##VIDEO ID:AMgXr5kS52I## okay uh it's 6:45 p.m. I call this rever Board of Education meeting to order uh roll call please Miss Brown M CR here M Alandra here Mr C here Mr Langley here Mr Sim and M K here uh at this time can I have a motion to move into close session to discuss contractual and Personnel matters so move second roll call please miss crbo yes M alandro yes Mr Cohen yes Mr Langley yes Mr s and Miss K yes uh we will come back to public session at about 7:30 p.m. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e M president good okay uh we are back in public session uh can we have roll call please M criso here mandro here Mr Cohen here Mr ly here and here let's all rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Miss creso could you read the mission statement for us tonight sure the Riveredge school district is a partnership of students parents staff and community members we are dedicated to providing a supportive environment in which all students can reach their maximum academic potential while develop in as responsible citizens who respect individuality our goals will be achieved because curriculum and instruction are aligned with the New Jersey state learning standards all decisions reflect the academic social emotional and physical needs of prek to sixth grade students cooperation and ongoing communication exist between the school district and the community school administrators and the Board of Education work together to assess and adjust procedures in response to the new mandates and the changing needs of the community thank you Mr paano the open public meeting notice pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting its date time and place have been delivered to the post office the municipal building and the record and posted on the district website at least 48 hours prior to the time of this meeting thank you uh moving on to public comments on agenda items only um at this time uh we will open it up to public comments and agenda items only first and foremost please remember that we aim to maintain a level decorum in our board meetings and we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courteous and direct comments to the board president and not individual board members and as per policy 11:20 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name residence and group affiliation if appable and to maintain fairness each speaker will have 3 minutes to speak so at this time I open it up for public comments on agenda items only seeing that there are none we'll move on to reports starting with Dr Benise with the superintendent report uh good evening uh I'd like to just recognize a couple of uh events the week of respect week uh which is at the beginning of October School violence awar awareness week which is the third week in October and this is of course National principal month uh so um uh wanted to say uh Happy National principles month to our two principles uh I'm sure that they um were expecting that I don't know um the uh I have to report on the uh School uh safety data um that happens uh twice a year uh the ssds report for January to June of 2024 so this is last year's data there were seven HIV investigations at the Roosevelt School three total trainings uh and 18 uh hi be programs uh run throughout the district um I am thrilled to announce that some of our students have earned prestigious medals and honorable mentions at the B Stars national competition fall 2024 their remarkable performance reflects their strong Knowledge and Skills and both fundamental and advanced topics at their grade level the hard work and dedication they put into their study is paid off tonight we celebrate the following students we have a grant uh s in second grade math honorable mention asther King second grade math honorable mention and Aiden Lee got a bronze uh medal it's a certificate but it's a bronze recognition in second grade math as well um those certificates will be printed out and awarded to them by their home room teacher so congratulations to them and nice job uh the pday schedule was shared in the report um if the board members are curious they can um I think they can click you can click on that in the um in the report let me see here that's true yes it is true um okay I'd like to um recognize uh Christine Moran and Brook Eller who are both here uh it's a requirement that within 60 days of the receipt of the njla uh testing data that we rep I I report those things to the board or my design so I'm designating them to do this particular presentation Daniel could we WIP that thing off so they can get get started um and I'll uh seed my time here and for to Christine morand book Keller good evening we are here um to present the spring 2024 annual Statewide assessment results so we'd like to begin by um speaking about the presentation objectives for uh this evening as Dr already mentioned to meet the we need to meet the NJ doe 60-day reporting requirement we will compare to compare our results to New Jersey data how are we doing compared to the rest of New Jersey in English language arts Math and Science access At Dem down how are we doing among demographic consider year toar performance data how are we doing compareed to ourselves and we will share data highlights based on ongoing analysis and future implications for instruction I think it was I think it's on I it quick um with regards to the New Jersey Statewide Assessment program New Jersey requires the following assessments uh be administered in schools the first assessment is the New Jersey student learning assessment or njla uh this assessment assesses students progress toward the New Jersey student learning standards in English language arts or Ela for grades 3- 6 mathematics for grades 3 through 6 and science for grade five only we also um administer the NJ access which establishes when multilingual Learners have attained English language proficiency I did present the spring 2024 results for the NJ access um at the August 28th 2024 Board of Education meeting and those results are linked in this presentation that will be posted and they are already those results are already posted on our district website and last but not least we do administer the dynamic learning Maps or DM which is an alternate assessment system this test academic progress in English language arts math Endor science and it's an assessment designed for students with many types of significant cognitive disabilities so we will begin the presentation by reviewing our results for the New Jersey student learning assessment spring in 2024 the njsla has five performance levels so looking at uh from the left side level one in the pink students did not yet meet grade level expectations level two students partially met grade level expectations level three students approach grade level expectations level four students met grade level expectations and level five students exceeded gr level expectations so we will be speaking more in detail about those levels and our results so we will begin tonight with the English language arts njsla results this slide tells about the unit testing times for the mjf ELA in grad three there are two units each unit is 75 minutes for grades four and five there are also two units and each unit um is 90 minutes and for grade six there are two units and the testing time is 90 minutes this slide shows the number of students tested for njsla ELA for both the year on the left 2023 and then 2024 for um students who are not tested are only first year English-speaking students or parent refusals so in grade three we had 170 students grade four 180 grade 5 172 and for grade 6 165 students were tested in Spring 2024 and now I will turn it over to Brook Geller I'm going to talk about the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations um in ela uh so this chart here illustrates the percentage of students across grades 3 through six who met or exceeded um expectations on the njsla ELA so as you can see the number of rer River Edge students those are the students in red um scored uh as you can see the number of Riveredge students who scored in this range increases across grade levels in addition it's clear that our students scored significantly higher than the state averages which is in um in below this particular slide illustrates grade level outcomes on the njsla ELA I'm going to talk about the colors from left to right so um level one is pink and that is um students not yet meeting uh there were few students in the River Edge public schools that fell in that range the Orange is for level two are partially meeting again few students fell in that range approaching expectations are level three is slightly higher the majority of students in the district um scored within levels four or five meeing expectations or exceeding expectations I also want to bring your attention to the column all the way over to the right um this particular column points out um the percentage that we scored above the um State averages so it's evident that the majority of students across the grades in both schools are meeting or exceeding expectations which of course is a compliment to the teachers who are collaborating and designing higher level questioning techniques based on the literacy practices that they know and that they continue to learn about next I'm going to share with you um the 2024 subgroup performance for ELA this particular chart shows the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations of across various subgroups within our district we can only report on subgroups that have 10 or more students uh please note our Asian students and students of two or more races demonstrate strong growth with 89% and 91% this particular chart is a 20204 school comparison as a reminder third grade is the first grade in which students are tested on a standardized test um it's clear from this particular chart and the data that robust reporting in grade six um robust instruction and scoring is happening in grade six especially with Cherry Hill school at 92% it's also clear from this particular data that grades 4 through six all show percentages 80 or above um Christine is now going to talk about some Ela uh achievements based on our data should we pause on questions till the end sorry questions now just a quick question is there a way uh to have to view some of the data against maybe a district Factor group so not just the the state but comparable districts um we have looked at um that data and have organized it so that would be possible in another um we we have we just got that data delivered as well in in a packet from uh link it they they did some analysis they're yeah they're going to do some analysis that they do for every all their customers um the state doesn't provide that to us uh when we get these scores th this presentation's a a mandate um and it's the it's kind of raw data this is what we're looking at this is what we've seen Christine's going to go on to talk about how um we're already beginning to use some of these data to inform some instruction but the next the next tier of that is something that we've already talked about um as a team and um I also want to well you'll see in a couple next couple sides there's some other data too that that will be relevant to this but um I I was also very curious about that because the comparing rivered to the balance of the state is probably not a very good comparable but it is a requirement of this presentation so I think in a future presentation um and discussions uh I'd like them to bring that to uh to us or at least to principles at some point so the answer is yes great okay thank you good so um I would like to note uh some of the achievements based on our Eli data so the district significantly outperforms the state averages at every grade level with margins ranging from 24 to 36 percentage point and this shows a robust and systemic approach to ELA instruction across all of our grade levels in both buildings um both schools show positive growth trajectories from grade three to grade six with Cher Hill reaching its peak at 92% in grade six and roselt showing strong performance throughout the upper grading and there's also notable improvement from students uh from grade three at 68% to then our grade four students at 81% um so with regard to best practices in ela instruction on the right there's a photo of um literacy consult and author Patty McGee who uh worked with us all last year working with our students and our staff and she continues to work with us uh this school year and during those sessions with Patty our teachers had the opportunity to watch Patty and action facilitating lessons uh with our students in both buildings she also helped teachers revise uh the curriculum to align with the new njsls for ELA and she helped teachers devel velop and plan rigorous writing and reading lessons and I'd like to particularly highlight grade six achievements um our grade six teachers uh began implementing the rigorous lessons from Patty last school year for example students navigated non-fiction test through current real world topics of interest and debate such as school start time cell phone use in school's Music Arts education and they had an opportunity to dig deep into that research and then write about it which is an essential skill that helped them to achieve success on the njfla so I just wanted to highlight that this evening now on this slide um we have there's steady improvement from grade to grade starting at 68% in grade three and reaching 89% in grade six this suggest students are developing the essential literacy skills as they progress through our grade levels in Riveredge um public schools and we're we're very proud of our subgroups as well um several subgroups were performing at very high levels with Asian students at 89% and students of two or more bases at um 91% which both groups were achieving more than the 85% Mark um continuing to disc discuss our best practices in English language arts instructions um this photo shows an anchor chart that was actually created by one of our fifth grade teachers and it includes different Pathways of non uh for note taking in non-fiction which is an essential skill for students to use across all content areas not just in English language arts uh this is a direct application of the professional learning um with Patty McGee as teachers identify goals Pathways for reading and writing pathways are the strategies that students can utilize as both readers and writers so now we will be moving on to our uh njsla mathematics results again we wanted to acknowledge the unit testing times inre 3 through five students completed three units each unit was 60 minutes ending grade six students completed three units each unit with 60 Minutes this slide shows the number of students tested in math our numbers in the 2024 column 173 in grade three 182 in grade 4 175 in grade 5 and 166 in grade 6 and now Brook will um go in up we our math result I'm going to take some time now to talk about the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations on the njsla math assessment this particular chart um shows the percentage of students in River Edge who met or exceeded expectations compared to State averages so um our students are in red the state is in blue um it's clear that each grade level surpasses the state average by at least 31 points this particular chart shows grade um grade level outcomes uh across grades 3 through six um again all the way over to the left um is the level one or not yet exceeding few students fall in that category level two were partially leading again few students approaching expectations are level three slightly higher U meeting expectations level four and exceeding expectations level five that's where the majority of our students um are are falling especially in the level four meeting expectations uh it uh it's also important to highlight the percentage of students across grade levels who scored levels four and either level four and level five compare to to the state um and that particular information is all the way over on the right hand side this slide illustrates the 2024 subgroups in math um this shows the performance of our subgroups again we can only report on subgroups that have 10 or more students so please note our Asian students and students of two or more races demonstrate strong growth with 91% 86% this particular chart illustrates a school comparison uh Cherry Hill Elementary is in red Roosevelt School is in blue and the state is in um in yellow as you can see both schools perform significantly higher than the state average in each particular grade at Cherry Hill there's an increase between grades three and four at Cherry Hill there's also some uh some at Cherry Hill some grad slip a bit um and it's important to note that this assessment gets more challenging as it assesses more complex mathematical Concepts which we continue to support within our classrooms the same's true for Roosevelt where fifth graders scored 84% and sixth graders scored 7% so our dedication to alignment and our rigorous support of mathematical Concepts and the collaboration between our two schools help to foster a love of mathematics and helping children develop their mathematical identity in order to create a strong Foundation of mathematical Concepts Christine is going to take a moment now to talk about some of our math achievements based on our data okay so we would like to highlight that our third and fourth graders um for the math assessment are performing at nearly double the state proficiency rates with 79% and 80% proficiency respectively and that's compared to the state rates of 48% and 45% we also want to note that our uh group data illustrates that Asian students and students of two or more races are achieving High proficiency rates of 91% and 86% so I'd like to highlight some of our best practices in math instruction this photo on this slide shows um consultant Dennis Sheeran who um has worked with our staff last year and continues to work with our staff this year um this photo is actually from a a summer professional learning opportunity in which staff engaged in discussion and exploration of best practices in math instruction these best practices were focused on last year and they continue into this school year and some of the focus areas include engaging our students with mathematical Concepts through the exploration of patterns relationships and multiple representations empowering our students to listen think critically analyze data and communicate and modeling real world situations and building meaningful interdisciplinary connections continuing with our math achievements the third grade has a proficiency rate of 79% at both schools which highlights program consistency within our district um our fifth and sixth grade students continue this pattern of Excellence maintaining proficiency rates that are consistently 35 to 40 percentage points Above This averages um on this uh Slide the photo shows one of our third grade teachers engaging students in a small group um and the techniques and strategies learned um by the teacher during a summer professional learning opportunity were directly applied in her third grade classroom students are using manipulatives or counters to show arrays when solving multiplication problems this instru instuction illustrates the teacher's commitment to building her mathematical knowledge and her commitment to helping her students achieve success in math now we will move on to science which was only tested in grade five so our unit testing times for Science and this test is administered in grades 5 and grade eight the students complete four units each unit is uh 45 minutes and the levels of proficiency um change a bit for science there are four levels as compared to math and Ela there are five and the levels are a little bit different level one is below proficient level two is near proficiency level three is proficient and level four is Advanced proficiency this slide shows the number of students tested for grade five science 175 students were tested in 2024 and uh we do want to note that students not tested our first year English speaking students or parent refusals and now Brook will speak about our uh performance with regards to science similar to uh Ela and math River Ed fifth graders perform significantly better than the state more than twice the state average please note that our science curriculum includes learning that's connected to life science physical science and Earth and space science um and these are all benefits of our science curriculum this particular chart illustrates grade level outcomes on the Science assessment for fifth graders Mo it's clear that most fifth graders scored either level three or four so proficient or Advanced proficient which shows a strong Foundation of scientific knowledge in our 2024 subgroups again we can report on subgroups that have 10 or more particular students it's evident from this data that our Asian and white students perform better than the state does our Comprehensive Science Program aims to support all students in their um knowledge of scientific Concepts this particular chart is a school comparison as you can see from the data both schools scored significantly better than the state averages based on the data displayed on this slide we are looking more closely at specific areas to close the science achievement gap between the two schools so for example reading scientific texts gets even more complex as children get older and we believe that students would benefit from learning to tackle these complex texts um this is very promising because it creates possibilities for future professional learning with our teachers who not only teach language arts but most of all teach science so they can better prepare students to read these dense complex texts with more sophisticated vocabulary Christine is now going to talk about um the our scientific achievements I'm sorry kind of ask another question right now also so this is my first year as a board member so I'm learning what the different roles are still You' mentioned that you're going to if you go back to the previous slide there was an anomaly uh a statistical significantly significantly statistical difference between the performance of the two schools and you're going to look at it so uh is there is it within our capacity or is there a way when you look at it among this as well as other areas to report back to us to determine you know what to share what your findings are does that does that question make sense the question yeah the question of course makes sense um and we we've talked about how to look at this because it begs a question right where is where is the gap and how is it created so there's usually three possibilities right these things are systemic there it's we know it's not curricular we're doing the same things um so what in the imple implementation of that curriculum is different we also have to remember there there are different students taking the test but when you look at the balance of these things uh the let's say Ela and Mathematics you also don't see this kind of disparity so it does beg a question and we are going to look into it and we'll report back okay yeah it's Al oh this part second part of the question is I guess can you share back since I'm still with this role that's um perhaps not always publicly sure um depending on what the findings are of the of the answers to that questions but the board has the right to know uh what those things are if it's not something that's so I just want to add on that often times after the the state reporting the curriculum committee has followup options and often adds to their agenda as kind of diving a little deeper that can also be shared through our committee reports in the discussion at that point too so that's another way that the you know we can continue the conversation at a later date not necessarily A a separate presentation but through the committee's discussion and report we can report back to the board should I can I keep track of the areas that that I have questions with or sure and then you can send it to the committee chair to bring it up to the next uh the future meetings Okay so uh we did want to highlight our science achievement with our fifth graders from Spring 2024 our district science performance of 61% proficiency more than doubles the state average of 28% um this achievement of 61% proficiency also reflects the success of our Hands-On science curriculum and dedicated teaching staff um as 51% of our fifth graders scored proficient or Advanced proficient on the assessment um um so these photos on this slide are a snapshot of the Hands-On science lessons the students engage in Daily throughout our buildings both in um the grade level classrooms as well as in our uh steam labs in both buildings you can see that the students are working collaboratively in these photos to explore circuits and recording their findings authentically in science notebooks which is a skill necessary for Success the students um can participate in these explorations like I said both in their grade level classrooms as well as in our steam Labs do you mind if I interrupt sorry what of interruptions um I just wanted the board to know that the the Science assessment specifically especially when the first year was given um was seemed to be um seemed to be incredibly rigorous where there were very high performing districts delivering like 9% of their students proficient um on the the science exam so uh globally uh curriculum folks across the state have been getting together to try to figure out how to how to close the gap so the fact that we even have 51% of the the six fifth graders performing um at the levels that they are and this assessment is a remarkable fee in and of itself and we're just going to continue to to grow that number okay so uh we have already begun um the process of both anal and reflecting on this data and digging deep into it so Rook is going to start pass off with that analysis and section this chart illustrates the number of students who met or exceeded ex um expectations in ela by grade level for spring of 2023 to Spring of 2024 four please note that each year um at each uh please note that each year at each grade level represents a different group of students so this particular chart is not is not showing a cohort of students moving from grade to grade it's showing um how third graders scored in 2023 and then how third graders scored in 2024 um our results for ELA by grade level over the last two years reflect consistent in growth especially with grades 4 through six remaining at 80% or higher this particular chart um shows cohorts of students so this is the chart that shows the same cohort of students moving from third to fourth grade fourth to fifth grade and then fifth grade to sixth grade please note that that the test gets more rigorous and students must think more broadly um they most show growth in these particular areas so third to Fourth Graders the cohort of third graders moving to fourth grade um they uh there's a significant increase there um and that is uh that's a that's a pretty um important thing to notice especially because third graders are that's their first year taking a standardized test um so the fact that they made some growth there from third to fourth grade um I think speaks a lot lot to the Social and emotional um learning and engagement that's happening in classrooms as well as the uh the the the rigorous and um systemic language arts teaching that's happening as well um in in in those particular grades so there's always um there's always some students that are on the cusp of Performing better than they actually are so so we look here third fourth graders moving to fifth graders um they move from 85 to 84% and um it's interesting to think about um one of the things that Christine and I are um constantly in conversations about is ways that we can help our teachers best support students who are on the cusp who might have some areas um uh that they need a little bit more support in in order to excel um and so we that happens um in many of the the ongoing programs that we have in our particular District such as our win program and our pdia program which are designed to close these gaps with with the knowledge of targeted data and targeted instruction um Christine is now going to talk about the same cohorts of students um at the school level so Brook just spoke about the district level now we um took a look at each um School in District separately so this is um the Cherry Hill data for the same cohort of students um in English language arts so the first um uh information on the left shows grade three students moving moving to grade four um showing consistency there um the middle data shows grade four students to um grade five students so there is a slight zp in the data um there but still at um 80 or above um which is what we always um strive for and um we do want to reiterate that the test does get more challenging as students progress through the grade level so fourth graders moving to fifth graders the Tex is more the test is more complex with um uh deeper vocabulary and Concepts on that assessment and then um grade five students at Cherry Hill moving to grade six from 85 to 92 which shows um um great growth um from those students so that is the Cherry Hill S cohort now let's take a look at Roosevelt the same cohort you will notice um that in all three sets of data um we see growth in each cohort um so from grade three to grade four 69 to 80 which um shows significant growth from our third graders and then moving to fourth grade um our fourth graders moving to fifth grade 82 to 89 um which is good growth and then um grade five students to grade six 81 to 85 so Roosevelt data showing showing that there is um consistent growth um in each cohort and we emphasize that this is a result of our uh systemic approach to literacy instruction within our schools I just wanted to on these slides I find the cohort analysis to be kind of like the most insightful and this is really fabulous the ELA consistent growth really for both schools so just kudos to teachers staff administrators leaders uh I mean the kids are just doing better consistently so thanks now we will um move to our analysis of math this slide illustrates how cohorts performed over two years in math from 2020 the in blue we have 2023 and in red we have 2024 this particular chart illustrates the same cohort of students so third graders moving to fourth grade fourth graders moving to fifth grade and fifth graders moving to sixth grade this is um these again these Concepts get more rigorous and um a a foundation of mathematics is necessary in order for kids to um to to to succeed um and our math curriculum supports this as well as our targeted programs that we have so we see third graders to fourth grade um remain relatively um close uh fourth graders to fifth graders um that you can see there's a slight um decrease there and fifth grade to sixth grade again remain relatively close and we we believe that especially with fifth graders to sixth graders fifth graders moving to sixth grade um that they are developing the mathematical skills necessary to be successful as they head off to to to Middle School Christine is now going to talk abouts yeah she's now going to talk about um the same Co cohort of students and the breakdown across schools okay so this slide shows the same cohort for Char Hill um school so the first um set of data grade three students um moving to grade four showed consistent growth there from 80 to 86 um for grade four um students moving to grade five we do um see that um students in grade four were at 92 and as they moved to fifth grade it's 72 so this is definitely um an area area of need that we have um recognized and we have already begun to uh dig deep into and uh professional learning opportunities have already started for our staff and uh will continue to be planned and um we will provide the targeted support for the identified needs um in the next few slides we will discuss um specific interventions and next steps that we um look at in order to help us um best support our teachers in helping our students be successful which is our ultimate goal um and then we do see consistent growth from grade five students moving to grade six for Jerry Hill now when looking at the Roosevelt data for the same um cohort uh there is some growth between grades five and uh six which shows that students are developing a more sophisticated understanding of complex math concepts which will help prepare them for middle school and although there is a decrease inrease 3 to 4 and then four to 5 the data here um as Rook had previously mentioned shows that students remain um con relatively consistent and have a strong foundation of the concepts as uh the data is close from uh their year and one grade double to the okay and now we will analyze and reflect on our science data here is our science data across spring of 2023 to Spring of 2024 this data illustrates the performance that the performance of fifth graders remains relatively steady still outperforming the state average so in 2023 with 64% 20 in 20 24 61% Christina is now going to talk about the comparison among schools for the science data okay this um slide shows a up close snapshot of the Cherry Hill uh science data over the last two years so in 2023 they uh Cherry Hill was 66% and now in 2024 55% so we are currently looking at the um evidence statement analysis which um shows which particular um standards and um components of the science curriculum need to be focused on in order to best support our staff um in helping our students to achieve um success so we will be engaging our staff and meaningful professional learning opportunities that focuses in on the areas of need identified by um digging deeper into the data and um this slide show shows um the same the data from 2023 for Roosevelt which was at 63% and the data for spring 2024 at Roosevelt which is at 71% so here you will see that um the performance across the two years does um increase uh for Roosevelt School for Science and if I may it is important to realize that we don't have year-to-year comparisons on this we only administer the exam in grade five so these are different these colors represents completely different cohorts of students okay so um as I mentioned earlier we um have already begun this data analysis process which involves um a variety of steps uh we have reviewed the njsla uh district and school level data for all three uh Pon areas math Ela and science we've looked at individual grade level data subgroups by grade level standards by gr level um which um is through item analysis which you will show on an upcoming slide um we're also looking at the different domains that fall within the content area so for example English language arts we'll look specifically at reading literacy reading information um we have compared um the njsla to our district assessment student data Dr bernes mentioned that we received all these reports from our link it Benchmark um they have um sent us numerous reports that we will um be looking at closely um to identify areas in need and we are also looking at the data in comparison to our most recent Benchmark that students completed in September um for linkit form a um all data has been shared with paring staff and administration the njla data is available on the link at Parent Portal um parents were also uh mailed um the individual student um score reports for their Childs from the spring 2024 um results uh we are in the process of scheduling grade level meetings to discuss areas of strength and areas in need of growth um which with each grade level team that myself and Brook will attend as well as um Mr Grimshaw and Mrs heightman um we as I mentioned have the Navigator reports that are generated by linkit that will help us um further analyze our njsla data and we will also um use our njsla data to plan for our district programming including when gifted and talented and our post um dismissal instructional Academy PV um which um that program itself is um it just started this week for Math and we um have had success with that program helping our students that are at that cus of proficiency um when we have looked at that data over the past 8 years that it has been implemented it shows um that our students who do participate in that program reach um levels of proficiency on the njsla okay so this um slide shows what is called an Evidence statement analysis and this one in particular is for grade for um Nath the green circles represent Riveredge Public Schools the blue squares represent the state of New Jersey the bottom of the image in sta of the standards from the most difficult on the left um to the least difficult on the right the green circles indicate where our district Falls with each standard in relation to the state which is the blue squares so please note that for each standard list on this evidence statement analysis Riveredge is above the state so um at Brooke and I were just actually meeting with a team of teachers um the other day and we were looking at this evidence statement um for their particular grade level and we were identifying the standards and skills that um that were um really good and then the standards and skills where we need to work on and we were developing um lessons um to help prepare our students um for Mastery of those skills this um slide is another evidence statement analysis and this particular one is for grade 6 Ela and again the green circles are River Edge Public Schools the blue squares are the state of New Jersey and um each standard uh listed River Edge is above the state and uh looking closely at this particular chart you will notice that there are four green circles um at 100 which is at the top of the chart this indicates that every grade six student in the district got the correct answers for those specific standards this is very impressive and we are very proud of our students and our staff for that success in English language arts um some other District achievements that we would like to um discuss and highlight um to support Bright Futures here in River Edge Public Schools include um the creation of various teacher leadership opportunities um in District which um these leadership opportunities have enhanced our district culture have increased collaboration among our staff and made a positive impact on teaching and learning in the photo on the left there are various um teachers from our district um that are participating in a professional learning opportunity with um staff from uh orodell and riverdell that we um worked on various areas of math and Ela last school year um we also uh want to acknowledge our implementation of a universal screener Dibbles in grades 4 through six for the first time this year and this implementation has created created new opportunities for differentiation uh teachers have begun to um analyze and reflect on the results um of the September administration of dibles and are differentiating their instruction within their classroom it has also allowed teachers to learn about students in holistic ways and it has created new professional learning opportunities for teachers um for example um a few weeks ago we had um a teacher that facilitated an after school staff development course focused on morphology in the upper grades that many of our teachers took part in and um they created some Hands-On materials this is one of them word builder cubes that they um created and then used with their students in their classroom and again that particular class was specifically for um morphology in grades 4 through six um we also want to acknowledge um that an in-class support model within our district Fosters opportunities for Teacher collaboration Shar data analysis and implementation of various learning models such as station teaching and parallel teaching and um those images on the screen um show uh one of our um classrooms with the in class support model in place um okay so on this slide we will begin to discuss our um District interventions and next steps to support Bright Futures within our district and um one of those uh steps is to utilize this data um to support um whole class instruction to meet um the needs of all of our Learners we're also using it to support our student growth objectives which um I did want to note is only for our non-tenured um staff members this year have sgos um we are using it for our intervention strategies and um of course looking at our curriculum and reflecting on our pacing we also um have a new program in math amplify uh Desmos math and this particular program supports uh higher level thinking and real world's problem solving uh teacher collaboration across the district opportunities for inquiry based learning with a mathematical framework and integration of technology to expose students um to various Concepts so this program is being implemented in grades four and five which are two of our tested grades and um teachers have been um engaged in various professional learning opportunities over the last few weeks they will continue with that professional learning um next Tuesday um with an amplify representative and we are also planning for uh model lessons with um an amplifi Desmos uh math representative to take place within the next few weeks and so that representative will be coming in and facilitating model lessons with our students and staff will have an opportunity to um observe and participate in the lessons as well as de brief with um the representative we also have um other professional learning opportunities that are already happening and um will continue to happen throughout the year in ela we are focusing on um designing rigorous assessments to support the standards I just met with a um team of teachers this week and we um looked at the evidence statement analysis for the grade level we um reviewed our current um Ela assessments and we updated the assessments to include more um rigorous questions and to uh we also looked at the njsla practice test and um developed assessments that had similar language that is used on the njsla with our unit assessments for math we're focusing on modeling and applying mathematical skills to real world scenarios and in science we will be focusing on analyzing and interpreting data and constructing explanations and solutions those are some of the um items that we have noticed on the evidence statement analysis um we will also um continue to use data from our early reading screener dibles to develop differentiated instruction um this will take place in all grade levels K through six we collaborate with interventionists and and enrichment teachers to support consistency across the district with teaching and learning um already our um interventionist enrichment teachers have been meeting with um our grade level teachers to um look at data and a plan for implementation of rigorous lessons that will help our students achieve success uh we will administer our linkit science benchmarks um in the fall winter and spring to progress monitor areas of targeted need we will ensure consistency of the win period to provide support for all students based on the NJ dooe requirements for a tiered system of supports and we will Implement deep learning in connection with this computer science and design thinking standards through Steam um we will continue to offer um after school instruction with the post s missal instructional Academy to students in grades 2 to 6 um like I mentioned earlier this program um for this school year just began this week we're starting with math and it will be eight-week Cycles where um teachers and students will work together on targeted skills um and again that that particular program is for students who need to close some gaps in their learning so they're the students who are at the cusp of proficiency um we will also engage our parents care givers and families through a variety of events such as in-person information sessions virtual information sessions and family workshops we um just last week hosted a parent information session virtually on assessment where we discussed um all of the assessments that we use in riverge and how we um use that data data from the assessments to drive instruction we did have um High attendance at that um event where for um planning a family steam night upcoming in um November for grades 4 through 6 um more information will be shared about that soon um but we do um value the importance of that partnership with um uh our school and um our families and we will also improve our steps um student and teacher effective planning and support process um which happens prior to irns which is our intervention and referral services in order to support students with various needs this slide um shows njsla resources for parents and caregivers it includes um helpful links for example how to read your child score report for the njsla um you can find uh njsla practice tests by grade level and by content areas and um there's a link as well for additional njsla resources for for parents to support um children as they move through particular grade levels Christine is now going to talk about the dlm or the dynamic learning Maps assessment okay so the dynamic learning Maps or dlm is an alternate assessment system and it tests um the three content areas that we spoke about Ela math Andor science it's um designed for students with many types of significant cognitive disabilities and the student score report contains a performance profile um the performance levels on the left are emerging approaching the target at Target and advanced at Target specifically means that the student has met the alternate achievement standards in this subject at the students's grade level the second part of the performance profile describes the percentage of skills the student demonstrated on the related academic skills um it does measure a student skill level in ela Math and Science and um we have included some links to the specific content descriptor for each of those content areas students in grades 3 through six participate in these assessments uh students in grade five just like the njsla also participate in the Science assessment the testing window is the beginning of April to the end of May and they are based um these assessments are based on the Essential Elements and measure a students performance on Alternate achievement standards um and then there is another link there that um reviews and um gives more information about the dlm participation um criteria and uh the reason that we don't have any specific um data is that um again we need um at least 10 students in order to um present publicly about um this assessment so in closing um we just wanted to share a few way in which we are committed to building Bright Futures um based on looking at um all of this data that has been presented this evening we will continue to analyze data and make curricular adjustments we will um continue to invest in our professional learning opportunities for all staff to inform instructional decisions we will continue to offer a variety of learning opportunities for the community and we will encourage staff collaboration on educational research and curriculum alignment in closing all our decisions that we make here in River Edge is based on our students based on our current students based on our future students we commit to engaging the River Edge School Community we value professional learning Partnerships with such individuals such as Patty McGee bill Jackson M yida and Dennis Sheeran they all help Foster opportunities for continuous growth for our Educators here in this District the NJ dooe and njss guides our protocols and standards our linkit platform is our data warehouse and it serves as a platform for monitoring progress to ensure student growth and to create opportunities for teachers to collaborate amongst uh about data and we're committed to investing in the River Edge staff so they can be the best they can be on behalf of our children thank you thank you any questions from board members thank you so much for uh your report tonight thank you both thank you uh just continuing the report quickly uh in administrative items you'll be approving the qac submission this year we have um if you you're welcome to stay you're welcome to go um uh we have we've had three committee meetings uh of the qac committee here in District um instruction and program uh you'll notice is uh 60% of this is determined by the scores that you just saw um in fiscal operations governance and Personnel We Believe through our self- evaluation process that we'll um we're submitting that we we're in 100% compliance in each one of those categories um and that we have enough evidence to to support those scores uh there is one thing that I I am uh just a little I have some questions on that might result in a slightly lower score in uh Personnel but I think the balance of them uh will um remain where they are um you have various operational plans all administrative items and a number of appointments are being made it might look like there's a stack of appointments there we're anticipating um that we need those appointments when we employ the new stra assessment policies all the policies call for these appointments we're just getting ahead of that um in curricul instruction they're regular travel building grounds uh I have no items here just make sure that's right oh we didn't have a category that helps oh uh the comprehensive maintenance plan is there and that's Linked In in the uh category as well um the in finance items you have regular Finance regular Finance items special thank you to the two donation resolution or the families of two two donations we'll get the agenda oh boy we'll get the agenda letter to them thanking them for their generosity in personality of appointments resignations leaves retirements job description revisions and a change in assignment you have trips and contracts Region 5 has standard resolutions to support their operation uh for policy we had our policy shop meeting in uh on Monday November I'm sorry September 23rd um and they're prepare stas May is preparing the materials for us uh in closing committee meetings are set for November 11th and the next regular meeting of the board of education is set for Wednesday November 20th that concludes my report thank you Dr Bernice uh any questions for Dr Bernice I think I have some more specific questions from the presentation but I'll address them in committee meeting great thank you any other questions okay thank you uh moving on to uh board secretary report thank you um I wanted to say thank you for allowing me the opportunity to attend asbo International which was not really International but in Nashville um it's very enlightening to go to conferences uh with many different states um and look at what it looks like for larger districts so some some Bas are in charge of 50 schools in a in a district as opposed to uh Bergen County which is very um small um groups of schools so it's it's just really interesting um I had the opportunity to participate in budgeting workshops with other states making decisions for the budget budget based on various funding sources and collaborations and very interesting were federal grants including the ARP Esser and various other federal grants that sunsetted in September um and just talking to other states to see how they made sure that they were compliant so it's it's always very helpful to um meet with other people um we as a group also attended the New Jersey school boards um with some of the board members um I presented with Eastern Datacom regarding school security and talking particularly about our cell boosters that allow our cell phones to work throughout our buildings for security and for health related reasons in agenda items there's approval of additional uh monies in the esa grants that's carryover monies from previous years that wasn't what that weren't used and um as Dr Bernice mentioned the comprehensive maintenance plan that after the approval is sent to the county office tomorrow thank you any questions or comments for board members thank you um I have nothing to report as president and then um moving on to committee reports uh Mr Langley had to leave with an emergency so I can do his finance committee report and then I'll do Mr Sim's Personnel committee report since he couldn't be here tonight um so starting with finance and Facilities we met on September 30th uh with Dr bise Miss Nepal Tano myself Mr Langley and Miss Crespo um we discussed uh just the success of compete Academy which is the summer program that happens at Roosevelt over uh the summer that allows um opportunity for reverge students to participate in a afternoon Sports Camp um and just um we were given a report as how it went and um there were no issues and um they expressed gratitude for to the board for allowing them to use the facilities over the summer so we're hoping that this could be something that continues in the future uh we reviewed the Region 5 budget um with um the additional monies from Surplus to support the new um hopstone Academy um and that has already been approved by the Region 5 Council and it's um on the agenda tonight for us to approve as the board um as the Lea and then miss napalitano shared with us um just kind of the unknowns of the budget um regarding healthc care premiums um and just um already starting to think about the budget calendar uh for next year um and the preliminary calendar was shared with the committee at that time so in our next meeting we'll be discussing just uh future Revenue opportunities um I know that was something that we have been looking at especially since uh last year's big uh cut from school aid how can we um increase our Revenue as a school district and different opportunities there so that would be one of the uh main topics on our next meeting on the 11th any questions about finance and Facilities okay uh moving on to personnel and management we met on October 7th uh with Dr benice miss napalitano Mr Cohen Mr Sim self um as um it's on the agenda theendum to the administrator's contract um the technology department updates and recommendations were given in um with recent uh resignation how to uh realign the I guess department and um and the responsibilities as uh Dr reice has shared and closed um we reviewed some of the 504 and irrs updates um and I think we're stillwaiting for the final report to the board right okay um and then just Staffing um unexpected Staffing um and resignations and um I believe we have those hires tonight to U approve um and then for our next meeting just um starting to think about next year's calendar and balancing the and respecting the diverse community that we live in along with in the religious cultural holidays that um different groups celebrate along with the need for um having aligning with the neighboring districts specifically Riverdale and then um primarily making sure that our students are here for their education so that's on our agenda for the next meeting any questions about personnel management okay um moving on to motions to be acted upon um we do have a lot of motions here if it's okay with the board to do a consent agenda if there's anything that we need to pull out just the um agenda minutes I wasn't present for a meeting that I would the what the um post approval of the minutes I have to I'll be abstaining from um one of those meeting dates that I didn't attend okay so pull that out and then table to the next meeting we don't have enough can't obain otherwise I'm sorry right all right you don't I mean I reviewed I reviewed it to abstain you can you can I did review the minutes from my meeting so it's fine I just wanted to make sure it was clear that I wasn't present for that meeting so okay yeah we can we can move forward with that said you're not allowed to obstain I didn't think are but do you're okay with yeah I did review it I just wanted to make note that I was not at certain meetings Okay um just bear with me cuz it's a new software so through 17 I believe it's D1 through k K K13 thank you k 13 that's it okay uh move to approve items D1 through K13 as stated second any questions or comments um I believe Dr Bice mentioned this but I just want to say thank you to our generous donation um for the books for our Book cart that we get every year um in remembrance of our former superintendent Erica stanner so thank you so much for the donation a roll call please miss Crespo yes Mr elisandro yes Mr Cohen yes Miss Kang yes is there any old or new business that the board wishes to bring up just want to thank uh all the staff for getting the uh the gym up and running uh in time was a Monumental effort in such a short amount of time so just wanted to recognize all the work that went into that I second that any other older new business that or wishes to bring up okay um at this time I open up to public comments on non-agenda items um seeing that there's no one in the public so we'll move on to a motion to adjourn the meeting is there a motion motion yes moved second roll call please miss Crespo yes M delandro yes Mr Cohen yes and Miss Ken yes thank you everyone for being here tonight our next meeting is November 20th CH thank you