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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=mDjgV6ShOwk

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Good evening. Welcome to this meeting of the Princeton Board of Education. The board is an elected unpaid group of 10 citizens who set policy and make decisions on behalf on educational, financial, and personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all residents. We're always pleased when

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members of the community attend our meetings. The board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education. Each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the publish agenda or other matters of

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interest to them. The board reserves a right to limit the time allotted to public participation. Law limits discussion of individual personnel on 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's

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meetings act NJSA 104-6 adequate notice was given for calling this meeting. It was authorized by the board of education and board of municipal clerk Princeton packet and times on January 9th 2025 and distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list. The

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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. Representative of the sending district

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is authorized to vote on such matters that affect sending district students or affect the governance of the Princeton public schools as more specifically designated in NJSA18A 388.1. Sending district votes pertaining to personnel actions refer to high school, central administrative, and districtwide

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staff only. Votes otherwise are considered abstensions. In the event that NJSA18A 3881 is amended, the law should take precedence over this bylaw. Right. Roll call. >> Yes, please. >> Beth Brim >> Adam Beerman >> here.

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>> Mara Francesky >> here. >> Elanar Hubard. >> Katherine Lara >> here. >> Ariel >> here. >> Christopher Sarpio >> here. >> Erica Snder >> here. >> Susan Canter >> here. Dendro >> here. >> P. >> Thank you Mr. Paris, can I get a motion

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for the adoption of the minutes for March 17th, 2026? Re second. Chris, >> Beth Bon, >> Adam Beerman, >> Mark Franceski, >> yes. >> Ellen Hubard, >> yes. >> Captain Lara,

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>> thank Meiselle. >> Uh, yes. >> Christopher Centarpio, >> yes. >> Erica Snider, >> yes. >> Susan Caner, >> yes. Yes. >> Can I get a motion for the adoption of the minutes for April 14th, 2026? Erica

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second Elanor. >> Okay. Beth Bon, >> Adam Beerman, >> Mara Franchesky, >> yes. >> Ellanar Hubard, >> yes. >> Katherine Liar, >> abstain. And the previous one can be

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switched over to yes. Not a problem. >> Christopher Centarpio, >> abstain. Erica Snder, >> yes. >> Susan Caner, >> yes. >> D Kendall, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. All right, everyone. Uh,

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welcome uh to this meeting um our regularly scheduled board meeting for April. Um, you know, today, this week has been difficult for the district. Um, with the passing of Abraham Abed, and we send our deepest condolences to his

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family. Um, I just want to take a moment during my, this is my 10th year on the board. This is the fourth child that we've lost. And, um, what has always struck me is the compassion and care of our staff um, and administrators. And

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today was no exception. Um, I I want to thank uh I know Dr. Lusa sent an email uh that recognized the um extraordinary efforts of our middle school team. Um Mr. Burr, Mr. McCann, and Miss Carsdale.

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Um but also I'd like to thank our administrative team here, uh Miss Belo, Dr. Ciso Stence, Dr. Chu, um and uh Dr. Lusa. um our staff um went above and

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beyond um and they're led by um Dr. Lassusa who made sure that um the staff that wanted to go to the service today were able to go and um you know the board is very grateful um that you

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always put our people first. Um so thank you. I know it was a tough it's been a tough couple days, but um we appreciate everything that you and the staff have done to help um our community through this terrible tragedy. And with that, I

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will turn it over to you. >> Thank you, uh Miss Kendall. [clears throat] I'm looking at the agenda and for the first time actually since I jotted uh a few items down on Friday morning and thinking about what was in my brain on Friday morning and how I never could have predicted that

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I'd get a phone call from the chief of police on Sunday afternoon in the last 48 hours would uh would turn out the way they have. So, I'm not going to repeat everything that I've already written uh to the community, but obviously this has been a a very difficult year in the school district. There's been a lot of

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loss um among staff to this point. Uh but student loss is a different magnitude of uh suffering. So tough day for everyone. tougher day for some than others. And uh

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just want to extend the the condolences and the sympathies and the gratitude also to everyone in the district who's helped each other um get through. So, uh the rest of the evening though, we do have business to take care of. Uh we do have a budget that must be

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finalized uh in accordance with the timelines from the state of New Jersey. we have some important business to take care of. Uh we're going to do that and and soldier on through and um and that's that's about all I will say

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now about that. Um and thank you for bearing with me and giving us all a little grace. >> All right. Thank you. Now I need um Oh, do I have no motion yet? No.

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Can I get a motion to enter a budget the budget hearing? Mara second. Beth, a voice vote. Uh, all in favor? Yes. Anyone opposed? All right, Dr. Lusa, it is all yours.

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There we go. All right. Thank you for bearing with me through the uh through the stumbles. Um so last time we were in this room on uh St. Patrick's Day, I gave a budget presentation and the the short of it is that the the budget in

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the aggregate has not changed at all. The operating budget is the same as we presented in March. The tax levy is the same as we presented in March. Uh but there are a few items that are wrapped into this budget uh which also coincides

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of course with the annual reappointments that we make from a staffing perspective. So, uh, we just wanted to highlight some of the, uh, items and measures that we're taking to get to a balanced budget and that we are taking as we look ahead to next year.

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Um, so just in terms of the general summary, we'll talk about where we left off very quickly, then the recommendations that uh, achieve balanced budget here, and then some just final thoughts. And again reminding everyone that the goals of this budget when we began really to were to maintain

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as all of the current programming we have meaning not eliminate programs or activities or uh any other aspect of the student program. Try to make improvements where we could because we always want to do better even in difficult budget years and then um find

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efficiencies so that we can be more sustainable moving forward. Um, and some takeaways from last time, uh, have to do with the fact that the overall budget picture, uh, is very challenging in the state of New Jersey right now. And our expenses are

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outrunning our revenues. And if we, if nothing changes, uh, we're going to have to make probably more difficult decisions in the future. But with this year's budget uh being proposed and adopted for the next school year, uh we

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were about $750,000 short when we um began uh or at least after we had already made certain adjustments. We still were at a $750 gap, $50,000 gap. Uh so the first thing I want to just talk about uh has to do with our

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elementary sectioning. We've heard a lot about this uh from community park parents over the course of this current year, but uh I just decided to put on the screen every section at the elementary level. These are general uh education classrooms at all four schools. And you can see um

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just some of the variation and also the overall layout of uh section size across the schools. There will never be a time where there's equity in uh neighborhood elementary schools. Uh the only way to achieve equity in sections is to not have

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neighborhood schools but to have uh every grade level congregated in one place like some districts do like Montgomery I believe is largely structured that way. Uh so without having uh sort of schools that everyone is bus to that you can very easily

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divide up the total numbers of students in each grade um you're left with trying to do the best you can given the numbers and um you find tipping points like maybe the number 25 would be a tipping point where you wouldn't want to hit that number. So section size ends up being reduced if you add a section. So,

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the reason I'm showing this um this slide here is that we're going to make two adjustments moving into next year. Um, one of them is at Littlebrook, and that's kind of the the easier one. I I'd say if you look at grades four and five,

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they're the only two sections that have four sections of students. And um grade three, as you can see, has three sections. So if you just move that grade three up into grade four in Littlebrook, you end up reducing one section because

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you maintain the three sections of 1918 and 19. And if they become 19,8 and 19 in grade four, then you need one less section. Uh however, the fourth grade currently uh has very low class sizes relative to um to other school other

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sections in the district. And if we move the fourth grade into fifth grade, but reduce the number of sections from four to three, we'll still have roughly 20 or 21 students in a section, which puts us right in line. So, we'll reduce two sections in Littlebrook. At Community Park, if you look, um what

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we've been hearing about all year long, of course, is the fact that we have two sections of kindergarten at 22 a piece. And we've made that decision because we um have the intention of bringing back nonDLI sections to the school. And so if we don't limit or cap the number of

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students that we admit in kindergarten, it will make it difficult for us to ever reintroduce nonDLI sections. So in speaking about the sectioning with Dr. Tu, with Miss Guchez, um Miss Russell, uh what we're going to do is make a

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shift at Community Park that we intend to keep in place uh at least until the construction is done. At least that's the intention of what I'm about to speak to. And that is if you look at grades one, two, and four, there are three sections in those three grades. But in

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grades K, three, and five, there are only two. Uh so 25 26. In other words, if you took the numbers out, you've got grades one, two, and four with three sections. And then the other three grade levels have only uh two sections. We're going to

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move to a model where we have three sections in kindergarten, 15 each, three sections in first grade, 15 each, and then two sections in the remainder of the grade levels in the building. And the reason why we feel comfortable doing

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that is that instead of having the excuse me, instead of having the 44 in K, we'd make that 45. So, three sections instead of two. We'd maintain that in first grade because those are the earliest uh years of course of students

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in the in the building. Uh and then we know that the grades don't really grow at Community Park because we don't continue to admit students who move in if they haven't had a DLI experience. So we feel confident that we can maintain two sections in the remaining grade levels. And by doing that, we'll end up

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um reducing one section total. uh and we also will need less instructional assistance support in the uh smaller section sizes. In other words, we've been using instructional uh instructional assistance support in part because we have normal class sizes or

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even large class sizes at CP, but by dropping down to only 15 in grades K and one, we can reduce the number of instructional assistants. So, making those shifts and it's cut off a little bit at the bottom. Um, we are budgeting about a $350,000 savings.

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We also have some um positions that we're looking at. These are non-teers. Uh, and these are positions that are support positions that we believe we can either reschedu or reshuffle some things um and save some money. So those positions we believe just through

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attrition we can get to approximately $240,000 in savings. We also made it taken a little bit of an audit of our various subscriptions and services. Um so I'll start with Zoom. Uh

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we are transition into uh Gmail as you all know. Uh by the end of the school year uh last week of June we should be making the the full transition to Gmail. We already have um Google Meet available to all of us and we have uh Windows Teams or Microsoft Office Teams,

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whatever it's called. So, we're going to let go of our Zoom subscription. That's going to save about $9,000 a month. We've been using an outside entity called Performance Fact uh year, sorry, $9,000 a year performance fact for some of our surveying uh that we do, climate

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surveys. Uh we're part of something called the tri-state com uh tri-state consortium. Uh we're one of only two districts in New Jersey that are part of that. The other one is uh Scotch Plains Fanwood. All of the rest of the districts are in Connecticut, um New

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York, maybe a few in Pennsylvania. We're going to suspend that subscription for a year. We are contracting out uh I think a little more than $200,000 in reading services. We believe we can hire our own reading specialist and deliver more

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services for a lower cost. We are not going to use something called Hipster, which is something we use to uh track HIV uh complaints and violations and investigations. And then we've also since July been moving away from board docs. And you can see we don't use that

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in our board for our board agendas anymore. And we're ballparking the savings from um not renewing and not continuing on with those various services at about $150,000. Uh the board has also discussed but not completely finalized uh the details

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around an activity fee program. Uh but the preliminary discussions in various committees have pointed to uh an activity fee that we will introduce at Princeton Middle School and an activity fee that we will introduce at Princeton High School. Again, the board has not

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settled definitively on an exact dollar amount to be able to participate in activities or the structure behind it, but we'll do so by the end of this school year so that we are ready to uh introduce that for next school year. And we are budgeting about $200,000 in

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revenue from um new fees for student activities. We're going to make a few staffing changes. Um so the first one is the first two actually up here are not um impactful on the budget one way or the other. They're budget neutral

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essentially. But we have a a position called dean of students that of course is really um uh vital to the high school. The title though doesn't align with the um New Jersey administrative code exactly and the uh certification of

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the p person in that position does not exactly align with the title of the title or job description of the position. So we're going to abolish that position reclassify it as a school counselor uh dedicated to student engagement and that individual will continue to oversee student activities.

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We will uh likely be creating um a stipen or two to ensure that uh other responsibilities of that position such as summer programming around uh tours and um uh orientations and so forth

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continue. Uh but we're going to reclassify that position in the realm of safety and security. We have a position right now now called the coordinator of student health and safety. My understanding is that that position was introduced kind of at the tail end of

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COVID and in part involved um being up to speed on the various health and safety protocols that that we needed to follow at the time. Um we're going to abolish that position but create a new position called director of school safety and security. Uh the reason I'm

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recommending this is that we have uh school security monitors throughout the district in the various schools, but there really isn't very much if any coordination among those individuals at the current time. They report to the building principles. If one of them is out, we don't really have a solid system

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of um moving other security monitors around to cover someone who's absent. um we don't necessarily have as consistent protocols and procedures in place in each of the schools as we maybe could have if we had one individual that was overseeing uh all of those monitors and

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making sure that they were up to speed on training and other critical aspects of the job. Uh so we're going to um I'm recommending that we make uh that a position in the district and that that person has oversight into uh the safety

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and security systems of the district as well as some other uh things. Uh we have had some a title a position called food liter literacy coordinator. We are recommending the abolishment of that position in this budget. Some other changes um

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in the library media center. Our former uh at the high school for our former library media center specialist retired in March. Um we promoted the person who had been serving in an assistant position in that library uh into the

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full head librarian position. Uh because of the salary differential, there was about a $50,000 savings in doing that. And then we didn't hire uh for the assistant position. Uh there are two assistants essentially in the PHS library. We've eliminated one of those

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assistants and that's a savings of about $65,000. So, we um realized some savings in the PHS library and media center which enables us to consider um something that I wrote a note about last night uh to or yesterday afternoon

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I should say to the community which was to reintroduce uh a dedicated supervisor of social studies K12 which also simultaneously then necessarily means that we would return to a dedicated supervisor of English in grades 6 through 12. Uh right now if you think

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about it um and I mentioned this at the department meeting yesterday, we have a dedicated supervisor of science in grades K through 12. We have a dedicated supervisor of mathematics in grades 6 through 12. We have a dedicated supervisor of visual and performing arts

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K12, a dedicated supervisor of um world languages and ESL K12. You get the picture. But in the quote unquote humanities, we have smooshed together English language arts and social studies 612 and have a different model of supervision in those two disciplines

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than we have in the others. And I think that um like I wrote yesterday, uh our administrative structure has to reflect our values as an academic learning institution and also a school community. And I think it's important that we have

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dedicated leadership in the areas of social studies and English which constitute of course a large uh portion of the humanities. Um the mechanics behind this um and and I'll I'll kind of hit get to the punchline prematurely I

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suppose but um you know I when I started floating this idea there was one name that you know 14 different people told me I needed to talk to uh and that was Dr. Rick Miller. Uh I don't know a person yet who doesn't think he's one of the most gifted educators in the

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district. And um at least seven of the 14 people who said this to me also said but he he'll never leave the classroom. Um and then Dr. 2 and I met with him a couple of times and um he expressed an interest in possibly uh

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returning to a leadership position and lending his gifts in a different way to the school district. So, we really are very delighted and excited um to recommend him as the next supervisor of social studies tonight, which we will get to soon, but he's here.

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Um the other couple of positions that we're that we're adding uh in this budget and and I do want to point out it's always possible to make alterate alterations after the budget is uh finalized and adopted. Uh what is locked

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in tonight is the tax levy and the overall operating budget. But if there are savings that we find or we have an emergency we didn't anticipate like 20 new students enroll in one grade level at a particular elementary school, we can always add a position. But this is just right now what we are including in

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the budget. Uh we have larger class sizes than we'd like in English at the middle school. Uh, and we also have some um reason to think we can devote extra resources to students who are struggling readers at the middle school if we add an English position. So, we're

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recommending that. And then we have well over 400 students taking chorus uh at the middle school in grades six through seven in grades 6 through 8 and one teacher who is trying to um do the best she can with all 400 plus of those students. So, we're recommending the

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addition of another uh teacher, of course, uh for the Princeton Middle School Coral program. So, again, those are sort of the the biggest um items that I wanted to make sure were uh front and center tonight.

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Um as I mentioned, the overall operating budget and the tax levy are the same as they were in March. Nothing has changed. uh but we have to continue to focus on budgeting long term in order to avoid some of the scenarios that we see playing out in other districts all

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across the state right now. So, I'll return to my seat and uh of course I'll be happy to take any questions that board members might have. Ready? >> Ready. >> All right. Well, thank you. Um, so I

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guess to sum up, we didn't have zerobased budgeting this year. We had minus $750,000 based budgeting. And with that, you still um were able to craft a budget that is in the best interest of kids. So kudos to you and Mr. Harris. And um I

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cannot wait to see the creativity you bring us next year. >> All right. Stay tuned. We'll see. >> Anyone else? >> Yeah. So, how much um will taxes go up again um with this new levy per per

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household? >> That was in the prior presentation. I don't have it right in my >> fingertips. Yeah, 30 seconds. >> Yeah. I just also am Am I on? I'd like to express my gratitude to the administrative team because I think the

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um you know 750,000 is not something that's easy to necessarily find and particularly uh in your early in your tenure here where you're getting your arms around the district and um I appreciate that we're adding some teachers where we need them and we're finding some smart ways of consolidating and we're taking care of our people and

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we're elevating some wonderful people and um I just appreciate the hard work and I'm glad we've come to the place we have come to. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Yep. So, the only other two items under

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my uh section of the agenda is one is a formality and that's just that the staff days uh for professional development next year before the school year begins will just shift up by one day. And um uh Dr. Tu and Miss Moore, we're going to

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give Oh, you want Okay. Gotcha. >> Okay. >> Sorry, we didn't have a chance. Before we do it, we have to have a public comment on the budget. >> Got it. >> And then we have >> Got it. >> Yep.

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>> Do you want me to do that? Okay. Um, so we have public comment right now. Does anyone on the budget only? Does anyone >> budget >> only on the budget come up? Just say your name. uh the street you live on and share your thoughts with us. >> Can you hear?

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>> Should be green. Yeah. >> Hi, Ashley Bishoff, Woodland Drive. Um thank you for hearing CP parents. I'm really excited to see that K and one are going to get expanded. Um and then I just had a question. I was wondering if you could expand a little bit on what

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the food literacy coordinator does. Um because I have concerns now that we've got one issue handled. I do have concerns about the amount of or the kind of food that's available for elementary students. So I didn't know if that was related. Um so this was a pilot I want to say

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about four or five years ago um working with um different local um garden cooperatives and garden stayed on your plate. Um so this role was a part-time role that was not sort of like present in the schools. was more remote work working with um different uh stakeholder groups to develop lesson plans tied to

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our gardening program tied to Pmptonian like um produce of the month those type of things. It was a really um nice support for the work that was being done in some of the science classrooms across the district. Um but we felt that we could probably bring that in-house internally um and then keep the budget

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to where the different needs are being exposed. Um but it's not part of like the Pmptonian program or anything like that. that it's a separate role that was used to kind of support um just different food literacy across the district. Um so that work would be then in conjunction with um Jackie Katz who's

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our science supervisor, myself um and there is coordination with Pmptonian to do different produce of the month um with students and just healthy eating in general. >> Thank you Dr. Chu. Anyone else for public comment on the budget only?

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Um I think I saw that number today. Hold on. >> I can approximate for you. So we have it by >> Yeah, >> we have it by 100,000. Um and so that is >> so the average assessed home is about 800,000. >> I think it was 854 in 2024.

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>> I know. I was trying to make the math easy for you. >> I appreciate that. >> Precision is one of the uh mathematical uh practices, right? supervisor. >> That's right. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um for the average taxpayer,

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you're looking at about an annual increase of $478. That's for based off of the $854,000 being the average assessed value based off of the userfriendly budget for the township. >> Yep. And I just want to reiterate that um the tax levy increase is about 4.66%

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66% and we're able I'm sorry 4.33% again precision um and we're able to go over the 2% cap because of healthcare costs which have risen in the state by 32% this year and we were fortunate enough to cap ours at around 15 12% increase.

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So again the majority of that uh has to do with healthcare. Um so hopefully someone at the state legislature will look into that uh and they can help us out because that's just going to continue to rise. that exempt that's just for this year though the um going over the cap for healthcare right it's a

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one shot deal >> okay um anyone else with public comment on the budget no so now I need a motion to vote on the budget Ari second Susan >> thank you Beth Bon >> yes >> Bman >> uh no and at one point can I explain why

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>> right now >> I can >> y >> okay um I'm voting no To be honest with you, I could actually vote yes, but I'm it's more simple vote. Take 90 seconds. Um, I want to first say that the new administration has taken on all the hard

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issues directly with no spin, with expertise. You're addressing the deficit I've been talking about for over a year publicly on social media. In a short time, you've improved financial processes, added safeguards, and you've cut real

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fat. that really matters to me, I think to people in Princeton, too. But I'm still voting no on the 2026 budget. My vote is lo largely symbolic. It's not commenting on your performance. Um, this budget is likely to pass what,

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nine to one. Um, here's the context. PPS faces a volatile financial future. There's many moving parts. Some we can control and some we cannot. I offer this respectfully. You're not asking me to micromanage anything. And I

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know the choices you have to make on this budget can go from bad to worse. And I do hope in future contract negotiations, I feel we must be clear. Labor and management are not just connected. We are interdependent. That's going to come up. This really should

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guide decisions as I think deficits are going to even tighten more in the next year or two. We also need perspective. New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the country. In Princeton, about half your taxes go to the schools and still many districts

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would kill for the resources we still have and that you've kept. Great schools, in my opinion, are not built um by spending alone. They're built by teachers, by culture, by expectations and accountability. If money alone drove

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success, every high-spending district would lead the state. And that is not the case in New Jersey at the end of the day. And again, this is just general and maybe intellectually it doesn't really resonate, but taxes just keep going up. It's it's enough. If diversity is our

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strength, economic diversity built this town. There's another Princeton, and I'm sure you feel it. We don't discuss it enough. There's another Princeton where affordability is shrinking. Um hurting our most vulnerable uh citizens, often minorities.

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rent keeps going up and then they have to leave this town which frays the the fabric fabric of our town. That's why I'm voting no. And at the end maybe that's you know you I always said um housing prices bat last. Maybe this is a trend that can't be stopped but thank

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you Mark Franci. >> Yes. >> Elanar Hubard. Sorry. Katherine Lara, >> yes. >> Hari Meiselle, >> yes. >> Chris Santarpio,

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>> yes. >> Erica Snider, >> yes. >> Susan Caner, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. Back to you. >> Okay. So, what we'll do is finish off my uh section of the agenda, which is just

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one more item uh which is a curriculum update from uh Dr. Tu and uh Ms. more and then I will return to what I was saying in during the board um uh budget presentation about our the appointment of our new supervisor which technically

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appears later on in the agenda but that we will um >> acknowledge in a moment and then we can take a a small break a pause in the action >> it's AP test next week right Dr. I'm trying. >> Yeah.

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Good evening everyone. Um, thank you uh for um listening today. It's been a really long tough day in the district and I just want to echo um Dr. Lassus's comments earlier. Really, it's days like this which are really sad that makes me proud to work in Princeton with the staff and the community that we have

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here. Um the students were amazing today. The teachers were amazing today. The admin were amazing today. Um and it's just it makes you have perspective and it helps you appreciate what you have. Um and so we want to just keep this quick tonight because we know how important our loved ones are. Um, and it

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just been really powerful today. So, I just want to thank Sarah um for being here. She brought Tiger, the therapy dog, uh, to the middle school today. The kids were so appreciative. Um, and just thank you uh, for inviting us here. There was some misconceptions and misinformation in the community about arts and letters. Um, a lot of the

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information we we've shared before, but we'll happily um, share again. We have some data to share. Um, so, thank you for being with us tonight. And, Mr. Harris, if you don't mind um, hitting the slide. And once again, this is Sarah Moore. uh she's our supervisor of elementary education. Um so just the history of arts and letters. Um

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sometimes it's really hard being a renegade. Sometimes it's hard to be the first one in something, but when we to paraphrase my Angela, when we know better, we do better. Um so we knew that teachers college reading and writing project was no longer working for kids. There's lots of news stories, podcasts,

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New York Times articles saying how um you know it wasn't doing what it's supposed to be doing and how to teach reading and writing uh to students. Um so that uh Sarah worked with um a group of teachers and and with my support to create uh a collection or [clears throat] collective I should say,

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excuse me, um to have 25 educators from across the district from all four elementary schools. This represented general and special education staff to look at see what what was out there because we could not keep doing teachers college. It was dissolved. That was not an option for us anymore. And at the

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same time, simultaneously, the state changed our ELA standards and created all these new mandates for early literacy instruction and assessment and screening. So, as we are a public school in New Jersey, we must follow New Jersey mandates. And so, we know that we have to be audited by the state every three

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years. That's CQAC. And we want to make sure that all of our students um are learning to read. And because that piece sets the foundation, sets the table for everything they will eventually learn. and it's one of our core elements of our strategic plan uh focused on age three to grade three. So that early literacy

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and numeracy is huge. Um so that group of 25 educators which also included Sarah and myself and different admin and teachers across the district uh representatives uh got to review presentations from different uh curriculum companies and vendors. I think we looked at six and that was after looking at maybe 20 to begin with

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and then narrowing it down to six. uh we looked at the reading league's uh rubric to kind of see you know what's best practice for the science of reading and writing um and at that point uh the committee as a whole voted that we were only going to pilot arts and letters that we felt the others I'm going to get

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a little technical here were too much like basil readers kind of just like little compendiums not authentic text meaning they were reading like a short excerpt of something and then answering multiple choice questions maybe some open-ended and one of the true strengths of teachers college was when kids were reading authentic text, reading with

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diverse characters and backgrounds and stories, those mirrors, windows and sliding doors that we want our students to experience. Um, so Arts and Letters really had that rich authentic text and it felt like they had the best structure for reading and writing that met with our um our Orton Gillingham work that we

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do with phonics um and early literacy. So we piloted it. So we piloted it for about four months, I want to say through the spring last year. >> Yeah, through the spring last year. Um what was great, we had teachers in every building um sign up to be pilot teachers. Overall, we had 14 that

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included general education teachers, uh teachers with inclusion classrooms, meaning students with IEPs, um with another secondary uh special ed teacher in the classroom, students with uh who are MLS, meaning multilingual learners, students with 504s, and then we also had um a teacher in the LLD setting, which

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is one of our self-contained specialed classrooms because we wanted a program that worked for all students and then with teacher support be differentiated to what their needs could be. Um, so following the pilot, um, we had meetings sort of along the way and support along the way. Uh, 13 of the 14 participating

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teachers voted in favor of full adoption. And the 14th teacher just wanted more time to pilot. She felt like, you know, she wasn't ready to buy uh, just yet. Um, but is a first grade teacher and has since experienced success with the program. You can move that along, Mr. Harris. So, do you want to go? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again

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so much for having us this evening to just do this brief overview. Um, we want to really talk quickly about what high quality instructional materials are. Um, just as the name would state, they are high quality materials that we use for learning. Um, there are some things that you would see in a high quality instructional material. It is considered

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best practice to give your children highquality instructional materials. Things that you would see are a rich curriculum that builds around knowledge base um, for literacy skills that really aligns to PPS's mission of equity. Um, in previous programs, kids could write a whole essay about what they did over the

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summer and all of the great places they went. And for some kids, it was wonderful and they had really global experiences. And for other kids, it really highlighted disparity in student experiences of they might have not left their street all summer and it didn't really feel equitable to shine a light

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on some of those experiences. Um, moving forward into a curriculum like this, students build knowledge together and use that knowledge to write and move forward together. Um it provides more equitable background knowledge and build for students to experience a global education right from their seats in

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Princeton. Um any high quality instructional material have a coherent scope and sequence. Um so something that was not always aligned in previous curricula was that things like writing skills and grammar had no alignment within that curriculum. So foundational

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grammar things that we need to be great writers were not present. Um those things spiral back in. That was feedback we'd gotten from the middle school that they weren't receiving students that had all of their grammar and conventions down pat. When students get to high school and there's high stakes testing like SAT and ACT, there are grammar

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sections on those. Um, for our students getting ready to take those tests, the struggle is real. When you have to face grammar for the first time and you're 17 and no one has taught you that. Um, so there's a very tight coherence for things for reading foundational skills as well as grammar and convention as well as writing progressions. Um, it

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includes inclusive, diverse, and culturally responsive texts and perspectives. We want students to have global perspectives and be global involved citizens here. Again, we come back to equity. We want students to have multiple viewpoints. Students in fourth grade are studying historical documents from the American Revolution, learning

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about different perspectives um, and who in can who is in control of narratives in history. Um, we really do want to build global thinkers and then built-in support for differentiation as Dr. two mentioned an essential piece for me and I know I've spoken to the board before so I always appreciate your time at two

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masters in special education um making sure that programming works for all children is essential to any curricular choice um making sure that all of our students have access points one of the most appealing pieces of this curriculum was that it had LED standards embedded for our multilingual learners for

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support as well as access points for our students with IEP so that learning was equitable and accessible for all children. Okay. Why are these so important? I think I've highlighted some of these, so I'll go quickly quickly. It ensures equity um which is really a foundational part of a child's experience with us

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from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. It builds strong literacy foundations. Um there are different categories of buckets of how children learn to read. Foundation knowledge and building that up is an essential bucket of what children need to develop to become proficient readers. Um supports

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for teachers. I know we've heard a lot about teacher need. Please know we take it very serious. Um, previous to this, teachers college was disbanded. All of last year, teachers were going on teachers pay teachers, spending their own money, trying to find resources, finding bad gateways from Teachers

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College. It was not accessible to use in its iteration. This helps. I have my material. I'm going to look at what that means for me as a teacher, adapt as needed, but I have it in front of me and the resources in front of me to focus on the teaching. Um, drives consistency. So, it creates aligned expectations,

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pacing, and district-wide outcomes. A huge shout out to Lawrence who is our supervisor of MTSS who's really created equitable pathways for our students in terms of getting success and support. Part of that does mean by you know June 10th I'll make it up um you know some of

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those data points need to be in so that we can review them to make sure that all children are getting what they need in terms of extended learning opportunities and scaffolds for learning. Um there does have to be a goalpost for us to build equity in terms of accessing supports. um maximize instructional time. Uh having those materials prepared

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allows for deeper learning and less time spent planning and searching for resources and creating your own scope and sequence and hoping that if I teach nouns as a first grade teacher, will that build happen in second grade? I don't know. But I hope when you have high quality instructional materials that guesswork is taken out and it improves students outcomes. So research

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shows that high quality instructional materials is one of the highest impacts on student achievement. Okay. So, um, in terms of staff PD opportunities, just because I know this was a question that was, um, kind of floating around, I made a little timeline. Um, so in the summer, we did

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launch some virtual PD sessions that were choose the session that kind of works best for your schedule. There were days offered in July, there were days offered in August. If you were away and traveling, that's okay. When teachers came back, there was an in-person session offered as well. We really wanted to maximize flexibility of

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schedule and availability. um fall ANL again they were here with us in early uh September slash late August to do that in-person work. We do have monthly grade level curriculum check-ins which is once a month where teachers sit with myself, our instructional coaches who we are super lucky and grateful to have and our building principles who are amazing

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support networks. Um and we talk through what is going well, what might need to be adjusted when we plan future PD, what do you need to see to be supported. Um they run every month. We have curricular cohorts. our instructional coaches four times a year take teachers offline into cohorts to dig deeply as a group of

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educators in the same grade level from across the district to say, "Hey, what is going well for you here? What do you need support with?" as a nice little cohort so they have different perspectives and are able to bounce ideas off of one another. Um, also in this all materials for teaching are prepared and handed over for teachers

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from our instructional coach. takes her like two weeks of copying and making binders and curating resources so that everyone is handed everything they would need to teach for the next three or four months. Um, and then in terms of professional development days, I don't need to read them all out to you. Um, we

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had some in October, some in December, some in January, some in February, some in March, some in March again, uh, and some in May. So this is a mix of indistrict PD offered as well as our representative from arts and letters who starting in the winter um they gave us

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the fall to sort of acclimate. We've given feedback that perhaps we would have liked them out even sooner. Um we went based on their guidance as a curriculum company. Now that we have them we're very grateful and and are excited to continue that work but they've come and spent several on-site session days with our administrators supporting administrators understanding

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the program and then teachers understanding the program. Um so we are very grateful for that opportunity for professional development as well. So as you can see there is a large variety of the types of offerings we have here um throughout the curricular calendar for the school year. We're just about to

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wrap up. We have our final grade level meeting uh this Friday with one of our buildings to wrap up this month and then we have our rep from arts and letters with us for two days next week doing site visits with all grade levels K through five. >> So I can kind of start us off. What what are we looking at? Right. Um so right

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now um we only have winter data results right because it's a weird time of year our end of the year data will be in May and then we'll do NLA in May. So what you'll see here is um we use link ELA like we use link math in grades two through five. So um let's look at CP. So

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the left column in CP right was a 32.1 that was last year's winter score compared to this year's winter score. So that you can see that the second grade cohort last year 32.1% of students were meeting or exceeding expectations. And then what link does is it predicts how

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students do on an NJSLA. I know second grade doesn't have NSLA but it's sort of a predictor of are they meeting end of year grade level standards. And one of the things I really want to hit when you have high quality instructional materials they ensure that their standards align. Um, one of the issues

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with teachers college is that um, you know, they really espouse like kids reading at their level, but the problem is if you're not intentionally also exposing kids to grade level text, then that gap just widens, right? They're always kind of going to stay at that level. If you're not building it up, what high quality instructional

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materials do is ensure that all students are exposed to that background knowledge and grade level standards, which is a huge shift in philosophical thinking and in teaching. So, we know that was um a big change this year, but as you can see, the results are are great and astounding. So, we know that they're different groups of kids, but let's just

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look if you look at the red arrow that second grade at CP last year went up seven points this year to 39.1. Right? So, you kind of look across the cohort. So, Riverside second grade last year 39.5 to 61.84, 37.2 at JP to 53.2. So, it looks like our second grade has gr

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grown the most. But if you kind of follow them from the year before, Riverside 39.5 to 50, 37.2 and JP is 42.4 and 29.2 to 44.5, right? And so even if let's look at see um Riverside fifth grade, they were at 70.5 last year

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and this year they're at 66.1. That's why they're yellow. But if you look at the caddy corner, you're at 55.5 last year. So they still drew 11 percentage points that cohort, right? So the good news is it's every cohort group, right? Every cohort group. And then what we really are really interested to see is

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if the students now compound, right, that if they're exposed year through year toear to these grade level standards, what will that second grade cohort this year look like in third grade next year and so forth and so on. Um so this is just one snapshot. Students are more than numbers, right? But this is just one inkling, but this

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is the the data that we look for and identify and support um what we're doing programmatically because this doesn't necessarily just inform teachers and how they're supporting their students. It also informs us as a curriculum team to say what's working and what's not and adjust and tweak. We are not automatons.

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We are not robots. We don't have to like take a book and say we have to teach it exactly this way. We have to take the high quality instructional materials and meet the needs of the students in front of us. >> I will also say that the winter data results are really promising because a concerning trend was that our NJSLA scores in ELA were stagnant for five

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years. Um so there was no growth happening. There was growth happening for math. Um, and we are really proud of that growth, but there was stagnant growth for ELA, which is is a concerning trend to notice for five years that your growth is sort of stagnant. Um, and seeing this is very promising and

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exciting to say we really think our students are getting better access to standards and a curricular lens. Um so how are the data used? Um so we use it for a lot of things and uh Sarah mentioned learning samra and the

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multi-tered systems of support model that we have here. Um we can't run multiier systems of support without data. We can't just say oh this student might need extra help or tier three tutoring or this student should be classified in special education. there are legal codes and rules that require

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us to ensure that we are assessing data or assessing students and having a 360 degree view of their development and what their needs are. Um so those type of things when we do link it when we have um the the ANL benchmarks which happen once mid module and once at the end of the module so there's eight

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assessments throughout the year when we do NJSLA all of those things help us create programming for students and I think sometimes that gets lost in the sauce and I understand it's a really fine line between too much assessment and too little assessment but really what we're trying to do is make sure that students have the support. How did

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we identify who was getting summer help and assistance this summer? Well, it's looking at the data and saying that these are the students who could most benefit from coming and adding that summer support. Um, we use it for NLLL, which stands for multilingual learner. We use it for gifted and talented identification, academic intervention,

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which is like the academic supporter, AIS. So, um, they regroup students. So, our fall data informs our fall session, our winter data informs our winter and spring session. when we don't have that data in, we can't start programming for kids, that tier two where they get that

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pull out support. Um, like I said, the summer program uh invitation and then you have teachers who really use it for classroom decision- making. So, you know what? I'm going to pull a small group because these students really needed support with this reading or they needed a little bit more structured writing, so I'm going to pull a Hearity resource to

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align it and match it. Um, and then like I said, it's then seeing trends across the district and then planning on going PD because we're like, you know what, across the board we're really strong in these standards, but these areas are weaker? Is it because of the time of year? Is it because we don't have the right resource? Is it because we need

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more PD? What is going on and how can we make it better? And then just really transparency around student achievement. Uh, we did this before the requirement, but we have to share reading uh growth with parents on uh three times a year. So, we have it on our report card and we send Aadian scores home. So, we also

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have to be transparent about some of the assessments that we're giving. New Jersey has mandated that. There is no way around it. And as an parent of an elementary child, I want to know my child's reading level, I want to make sure that she's getting the support that she needs if it's not. And so, that's sort of how the data is being used.

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And you get to do the fun stuff. >> I do get to do the fun stuff. Um, I know there's been a lot of conversation about joyful learning. Um, Dr. Tu and I are both parents. Um, I'll cry because today was a hard day. We have the privilege of getting to hold your children's hands on the first day

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of kindergarten when they're excited to come to us and on days like today when it's really hard to hold their hand um and everything in between because that's what running a school in a community is. Um, so please know for me personally knowing that there is joy happening in a classroom and experiential learning is

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is at the foundation of all the decisions we make. So these are a snapshot of the past month. Um, I think they represent a lot of joy. Art Spark residencies tied into our immigration unit and did a whole project on students background and belonging. Um, cooking with Water Crest in third grade, many of

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our students had never tried water crust. And there was a whole story um through our immigration unit on Water Crest and our garden coordinators were so lovely and came into all of our third grade classrooms and cooked water crust with students and tied it in for an experiential opportunity. Um, the next one is probably my favorite. I shouldn't

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have a favorite, but that was my favorite picture. Um, as part of healthy eating in second grade, one of our teachers started an initiative for a mobile food pantry and raised hundreds and hundreds of cans to feed folks in town. Um, kids were so excited to go and contribute, which was beautiful. Um,

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this smelled amazing in the building. So, this was at Johnson Park last week. Uh, this was cooking freedom soup in second grade after reading the text freedom soup and celebrating different cultures and how they come together to share meals and celebrate in cultural identity. Um, so I just want you to know there's there's a lot of joy in action

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and that is at the forefront of what we do because childhood is a brief moment in time and we really want to make sure that our kids with us have only the best time with us. >> All right. Well, thank you um very much. I don't want to keep you um because I know that Tiger you and Tiger will be

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back in the middle school tomorrow in the morning. >> Yes. And uh thank you for doing that. And I understand there were two other teachers who brought in their therapy docs. So we're very grateful. >> A village. >> Yeah. >> Yep. It is a village. Um so I guess um thank you for that. Like I was going to ask you about joy, right?

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>> Um >> what would like I guess what are the takeaways from the right? It's a first year. Um you weren't here last meeting, but you know with any new program roll out, there are bumps in the road. >> So I guess what would you like what are you looking to if anything change next

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year? and and what do you think and you know what can be improved upon? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I had the pleasure this morning, Tiger and I, um of sitting with RK teams from across the district and we called the kindergarten summit because we really wanted to hear about the kindergarten experience and how

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everything was going and most of our schools came which was wonderful. We had a really good showing from most of our schools and it was wonderful to have that collaborative time of what's going well, what are some pressure points, what might need to be adjusted for next year. I think letting teachers know that

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they're supported in that autonomy. Um, we had a scheduling meeting this week where K feedback and first grade feedback was they really wanted to see their 60-minute block split into two 30-minute blocks. So, we are working principal saying how can we make that happen in the schedule next year? I think it's crucial in any implementation because listen, teachers are rock stars

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and superheroes. It's really hard to do a curricular implementation the first year. It is really, really difficult. It is a lot of stress out weekends and sleepless nights and wanting to make sure that what you're putting in front of your kids is the best possible product you can have for them, the best

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experience each day. So, there's a lot of pressure because our teachers want to be the highest achieving they can be. Um, I think it's reinforcing that idea of grace and that there are something called learning targets in each arts and letters lesson without getting too lost in the sauce to steal from Kim. Um,

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those learning targets really just drive the instruction. If you know those two things happened in your day, however you got there is a really good step in that first year. And you know, we heard feedback today of like, well, year two, we'd really love to focus in on the assessments and how they're working for us and and what do we need to tweak? We

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were talking about formatting of assessments. So, I think being cognizant of a feedback loop and seeing those things put into action so that people feel heard and valued is is super important. That's why those grade level check-ins each month are so important because it's our time sit down as a small team and say what is working, what

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you need help with. Um, but I think also getting to do things like this morning where it's a whole grade level focus of what's working across the district for a grade level and what needs to be tweaked for next year. >> And I I just want to reiterate, you know, when you're doing an ELA curriculum, you're reading the books like a step ahead of what the children

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are doing. So you don't know all the twists and turns. You don't know what a lesson looks like. And in this type of program, it's a knowledge building program. So you really have to plan with the end in mind. And if you're not used to doing that and you've never done it before, it's sort of like you're flying by the seat of your pants a little bit.

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So now that I think like we're in module four, there's four modules in a in a year. I feel like people are calmer. There's a rhythm. There's five different types of lessons and so there's sort of a sequence or a cadence to those lessons. So I think there's a lot of lessons learned there. But I want to echo everything. Um Sarah shared I I

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cannot stress enough I've you know we're teachers too. We've been through program implementation. We've lived it. Um in in my past experience when a program was changed you got a book and you you heard good luck. I mean, the amount of professional development and support that um Sarah and our um instructional

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coaches uh Mary Ellen and Dan have provided our staff um are are profound and the people who come to the PD and who ask questions and who want to we just so are appreciative because I I remember sending an email at the beginning of the year saying like this is the hardest thing you can do as an elementary teacher is implementing a new

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ELA program. Um so I feel like you're a first year teacher again, you're living everything again and you're one step ahead of the kids. No one loves that feeling. But now that we lived it, we make some tweaks, we move on. And I think, you know, uh we hear really great feedback about the text and the authenticity of the text. We hear great

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feedback about the amount of student and uh quality of student writing. Um so we know we're headed in the right direction. Um and we're really looking forward to year two. And I I appreciate both of you. It's not easy to shepherd a new curriculum through four schools. Um, so thank you for all that you're doing

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and appreciate your flexibility and understanding how difficult it is for for teachers and no one likes to not know feel confident in what they're doing. So thank you for all you're doing. >> Um, I just wanted to echo uh when you uh shared earlier about equity. Um, you

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know, it's been very rewarding to see our students with IEPs, um, whether it's an inclusion or down to the self-contained class access, not only access, but actually show progress and engage with the material that their peers are are

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receiving and, you know, and be excited about it. And it's been very rewarding to see that in the classroom and see their progress. So, I did just want to echo that piece for you. Thanks. >> But, but I also wanted to say, are you done? I also wanted to say that um I had not

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heard that our NJSLA scores were stagnant for five years and you have to wonder if it had something to do with teachers college but only a little bit. So that's a significant data point that I hadn't heard before. So let's that'd be interesting to see. Yeah, we were kind of hanging in the high7s depending

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on the school. It wasn't a it wasn't a bad spot, but it we could do better. We're Princeton, right? And we have the resources and we have the talent, meaning the teachers and the kids. So we know that we can make sure that like what are the resources that we're given and what are the program and the access and opportunities we're giving kids to get them over that hump.

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>> Yeah, I'm really excited to see the next presentation because seeing these numbers is exciting. We've had students in our system that have always lagged behind. So, it's going to be really interesting to see if some of those cohorts, some which Margaret mentioned, but other cohorts within our um school

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district that have always um perhaps their their numbers didn't look as strong as some of the other cohort groups to see if this program was really successful across all the cohort >> and and as you guys know, um you know, when we come and we do the annual like standardized testing presentation, I

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always highlight the demographic groups because to me that's where the the the golden and opportunities are that we have perpetual opportunity gaps and that I want to see growth across every one of the subgroups and we've been fortunate enough as a school district to go back to pre- pandemic um achievement levels

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but and that's great and I want to tout that and I'm really proud of that but what I'm most proud of is that we're closing in on those equity gaps for sure and I hope this helps with that of course that's why we're doing it. >> Go ahead. Again, I know there's difficulty set setting something up, but

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there's a plan now and there's continuity and I think this will work and and it'll address what you're talking about. Everyone talks about these discrepancies in scores, not getting kids up to grade level by fifth grade. This is a plan. You're sticking around, right? >> I hope so, Adam.

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>> Okay. [laughter] So, I think in five years hopefully, >> yeah, >> we we'll see some fruition. >> And again, year one is is hard. Um, but we are super super proud of the growth and the anecdotal growth that we get to see in the classroom of students making really deep connections and just super

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thankful for all of the work that our teachers have put in. It is not easy and we are extremely grateful. >> Yes. >> Anyone else? >> All right. Well, thank you so much. >> Thank you both.

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And so, uh, now for what I teased during the budget presentation because I had to, um, we really are are delighted and excited, um, to recommend Dr. Rick Miller for appointment as the supervisor of social studies for the district.

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>> So, do I need do we need to make a motion? >> I would like to Okay. Can I get a motion for the appointment of Dr. McMiller as social studies supervisor? Beth, second, Mara. Okay.

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>> And let me say uh it it's unusual to have someone um who's been in the district for 30 plus years and uh who's served as a supervisor for a number of those years

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and who has the level of respect uh that Dr. Miller seems to universally have among every person that you talk to. Uh so we really are excited. We think this will be a new chapter uh for the social studies department in uh in the district and we think it will lead to some really

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rich conversations and academic experiences for students. So I'll let you take the vote and then we can maybe give a round of applause and Dr. Miller can say a few words if he would like and if he doesn't want to he doesn't have to. >> Okay. Um so I would before we vote I

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just want to say that I met Dr. Miller for the first time tonight. Um, but you taught two of my children. Um, and one's a boy, one's a girl. They can't agree on anything. Um, they had many overlapping teachers, but you were the only one, um, who they both, um, you know, thought

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walked on water. And, uh, I have, you know, one kid who had learning differences and one child who thought she knew everything. and uh you managed to engage both styles um and ended up uh cultivating um a love of history in both

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of them. And I'm excited to see what you're leading the department and bringing along teachers will do for the rest of the kids who didn't have who don't have the opportunity to have you because you're only one person. So, thank you for agreeing, you know, to do

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this. Uh we know that your love is in the classroom and um we're very excited to see what this will bring. >> No, nothing. Go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> I'm thrilled. Of course, it's a personal

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loss. I will not have the benefit of both my children having Dr. Miller, but that is my loss is the district's game. We're very excited to see what you can do, and I think it'll be it'll be a wonderful thing for the district. So, congrats. All right, we'll >> vote. >> Yeah. >> Beth Bon,

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>> yes. >> Adam Beerman, >> uh, yes. >> Francesky, >> yes. >> Katherine Lar, >> yes. >> Ariel, >> yes. >> Christopher Sanarpio, >> yes. >> Erica Snder, >> yes. >> Susan Caner, >> yes.

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>> D McKendle, >> yes. Motion carries. [applause] Okay, I think I'm on. Um, so I won't keep you because I know you all want to get home as well, but I'm really excited to return to this position once again. Um, as some of you know, um, a third

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generation graduate of the Princon public schools. Um, my daughter is now fourth generation at PHS. So, I really love this place and I, as you hinted at, I love what I do. Um, it's I work with amazing people. Um, and I'm really

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excited to helping guide this department um as we move forward. So, thank you for giving me this opportunity. Um, and as I said, I really love what I do and I'm glad to continue it into in a new capacity once again. So, thank you. >> [applause]

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>> Um, so we're going to take a quick break. So I get a motion to adjurnn. Chris, second, back. All in favor? Anyone opposed? All right, we'll be back in 15 minutes at the latest. [music]

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Thank you. Yes. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat up [music] here.

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>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Hey >> [music] >> honey. [music]

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Hey Baby, [music] baby boo. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> She [music] doo. [music] >> [music]

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>> Shoulder shoulder [music] shoulders shoulder. >> [music] >> Data [music] Doo. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Um and we were given permission um and a

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very generous budget from them to throw an event as um a step in their initiative for the um PEP programs I believe or PEP um event grants. And um so I was approached and we were asked to

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throw an event, a community event um and what we did was um plan something that could be family friendly for everyone. We th um we showed a movie called Love, Simon, which um if any of you know is

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one of um if not the first um film released largely to um theaters that had um their pro, excuse me, protagonist as a um gay man. And um while it may be a

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cliche movie, it was um very family friendly for everyone who wanted to attend. And um in addition to that, we had a speaker um from Prince University, uh Miss April Kalis, who is the um director of the gender and sexuality

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resource center um over at Prince University. She was amazing and spoke a lot about the history of queer media and queer representation um in movies and TV shows. And um it was just a wonderful event that we were um given permission

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to th be excuse me um given very generous funding from the P um and a lot of help with planning as um I am just myself and my lovely co-leaders um but we were also given a lot of guidance

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from Mr. Wood and my adviserss um from GSA. Unfortunately, we do um we are down an adviser right now, but um we were able we were able to get through all of that. Um and the event was a huge success and um I'm really really

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grateful to have excuse me to have this privilege to um host events like that. So, thank you um everyone. >> Thank you, Lexi. Um it's nice to see you. Um I can't believe you're a junior. Um,

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>> so how many people went? >> Um, from the reports, excuse me, it was about 50 people who um attended. >> Great. That's great. Um, thank you uh for leading that effort and thank you to the P and Mr. Wood for sponsoring it. We

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appreciate it. That's great. >> Thank you guys. >> Alexis, 50 is 10 times more than the board of education could bring out tonight. [laughter] >> Good job. Great job. [applause] >> All right. Do we have anyone else for

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public comment? No one else. Okay, great. Uh, so moving on. Uh, we're um going to approve the consent vote. So, could I get a motion, please? Beth second. Chris, you like I didn't I

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don't know. >> Roll call vote. >> Yes, please. Beth Bon, >> yes. >> Adam Berman, >> yes. >> Mara Francesky, >> yes. >> Katherine Larra, >> yes. >> Ariel, >> do we lose them? >> Yeah. >> Oh, I didn't realize. Sorry. Should be

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paying closer attention. Christopher Sanpia. >> Yes. >> Erica, I think. [laughter] >> Yes. >> Susan Caner. >> Yes. >> Daffany Kendall. Yes. >> Wonderful. >> You're voting for me now. >> Okay. Yes.

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>> I was just confirming the answer was yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> All right. Well, thank you. Uh so, closing comments. Just thank you everyone. Um it's a privilege to be in this district and and see all the wonderful things going on um and the

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things we do to support children. So, with that, can I get a motion to adjurnn? Erica second. Mara. All in favor? All right. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.