Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools. I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see
students that are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities of a very, very effective education. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's
multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind.
What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something
in them. Good evening, Rockaway Township. I'd like to call this meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. May I please have an attendance roll call? Yes. Mrs. Anderson here. Mrs. Kir Laroo. Miss Mcgiri
here. Mrs. Mzik here. Miss Richardson here. Miss Tor here. Dr. Thomasi, we have a quorum. Thank you. All documentation and materials considered by the board of education as part of this agenda are available for
public review and comment. Members of the public are invited to come to the board of education building off Green Pond Road during the regular business hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday if they wish to inspect any of the reference items. May I please have a motion to wave the pledge until
open session? So moved. Seconded. Thank you. Show of hands. Resolve that in accordance with the open public meetings act, the Rockaway Township Board of Education will meet in close session to discuss matters involving personnel, litigation,
acquisition of real property, security, negotiations, receipt of governmental funds. The content of said discussions will be disclosed to the public at such time and extent as is required by law. May I please have a motion to go into closed session? So moved.
Seconded. Thank you. Show of hands, please. We are now entering at 602. My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools.
I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by. And I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun. And to me, those are two very important qualities
of a very, very effective education. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be.
Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind. What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors
in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights,
our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically working handin-hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District and will graduate from Copeland before they go on
to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders, into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school
with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to
see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah, I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we
support each other. Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that
permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in
making it a better place. I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are
thankful for all the support we have from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and
teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and
that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each
other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level
on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any
good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, that the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not
only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't
like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other.
One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over
time, I've seen him pick that head up, and that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them, and they want to come. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of
lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard, like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Our goal here is that every child is as
comfortable in class as they are at home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an
incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on SEAL over the last several years. I am the steam teacher at Copeland
Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want
them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave
her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. So my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah.
I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher.
My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day.
My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it
awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite
thing. What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. My name is Quink. I'm in the fifth grade. Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the
teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and
then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good
teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and
I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other
that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that
subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no
matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into this school. One word to describe this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. [Music]
This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and
soul is for students, and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done
something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do.
So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with
the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the
day. Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birwood, you honestly never want to leave Birwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy.
We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving
community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day and I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've been here 7 years and I will drive that hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are
incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are family and once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world.
It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to. And teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no
walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It
builds like this, you know, camaraderie amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that
for the kids. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no
matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into this school. One word to describe this school is probably heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect, and trust.
I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional
dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's because of me. The people I work with makes me come
back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. [Music] Every student who goes through Rockaway
Township School District and will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. I am the steam teacher at Copeland
Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want
them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was
especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my 7th grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like
reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics and I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra
help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. We are making sure kids are prepared for
the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our
concerts which are very well attended. Vander Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the
opportunity to mold the next generation. The thing that makes Copeland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. [Music]
Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the
teachers. And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're
really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL.
Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then
she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. What makes DBL unique is that everyone
is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And
for every student, that's different. There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here um we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and the and the community that we foster
here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to be part of that. Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me, teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. After teaching for 25 years, I can't
pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable
that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along
and, you know, we support each other. What really resonates with me about the school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to
persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have
a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative selft talking saying that they can't do this. And so basically throughout the whole year we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it.
And that's what I teach all of my students. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got
me into chapter books and Juni B. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. We identify the interests of students.
You know what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment moving them forward from one learning experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one
another is contagious. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in
the morning his head would be down on that desk. I'm trying to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for
them and they want to come. [Music] Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put
the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended and back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved school community both academically working handinhand with our teachers,
but also I think for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be involved in as many things as I can. My children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools. And I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children. Anytime we can bring togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out,
it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really increase the success of our community. So we always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I
think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in a classroom that's smaller where you get to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger
classroom you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to become successful not just academically but also social emotionally. My name is Queen K. I'm in the fifth grade. Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the
teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. All my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. Because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. like we read a book and
then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. I've always wanted to be a teacher. I think the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is because I think I had really
good elementary school teachers. Rockway I thought was really interesting because I feel like it is a small close-knit community, but I also felt like there's a lot of different opportunities in Rockway. I like how there was five different elementary schools, but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with
the Stony Brook mentality. The Stony Brook mentality is something where we all feel and have the same idea of supporting students. the kids understand that everyone makes a mistake. Everyone has a bad day. And I think that it gives the opportunity for kids to grow and not feel like penalized. I love that we have
a great principal. I love the teachers and the morale. As soon as I started coming up here, since I am from South Jersey, I felt welcomed and included right away. My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools.
I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities
of a very very effective education. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be.
Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind. What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors
in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights,
our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically, working hand in hand with our teachers, but also, I think, for extracurricular as well. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District and will graduate from Copeland before they go on
to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders, into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school
with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to
see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other.
Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I
have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place.
I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have
from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and
teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and
that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each
other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level
on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any
good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home. And I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their
time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative
self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories
is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up
and that's why I do what I do to have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do
things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at
home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional
maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on SEAL over the last several years. I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the
growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel
comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave
her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. So my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah.
I think what awesome is about being in Birwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher.
My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day.
My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVO is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it
awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite
thing. What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. My name is Quinker and I'm in the fifth grade. Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is
all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and
then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good
teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and
I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other
that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that
subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you
come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust.
[Music] This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love
what they do. Their heart, passion, and soul is for students and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And
they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They're amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I
do what I do. So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you
go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do
puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birwood, you honestly
never want to leave Birwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. Birwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year.
There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day and I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've been here 7 years and I will drive that
hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are family and once a bulldog, always a
bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to. And teaching at Dwire is special because we
don't have walls. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. I like to tell people that when you're
here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, camaraderie amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern,
he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is
my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect, and trust. I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social and emotional learning is very
important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job
is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's because of me. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working
teachers in the world. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models
and citizens in our community. I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their
ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. When I came
into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and
cared for was my 7th grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And
I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day.
We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We
connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended. Vanda Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to
work every day excited. I get the opportunity to mold the next generation. The thing that makes Copeland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in
making it a better place. [Music] Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind by being kind to a friend, helping them
out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers. And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to
trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind.
My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it
awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my
favorite thing. What makes DBO unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to
have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different. There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here um we have built a family. And I think that says
something about the building and the and and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to be part of that. Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've
been here for 11 years as the principal. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the
classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part
of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. really resonates with me about the school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The
students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative selft talking saying that they can't do this. And so basically throughout the whole year we worked on just changing
that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do
and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books and Juni B. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every
day I'm like happy at school. We identify the interests of students. You know what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment moving them forward from one learning experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these
children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular
student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I'm trying to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come
in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come. [Music] Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you
know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended back to school nights, our events, and we have very involved school
community both academically working handinhand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be involved in as many things as I can. My children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools. And I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children. Anytime we can
bring togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out, it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really increase the success of our community. So we always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about
how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in a classroom that's smaller
where you get to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger classroom you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to become successful not just academically but also social emotionally. My name is Queen K. I'm in the fifth grade. Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second
grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. All my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community.
Because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun.
I've always wanted to be a teacher. I think the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is because I think I had really good elementary school teachers. Rockway I thought was really interesting because I feel like it is a small close-knit community, but I also felt like there's a lot of different opportunities in
Rockway. I like how there was five different elementary schools, but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Stony Brook mentality. The Stony Brook mentality is something where we all feel and have the same idea of supporting students. the kids understand that everyone makes a mistake. Everyone
has a bad day. And I think that it gives the opportunity for kids to grow and not feel like penalized. I love that we have a great principal. I love the teachers and the morale. As soon as I started coming up here, since I am from South Jersey, I felt welcomed and included right away.
My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools. I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six
different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities of a very very effective education. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's
multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind.
What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might
not have seen before. Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our
students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically, working hand in hand with our teachers, but also, I think, for extracurricular
as well. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District and will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders, into being positive
role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. What keeps
me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah, I I think for me it's just
being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one
another is contagious. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people.
It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I
do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world.
It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our
emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family.
We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single
student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love.
After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at
home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh.
One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm
really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried
to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education, and over time, I've seen him pick that head up, and that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in, and their school's a happy place for them, and they want to come.
So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard, like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder
task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be
as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on
SEAL over the last several years. I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their
ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I
had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it
and that is why I do what I do every day. So my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. I think what awesome is about being in Birwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they
have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun
stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVO is awesome because
all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math
because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite thing. What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. My name is Quink and I'm in the fifth
grade. Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and
everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but
it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got
me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where
everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA
teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is
my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. [Music] This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving,
they are caring. The energy here is just great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and soul is for students, and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or
even if they don't want to get out of the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel.
I love the kids here. They're amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork
that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just
doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. If you've never taught at another school
and you come to Birwood, you honestly never want to leave Birwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. Birwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere.
Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day and I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've
been here 7 years and I will drive that hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are
family and once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to. And
teaching at Dwire is special because we don't have walls. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you
come through our doors. I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, camaraderie amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here. We call
ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends
here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you
into the school. One word to describe this school is probably heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect, and trust. I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think
social and emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every
single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's because of me. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that
permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. [Music] Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to
instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is
teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and
love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other
that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more
fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she
finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive
boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended. Vanda Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. I try to get everybody involved so that
they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the opportunity to mold the next generation. The thing that makes Copa Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the
students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. [Music] Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we
can focus on particularly on being kind by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers. And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the
things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good
kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. Yeah. My name's Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the
teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math
because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. What makes DBO unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other.
If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different. There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success.
I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here um we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to be part of that. Being outside in the morning at bus duty
and having kids coming up and just happy to see me, teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any
good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class, not not only enjoy their
time in class, but also take risks. So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. What really resonates with me about the
school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before.
It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative selft talking saying that they can't do
this. And so basically throughout the whole year we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students. My favorite teachers are probably all of
my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and
I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. We identify the interests of students. You know, what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment, moving them forward from one learning
experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good
friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've
seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come. [Music] Stony Brook is an amazing place. It
really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is
incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended back to school nights, our events, and we have very involved school community both academically working handinhand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be involved in as many things as I can. My
children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools. And I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children. Anytime we can bring togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out, it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really
increase the success of our community. So we always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the
face of a harder task then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in a classroom that's smaller where you get to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger classroom you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to become successful not just
academically but also social emotionally. My name is Queen K. I'm in the fifth grade. Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. All my friends
that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. Because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the
teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. I've always wanted to be a teacher. I think the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is because I think I had really good elementary school teachers. Rockway I thought was really interesting because I feel like it is a small close-knit
community, but I also felt like there's a lot of different opportunities in Rockway. I like how there was five different elementary schools, but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Stony Brook mentality. The Stony Brook mentality is something where we all feel and have the same idea of
supporting students. the kids understand that everyone makes a mistake. Everyone has a bad day. And I think that it gives the opportunity for kids to grow and not feel like penalized. I love that we have a great principal. I love the teachers and the morale. As soon as I started coming up here, since I am from South Jersey, I felt welcomed and included
right away. My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools. I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and
talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities of a very, very effective education. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come
back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we
can focus on particularly on being kind. What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to
persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put
the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically, working hand in hand with our teachers,
but also, I think, for extracurricular as well. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District and will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop
into future leaders, into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when
you come through our doors. What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal.
So yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one
another is contagious. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people.
It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I
do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world.
It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our
emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family.
We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single
student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love.
After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at
home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh.
One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm
really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried
to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up, and that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them, and they want to come.
So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard, like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder
task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be
as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on
SEAL over the last several years. I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their
ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I
had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it
and that is why I do what I do every day. So my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. I think what awesome is about being in Birwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they
have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun
stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVO is awesome because
all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math
because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite thing. What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. My name is Quinker and I'm in the fifth
grade. Hi, my name's Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and
everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but
it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got
me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where
everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA
teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is
my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart. honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just
great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and soul is for students and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of
the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They're amazing.
They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork
that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just
doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. If you've never taught at another school
and you come to Birwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come
back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day. And I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've been here
7 years. and I will drive that hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are family and
once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and
teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you
come through our doors. I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, commodery amongst not only the students, but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a
Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my
favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to
discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough
day and then they feel better and it's because of me. The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world.
Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community.
I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas.
I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where
everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and
cared for was my 7th grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And
I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day.
We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We
connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended. Vanda Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to
work every day excited. I get the opportunity to mold the next generation. The thing that makes Copeland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in
making it a better place. [Music] Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind by being kind to a friend, helping them
out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers. And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to
trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind.
My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. I like the teachers here. They make it
awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my
favorite thing. What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to
have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different. There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's really the staff here. Um, we have built a family. And I think that says
something about the building and the and and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to be part of that. Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've
been here for 11 years as the principal. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the
classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part
of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and, you know, we support each other. What really resonates with me about the school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. And we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The
students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing
that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do
and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every
day I'm like happy at school. We identify the interests of students. You know, what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment, moving them forward from one learning experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these
children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular
student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I trying to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do
what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them, and they want to come. [Music] Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, you
know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. Back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved
school community both academically working handin-hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be involved in as many things as I can. My children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools and I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children. Anytime we can bring
togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out, it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really increase the success of our community. So we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do
things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in a classroom that's smaller where you get
to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger classroom you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to become successful not just academically but also social emotionally. My name is Queen. I'm in the fifth grade. Hi, my name's Arya. I am in second grade.
What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. All my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. Because of my friends, the teachers, and
the principal. Good evening, Rackway Township. Sorry for the delay. We are reconvening public session at 7:46 p.m. A motion for Oh, can I have a motion to conclude
close session? So moved. Second. Thank you. Close session ends at 7:46 p.m. Can I have a show of hands for that? Thank you. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was passed to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to
attend the meeting of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the Rockaway Township Board of Education has caused notice of the date, time, and place of said meetings to be published in the daily record, the Star
Ledger, and be posted in all schools in the district in the m municipal building of the township and the township library. Does any board member wish to object to the conduct of this meeting for the purpose as stated in the public notice? Seeing none,
bless you. We're gonna like to um stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. 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. During the course of the board meeting, the Rockaway Township Board of Education offers members of the public an opportunity to address issues regarding the operations of the Rockaway Township public schools. The board reminds those
individuals who take this opportunity to identify themselves by name and address and to limit their comments to items listed on the agenda and/or items directly related to the operations of the school district. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be
responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be court c courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the
board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public
should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in the comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. May I please have a motion to open for first public comment? So move second.
Show of hands, please. Thank you. Is there anyone in the public who would like to address the board? Please just state your name and address. Good evening. My name is Gracie Palamino in Mount Pleasant A Rockway Township.
I'm here to speak tonight about improving the HIV process which is on our agenda. I'm not here to talk about any individual child, but about the policy issues that affect all students and families. Right now, many parents do
not receive timely documented notice of HIV outcomes. Without that, they can't prepare for hearing or ensure their child's rights are protected. The law says parents should get written notices within five school days after the board
is informed and that a hearing if requested should be within 10 days. If the board resolves a matter before that process runs, it's not just a technical glitch. It eliminates the hearing strike entirely. I access board to commit to
sending notice by certified and electronic mail on the same day so delivery delays do not erase parental rights require anti-bullying specialists identifications on all reports with a signature and date so there's a clear
chain of custody publicly post the district's hearing timeline policies so families know their rights. These are simple steps. They prevent disputes, build trust, and protect the districts from avoidable legal challenges. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Good evening. My name is Christopher Rosa, lifelong resident here of Rockaway Township. How's everybody doing tonight? Good. Could you just please state your address?
Oh, my address is uh 142 Mount Pleasant Avenue. Thank you. All right. So, uh let's see what I got here. All right. So, yeah, continuing on the same agenda for item improving the HIV process. Um really what I want to
focus on is the same thing, the students with IEPs or 504 plans. Policy 5512 says the anti-bullying bill of rights does not reduce the students rights under special education
laws. But in practice that means nothing unless the case manager or child study team is actually included in the investigation process. When that does not happen, the board may
be voting without the critical input that explains a student's disability and supports needed. That's unfair to the student and risky for the district. I ask this board
please to require document CST or case manager participation in every HIPP investigation for qualified um classified students, qualified students. Add a verification checklist so the board sees proof of that participation
before voting and ensure all board members receive identical materials as parents. So hearings are based on the same records for both sides. And these steps are if these steps are taken, you protect your
students, you protect your district, and build a fair and more transparent progress for everyone. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address the board?
May I have a motion to close public comment? So move. Seconded. Show of hands, please. Thank you. We're going to move to communications. There are two items listed. Are these
the only two items? Yes. There are no additional communications. Thank you. May I please have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Seconded. Thank you. Can I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Anderson, I have to abstain
from the minutes from July 16th and yes to July 30th. Okay. So noted. Mrs. Kira Laroo. Yes. For July 16th, abstain from July 30th. Noted. Yes. Miss McGee. Yes. Mrs. Mezik.
Yes. Miss Richardson. Yes. Miss Tor. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you for the superintendence report. Dr. Corbett. Thank you, Miss Anderson. As the summer of 2025 comes to an end, a
few dates to keep in mind. Our administrative retreat is the week of August 18th. Actually, actually, it'll be on August 18th, 19th. We're gonna have Wednesday off. I mean, I'll be at work, but we won't have the retreat. 21st, 22nd. New teacher orientation is
August 25th and 26th. Am I getting some feedback? Our convocation is scheduled for August 27th and 28th. We begin at 8:30 a.m. Board members are welcome to attend the beginning of the day. and welcome our
new teachers as they return. And of course, the first day of school, which we're all looking forward to, is September 2nd. Our faculty and students have worked hard to ensure a smooth transition for incoming middle school students. In addition to the multiple events held
last spring, this summer, we continue the tradition of pizza and books and bagels and locks. I love those pictures, by the way. Turn around. Look at those. Well, the one on the left with the with the they're so into their books, they forgot about the pizza. But anyway, the one on the right is very nice, too.
Bagels and locks. Uh the for the the former was held at Copen on July 22nd, yesterday morning and early this afternoon. Our new sixth grade students met for bagels and locks at the middle school. The feedback from the attendees was all very, very positive.
On Tuesday, July 23rd, from 9:30 to 10:30, New Jersey natural gas, the local police and fire departments along with district administration conducted a natural gas safety drill at Dwire. The purpose of this drill is to improve response protocols
in the event of a natural gas leak. Teaching and learning are second only to the safety in the list of district priorities. Just as we continually re-evaluate our emergency preparedness, we must also regularly assess our
instructional practices, identify areas that need improvement, and offer support. With this in mind, since June, I've been meeting with the executive team to develop a plan to ensure our instructional practices are are focused on student learning. These meetings
resulted in a plan to monitor, modify, and improve districtwide instructional practices, which I would like to review with you briefly. If you click on that link, and there are actually there are three
sections to this. The first section consists of scheduled meetings with all our novice teachers to discuss instructional practices and review. And those are the dates, those are the topics. Uh the unit refers to Wong's the first day of schools and those are the
presenters listed there. So we have a variety of presenters. They'll be talking on a consistent regular basis with our novice teachers. I happen to like Harry Wong and uh I used it used to use it years ago. It's in the fifth edition now, but it's kind of a classic and um I I like it. I'm familiar with
it, so I I'm biased towards it. I wanted to provide it to our new teachers. And every new teacher, by the way, got for Christmas or Hanukkah got a brand new copy of Harry Wong. And I signed it myself. Number two, um
I'll be meeting with principles to discuss building practices. And that's our meeting. That's the month. We usually meet the first Friday. It could be the second Friday depending on the conflict, but those are the themes that we'll be discussing with the principles. And there's a lot Right. A lot of things to go over. And third,
and this is this is a kind of I'm looking forward to this because it forces me like I like to be in the buildings anyway, but this forces me not only just to be in the buildings and not just to walk by classrooms and to wave and step in once in a while. This forces
me to get into the classroom and to observe deeply about what's going on. So, I intend to observe one or two novice teachers weekly. The observations will be conducted randomly and unannounced. And I'm confident that these efforts will support and enhance instructional practices. So now the
walkthrough is going to probably be revised because the walkth through hyperlink. If you look at that, do you want to put that a hyperlink? That's my guide. Uh that is that a hyperlink? Yes, it is. Good. But I want to re I want to um change that up a little bit because I want it to reflect the I Ready practices
that we're expecting to see in the classroom. And that doesn't I used that a couple years ago. It's a little Oh, it says I ready there because I used I ready years ago, too. So, it does have some ready stuff there, but we're going to revise. I'm going to have Erin put eyes on it and and Alonso, too, to be sure that it's uh updated as needed. And
that's what I'm going to use. If you go back a um Kim is working on a specific schedule for these uh these observations. Now, they're not formal observations, so they will not be part
of the the teachers um like u observations, but it will still allow me to see what's happening in the classroom. And obviously, if I see something I'm concerned about, uh I'll touch base with the principal and let the principal handle it or Alonso. But
I'm sure most of the time I'm going to see some very good things happening in the classroom. And on that note, I look forward to affirming the teacher and encouraging the teacher to continue doing great work. So that's that's hopefully what's going to happen. I'm sure it is. So, that's um that's going
to be fun. That's going to be exciting. I'm going to enjoy it. I'm sure the teachers are going to enjoy it, too. No doubt about it. Okay, let's move on to uh QAC. So, we received our QAC scores. You can hit that. A fine. That chart is exactly what's in the
letter. Here's the official letter for QAC scores. Where's the official letter for QAC scores? There it is. Okay. So, there there are QAC We did very well. There's five DPRs and uh fiscal management, governance,
operations, personnel, all over 90%. Uh the snafu was instruction and programming. All right, a couple things. Um Alonso is going to talk in a minute about instruction and programming and what's um what happened there or what
what the context is. But first of all, let me say that I want to give a lot of credit to the administrative team that is 100% dedicated, highly professional. Our scores instruction program obviously did not meet our expectation and it does
not reflect in my opinion the progress and improvements made to our curriculum and instructional practices over the uh the past two years and therefore Alonso is going to go deeper into that. But Alonso when you come up I also want to explain this. You come up now if you like.
um these other areas now is going to go right to I think he has a link right to the DPRs and the actual scores. So for example, if somebody wanted to know why governance received only a 95% and not
uh 100%. The document Alonso was going to click on I think you would have those exact scores as columns, right? Um I can pull that up. It wasn't in the original. It wasn't in the original. Okay. In any case, we can pull it up. When you see that documents, you will be
able to look at everything that was evaluated and know exactly why we lost five points, where we lost those five points. Okay? In every area. It's very, very clear, very, very specific. All right? And that's a public document also. So, um, without further ado, I'm
going to ask Alonso if you might say a few words to us about programming the context there. All right. Thank you. Thank you everyone to all those at home. So we're going to break this into into three parts. Going to give you a quick
sorry going to give you a quick narrative of um the QAC instructional practice practice scores. Then we'll move into a presentation and then we can actually go into the Google sheet.
Okay, I would like to take a few minutes to address the NJSLA performance scores that were recently reflected in our QAC review. First, I want to be very clear. We recognize the scores did not meet our expectations. But it's important to understand why that happened and more
importantly how the district is moving forward. These scores are a reflection of the state of the curriculum department as a work in progress. We have adopted the motto crawl, walk, run. At the time these assessments were taken, our schools were still operating
under systems that did not have the curricular and instructional coherence that we do now. For example, the curriculum in most subject areas was outdated and in some cases had not been updated in many years.
Many of those documents were not aligned with the New Jersey state learning standards which are the foundation of what is assessed on NJSLA. On top of that, there was no real alignment across the grade levels or programs. Teachers were doing their absolute best, but without consistent
materials or a clear road map, students and teachers weren't getting what they needed to succeed. When there's a lack of structure, no updated curriculum, and a lack of inignment, students are at a disadvantage. And believe that showed in
the results. The good news is our teachers, our administrators, our board of education, oh, I'm not on that presentation yet. I'm sorry. And our ed committee have been working diligently to update all district
curriculum. So for the first time this school year, every curriculum document is up todate. Our resources are consistent across every building. So to to bring you back to when these scores um came out, if you
recall, the super kids science of reading program um existed in one building only. The other four elementary schools were working with a homegrown uh curriculum. So, you know, to say that those schools and those students were at a disadvantage really is is an
understatement. Um, so what you're going to see in the presentation is we're going to go over some of the key highlights from this year's data and I will also present on that data, the currentite data in the October meeting.
We will then look at um the QAC spreadsheet that actually gives us a score in each department. So, Mr. Elder, if you wouldn't mind pulling up the um the presentation. All right. So, our QAC district improvement plan. Oh, so QAC, the
quality single accountability continuum. This is New Jersey's system for evaluating public school districts. As Dr. Corbett mentioned it focuses on five key areas. Instruction and program, physical management, governance, operations, and personnel. Um, our
district's improvement plan addresses the areas identified for growth. Next slide, please. Okay. The district received a score of 76 in instruction and programming. The scores are largely influenced by standardized test results. So, we don't
input those scores. the state gives them to us. Um, and it reflects past conditions, not current improvements. So, you know, can reference my com uh my comments from earlier. You know, I do want to
highlight that we did receive a 40 out of 40 um on the curriculum component, meaning there was no recommendations or feedback on curriculum. It was in the eyes of the state flawless. So, past challenges, as we mentioned,
outdated curriculum, some not revisited for years. For example, the MLL curriculum was about 15 years out of date. Um, misalignment with the New Jersey student learning standards, lack of program and grade level alignment,
and inconsistent instruction across the district. Teachers did their best with the limited tools, but the lack of structure put us at a disadvantage. Next slide, please. current progress uh and do in large part I mean we had to turn
people away to write curriculum and uh Miss Anderson is here as a member of of the ED committee and Miss Smith played a key part in really providing feedback and getting all 166 documents approved.
So I mean to say that that was a labor of love on the part of the teachers um and the part of our board of ed committee uh is an understatement. So this school year 2425 was the first time in recent memory and I've been here about 11 years that the
district operated with updated standards aligned curricula across all grades and content areas. Um and we streamline streamlined and standardized all of our instructional materials. So what we saw
less of is teachers having to go out and spend their own money um on resources in the classroom. Uh you saw less of teacher pay teacher materials. You saw less of hybrid programming uh such as
you know like I said super kids happening in one school while not happening in the other four. And the key thing that we made a commitment to was ongoing job embedded professional development for all of our staff. So
what does that mean? If you recall um some of our previous conversations, we have made a commitment to train our teachers on programs the year prior to those programs being implemented. So the convocation schedule used to be filled
with trainings that teachers would have to implement two days later. So we have eliminated that practice. So for instance, we're moving to uh linkit intervention manager for RTI which is going to allow us to streamline the RTI
process and ensure that there are documented tier one interventions for students who are in tier one. ensuring that the frequency of interventions in tier 2 and tier three are actually happening and that there is a running
record of those interventions which then allows the teachers, the RTI teams, the principles and administration to really track student progress. And if a referral has to go um to the child study team and the initial planning team, that
data is there, it's streamlined, it's coherent, and there's really no miscommunication. So that is going to launch this school year, but teachers were trained the year prior. Um, next slide. Next slide, please.
Oh, I'm sorry about you beat me there. My apologies. Um as I mentioned going into three year uh year three our motto has been crawl walk run. So we are on the run phase. We have our playbook. We
have our resources. We have our materials. We have um the teachers and the staff members whether it be counselors, child study team, elementary or middle school. We have our playbook and we're implementing our playbook. So
now we're running um and as I mentioned the early indication uh from this year's scores is we're seeing meaningful growth. So our goal is we're committed to staying the course but as Dr. Corbett mentioned in um in his presentation
we're also upping the stakes. You know we are going to not just rest on that we have the resources. we are going to be more visible, more supportive, more open to feedback. And and I want to reiterate,
the way we approach things is not a compliance-based model where, you know, Dr. Corbett or uh myself or Miss West are going to walk into classrooms and say, "You're not doing this." This is a growth model. And by growth means we
want teachers to make mistakes. We want students to make mistakes. We want them to take those educational risks in the classroom, take the curriculum and take those risks within the program. Um, so we're really excited uh about that and
and I do want to highlight kind of how the system works. We have a group of obviously administrators, the central office team, the principles. Uh we have a group of lead teachers. So we have a lead teacher for each grade level. In
the middle school, it's by content area. This year, we have added RTI lead position. So, we have a math lead uh teacher and we have an ELA lead teacher. And those groups are the conduit for
which the teachers communicate any concerns, any ideas they may have, and they're really the planning group where a lot of this stuff happens. So, I would like to throw a kudos to them as well. Next slide, please. So if you look at this year's
preliminary data, we were asking, you know, as a goal for a 5% increase in each grade level. So this will be presented in a much deeper dive in the October meeting once the full scores and the state averages are released. But if
you take a look across the board in the yellow, those are areas that we saw significant increase. Um, and I'm going to highlight some of those key areas in in the upcoming slides. But if you were to look
at it overall, um, in math, we saw 11 an 11% increase and in ELA, we saw roughly an 8% increase in our scores. Next slide. Uh, Mr. elder.
Okay, so our mathematics growth overview, we exceeded our 5% growth target and some notable improvements. Grade 8 saw a 56% increase. Grade six a 20% increase. Grade four a
5.2 increase. Next slide please. English language arts. Now, keep in mind this is our first year with science of reading in K3 across all schools. Um, we
exceeded the 5% growth target. Some significant gains again, grade 8 a 28.3% increase, grade six a 15.2 and grade four an 8.6. Next slide please.
Now, some strategic drivers that brought us to this point. Uh if you recall from earlier meetings, we rebooted our I Ready professional development. We retrained all of our teachers, all of our principles. Um the original training
was done virtually and it was done during the COVID pandemic. So we rebooted the entire PD and we added I ready instructional rounds. So we chose champion teachers that would teach lessons and those grade level teachers
would come in and observe those teachers and look for ideas and areas of growth from their own um colleagues. Uh we continue to focus on the CPA method from conquer math concrete pictorial and abstract. Um we have uh datadriven
interventions which are now tracked in linkit and um common assessments were rebooted um across math and ELA on a trial basis and full implementation this year which I'll talk about momentarily.
Abe next one as I mentioned before a new coherent K3 curriculum launched super kids and magnetic reading. So super kids is a science of reading program in grades K2. Magnetic reading is in grade three and
those focus on text complexity, writing with evidence and structured reading routines. Um and we continue obviously professional learning support and again our common assessments in math and ELA. So our next steps as Dr. Corbett
mentioned in his presentation is to really have the I Ready curriculum come alive. And when I say I ready, I want to be clear. It's not the I Ready my path minutes. It's the actual instructional side of it that is student centered
where students are more active in their math journey and math learning. It's less teacherdirected and more student driven. Um, we want to maintain our strong articulation and data cycles which are primarily led by our lead teachers. We're continuing to bolster
our support for our MLL students through job embedded professional development. And the great news is that our our title funds were released and we were expecting or planning for a 75% reduction and we did not see a substantial reduction at all. So, um you
will be hearing about our title one programs rebooting again this year, which means extra help and extra support for kids um before and after school. Um and continue work with special education teachers to ensure students
are receiving exposure and working with grade level curriculum and grade level content. next steps in ELA, continue building on our early literate literacy success, uh develop a coherent K5 ELA progression.
So, what we're looking to do in grades four and five is evaluate, believe it or not, we're going to be up for a curriculum rewrite in two years. So, we're going to relook at our four and five curriculum and see um if it should
be better aligned with our K3 science of reading programs. Um and again continued support for MLL and special education students. Next slide please. So our goals for this year. So how are
we going to address the QAC scores? So by the end, so for 2526, by the end of each ELA instructional unit during this school year, 2526, teachers in grades K2 will administer the super kids benchmark assessments,
which will be loaded in the link platform. Teachers in grade three will administer the magnetic reading end of unit assessments and teachers in grades four to eight will administer the common assessments outlined in the district curriculum.
Next slide, please. For math, by the end of each instructional unit during this school year, 100% all district math teachers will administer the I Ready endofunit assessment to their students, ensuring
consistent progress monitoring and data collection across all of the grade levels. And in science, 100% of our science teacher will engage in uh deep data analysis sessions to identify those gaps
in student learning and plan targeted reeing strategies. And what we did this year for in our assessment calendars, we're moving science up. So, so typically the science assessment is given last. So after kids have tested in
math and ELA and you know we're really feeling the burnout they then in grades 5 through 8 sit for the science assessment and you know our estimation our groups feels by by that time kids are already burned out and said you know what we're
there's nothing left in the tank. So to review this school year 2425 was the first year of implementation of updated curriculum. Uh we ensured curricular coherence across all grade levels and content areas. We provided
equitable access which means everyone received the same programming. The education you received was not dependent on your mailing address. Um and we established consistency in academic expectations. Next slide, please. Looking ahead, we're
in the run phase. Get your Brooks or your Nikes on because we're going for it. Um, I like Brooks, Miss Carl, my preferred running show. Um, and anticipating continued upward trend in student achievement and a commitment to supporting teachers and students and
focus on consistency and coherence in our instructional framework. Next slide. I think it might be the last slide. Is that the last one? Yeah. Now, if you could pull up, I believe Miss West uh shared the
spreadsheet with you. Okay. So, if you take a look, um, item number one is was was pre-populated. It was put in by the state. So, out of a possible 10 in our ELA achievement score, we received a
5.6. Now keep in mind this was not 2425 data. It was um 2122 and 2223 data. So we received a possible out of 10 a 5.6. A if you could keep scrolling please. Oh
and number two uh just a little further up please. Thank you. Uh our mathematics achievement uh out of 10 we received a 4.5. Keep scrolling, please. Our science out of a 10, we received a
possible one. If you recall last year's NJSLA presentation, the state average in science plummeted. So that that was a statewide trend. Um the district's ELA academic progress,
which is all of your subgroups, um was an eight out of a possible 10. That's very promising data. This means you're seeing kids meet um you know their growth targets. Math the same thing was an eight. Now you'll see some of these we're not a K12 district so you won't
see a score in the K12 912 areas. And then the school quality and student success um in all subgroups presented on we received a possible 9.2 out of 10. Abby if you can keep scroll
uh scrolling please. Now, if you look at all of our um curricular components, the actual curriculum documents, the road maps that teachers are using to support their instruction, you know, Abe, you go down there, you'll
re you'll see a perfect score in each category with no recommendations, which means teachers are walking into their classrooms with a with an accurate road map and accurate resources that are
streamlined across the district and that's what QAC gives us. Now, if you go to the last tab, a um only used by district uh DOE right there. Oh, this is we don't have the Oh, get Javlin. So, and you'll see that the
three areas that I mentioned in my presentation are the three goals that we set to work on uh this school year leading up to our next cycle in three years of QAC. So, I actually have some comments. So,
sure. You know, I'm direct so bear with me. So, I'm hearing like a lot of fluff and things and I'm hearing about how we increase so much and it's highlighted in yellow and in October we're going to be talking about how we increase, but as a board I want to understand why we decrease. I don't want to look at why we
increase. I want to see why we decreased. I know we have new curriculum. I know we have great teachers, but I don't want to keep saying these things are happening because of this, because of this. I want to know exactly why we failed and exactly what we're doing to move forward. Not in a more general sense. I
want to know exactly what we're doing because, you know, we need to make sure that that I mean, this is this is bad. You know, when I'm looking at the breakdown and us receiving like one point out of 10, like I want to know what what makes up that one point and what are we doing to move forward because we already know how great
everything is and and how much we're advancing and now we're running, but what are we running towards? I really need that breakdown because I feel like every time we talk about scores and and the uh progress of our students, we're always giving that but but you know or we did or we're doing you know we want
to see how we're really moving forward you know so the the breakdown comes in the NJSLA presentation where you'll see the data completely broken down but I'm also very direct and trying to be direct in this presentation. I think it's very difficult for educators and
administrators um to work with resources that aren't streamlined across a district. I think it's virtually impossible to understand and support students when you're not looking at common data points. You know, I I compare it like going to a doctor.
Uh my wife just recently broke her toe. I know she broke her toe, not by looking at it, but they ran an X-ray. So that's the standard practice in the medical field is that you run certain diagnostics to assess a situation and
then and then develop a plan. Um up until recently we didn't have a road map and those assessments were not consistent or common. So across the district, not only were we not working with updated resources, not only were
teachers asked to fend for themselves, but when we're looking to to make a recommendation or a support plan for a student, a lot of the information that we were looking at was anecdotal. So, you know, in truth, what we're doing, the concrete piece is is we're ensuring
that there's oversight and collaboration on everything we do. And with that, when you come to the run stage, there's an accountability piece that goes with it. There's an accountability on my part. There's an accountability on the superintendent's part. There's an
accountability on the principal's part, and there's an accountability on the teachers part. And in there, there's also an accountability on the part of the parents. So um you know to be direct you know my estimation and looking at this and being in the district for a
number of years is people need the tools and the road map in which to work and when you have that then you can effectively evaluate what's going on and if you don't everything is just anecdotal. It's just as you said is just guesswork. It's not concrete. So that is
the the direct component and you know for me looking at the changing demographic in Rockaway Township um and we've presented on the MLL program for a number of years um past couple years and the influx going from 30 students to 112
students asking those teachers at Dwire and Copeland to work with a curriculum that's 15 years old you know is not supporting those students and is not supporting that subgroup. Um when you're coming in, you're looking at math instruction across the district and
you're looking at the professional development when it was provided and asking teacher to do things and learning it off a computer and not doing it in my estimation the way that's going to bear the most fruit. People learn best from other people. Students learn best from
their peers. um you know sitting and listening five minute attention span your average child and anytime there's an interruption in the class you lose 50% of those students. So when we look at common assessments and we look at the
I Ready program, we look at the super kids program one, it's in every building, which it wasn't in every building. Um, and again, I can go into the research on reading, and if you're not reading by grade three, you're well on your way to becoming a statistic.
Now, if you're a teacher and you look up the road and you see a school has a great program and is seeing great gains in reading and you're on the computer uh trying to buy lessons from teacher pay teachers, you're not really going to yield the best results. Um so that's our
plan. Um we've already begun implementing that plan. Um the fruit of that is in the curriculum documents but also what the teachers and the administrators are doing day in and day out. Yeah. That if we are going to highlight the
increase in October and in your presentation, I would like to also highlight the decrease. So I don't want to just it's not that I'm a negative person, but I want to focus on what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong because those are two things that we should be drilling down into. And so I don't want to see a fluff, you know, piece here of of look,
it's wonderful when we know it's not. I want to say, look, this is wonderful, but this is not wonderful and and here's how we're getting there because when we start ignoring that secondary piece, that's where we start failing. So I would just like to see that if you could. Yeah. So in every presentation, we put the previous year data versus this
year's data. Oh, sorry, one second. Let's get to see um and then our actionable steps towards improvement. So yeah, we'll do that again. Thank you. Absolutely. M. Okay. Just to expand upon that and I know some of this I just want to make sure everyone knows I'm framing my
question correctly. Cusack is evaluated how often? Every three years. Every three. Okay. And the scores are from what assessments specifically? NJSLA assessments. Just NJSLA. The Yes. This Yes. The preublish. So at
this point the scores that we received were based on the scores from three years ago or the last three years from 20 uh 23 24. So from only the 23 23 24 school year.
Okay. All right. So at some point now I know you're not going to come be able to come up with this off the top of your head. What will we be looking for as a gain in these scores um when we get re-evaluated in three years? Are we going to be
expecting a 15% climb because we're assuming a a 5% every year? I I'm expecting from here on out um the absolute minimum score in instructional practice of an 80. Like that's passing
is what we where we need to be and I believe we will or higher. Okay. I mean to my point and I guess expanding on what Christie is saying, I don't remember ever coming in at a 76 since I've been on the board. I mean
have we and I just missed it. Uh yes, we were on a CUSAC um corrective school. I know for one school we were No, no, we were on a CUSAC corrective action plan the previous cycle which I believe was um three years prior. It happened three years ago the first
year of the district. I remember that and it was a improvement. I don't remember what the score was. I mean, I I probably chalk that up to obviously coming off of COVID and that was a totally different situation. Um,
and I I guess I just to make that point, I look forward to seeing that type of gain because along with what Christy said that this is not acceptable. Yeah, I know you're not you're not finding this acceptable either. Yeah, I I agree. All right. Thank you.
I have one thing then with the progress going forward is there a flowchart of if we don't do this this is what we're going to do if we do this this is what we're going to do like within those three years if excuse me if there's a hiccup are we ready to fix it and not
wait the three years I'm kind of piggybacking off both of you just absolutely yeah okay so so part of our curriculum revision cycle and part of the work with our lead teachers um is constantly evaluating what we're doing. So, I'll give you for
instance on that um this year in kindergarten um you know the teachers really upon reflection uh there was two things they didn't want to start with the I Ready instructional minutes in September because they didn't want students to be
on the computer that early. Also, we didn't administer the diagnostic until January. So the recommendation was give the diagnostic earlier um in November, start the I Ready instructional minutes in November and then give teachers the
autonomy to decide when they would do those 10 minutes. Um so we pivoted on that um almost immediately and and changed it up. So, we're constantly, and again, I don't want to say just a a me thing. Um, but really this comes from
our teachers and the lead teachers giving us the feedback and giving us the ability to make those decisions. And I can speak I feel comfortable speaking for Dr. Corbett uh and myself. If we're seeing something's not working, we're not going going to stay with it.
Thank you. One thing as part of the ed committee I'd like to focus on. We've got a lot of data for math and for reading scores. Science is tough because they don't test NJSLA every single year. Um and in reviewing the curriculum documents, you
could see that there hadn't been much emphasis placed on science or social studies in the um elementary school setting prior to this. So I would really like to bring some ideas forward. Um Chrissy brought an idea to Dwire that's been a great success with um she I don't
know if you still have there's still grant money but they uh science fairs and the population of interested kid has kids have grown. So in ed committee I'd like to really discuss ways that we can grow that number too.
Great. Are there any other questions for Alonso? No. Thank you. U let me ask you a question. Do you have that link I sent you? I just sent an emailed a link to you because it has the same spreadsheet QAC, but I think it might
have the DIP the improvement plan on it. All right. And I also want to just really quickly I know we're running a little late. Well, who cares about time? I don't know. You have that ape. All right. Go to the DIP. You don't mind?
No, it's not. Okay. I don't have any. All right. That's okay. All right. What What I want to show you this really quick. The point is we will post this. You will see it. So, if somebody wants to know why we scored whatever it was a 95 in governance, go to governance. I would like to know that. You would like to know that?
Good. Go to governance, please. Thank you. All right. There you go. So, the point value is eight, right? On these indicators. Here's the indicators and there's the point value. If we if is a yes means we got all those points. So, you're going to have to go down to where there was a no or a different point
value and you'll see where we lost points. And you can do that. I don't know where it is on this particular one. Oh, there. No. Right. So, there you go. Number 13. Okay. 13. District board of education
members in school. 13. I'm reading it. is annually file a timely and properly completed financial and personal relative disclosure statement. The disclosure statement board of ed has the the board of education annual discusses the school ethics act and no district
board of education member or administrator has found been found in violation. Okay, there you go. All right. So if somebody wants to know where we lost points on Cusack, any particular DPR, that's where we lost the points. Yeah, we definitely need to I'd like to just throw out there that no
one on the board of education nor any administrator has been found in violation of school ethics act. I just want to throw that out there. Right. So I don't know act because I know that we have it's to tell you the truth it's very
it's cumbersome it's cumbersome to do in a sense it's seems to be user friendly. I think they revised They revised it last year to make it easier, but typically there's a lag in getting a response. Megan, am I correct about that? Um, yes. And actually, if I am correct,
I believe that this was tied to somebody who was no longer in the district and hadn't completed the form before they left. So, there was really no way for us to get it. All right. We're It's not last year, it's the year. Yeah. We definitely should look at this, though. So I mean as a board closer
the board this provided to you we can share it with you. You can look at all these. If you have questions you can ask us questions. You can look and see exactly where it was points. Total transparency here. Yeah it has to nothing. I want you to see it.
So hey can you do me a favor? I think we can share it with share with the board members. We need to develop our own plan. What's that? I did. Yeah, we got Oh, I already shared it.
Can we also share the one from three years ago so we can like kind of see? Yes, you can. I'll have to do that. No, I didn't share that with I haven't. Okay. But I've already shared this with the board. Huh? Yes. Thank you for reminding me that. Good. I
forgot. I don't remember. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Thank you. Um, moving on to the business administrator's report. Mrs. Slam, would you Thank you. Um, yes. So, um, we are moving into
Let me say for the record, there were no hips. Okay. We are moving into the final phases of our maintenance and custodial work for the summer. Um, I want to thank the entire buildings and grounds department for their hard work and dedication in moving us across the finish line. Uh the buildings are
looking great and will be ready for the return of staff and students. This week we'll wrap up our summer capital projects uh with the completion of the KDM window project and the districtwide flooring project. Um I'm very I'm actually very very excited to hear how the community feels about the changes that they'll see in the buildings. Um
I'm going to do a little mini slideshow uh in Rich's method for my report on September 3rd to kind of highlight some of the progress in the photos um because it is pretty impressive. Um, we are also finalizing the summer technology projects with the sound system
installation at CMS, the new phone system, and our new copers. And I want to thank Mr. Elder, um, and the entire technology department for their efforts, not only getting these projects completed, but the sheer volume of their usual summer work preparing our networks, devices, and programs for the
new year. Uh, it's really a herculean task, and they complete it with speed and accuracy. So, I can't stress enough. Um, you know, it's one of those things I I've told the superintendent, you don't know it's running well because you don't hear about it, but that's how you know it's running well when you don't. So,
the tech department really deserves a lot of credit. Um, I'm happy to report that once again, despite a less than promising projection for federal grant funding, I've just received numbers for our title funds and they've remained essentially flat with a moderate reduction in title four. So, I know we
were all very concerned about that. Um, we made it out unscathed. Title one came in at $101,658. Title two was $39,900. Title three was $16,649. Title three immigrant funding was
$4,736. And Title 4 was 10,000, which again was a slight reduction over the previous year. Um, but we're we're happy with those results. We will definitely take it. And then I just want to make note that on the agenda uh under administration number one um you'll see
a motion referring to residency check and disenrollment. I just want to clarify what that is. Um this is related to our annual check for our incoming third and incoming sixth graders. Um it's a standard check that we do for residency and this reflects uh those
that did not provide the necessary documentation for us to confirm the residency. Um, all of these individuals after tonight's meeting will receive an additional uh, contact and they still have an opportunity to provide the documentation and be reinstated, but this is kind of the procedure and we did
send out several notices leading up to this. So, we tried our best to keep everybody very informed and one of those mailings was certified mail. So, we we are confident to say that everybody should have received the notice prior to this meeting. And that ends my report. Thank you very much. Um, committee
reports. Are there any committee reports? Exact policy. So um we got a new alert uh from Strauss Esme. Um it's been well it's been a work in progress. I know a lot of people are are commenting on the policies of um that are being revised.
I'm hoping to speak with the committee members see maybe next Friday we can meet give other people enough time to comment. Um one thing though that I did want to just bring up is that you know I've been doing policies for probably like six years now. I've been uh leading that committee. Um, and I'm not going to
be here as of November or December. Um, and so I haven't heard from like either Thomasini about like a transition plan because even though it's not rocket science, it's still there are a lot of caveats to it that I would need to make sure that somebody knows um before I go.
And then um also I have begun another type of of audit um in addition to making sure that our table of contents are right, making sure that all of our um our uh policies are updated. You'll see a list of policies that were
abolished on tonight's agenda that were not removed from the system. So I want to make sure that they are gone. Um, and also one thing that I'm concerned about is that there are some policies that were not a part of what we received from Shaw Esme. And Shross Esme is the the
folks who give us the amendments based on changing laws and whatever it might be that we need to to uh to make sure that our policies are current for these policies that did not come from them. I don't know where they came from. I don't know what oversight we have in them. So, I want to make sure that,
you know, we we have some eyes on them. So we we're ensuring that they're updated. Did you have a comment? No, I'm just going to say if you have any need for the policy committee has any need to consult with my office on those policies and what they require, I'm more than happy to participate. Yeah, I'm trying to log them now so that
way you know we at least know what they are and so then you guys can have that discussion and what you want to do to maintain them. But I was a concern of mine is that there's there's nobody saying, "Hey, you know, this regulation has changed or law and so you need to update it." So, uh, more to come with that. Um, but that's it.
Well, thank you and thank you for your six years. I'll talk to Dr. Thomasini because it was definitely helpful for me to transition with Lissa for ED committee. So, I acknowledge that. Um, I do have notes from ED committee.
We met twice July 30th right before our um meeting for the board and then we also met again yesterday both times at Copeland Middle School. On the 30th, we discussed elementary school report cards. There's going to be some slight
changes. The comments are going to be more concrete and intentional. So, instead of just like a drop-own menu of comments, teachers were provided with examples of effective and ineffective comments from um kind of a menu of what has actually been used in our district
so that parents have some more understanding of how their children are doing in the the course of a marking period. Um, we discussed I Ready minutes. Again, that's um 30 to 45 minutes per week will be spent in math.
In grades K through two, there's not going to be a requirement for minute time, but there students will pass a lesson. Instead, teachers will focus on super kids. In grades three through five, it'll be the 30 to 45 minute with
at least one lesson passed. Um, and six through eight will have that same passing expectations, but the math grade will count as an actual grade in the grade book as it as it appears in their score so parents can see where their
their kids stand. Um, we discussed Lincoln intervention me uh manager as a method to streamline the intervention process. The hope is that the execution of programs is identical in each school.
Um the there's more and more research that talks about um the science of reading and teachers have said that the FNP the quantisipanel leveling system doesn't really align with the science of reading and takes concerted effort to
administer when it's not in line with their curriculum. So, the district is going to use um an I Ready literacy task three times a year that's administered right on there and the hope is that we can give feedback to parents immediately
through that form of technology. Um then yesterday we talked about the pathways to enter the algebra program focus on retention of skills. Mr. Mcanella presented us the opening day schedule at the convocation on
August 27th, he invited all board members to attend. What Mrs. Lamb mentioned, the good news was that the district did not see major reduction in funds. So, we were very pleased to hear that information. Mr. Ganella reported that letters to
principles will be issued soon, which will specify how much funding they will receive and how it can be spent. And the other information we discussed was there's something NJIP which stands for New Jersey Inclusion Project that's up for a two-year renewal. It's a
grant that provides free resources and free coaches. So the special ed department and the um and Alfonso are going to look into expanding the inclusion program to other elementary schools through that and hope that all
schools within the next three to five years have inclusion at all levels. I have a question about the I Ready and the changes. So, I know that from my own experience, I know kids with, you know, ADHD and and such struggle with time on the I Ready. I mean, that's how I lost
my iPad um and my laptop. Um so, I just wanted to understand because that's not typically something that I see on like an IEP or 504. if we're going to have some considerations for kids who get stressed, especially when they're keep, you know, they're having to type in um you know, the the the uh answer to a
math equation while a rabbit is running a race somewhere. That could really be intense. So, I just, you know, wanted to make sure that those children were accounted for when we're thinking about that. I definitely will look into that. I think that there was a question with
that. There's there's two types of math programs and I don't know that the I Ready has that fast-paced thing that I'm trying to think of what the other one was called, but I'll make sure that we talk about considerations for IVs and
504s. I just have one question. Um, you mentioned the literacy test three times a year. What grade is that for? They will test up to grade five for dyslexia. Okay. And that concludes my report. Are there any other reports?
I do. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um the community outreach committee met yesterday virtually um in attendance. Dr. Corbett, um Miss McGiri and myself. We discussed the referendum
statement. You could have that up on the screen. Okay, hopefully all the board members have had a chance to review this through um Dr. Corbett's uh board update. Does any board member have any
suggestions or revisions? Yeah, if we can just keep it consistent when we're capitalizing board of education dramatically. Keep it consistent for capitalization board of education. So despite these and that's something that's silly but it should be capitalized
but it doesn't my understanding doesn't if you're using it if you're using it as a defined term the word board as to refer to the Rockaway Township Board of Education it would be capitalized in that circumstance.
Yeah. So, right there, if we could just change that. Okay. Thank you, Chrissy. Anyone else? That was it. Okay. So, we will make that adjustment. Um, anyone else
has thinks of something tonight, let us know. You'll post that letter. Yes. Okay. Just um just a because we've talked about this publicly. Maybe if we want to add to that last line that we will
continue to complete projects in association with the long range facility plan. Yeah. Because I just want to make it clear to the community that while this is still a priority, we are still moving forward as well. You have this copy, right? I don't know that I do. I might we'll share it with you. Okay. Edit it.
Okay. On there. Yeah. I'm I'm off Thursday and Friday, but I'll be back Monday. We'll post around that time. So if there's any other comments between now and then please make them everybody has to share email. Okay. Thank you. So yes I mean that's a very good point
that obviously the district continuc Oh was it not? Well I didn't hear you. Okay. So, just for the record, um, so adding in a line stating that we while this is still the priority, just throwing on the end that we are still going to pursue the projects that are
reflected in our long-range facility plan um, and keep moving forward as we would in any year where we're picking projects that we need to complete. So, this is not going to stagnate our progress forward. It's simply limiting what we can accomplish in a given year. Good. And you'll put that on. Yes.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I also look forward to seeing the summer project pictures. Um, moving on to recommended items for board action. May I please have a motion to approve personnel items? So moved. Seconded.
Thank you. Um, no, actually this is Yes. I have many walks. I apologize. Um, so we're gonna if if you don't mind, we're going to do the second the first and second again. Um, I have one minor amendment. Okay. Um for let me see I believe it was
B I'm sorry C2 uh yes so letter C um we'll be adding a second line to that um and it is going to reflect that employee 7162 uh location central office is going to
be uh starting an administrative leave effective 813 2025 uh termination date 9325. So the leave will be from 8:13 to 93. Um, and I apologize that was a last minute addition. So the minutes will reflect
that change if the board is amendable to moving that section as amended. So may I have a motion to approve personnel items. So rather than you don't need to do a new motion. Oh, sorry. The individuals who first and second it, are you okay with the revision that's been noted? Yes.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So personnel would be all of it. Sorry. Got it. Page four, five, and six. May I please have a roll call vote? Mrs. Anderson, yes. Mrs. Kuru,
yes. Ms. Mcgiri, yes. Mrs. Mzik, yes. Miss Richardson, yes. Miss Torren, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to education. May I please have a motion to approve the items?
So moved. Seconded. Thank you. Any board discussion? I can open this to public comment if any member of the public would like to comment on education items only.
Seeing as there are none, may I please have a roll call vote? Mrs. Anderson? Yes. Mrs. Kuru? Yes. With the exception of number four. Okay. And is number four, no or an absention? No.
Okay. Thank you. Noted. Okay. Miss McGiri? Yes. Mrs. Mzik? Yes. Miss Richardson? Yes. Miss Torren? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to special education there.
Yes, I have an addition for special education. Um, so if we could add, let's see, I have number eight. It's going to be number eight reflected under the section. So, it'll become C8. And it's uh upon the
recommendation of the superintendent, the board approves the signed settlement agreement referenced by docket number 2025-39387. And once again, if the board is amendable to moving that as amended, then that will be reflected in the minutes. that addition of that number
eight. Okay. May I have a motion to approve special education recommendation with that amendment? Seconded. Thank you. Any board discussion? I can open to the public if there's any interest in speaking about special
education items. Seeing none, may I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Anderson. Yes to all. I'm going to abstain from number seven, though. Noted. Mrs. Kira Laroo. Yes to all. No for number seven.
Miss McGee. Yes to all. No to number seven. Mrs. Messi. Yes to all. No to number seven. Miss Richardson. Yes to all. No to number seven. Miss Torren.
Yes to all. No to number seven. Okay. So the section is moved with the exception of number seven which has not passed and will therefore be noted as such. Okay. Moving on to D administration. Is
there any board discussion? Just so the public knows we met on July 30th to re uh create board goals and district goals for the upcoming school year. Those will be posted on the school website for your review.
And that moves us to page 11. Did we get a motion? Is there Oh, sorry. May I have a motion to approve administration? So moved. Seconded. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Noted. Okay. And and then I can open that up to public comment on administration items only. Seeing none, may have a roll call on administrative items. Mrs. Anderson, yes. Mrs. Kiru,
yes. Miss McGiri, yes. Mrs. Messi, yes. Miss Richardson, yes. Miss Torren, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to finance. And this is my last edition. Okay.
It's been a crazy month. Um, so I'm asking to add finance number three, um, which is going to read as such, uh, the 2025-26 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act application upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of
Schools. The board authorizes the submission of the 2025-26 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDA, application, and acceptance of the funds as follows. basic $632,166 preschool $33,761.
Thank you. So, do we have a motion to approve finance recommendations? So moved, seconded. Okay. Okay. Um is there any board discussion?
can open up to public for comment on finance items only. Seeing none, may I please have a roll call. Mrs. Anderson, yes. Mrs. Kuru, yes. Ms. Mciri, yes. Mrs. Messi, yes. Miss Richardson, yes. Miss Torren,
yes. Motion carries. Thank you. And now on to policy. Motion to approve policy recommendations. So moved. Second. Thank you. And that goes on to page 13. This one can also be open to public
comment if there's any member of the public who'd like to speak to the board. Seeing none, may have a roll call on policy items. Mrs. Anderson, yes. Mrs. Kuru, yes. Ms. Mciri, yes. Mrs. Messi, yes. Miss Richardson, yes. Miss Torren, yes.
Motion carries. Thank you. In accordance with board policy 0167, public discussion is limited to 15 minutes with a threeminut limit per member of the public. The board president or vice president shall have the right to modify the length of public
discussion as she deems appropriate. Can I have a motion to open up to second public comment? So second. Show of hands, please. Thank you. Is there anyone in the public who'd like to address the board?
Seeing none, may I have a motion to close public comment? So move. You guys, if I got a dollar every time you did that, Allison, you moved it. Jamila, you seconded. Okay. Yes. Show of hands, please.
Moving on to discussion items. Are there any old business items we'd like to discuss? Any new business items? Yes. I feeling doing the plug as usual for the New Jersey School Board Association. Um
October 20th to 23rd is workshop. If you have not signed up um shared your um hotel recommendations that you would like with Mrs. Slam, please do that. I strongly recommend your attendance. It's a great way of getting your not only
your mandated state chain done but also u finding out about all the cool things that you can learn about. Mrs. Slim, if I still waiting on approval, but if I do get approval to go for one day for my school, it would I would not need an overnight.
Okay. Thank you for letting me know. Okay. I also just want to wish everyone a good start to the school year. I know next time we're going to have our meeting who would already have started and I just wish the teachers and the staff a really good start to the school year and new progress and just keep moving forward.
Yes. Enjoy your last two weeks. Yeah. Okay. One more thing. Yes. Um because that was NJSBA. Um as the president of the Mars County School Board Association, I just wanted to share what our upcoming county uh program is. Uh it will take place on October 7th. It's a hybrid meeting, so
you can attend from home. It will be held at Boon High School. Uh the topic will be if you would like to come yourself from budgets to brilliance linking school finance to student outcomes right high school is my alma mo
clearly they did have budget to brilliance so obviously this you send an email Lisa reminding can you send me an email on that I will date I might want to go to that might
possibly three maybe I have a quick comment if it's okay. Um I think he left. Is Mr. Ganella here? Did he went home to his kids? Okay. I just wanted to say that um I know the undertaking that it takes to write curriculum. It's a it's a hard task and
I I commend him and his team fully for getting through uh what needed to be done correctly and getting it done in record numbers. Um, I know how difficult that must have been and uh the unpaid overtime put in to get these done. And I
want to just thank him because of the why. Um the why is because um he has a complete understanding just working with him in the short time I understand he has a complete understanding of the importance of uh structured documents uh
what they have on student success and I 100% look forward to the gains our kids will make due to the amazing work done in his office. So, I know he's not here, but I'm I'm sure he will probably watch us. But, um, curriculum work is not easy, and his team has done an amazing
job in record time, and our kids will gain from that without a doubt. So, I'm excited to see what what comes of all that work. Thank you. Any other new business items? There's no need to return to executive
session. So, may I have a motion to join our meeting. So moved. Seconded. Our meeting is adjourned at 9:03 p.m. Thank you all for coming. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Get in there.
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