we discussed a new transportation software uh that the
administration will be recommending uh shortly. in technology. We've received updates on uh communication upgrades that they're working on uh so that we have good communication with between our schools. Um ongoing the ongoing Google
audit that they're doing and uh discussion of the long-term fiber upgrades uh that will be uh probably implemented this summer with the money from past referendums. Uh and lastly in food services we received uh an update
how we will deal with outstanding balances in the future which will be implemented in our next budget. Our next meeting will be on November 13th at 1 p.m. and the first part is open to the public. >> Thank you. >> Susan, just one change that was PA upgrades. Fiverr, we were talking about
long-term planning. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> That was Thank you. It was um I just want to say that uh October, what was our October 16th we were at the planning board and our third
project which was CP uh was approved uh at a special meeting. And so we want to thank um the town council and the planning board for all their assistance in moving those uh projects along because I might have mentioned I'm worried about tariffs. I think everyone
else is too. So, we're excited uh that so far we're on on uh the timeline. So, uh just wanted to add that. Moving on now to personnel with Debbie, I know this will be brief. >> Yes. >> The personnel committee committee met on
Monday, October 20th. We discussed some updated job descriptions for technology department that are on the agenda tonight. We discussed the success of the summer counseling hours for PHS and PMS and then we discussed many other personnel issues. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Debbie.
>> And be let's just let me just continue. So, um I'm sorry. Uh >> no, I love this. >> The equity committee will be meeting I'm just going to tell you we'll be meeting on December 4th um 1 to 2:30 in person >> here. Yep. December 4th 1 month to 2:30.
I'll send you >> and that'll be on the district calendar. >> Yes. >> Yes. Great. >> Oh, I love this. So, we're moving on to Eleanor. She's going to do policy and student achievement >> in whatever order you would like. >> I'll do policy first. >> Okay. Um the policy committee met on October 7th at 9. Uh we discussed
several policies that are on the agenda today. Um nothing spectacular, just remaining in compliance with changes in New Jersey legal code. Um but following um the last board meetings discussion, we also talked about possible approaches to smartphones in schools. Um those
conversations are in early stages. Um the policies will next meet on December 4th at 9:00. So you can do policy at 9 and then equity at 1 except that policy is closed. >> Oh, so yeah, never mind. So never mind. Now you're morning freak. Um SAC met on
Friday, October 24th at 9:00 and we had two items on our open agenda. The first was an update on um on arts and letters, the new K5 ELA curriculum. Um and Kim Chu shared some information about how the district is working to support the
roll out. um because with any new curriculum, mastering um the pacing takes time and training. Um in addition, the district is looking to make sure that there's still time for choice reading and choice writing in the day because those are important, too. Uh and
I just wanted to say that on the board, we're very appreciative of how much work this is um for the elementary teachers to be doing um to be adopting this new curriculum. Um, we also took a quick look at the district list of field trip sites which is on the agenda for
approval tonight and then we went into close session and our next meeting is Thursday, November 13th at 9:00. >> All right, >> that one you can come to on Zoom. >> Me too. I can come. >> Especially you. >> Oh, thank you. All right, that's great.
Thank you. Um, moving on now. Uh, so I'm going to go back now. Uh, policies J1 first reading, J2 second reading. As Elanor said, nothing to write home about. Um, then we're moving on to personnel L1 retirements. I just want to take a second. We have uh uh five
retirements. Three I would like to speak about. Uh totaling 73 years in the district. Um first one is Nancy Abbiscale who is a special ed teacher at uh the middle school. Um, I don't think there's a harder job than being a special education teacher at a middle
school, except maybe being the principal at a middle school or an assistant principal at the middle school. But Nancy Abbiscal is a gem. Uh, she's been in the district for 20 years. Um, she uh she got my family through some tough
times and uh I I uh wish Nancy um all the best and I'm so fortunate that my son had her as a teacher. All right, moving on now. Melissa O'Donnell uh is retiring. Um shock waves went out through Littlebrook. Um
she's been in the district 28 years uh I believe right out of college and uh she's an extraordinary uh kindergarten teacher. Um my daughter was lucky enough to have her and um she will be missed but she's a triome teacher and she hopes
to do uh I think teaching with some fun in it. So uh we wish Melissa the best of luck. And then finally, um Renee Spor, another special education teacher. Uh and she's been with the district 25
years. Um in addition, Renee was is is the uh co has been the co-president of uh the teachers union for about eight years, nine years. Um and uh if you've had the chance to meet Renee,
you'll know uh what a pleasure it is. Uh and to for um the story I'll say about Renee. Well, two stories. >> So, back in the mid 2000 2018s, whatever you call them, knots, are those not? No,
they're not 2018s. The 201s. So, our uh the board's relationship with the teachers union wasn't as uh collegial as it is now. And um we were sitting down in this room to do negotiations and we had the tables like caddy corner
and uh the superintendent and I were here and Renee was here with her co-presidents and uh they were very upset about something but Renee um wanted to multitask. So, she took her purse, which was like this big, and she dumped it on the table. And as she's
telling us, all these things, she was she was sorting her her stuff and like, you know, throwing away things that needed to be thrown away. And I was so amazed that she could she was doing two things at once. Anyway, it's not like
walking gum. She really was putting a lot of thought into both things. So that's what so so then when my son had her as a as uh when he was a senior um I was not sure how that was going to go because Renee is a really forceful forceful personality and you know my son
was like a 17-year-old boy and you know she was going to nag him and he didn't like being nagged and but apparently that only applied to me >> and he loved being nagged by Miss Bourne. He actually called her his mother at school >> and um you know she uh Jack has language
based learning disabilities and you know she really worked with him um a lot to have a better he he's also has disgraphia so that's like a disability where you sometimes have trouble putting into writing what's in your mind and uh
you know she did Yman's work and uh she'll be missed so so we're We're saying goodbye to some uh very special educators tonight. Um and they're what make Princeton special. And Angela, you have your hands full to make sure that
uh those are big shoes to fill >> and I'm sure you can. And uh we wish Renee um all the best uh for a long and healthy retirement. >> Debbie. >> Yes. I would also like to make a shout out to um Mrs. O'Donald. Um, Max had you
and I appreciate you spending that first year with him, molding him, getting him ready. And it was a funny class cuz there were a lot of kids in that class born in August. And so they were really young. They were very, very, it was a young, young class. And I remember they
kept saying, well, you know, he has to get to his age or grow up to his age. And I kept saying, well, when does this happen? Like, so there were a lot of y just turning five that were in that class. But I thank you a lot for staying with them all. Okay. Well, that's sad. Um,
it was such a good meeting so far. All right. L2, resignations. L3, termination. L4, appointment. L5, personnel item. This a L6, leave of absence. L7, substitute student placements. L8, uh, six period compensation. L9 curriculum and
instruction. L10, student services. L11, the job description Debbie mentioned. and L12 athletic appointments. Moving on now to curriculum instruction. Uh we have New Jersey quality QAC review. Um three-year program preschool program plan and annual update in enrollment
projection consultant services CW clinician LLC and annual field trip approval that Elanor mentioned. Moving on now, student services, special education, uh, educational placements of students, 2526, and a grant application, uh,
fiscal year 26, federal funds for IDA. Moving on now to the business agenda, uh, we have one, an addendum to the transportation contract. O2, the budget calendar. 03, comprehensive maintenance plan. 04, construction payments. 05, contracts. 06, cooperative purchasing
agreement. Camden ESC, um, what number I forget. 07, cooperative purchasing agreements, reapprovals. 08, financial reports is a action item. Can
I get a motion, Mara? Second, Chris. [Music] abstain. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Susan, >> yes. >> Christopher,
>> yes. >> Yes. >> Harris. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. And I love how you're moving things around because it keeps me on my toes. So, keep doing that. Um, we have 09 fire and evacuation trees. uh fire and evacuation drills 010
fundraisers and this is for uh this is uh a carryover from last month and we're just confirming that this is a indistrict uh procedure and it does not affect people who don't work for the district including PTO's. So thank you
uh for updating that. Uh then we have 01 a gift acceptance which is uh so touching. Um the trusted state of Norman Sandy A. Shulie III designated a specific dist distribution of $25,000 to Princeton High School. And um it's
specific to uh support the budget for the hockey and golf teams. And so we want to thank um the estate of uh Norman uh Shulie III. And um we're very grateful to accept this donation uh on
behalf of the district. And then we have O12 items for disposal or and or sale. Then we have 03 registration travel agenda. Moving on, we have our next public comment. And um we outlasted the public tonight.
It's okay. Um so we don't have uh any public any anyone to take us up on our second public comment. And so now we're gonna move on to the consent vote. Can I get a a motion? Mara second. Eleanor [Music]
>> All right. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Um, this really was a um, fantastic meeting tonight. Um, and I love that it was so kid focused. Uh, thank you Mrs. Baldo for that presentation. That was awesome. Um, and you know, just reminds us and
I'm going to say it again, all students, all standards till somebody makes a t-shirt. >> Um, our next meeting is um, November 18th. Um, happy Halloween everyone. be safe. And can I get a motion to adjurnn?
All in favor? >> I. >> Great. We're adjourned. Thank you.