--------- Okay, thank you. Um, good evening everybody. Notice is hereby given that in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231, the laws of 1975, notice of this meeting has been sent to all school offices, officially designated newspapers, file with the township clerk, and posted in the board
of education office 40 hours in advance of this meeting. Roll call vote, please. Certainly. Mrs. Asuror, here. Mrs. Austin, here. Mrs. Mrs. Burkowitz here. Mrs. Pinterelli here. Mr. Rosini here. Um, we'll do the flag.
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. Okay. Um, with regard to my report, um, we
just had our board retreat which was really, um, informative and useful and it gives nice guidance for, uh, our direction next year, which, um, I'm always thankful to see and I'm thankful to, uh, Miss Ding and Miss Senori, Mrs. Ziplo and everyone else who works on
that to make sure that our goals are met which I think they usually are and and it's just a terrific way to know that we have that kind of direction. Um apart from that we also have you know the year is winding down so we have a lot of important things going on which um uh
we'll we'll maybe mention as we go forward and um that's about it. I'm going to move to the committee reports. Um, buildings and grounds. Anything just that we're um we are on our agenda.
We opened up awards for the asbestous abatement project and we are awarding contingent upon the contractor being able to enter into a PLA. Okay. Um, communications and policies. Mrs. Burkowitz, I have nothing for
tonight. Just our next meeting is in September. Oh, wow. That's cool. Um, curriculum and technology. Mrs. Sand is not here. Is there anything to mention? No. Finance. Mrs. Pinterelli. Nothing
for tonight. Okay. Uh, negotiations. Um, I have nothing. We mentioned it in the uh during the retreat though that we'll have the uh administration uh uh contracts coming up uh next year. Um, and personnel. Mrs. Eser. Uh, nothing to
report. Okay. What? Okay. All right. Um, with regard I'm going to open the meeting to public comments on agenda items only. I'm going to read this now and then I won't read it later because there's nobody sitting in the
audience. But in case somebody walks in, everyone and anybody watching will be apprised of the rules. Uh, the Riverdale Board of Education is committed to encouraging the citizens of Riverdale and employees of the Riverdale School District to speak directly to board trustees. In order to facilitate this
communication, residents and employees are requested, one to sign them before speaking, two to maintain an appropriate sensitive decorum, and three to limit the remarks to no more than five minutes. The board will also take under advisement the written comp comments and opinions of non-residents that are submitted to the board secretary being
mindful of its responsibility to maintain the orderly conduct of meetings. The board retains the right to rule in such matters as the speaker's right to address the board as well as the appropriateness of the subject being presented. The board's decision in such matters is final. The board also reminds all members of the public that while it
subscribes without reservation to the principle of keeping the community informed by policy and law, it cannot allow public discussion of personnel matters, nor can trustees comment on any current or pending litigation. If a matter concerning an employee of the Riverville public schools is of interest or concern to a resident, the matter
should be referred to the responsible building principal or the superintendent of the schools by telephone letter or email. Um, I'm going to open it to public comments on agenda items only at approximately 6:10 p.m. and close it because nobody walked in since I started reading that those two paragraphs and
close it at 6:10 p.m. And now we'll move to the superintendent's report. All right. Thank you. Good evening. Just to kind of actually piggyback a little bit off of what our president said, this is a very busy time of year, but an exciting time of year with lots of school events going on. Um, so just kind
want to remind everyone and the public to please make sure you are reading those principal newsletters that go out. They are filled with all of the end of the year events. We've already had the elementary um concerts. We've had field day so far, but we still have a lot coming up. We've got middle school
concert coming up. We've got art the middle school art show coming up. Um, so just keep an eye out because this is a great time when we're celebrating all the work the students did all year and they get an opportunity to showcase their talents. Um, we also we mentioned last board meeting that we had the the
middle school musical and the kids did a great job. So really there there's events uh it feels like happening every week. Uh so please make sure that you're keeping an eye out for all of that. Um we do have our DC trip tomorrow for our eighth graders. So that's exciting. they are going to be getting on that bus
bright and early going down. Um, so we can't wait to hear about how that trip goes for them. I know that's something that they look forward to for many years. So, um, it's it really is an exciting time. So, just make sure you're keeping an eye out. And that's all I have for this evening. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Um, and now we'll move to the board secretar's report. I have nothing to report tonight. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Wow. Um, so let's move to general resolutions
G1 through G5. May I have a motion, please? I'll motion. Second, please. I'll second. Discussion. Okay. Any questions? No. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Certainly. Mrs. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Austin,
yes. Mrs. Burkowitz, yes. Mrs. Pinterelli, yes. Mr. Rosini, yes. Okay, moving forward to uh business resolutions B1 through B13. Will somebody move it, please?
I'll make a motion. Oop, sorry. I'll second. Okay. Thank you. Um, and discussion, please. questions on Fe1. Um, looks like we're really going to benefit from that grant. Maybe we could
kind of explain to the public a little bit what that is. Certainly the focus grant is funding for optimal comprehensive universal screeners which is what Miss Dowling was speaking to in
terms of purchasing dibbles for a um literacy screening. So the state is giving each district a per dollar amount per student so that we can help to
offset some of that expense. So Miss Dowling was kind enough to fill out the grant for us and it was submitted and then we will just seek the $4,30 in reimbursement. That's great. Mhm. Yeah, that is great.
Anything else? No. Anything? Okay. Roll call vote, please. Certainly. Mrs. Assur, yes. Mrs. Austin, yes. Mrs. Burkowitz, yes. Mrs. Pinterelli, yes. Mr. Rosini, yes.
And moving on to P1 through P21 personnel resolutions. May I have a motion, please? I'll move it. Second, please. I'll second. Um, and discussion. Uh, yes. Missy
Pledo, can you just look at P16? Um, buildings and grounds and technology. Yes. Typo. Those are those are flipped. Yes. So we'll we'll make that correction. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Yeah. Do you want to talk about
Okay. All right. Yep. Um Yeah. So, uh we were just saying we were fighting over who's gonna say how we regret seeing this knife finger. uh resigning and how much we'll miss her. Um and she's been there, you know, the nice long time.
Certainly there when my children were there um and uh she'll be missed. Miss Burkewood, do you have anything to add? Absolutely. My older one had her and she's just a phenomenal person, educator, and I wish her a very happy retirement and the best of luck.
Yep. Okay. Anything? No. Okay. Um, roll call vote, please. Certainly. Mrs. Assor, yes. Mrs. Austin, yes. Mrs. Burkowitz, yes. Mrs. Pinterelli, yes. Mr. Rosini, uh,
yes. And now we'll move to public comments on general items. The same rules apply as they did for agenda items that I read earlier. Um, I'll open it to the public at 6:17 p.m. and I will close it to the
public at 6:17 p.m. Um, old business, new business. And I know we're going into close session. Motion to go into close session. I'll make a motion. Anybody second? I'll second. Anybody against? Okay. All
right. Thank you everybody. Um, terrific. I hope uh everybody has a good time down in Washington. Okay, thank you. Part: 2
Okay. Good afternoon everybody. Notice hereby given that in accordance with the open public meetings act chapter 231 the laws of 1975 notice of this meeting has been sent to all school offices officially designated newspapers and posted in the board of
education office 48 hours in advance of this meeting. Roll call please. Certainly. Mrs. Assur here. Mrs. Austin here. Mrs. Burkowitz here. Mrs. Pinterelli here. Mr. Rosini I'm here. Okay. Is that it? Flag salute,
please. 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. Okay, we're here to do
our board retreat. So, let's get to it. All right. Good evening, everybody. Um, as our president just said, this is our board retreat where we want to talk to you about our board goals for next year. The curriculum and technology committee already kind of had a sneak peek at them
uh, a couple of months ago and so hopefully um, you will kind of see the the overall vision of what we're trying to do, where we've where we are now, and um, you know, how we want to kind of extend some of those goals. This is
another one of those times of year where Kim and I love to get together and work on this. Um, it's a time for me too. I meet with all of the departments and all of the administrators and we talk about what's going well. What do we think we
need to do more of? We look back at our current goals for this year and we also look back to the previous years and we kind of see do we need to build off of them? Do we need to completely change course? And it's a lot of really good rich dialogue that comes out of these
conversations. Um the other thing that I've been doing the last couple of years is I also meet with the entire child study team department and talk to them about how we can infuse some of their ideas and their goals with wellness with the guidance counselors and how that trickles down at the school level and
then ultimately getting to our students which is obviously our our overall goal for everything. So you'll see a little bit of that in here. Um, we're we kind of divide the goals up. So, Kim Dowling, our supervisor of curriculum instruction, is here. She's going to talk about really the heavy
instructional goals. I'll talk about our wellness goals. And then, uh, Kelly, of course, is going to talk about operations and technology. And I hope that you see that they all kind of fit together. Um, this current year we talked a lot about going
from working on single data to looking at multiple forms of data and synthesizing that information. Going from single practice of maybe an educator working looking at just their ideas or their students. And then this year we took a collaborative approach
and we expanded that to having more PLC's where teachers are discussing data across grade levels or maybe even vertical articulation where they're looking at how do they do from fourth to fifth or fifth to sixth etc. And so you'll see a little bit of that extension um in in the goals that we
talk about tonight. And then from these goals, just so you guys are aware, just to kind of recap, Kim has the real hard job, right, of um then taking those goals, at least the instructional goals, and coming up with a plan on how are we going to get them done, how are we going
to support teachers in accomplishing them, and then she works a lot with of course all of the teachers, the principles as well, and then our educational experts and how do we what does that look like in practice? So there's this is sort of the the first
step of it and it really becomes our roadmap for the year and then as the board knows I update you guys on how we're doing midy year and then um you know again at the end of the year. So at this point I'm going to turn it over to Kim and thank you Kim for being here
tonight and for working on these with me. Okay. Thank you Mrs. Signari. Okay so as Mrs. Signari said, "This presentation really highlights our strategic focus across four areas. Teaching and learning, health and wellness,
operations, and technology. I'm going to talk a little bit about the teaching and learning goals for next year, and they are built upon the goals that we had for 242 with a little bit of tweaks. Um, our go number one goal is around math and ELA
on cultivating an innovative and inclusive learning environment for all students for all students diverse needs. And number one here is we're going to continue to collaborate with teachers and have them analyze data across multiple sources. We've been spending a
lot of time analyzing data using linkit um with teachers. We've been using data, formative assessments, observation tools, and next year we're actually going to introduce Dibbles also up to our teachers in grades K through three. We're going to be using that as our
early literacy screener and using that data also to inform instructional decisions. We're going to be working with staff individually across grade levels, across um grade levels in individual schools and then across grade levels districtwide. and also a lot of
vertical articulation as Miss Signori was saying up. We're having first grade teachers meeting with kindergarten and second grade teachers and so on so they can see where the students were and where they need to go. We're also going to be progress monitoring more often um
than than now using different tools. So right now we progress monitor three times a year using Linkit. That is going to stay for grades 2 through eight. Um and our kindergarten or grades three through eight, I'm sorry. in our kindergarten, first second grade is going to be using Dibbles and second
grade will also be using linkit math in addition to using those math formative assessments, the end of chapter assessments, in addition to using EXL and coming up with a plan to take all of this data instead of being overwhelmed with it all. Looking at things
individually, let's look at one standard. Let's not get overwhelmed. Let's see which standard we need to focus on. Focus on that and move on. And we're going to be using all different data points to identify these standards. At the end of every year, we use NJSLA and link it. And that's our
starting point, but that's certainly not where we end. That's just where we begin the year. And then we use all these other data tools throughout the year to inform our instructional groupings. Additionally, our coaches or our ed consultants, Shelley Klein and
Meredith Alvo, will be back with us next year to help personalize our goals with our teachers. And this is going to be in a coaching model. So over the past two years, we have had a lot of consultant work inside for traditional professional development at our elementary level.
Whereas this year at the middle school, we started those coaching cycles and they worked out really well. Next year, we're going to be working on co c um coaching cycles with our elementary teachers in the areas of ELA and mathematics. In math, we will have a
little bit of traditional PD as well because it is we are going to be implementing new standards. So, we are going to be meeting at the end of the units to see what has worked and what we need to change and be reflective in that manner. But, we are going to have our consultants in our classrooms more next year, which I'm incredibly excited about
because that means I get to be in the classrooms more um than I was this year. We're also going to sustain um and enhance our DDI periods, our data driven instructional periods. We are going to be keeping them as is at the elementary level and at the middle school with a
focus on building our schedules with the hopes that we can have push-in supports at our elementary level with our replacement teachers or our interventionist teachers at least once a week for each content area which will help with the small groupings. It will
help with students who need individual help with being pulled out. Um, and then it'll also offer support not just for our students but also for our teachers. If you are in replacement for ELA, but you're in your home room classroom for um for DDI, you have a familiar face and
somebody who knows your strengths and areas of focus as well. I'm trying to change the slide with my microphone. That's not going to work. Okay. Our second goal for teaching and learning is adopting and integrating updating updated curriculum and
resources specifically in the areas of mathematics, word study, and science for next year. Those are the three content areas that we're focusing on. And number one is certainly on mathematics. So next year in September, we will be implementing our brand new math
curriculum in grades K through 8 to align with this uh the state's new standards. there. It wasn't a huge overhaul like it or a complete overhaul like it was with ELA, but the standards have changed um in in a few different grade levels more than others,
specifically with the breakup of data literacy and measurement. And that is one of the areas that we are going to be spending a lot of time next year on strengthening data literacy and on enhancing students abilities to interpret mathematical um terminology
and complex terminology in multi-step word problems. We chose those two areas based on data. Um we looked at our data from last year and the year before from NJSLA. We've looked at data on linkit um and had a lot of conversations with the staff and this year with students
actually. We um we talk to students about what has worked for them and what they need more of and we have come up with those two ideas that we think that we um can can do better on and that's what we're going to be focusing on on with our consultants for next year. We are also going to be adopting a
new word study program in grades three through five next year. Typically, we use megawwords and whly wise, but in being reflective and talking to the teachers and looking at our writing samples and our reading levels, we're not seeing the transfer that we hope to see. Um, especially in our students
reading and writing. So, we spent this year uh piloting in vocabulary in a couple of classrooms and looking at other ones just to ensure that this one was the right fit for Rivervale. And uh we are going to be using it for grades three through five. in vocabulary is going to be the
vocabulary approach. Um, and it's very conceptual visual learning uh to really help with retention. An HD word is going to be um integrated into grade three. And that's really for strengthening decoding and encoding and spelling. Um,
in in our third grade classrooms, we're noticing that since we have phonics first in K through two, our students in grade three really don't have a more a more explicit and structured approach to word study and they still need to kind of bridge that gap from two to three and
then three to four. So, we are going to be um using HD Word next year as well in grade three only and then we'll see how that goes if we need it in in grade four for the following year. And lastly, but certainly not least, our science. This year, we implemented year
one of our new spiraled science curriculum in grade six. It has gone over fantastic. The teachers have done a wonderful job. We've been meeting regionally with the sixth grade science teachers in Hillsdale, Woodcliffe Lake, and Montville. Um, you know, to reflect
on these units as well and build grade seven. And next year we will be implementing the spiraled curriculum in grade seven and writing for grade 8. And those are our really our three big areas for student learning standards
and success for next year. And now I'm going to pass it over to Mrs. Signure to talk about health and wellness. All right. Thank you very much, Mrs. Ding. Um, you know, I just wanted to to highlight too, first of all, thank you. But um one of the areas I think that Kim
has done a really nice job on especially focusing on this year if you think back to the October presentation which is the district assessment report. One of the things that was added into that report was student voice. Um and we talked a lot about that and that's something that
you know Kim's been working on that we have another whole group of stakeholders and um we need to ask them what's working for them you know even even at the young elementary age and um they might articulate it different. We have to explain it to them differently. But you know, we can sit there and we can
think best practices and we can do all the research we want, but we need to listen to what the kids are, what's working for them. And it might be three different things that are working for them. And that's the whole point of why we have DDI. And that is what we've been really focusing on for four years now is
really authentic differentiation. And that's how you do it. You don't just do it by handing out a worksheet. That's a high, medium, and low group. You need their voice in it, too. So, I just wanted to highlight that for you guys. I know Kim mentioned it quickly, but um sometimes we've mentioned things quickly because we live it every day and I just
wanted to bring it to your guys' attention that that's a a big push that Kim has been working on with our whole team. So, thank you. Um okay, so health and wellness, mine is a lot shorter, I think, than Kim's, but certainly not um less important. So, I was mentioning to you in the beginning of the presentation
that one of the things I've done over the last couple years is really partnered up with the entire CST team. not just the director. Um because when those when they work together at the school level, especially with our guidance counselors, we're helping
to intervene before hopefully it becomes um a CST referral. And so we have seen more and more students um not just in Rivervale but in general struggle with mental health and even other things like
organizational skills, things like that. Um, and there's all sorts of reasons why that that people are predicting. And so my goal is then how do we help address that? And so one of the things that the CST department started to do was a uh
called unstuck and on on target which is kind of helps with like executive functioning skills. And we noticed that it was working really well in this CST world. And so last year they brought that into the school level and started
to roll it out for some gened kids who would benefit from that as well. And then that really started to take off. So we wanted to expand that goal and really have the CST department pair up with the guidance department so that the guidance counselors at each school can kind of
run with that and make some bigger groups and work more with our gened population. And um we found that that's something that's important for all kids. And so that's going to be a big area of ours next year. Um especially at the elementary level before they get up to middle school, that fourth and fifth
grade group, especially when they get to middle school and then they have the transition of all these different teachers and all different homework assignments and how do you keep all of that organized. Um the other thing we want to do specifically at the middle school is we started to implement um vision boards at the middle school. And
again, this started off in the CST world where they were working with some students to help set goals and some of them are instructional goals, some of them are also social emotional goals that they have for themselves. And then they um set these goals and these vision boards and then they meet with the CST
team as the year goes on. And that has been working so well that we had some GenEd kids find out about it and sort of come to us and say that they wanted to be part of this. And so we started to do a little bit of that and then it really took off. So we're going to refine though the approach uh a little bit
different for next year and have a more structured approach where they're going to meet in the beginning of the year and kind of set their intentions, work towards their goals and then kind of be paired up with a a teacher or a CST member um almost as like a mentor and
and helping them kind of get through some of their big goals that they have for the year. And then of course we're we're always enhancing our supports. You guys all know we've been doing ruler for many years and we felt we need something to kind of enhance it. So the guidance
department uh actually put a grant in from our RVF and they are going to be bringing in some other resources that will support that program and maybe freshen it up a little bit. Um so that's something that we're looking forward to and seeing how that goes for this year
coming up. And uh we're constantly working with Westber in mental health. I have to say it's a really great resource. We're really fortunate that we're a district that has that. Um and we're always actually uh our clinical therapist who is with us full-time
through Westber and Mental Health. I meet with him as well. So when we're setting goals for social emotional learning, he's he's got a a voice at the table because he's the one working with some of our most um I don't want to you know some of our population. that's our the trickiest and
and who really needs the most support. So, it's really important to get his voice and see what he's hearing so that when we set these goals, it's it's going to reach everyone, not not just kids who are quote unquote classified, but kids that are gened that also need this work. Um, so that's our health and wellness,
and then I will um pass it over to Kelly who will talk about operations and technology. Miss Dalling, will you be able to turn that for me when it get there? Thank you. I can just stay here. Okay.
So, thank you. And operations. Um, as you're all aware, we are winding down our referendum construction project. This building will be done this summer and Hauldrum's main
entrance will be done this summer and then we will be done. So that's a big goal. As also a reminder the administrators, that's really the principles. There's four members in that
union. Their contract is expiring at the end of 2006. So negotiations will begin in 2006 after the new year. Obviously we want to continue to maintain a safe and healthy
environment. And my favorite is providing a budget to you, a draft budget right after the new year. That's your happy new year and your holiday gift from me to you. So in a few months we'll be starting the
budget process. We do kick that off in October. And then again we continue to always investigate sharing services with other districts. We work very well with the township of Rivervale and we also
have a shared um maintenance agreement and we buy gas through the old Topan burrow. So, we're always looking for ways to save money and this was put on the back burner in terms of we're the
finance and the HR software system is running on two different platforms right now. We have not fully converted over. We've had to deal with some other issues. So, we'll we'll get back to that and then we'll we'll have everybody on the same platform and and
trained. And that's what we have for operations. And now moving right into technology. Um, once again with the refresh of the onetoone initiative, the technology department
will be deploying two grade levels of new student devices. Grade six and grades two will receive new devices for the start of the year. That is onboarding, labeling, and preparing 250
new devices. along with all the technology needs that are going to be in this building. Um they're going to adopt a new website and messaging platform that enhances communication, district branding, and strengthens the connection
between the schools, students, and families. So right now the website, if you've been on is a little outdated. So that was one of the initiatives that Miss Senori had had and as part of
communications and this is going to tackle all of that. It's also going to help reduce some of the administrative workload by centralizing communication efforts. So that that's another heavy lift for the summer.
The larger project is upgrading existing virtual server infrastructure to the latest hardware and software. This was done about seven or eight years ago and we have virtual servers in our district. So this is its time. It's at the end of
its useful life and if that's not working then the entire district is down. So that's a again another major lift. And then continuing to improve um district security and cyber security practices. As we all know, you can't
turn on any type of device without seeing something about cyber challenges. So increasing the use of the 2FA and the MFA across all systems. We have it in a couple, but I know that we're working on
getting it on all continuing cyber training and um improving data backups and continuing to add security cameras as needed. Does anybody have any questions on either?
Is there going to be an app made for the district? There is an app that is part of this and we are exploring it and hope to have that. That's that's one of our goals. Oh yeah. That's okay. Yes. That's all
right. Anyone else? What does it mean when you say enhance performance of all virtual? Could you use your What does it mean to enhance performance of all virtual servers? What do you have to do exactly to get new contracts? There's there's
there's new hardware that's involved and there's also new software that involves contracts with outside vendors and all sorts of things or we're just buying stuff. Um we've been engaged with um a third party provider to help
that's in that ex area of expertise to help Mr. Oggera get everything where it needs to be. So that is a major major initiative for him this summer. Okay. Anyone
else? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Kelly, and and also uh Kim for your work on this as well. Appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I app So, are we going to roll straight into a
board meeting? I get I get that. But, and you've given notice that we're going to go from 5:30 straight with our board meeting. Okay. Um, so the retreat is over. Old business, anybody? New business. Okay,
we'll adjourn. Motion to adjourn the board retreat at approximately Let's see. Is there a motion? Patrice, I'll make a motion. I'll second. Okay, Jamie second. Um, so uh May 27th board
retreat is adjourned at approximately uh 6 PM. Anybody against? No. Okay. Okay. All right. We'll take a five minute break.