##VIDEO ID:3TIZ0RyME8A## we will call to order the February 4th meeting the S Board of Education please rise to pleased the flag aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Miss Hill roll call please Mr Callahan Mrs chowski here Mr Fernandez Mrs Hernandez here Mrs Maldonado here Mrs Nano here Mrs Pavone here Mr Smith here Mrs Bloom here miss Hill will you summarize executive session please the board discussed uh matters falling under attorney client privilege and Personnel including but not limited to agenda items okay any correspondents of note no Okie do okay we need a motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting please no move second that was Mr Smith and I'm sorry the second was Mrs npal Tano okay um Mrs chowski yes Mrs Hernandez yes Mrs Maldonado yes Mrs napalitano yes Mrs pone yes Mr Smith yes Mrs Bloom yes okay and now the part that we all wait for our lovely student council Representatives Morgan what do you have for us tonight good evening Board of Education members and administrators my name is Morgan C swmhs student council Board of Education representative I would like to begin with clubs and activities more than a dozen members of the Leo Club attended a Statewide day of learning during the md16 Leo leadership conference which was held in sville they participated in a variety of leadership sessions including public speaking mental health member engagement and motivation event plan and working in teams last Tuesday 8th grade students and their parents attended the annual freshman tip off orientation the evening began with the student council sponsored activities Fair where students and their parents met representatives from the high school clubs Sports and activities at 7 p.m. the students and parents split up so that the students could attend the division championship boys high school basketball game while their parents and Guardians attended an orientation in the auditorium Mrs takola director of School counseling the curriculum supervisors and high school administrators acquainted them with an orientation of the high school including the scheduling process the course offerings graduation requirements programs acms and more on Thursday the high school counselors will be visiting all eighth grade social studies classes to share the same information with the students congratulations to swmhs senior Rishi Shaw who was honor honored with the lifetime presidential Achievement Award signed by former President Joe Biden and presented by sville mayor Kennedy O'Brien in recognition of over 4,000 community service hours where he supported over 672 small businesses with marketing and growth resources Beyond supporting small businesses his service expanded to advocating for sustainability tutoring students supporting mental health awareness providing youth ment ship to help those in need and more since the start of the pandemic today the high school counselors conducted College and Career planning presentations to all students in grade 11 students were given the tools to jump start their career planning for Life After High School tomorrow evening the counseling department will provide a similar presentation to the parents and Guardians of the Juniors tomorrow the high school counselors will begin their semester 2 freshman foundations presentations providing the ninth grade students with helpful High School tips as well as navian career interest survey this is lesson one of three that the counselors will conduct in the elective classes scheduling for the 2025 2026 year is in full swing the window for students to enter their elective choices closes this Friday and all AP course applications are due tomorrow the high school counselors will be conducting schedule planning presentations at the middle school on Thursday jrc students will join the counselors to promote their program moving on to sports the girls indoor track and field team won their ninth consecutive greater middle sex Conference Championship this past weekend individually zaa Khan won the gold medal in the shot putut Lea Stevenson won the silver medal in the 400 meter while Jada roke Loy Anning Lea Stevenson and Jenny then won the silver medal in the 4x400 meter relay lastly moral Akin rafon won the bronze medal in the shop foot as did Angelia Lei in the mile on the boys team will Lewis win the gold medal in the P Vault the wrestling team Casper treak and Bryce Bard won first place in the GMC wrestling tournament while Mike zon took second place the wrestling team also defeated Colonia and Highland Park High Schools to improve their season record to 137 congratulation to the congratulations to the boys basketball team for winning the greater middle sex conference white division championship after defeating East Brunswick High School later in the week they dominated Princeton High School to improve their record on the season to 16-2 the girls basketball team also had a very successful week which was evident in their three wins over John F Kennedy dellan and Timothy Christian high schools their record is now 813 for the season the girls Bowl bowling team beat South River High School in the first round of the greater middle sex Conference tournament the competition cheer team win first place in the varsity game day Division and second place in the varsity all music Mega division during the David Burley High School cheer competition congratulations to the congratulations to the girls swim team for placing fifth out of 18 teams at the greater middle sex Championship meet this is their best finish in over a decade we also congratulate freshman Emma Smith for her fifth place finish in the 200 freestyle and eighth place finish in the 500 freestyle senior Caroline asterita also medal in the 200 freestyle placing eighth overall congratulations to the boy swim team for placing placing sixth out of 17 teams at the greater middle sex Championship which is also their best finish in over a decade we also congratulate Joshua jatun Brody Canan Sebastian and Michael wenko for breaking the school record in the 200 and 400 freestyle relay Junior Michael wenko also play second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 100 backstroke breaking his own school records again thank you for your time and support thank you Morgan great job as always we have questions so morg did you swim in the GMC's yes how did you do uh all right it's so top eight medal and I place ninth oh yeah next year now what about the relay team that you're on how' you guys do we I think we came in fourth in the relay that I was in that's fantastic M but then top three metal oh it's cruel how was it they they it's it's uh the top eight in one category and then it's the top three in another for relays um how about the Army did you did you go to the Army to do any of the indoor track events or no I don't do winter track I do spring just do spring okay great yep excellent report great job thank you thank you okay yeah phenomenal lot of great student athletes put in a lot of time hard work and dedication along with their coaches and I do have to say the final one of ours went to the E the freshman orientation thing at the high school the other day Mrs skola glue and his entire team there did a fantastic job there were so many clubs and athletic teams there well represented and it was really nicely it's amazing yeah they do a phenomenal job yeah yeah there was a lot of people I was there for swim we got a lot of people to sign ups clubs in the gym great y okay thank you anybody else have anything to say no okay Alana it's all yours good evening Board of Education members and administrators my name is Alana sages cille Middle School student council Board of Education representative here is what is going on at seril middle school student council members will be attending a leadership conference on Thursday at the ocean place in Long Branch they are currently selling carnations during lunch for Valentine's Day flowers will be distributed on Valentine's Day the PTO hosted the seral Middle School tricky trit and handbag Bingo on Friday January 31st everyone had a great evening The Odyssey of the mind curently has three teams preparing for the regional round of competition in February now on to seral Middle School athletics the bombers blue girls team has improved the record to 10 and one after defeating monwell Piscataway South Brunswick South playfields within the last week coach Vasquez is extremely proud of their efforts and the hard work they have put in all season long the middle school cheerleading team is preparing for the njc GCA state championships while attending basketball games to support our athletes they are hosting a craft night at the bomber Beyond Cafe on Thursday February 13th at 6 p.m. the seral middle school cheerleading teams along with the swmhs cheerleading teams will be hosting a showcase before States on February 19th at 7 p.m. and the swmhs main gym we will also be celebrating our eighth grade cheerleaders that evening all are invited to attend the cheerleaders are currently selling T-shirts to celebrate the 20th season please see an athlete interested thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the students at CVO Middle School great job Elena so Elena you're GNA be at the craft night yeah I am I'm gonna go so if I go you're gonna say hi to me or you gonna pretend you don't know me I'll say hi to you gonna pretend she doesn't know you I'm well Mrs Bloom always pretend she doesn't know me um but I'm also going to try to get to the Showcase too I'm looking forward to both okay very cool great job honey okay thank you thank you okay um I have no comments at this time Mr Smith any comments at this time nothing at this time no okie dokie moving on Dr Labby presentations thank you Mrs Bloom we are going to continue reviewing the 2025 2026 proposed budget we have two special presentations this evening curriculum and instruction and special education along with another special presentation by our bombers Beyond 18 to 21 year old program so because some of the people in that program have to get up early so they can open the cafe at 800 a we're going to allow Mr naster Mr vanderbeck and Mrs Vini to go first with their respective presentations thank you Dr Lobby and we are in the coffee business so we do start early so on behalf of our special education supervisors we have Dr defina Mrs too and Mr vanderbeck our special education parent advisory group our special education teachers child study team members related service providers and Par professionals who by the way are the backbone of our department we do thank this board for allowing us a few minutes tonight to share with you some highlights from the current school year as well as our goals and the corresponding budgetary implications for those goals but as Dr lbby did just mention we are going to do something different tonight I'm going to keep my present brief you'll see it's just two slides unlike in years past when Dr ages would have to hook me um because we're going to turn it over to Mr vanderbeck and Mrs phini who will share with you a comprehensive and exhaustive cost benefit analysis or as we call in the the the the small business business a profit and loss sheet um the the actual threeyear analysis that this board for the program that this board charged us with building out if you remember going back to the 201819 school year we think there's a lot of value in you seeing the fruits of our Collective labor and your unwavering support from the very beginning again in the 20189 school year up until the present day so beginning with highlights the first three bullets really represent what we consider to be supplemental Services beyond the students with disabilities typical special education programming so this board has supported our Camp Excel program in conjunction with Mrs Gman and Mrs Burns we did service 550 students last summer we also provide this year supplemental instruction that's onet to one instruction for our students who need that I've said in the past I can't think of a better intervention for any child in oneto one time with with our teachers we also provide are providing um special education literacy and math academies which are small group instruction again that's beyond the regular school day either before or after school we uh purchased trained our teachers and are implementing an altern alternative literacy program I mentioned the snd system in in past board meetings as well as in past committee meetings um essentially it's a program for students who are not responding or did not respond to the district's Universal reading program so we're up and running with that program we are in the process of doing the same thing at the middle school and you'll hear more to come on that um we also Dr too worked with our New Jersey K our um longtime board certified Behavior analytic Partners to implement a program called Central reach in our multiple disabilities classrooms we're piloting it this year feedback has been very good so we do expect to expand that into um into the remaining multiple disabilities classes next year we increased our bomas Beyond enrollment if you recall in year one we had five students we increased it to nine students the following year we are currently at 12 and we do an at going up to 15 next year which is really the Comfort level that we thought um we would we would have when we built out the program um we Mr vanderbach I should say um he created several special education Cooperative education placements for our 12th grade students who need some life skills training and preparation for post high school life um we know that or we recognize that our students with disabilities might need a little help finding the C placements unlike the the general education student so Mr vanderbeck has partnered with our very own Chris meley in the technology department who who has given an opportunity to one of our students um Mr vanderbeck has partnered with Mr Preston at arith and also Mr GL husky at the high school to to to provide experiences for our students I'm not going to say too much on this next bullet um we in in a moment of serendipity which by the way is my favorite romantic comedy movie um we had a chance to too much it really is we we had a chance to um expand our obom beond program to another unit at 132 Main Street um we recognized that not all of our students would be interested in um food services so we are now in the retail business and you'll hear more about that very soon this board supported the purchase of a passenger van this year for our program um this allows us to expand our job placements for students who might not like food service or the new retail business it also allows us to take our kids out through the community to additional um Recreation experiences and just to to to learn to utilize the community and the neighboring townships um it also on the back end returns one of the the buses that we had on loan to the transportation pool and eliminates the need for overtime so we do thank this board for their support um for this very important um purchase that we just made this year finally obom is be Cafe if you recall going back to the January reorganization meeting our superintendent almost spilled the beans I was going to nudge him under the table but he'd probably take me down um but we did were awarded the Central Jersey Choice Awards best local coffee shop this year and the value of this award is that it really happened organically we've learned that a lot of coffee shops can campaign for votes they advertised for votes with paid advertisements we did none of that we didn't even know that people were voting they just did and of course we were rewarded it this comes on the heels of of the Innovation and special education award that the New Jersey school boards gave us last year which Mrs Bloom shephered through for us so we appreciate the recognition um and if we move over to our department goals which are also District goals this year and they are also multi year goals again I won't say much about the first goal um but we are well on on on on the way to opening the bombers Beyond apparel the community Hub portion is open as you'll hear soon and the App Store is soon to be opened um we implemented the alternative literacy program that I just mentioned at the elementary level so we are up and running with that program we're going in the process of doing the same thing for the Middle School we're awaiting a shipment of materials we'll do our first round of training at the June staff development day we'll train again in September and then we'll be up and running for the fall um of next year and finally this last bullet or last goal is a bit of a heavy lift for us um we were charged with exploring and identifying an alternative math program unlike alternative literacy programs so in which there are an abundance of programs out there we learned that there's really no market for alternative math programs we looked at four or five programs they were not Standalone programs um but we just recently found found a program called Math 180 which we think shows real promise as a standalone core program for our pullout replacement special education math classrooms in grades four through eight um I'm awaiting confirmation from our math experts Dr Maharana and Mr toy we're going to get the the materials into the hands of some teachers as a pilot and we should be um we should accomplish this goal by June of 2025 and finally our budgetary request there isn't anything new here this year un like previous years we do ask this board to support continue to support our extended school year you'll find those sales in the um the the summer Sal section of of the the district's budget we ask you to continue to support our Ono one in small groupies you'll find those listed in one of the 20 accounts within the special services budget 20 account denotes uh the use of federal funds and and we do use federal federal funds for both of those programs we ask you to continue to support wages for our bom is beyond colleagues you'll see that I emphasized in the presentation Slide the word colleagues because unlike other districts who have their 18 to 21 year old students volunteering for the work experience our students are actually paid so they are colleagues they are employees just like we are they have the same Human Resources Portal same paycheck stub that we get and we think that really makes us stand stand out from from anybody else who's um doing something similar and again you'll hear more about that soon and finally we ask you to continue Contin to support wages for our Cooperative education placements at the high school Dr Maharana our math supervisor she traditionally budgets for two placements for us and then in the special services line item you'll see two more uh requests for funding for two additional students this allows our child study team members the chance to be really creative as they prep kids for post high school life so before I turn it over to our team and take the risk of making my presentation pale in comparison to what you're about to see does anybody have any questions on anything here with the coffee shop so once they age out of the program with 22 years old they're aged out of the program uh you know is it where we're developing relationships with local coffee shops to let them know here's a program where we're developing skills for these students for these young adults try to transition them into a job that they can maintain so so not necessarily coffee shops but we are developing relationships with other businesses some restaurants and you're going to hear they have some incredible relationship with people we are close to placing several kids in jobs who either recently graduated or about to graduate so that is the goal though we want our kids to be able to work and to extend that um I had the privilege for the second year in a row sitting in on a meeting they had talking about the students that were going to be aging out or or graduating from the program and brainstorming about okay these are their social skills these are their um academic skills these are their vocational skills where do we feel they're a good fit in the community to work and how can we get an you know an inroad into getting them to work there and some of them have already been placed in places where they believe that they'll be most successful once they come out of the program so a great deal of planning thought and collaboration goes into working these students toward a vocation once they leave the school district and I think you'll hear from Mrs Vini she mentioned Ken's crew which is a partnership we're forming and also Ren Valley Community College which is another partnership we're forming for our kids thank you so much thank you no and I'm I'm thrilled to hear that you finally found because yeah math was always a part of the special education program that there wasn't an alternative kind of program for we did great in literacy so it's I'm really looking forward to what this Math 180 might be for we got to Mr Smith we have quite a few on online programs that we utilize software programs but we know our teachers need and our students they need something in their hands too so we need oldfashioned manuals student workbooks with the online component so this will be like a traditional math curriculum Pro you know full encompassing program like you would put in any class correct it's it's marketed as a core program or an intervention program so it will fit both of our needs great I just want to make a comment about the success that you've had winning you know the bomber Beyond Cafe winning the uh People's Choice Award and then also getting the award from the state um you also you may not know this and but people in the public living in seille and outside of seille know seille for our special education program and believe it or not people actually move and want to move to seille for those um special needs that we provide to their children so us really doing a great job and I'm very proud to be a part of this uh board that has um you know voted for all of these things and we'll continue to vote for them thank you Mr B M Bon we we do appreciate your support I'm also responsible for Central registration so I do see those parents who come in and share with us their excitement to hear what we have yes we have virtually anything that a child needs we have right here in town and that's because of the support of this board yeah but you also because your great staff and all your plans for the future so thank you very much you're welcome the lobby I have a question I was I don't know a lot about Sunday system if this is something that they can learn how to read right with um because I was reading about it that is what a multisensory approach can you explain a little bit more for me is it is it has its roots in Pro in a concept called Orton Gillingham which is one of the more respected approaches to reading development so so it's designed as an intervention program so all of our students have a chance to to work within the district's Universal reading program kids who are not responding need something different so this is designed for that it it is multi-sensory it is multisensory there's touching I know there's the sand trays and things like that with the newor and Gillingham concept there's motor memory and and things like that but it's really systemic and sustained approach to reading okay great anything else all right so at the risk of going on a little bit too long I can't just turn it over to Mr vanderbeck and Miss Mrs phini without without recognizing and letting you know that they are the ogs of the program they have been there since minute one day one when we came to them with this crazy concept that we were going to be a school district who was open opening a business to the public they trusted us and they waited from September to February for us to actually get this thing up and running and I think it paid off because from that moment on they have taken it along with Mrs Garnett who is also here Mrs Falcone who is not here Mrs beo they have taken this to the next level they are the heart and soul of this program of course Mrs Vini and her family knows everybody in town but they are the heart and soul of this program any success we have really should go to that team right there so I'm happy to turn it over to them and we're really really proud of you [Applause] guys we're not off to a good start help already all right so okay you got to use your microphone oh got to use the mic I guess right yeah so uh thank you welcome for giving us this opportunity to talk about our program and the three-year overview of of the bombers Beyond Cafe um you can go to the next slide if you don't mind um this is going to be a quick overview of the timeline that we had I do want to take a quick uh moment to thank my team Christine Falcone CIA backo um Alysa Garnett and kayy phini because without them this program wouldn't be anything it really is a team effort it is a Dream Team 92 dream team has nothing on us um we we went through we started in uh may may 2022 with just this idea coming from you guys that we were gonna launch this Cafe and I remember kayy and I went into the interviews and it was uh it was a political office with holes in the walls wires hanging down and uh we looked at each other and we we were like let's do this we're gonna we're going to figure this out and so this takes us through the timeline it took us November high school we launched us off opening at one of the Days by February we open um took us about nine months we got our first night events we're going to get into we're really big on getting our students into the community um our second location was opened our sign the Le was sign 20124 and then finally we got our mertile license for the bomber shop which we'll talk about more today um I do want to address one quick thing because a lot of this is going to be the face of our our program is the cafe but it's not about the cafe half of our program is about the community and building these Partnerships in the community and they really are the ones that are help us get to where we are we always have a saying at the bombers Cafe that's like you know we needed the we needed the community uh to build our and to start our Cafe we didn't realize how much the community actually needed us also and so they've embraced us and helped us get to where we are because of what they do so um thank you for letting me share today um so we just want to start and thank Miss Bloom for nominating or helping us get the ball rolling on our Innovations award because it brought attention to our program at the state level um but it also allowed us to kind of share how wonderful our group is and how wonderful our acclimates are and um you know that's a big Testament to everybody here for allowing us to kind of bloom and grow um moving out we did receive the best local coffee shop that was very exciting to us we received notification that we could um promote that and we put it out on our social media we did not bomber blast it we did not um you know ask for the newspapers to write about us we just let the community tell people how much they love us and they really really did um so we found out in when did we find out that we won October November we found out in November that we won and it was just celebrated since then and we just got our plaque and it's hung up at the cafe if you want to come see yet um and then in 2023 and 2024 we received uh in a you a community outreach monetary value from from DuPont um they chose us because they wanted to highlight a community uh business or something that would be positive for our community and they donated money to us and we used that money and gave back to our program and we added a smoothie machine which has been very popular um and we anticipate it being more popular in the summer months and we also got what else did we add coffee machine oh we got a backup coffee machine in case ours ever breaks we now can keep functioning um right on schedule so we are very grateful to have that from our community partner so we're going to take a minute to walk through the the p&l chart the actual profit and loss of the program so uh as we go through I'll just go through each of the things there's a very extensive uh Excel sheet that goes behind this that is all tied too but for the revenue uh the first year this is the 2022 23 year um the first Revenue that we had we had two added District students that we received about $45,000 in tuition for and then $117,000 in Revenue sales uh that's where our Revenue came from the expenses were that we had to build a coffee shop uh we had to build a from bottom up Renovations everything but this also includes utilities The Works everything that's Incorporated teacher salaries everything that's involved in in getting it so our our expenses were quite extensive the first year there were about $563,000 um so our net income obviously was quite a bit now the out of District cost that we avoided is the important one because when we were able to bring this program back home uh because we wanted to bring our students into our community we were able to to take the we we looked at the added um that off offsite placements and what it would cost for each student to be placed out a district and it ranges from 60 to $120,000 so we went with a cost of about $70,000 per student and then another 10,000 for transportation so we we we came up to with a number of about $8,000 per student that we were avoiding for out a district we had three students that were out of District which came to 240,000 for that first first year so we had two out of uh District tuition students and three three students that we we brought the first year which were five students so the first year we we took a hit of a or it cost us about 25,000 so I'm gonna that's nuts and bolts I'm gonna let the heart talk about the rest of the the fun stuff here so so I'll just talk about the accomplishments of what we did in the first year uh with just the basic of opening up the cafe like Andrew said when we came in to do our final interview they brought us to the cafe and said here Vision just just picture it and there were wires hanging from the ceiling there was blue carpet on the ground we're looking at each other like you sure this is gonna open I I don't know if this is gonna work um Mr Vini we also had Jimmy coburger saying no we can't do everything and then Kenny Sadowski saying yes I'll get it done and he has continued and that whole maintenance department have continued to work with us and they come over in a second's notice to help us if anything's broken um and really the cafe turned into a cafe with the heart and soul of our maintenance department um and we are so grateful that they put so much time and attention into it for us and it's beautiful people come in and they are they say what a warm spot it is and how welcoming and like Andrew said the community needed it just like we needed it for our kids um we have regulars that come three or four times a week and stay from 9il 12 sometimes we have to kind of push them out with the broom um but the the positive of it not not so much that they come every day and they're buying stuff from our Cafe but they talk to our kids and and they I shouldn't call them kids our crew members they talk to our crew members they know them by name they know their interests and when I tell you when we go to shop right on Wednesdays it's usually our shop right day it's like we're all the mayor of town they come and running up to us oh The Brew Cru at shop right oh I can't wait to talk to them find out what they're cooking today and it's just from them talking to our customers on a daily basis um so it is a warm and exciting place and it that started our first year there um we also built a ramp so that it's accessible to anyone who needs to come in the door um we redid the cafe floors they are not blue carpet they are beautiful wood floors they're they're gorgeous um we have security cameras all over the place because it is a business and it's right on Main Street it's not hidden somewhere it's right in the middle of town um we do have a wonderful security guard that is with us and it's his birthday today so we were very grateful that he's with us all the time um and then that first year we did open in February and our Sal have been truly incredible um Andrew's going to talk about that in a minute yeah just real quick it it was a complicated and a lot of expenses went into this as you guys might know but um we also had we oh we had to go up and we had to not only follow like burrow code but we also had to follow school code so there was a lot of Hoops that we had to follow there's a lot of code that we had to follow we had to make sure everything was up to to power and stuff for safety and all the obligations that we wanted to follow as a school so when it came to that first year and $177,000 for selling $250 a $2 muffin and a $250 coffee is it's it's a lot of sales so um can we go to the next slide oh you're on it thank you uh the next year uh obviously the numbers improved drastically uh we didn't have to redo everything in the in the place so our Revenue we have two added District placements again that was about $51,000 per student uh our sales jump substantially uh to over $40,000 worth of sales uh the next year and then uh so our our our expenses go up because we expanded our staff we went from two pars and two teachers and then added a supervisor into that so we had some additional cost with that um but our added districts avoided cost we had seven students that we were able to avoid sending out of placement so we were able to save $560,000 by not sending them out a at a district not only that but keeping them in their own community so we weren't sending them to Edison or Somerset or wherever other location they might be they were home getting educated in their own location um again this is the heart so I'm I'm excited to talk about this part um so we hosted a grinch night um which took place at our Cafe and the several PB decided they were going to lend us one of their officers who dressed as the Grinch and he did a fantastic job playing the part and the place was packed um there was not room to move people were there to take a picture with the Grinch um to try our coffee and they had no idea that their coffee was going to be paid for by um Dr Labby that night and they had no idea they were just coming in to see what our place was all about because our hours you know they're they're doing the work day so not many people can always stop by to visit so we opened at night time and allowed our community to come out and see what we're all about and we were packed and one of our regulars who was there said manam we got to make this space bigger and I think that night I think you guys called right away and said hey we got to knock this wall down um and they did they did it over spring break we knocked the wall down and added some more floor and some furniture and now we have a much larger space for all the regulars that come and stay all day um and it's it's homey and we have a little fireplace in the corner um and it it's really just a wonderful thing but we did expand the cafe space to add more love in there um I do want to to say that we did participate in 14 night events we host a variety of different events at the cafe um this year we've already had what six six events um we host what we're very proud of is an open mic night um and anyone from the community can come and sing and perform and a lot of our crew members actually take the mic that night um we have some that do jokes and we have a a young man that sings with his father um and just recently we had one of our students uh she knows all the words to Journey uh don't stop leaving and she sang the entire song in front of all the people that we have at the cafe um like Alana had said before they are hosting a fundraiser for the SMS cheerleaders they are running it and we are just the host and we're just excited to get more people out to see our space um and then the last thing I want to point on this slide is the 6,996 transactions that the monetary value doesn't do much for us it's the amount of transactions that our crew members have had with people when we first started it was very difficult to have our crew members hold a conversation and ask what they were doing the rest of the day and through these transactions they now hold conversations they remember our customers names um they interact with everybody who walks through the door and they've made some friends through it so that's what we're really excited for in year two yeah and real quick on that 6,900 just to give you an idea that um if they weren't in our program they would have been placed in a classroom somewhere and those 6,997 transactions were real life in the public in the community in a job transactions that they got to experience a real life job not only that but behind the scenes of that is the setup of the coffee shop the making of the coffee the the the cashier the preparing of the muffin the preparing of everything else that goes into it so that number is probably tripled by real life real life job EXP experiences that they've gotten that instead of a classroom that they're doing a worksheet they're getting these job experiences that they need so super important and this is our final year for this year some of this is forecasted because we aren't completed through this year so we couldn't give it a full comprehensive look at it but um our Revenue this year up to this year is 44,000 we don't have any uh added District students anymore we are all in District so all 12 students are in District students uh so we are avoiding the cost of $960,000 of sending those students out a district uh which gives us a net benefit this is with buying a van for the the passenger van for this year for all the other costs that we've talked about uh were about $197,000 uh in the green so it's a it's a net positive for the program um and we have gone through plenty of other things that I'll let kayy highlight right now but there's a lot of different programs that we can discuss I'm going to get the the in the community Hub at the end um but I do want to talk about our Community Partners because I know you brought up you know what's next after they graduate um we are very proud that our district welcomes our students back into their schools so one of our students is working to train as a power professional um at Wilson Elementary School he has been there all year he has been working very hard and soon he'll be independent um working with the students in a kindergarten classroom he is he has grown so much um we're very proud of him and that he has kind of taken his fears of being a leader and he's worked on it with our power professional U Miss backo and he's almost ready to be independent which would then benefit our Wilson school because now they have an additional par um that they can work with and you know protect our kids so we're really proud um we also have another student who is training to be a bus a his dream is to be a bus driver so we started small and and he's working towards his dreams um but he is a bus a in our district with the preschoolers and he knows them all by name he knows every route in cille um and he is doing a fantastic job of just doing his job and working towards his dream um another student recently just started at Truman Elementary School in the library he is an Avid Reader he loves to write stories um so Mr Bellamy welcomes him into his library and he works with the students checking out books he puts books back sorry books back on the Shelf um and he's interacting with the elementary school schoolers of true men so those three are staying in um as for now and we're hoping that they can continue in a safe place like our schools uh that we'll look after them but we do have Partners all over so we work at Bubba 33 uh which is right across the street and we help them with their setup routine every Monday Tuesday we do a mobile delivery to the schools Wednesday we work at the seral public library um we set up their stay in play so we get it ready for parents grandparents to play with their kids at the several Public Library um Thursday we actually work at the Venetian it's in southan boy it's a resident nursing home um and we are in charge of their Recreation so we come and we hang out with the residents of the Venetian uh and just bring smiles and you know something different to their day and then Friday we kind of have up in the air so every week we do something different um we'll tour different places we'll go to the mall to see different stores that they might be able to work at um and we keep Fridays open so the purchase of the van is definitely going to help us to get our students or crew members out to jobs throughout the day right now we have to wait till 9:30 so we're missing out on other coffee shops we're missing out on you know maybe if one wants to work in the bank or at Walmart they're missing those shifts that they'll be able to do and now we can get them out bright and early so that's our plan for the passeng van um want to add oh so our par apparel shop next door we recently got apparel from the golf team lacrosse and field hockey as well as several Junior bombers have donated some bows and socks and uh some shorts that you know you can purchase and we also have the community Hub in the back of the building and we actually utilize it today for the first time so Leading Edge which has been just such a wonderful partner with us they uh are utilizing the space to have their meeting and they utilized our crew members to serve them coffee pastries snacks and we kind of used it as like a waiter service and we went next door store and prepared their orders and delivered it and again it was just more interactions with people in the public so it went it went really well today Mrs Vini would you just if you don't mind would you mention the attempt to work with ryen Valley Community College and Ken's crew yes so we are reaching out to um different programs that are after for after our crew members leave us and we have reached out to Ren Valley Community College they have an incredible program what's the name of it do you remember achievement Center thank you the achievement Center um and they provide real college classes to students with varying abilities um so they have talked to us several times we've toured their campus several times they offer programs such as art dance music um writing classes creative writing classes business classes communication classes um and they are interested in some of our students attending uh so we have been working to figure out Transportation there and working with dbrs to make sure that you know something could be helpful and provide them opportunity to go there and just for our board members just for context the feedback we got from our parents whose children are working at the cafe is we never thought we'd see our child working and getting paid to work well now we want to give them the same opportunity with college we never thought our child would be able to attend and take a class at college so Mrs phini and her team are are are very close to doing that think about the mom or dad or Guardian who can say my child is working and taking a class which they never thought would happen so I actually um worked with a colleague at the high school who found a program at middle sex that's starting in the spring um and they provide classes three days a week for three or four weeks on varing varing different um subjects so there's a culinary school which one of our students really showed interest in um and it's right down the street at middle sex so we're looking at that option too they'll make it happen yeah probably we're going to work hard um and then Ken's crew is one of the last ones you have more knowledge yeah no problem K Ken crew is just a um it's a offsite it was a it's a a guy a team that works together and they have an intake and what they do is he generally teams up with Home Depot his his biggest partner and uh he is on-site mentor to our our our workers and they go he goes for eight weeks with them onsite uh so if you go through your intake you qualify for the program there's an onsite job Mentor that goes onsite for about eight weeks to get them ready for the job and and then they basically pass through the promotional process and then they get a job and then they get a full-time job with that with that company so they go through and they they basically apply to Ken's crew and then Ken Crews accepts them they take them under them give a job mentorship and then get them a job so we're we're trying to get the right students into that program also so I want toing I'm sorry um the last piece under here says they volunteer for Community uh service so we we have actually been working with the senior center in serval and we team up with their one of their um workers who is there and they assign us a senior citizen and we go and we help weed their yard we have done grocery shopping for them um we have just done little little pieces of things to make their life a little bit easier uh and our crew members are excited to do it we we were donate somebody donated to us a bunch of gardening tools and um we were able to use that to kind of teach them that it's important to give back to our community as well so I forget to say that this is just a a general overview of what it looks like for our program uh and the trajectory of our program next year our our numbers we're not going to be expanding into a new location we're not going to be buying any new furniture so generally we're not getting a new van so this number is projected to go up our enrollment is projected to go up so it looks like that we are going to continue down that trajectory and that's just a quick snippet of of the leg work that goes behind um this process of pulling all the numbers for our extensive report that is in your hand so um I don't know if you guys have any questions or there's anything questions from the board one the the program that you're looking at with raran Valley College is that's fantastic and provides so much opportunity does that have a pathway to a certificate program or Associates degree program for for the kids yeah it absolutely does they have a process that they work through um that uh they they take classes and then they it's almost like um introductory classes that build up their social and academic skills to provide them the set skills necessary to enter actual classes that are credit you know credits towards an associate degree and then they help track them towards it they also give them the support necessary for academic whether it's tutoring one-on-one work uh and additional services that will allow them to get that that's fantastic anyone else yes since you're helping out the senior citizens can you come to my house please surely will sign up I just wanted to say that listening to all three of you share about this program you know without a true heart and a vision a project and a program will fail if without people in it that really love the idea and the vision and you know putting all the work that you're putting into it is is the bulk of it but how much you love these these kids and and how much how proud you are of them and the accomplishments and opening up these doors of opportunity for them like you can't help but Smile as you're sharing so it's coming off of you in waves and I think that that is a l large part of the success of this is just how much of your heart that you're putting into it so it's really it's awesome to see anyone else you know I'd be remiss if I didn't make some comments um one of the qualities that I feel that I possess that is almost like a double-edged sword is I have a very strong imagination and the negative to that is when I imagine things sometimes they reality doesn't meet my expectations I'm sure you probably all have had that this program and I tell them every time I go over there and I try to get over there as much as I can because it is the happiest place in Cal and if you think I'm fibbing go there and if you haven't gone there yet what in the world are you waiting for get over there but every time I go there you always exceed my expectations the first time David brought his vision to me about this program I quickly began to imagine what it would be and your team exceeded anything that I could imagine it would become when we talked about opening the apparel store in the hub again my imagination was wild and I I walked in there last week and you blew my mind um it was more than I imagine it far exceeded my expectations and that goes to the Brilliance of you and everyone on your team and I can't thank you enough for all that you've done for every single student that's worked in this program or been educated in this program for every single staff member that had the privilege of either going or being a part of the development of the program and for the community for having such a wonderful beautiful and you said it Kaye loving place to go to U and experience our beautiful kids so thank you guys I do want to take one quick moment to to thank you guys uh We've tored about 15 how many SCH schools have tored our our program 2530 and everyone when we talk to them we always talk and we always have a conversation about them because they always say what do we need to get this program going and we always say you need a supportive superintendent and Board of Education and they always are like oh geeez and we're like well we are fortunate enough to thank the past and present members great that get us to where we are and that's how we've gotten to where we are so we thank you for your support and everything that you guys have done for us so thanks great job can I just say one thing Dr lbby yes go ahead um I remember when you took us over to see the space and you were like oh and it's going to be this and we're going to do this you were like all excited and I'm looking around going what are we doing like what is this going to be and I really I was you know pretty sure that you were going to accomplish your vision there but I still was a little skeptical and it really turned out to be great and I did not know that you were the original thinker he is so congratulations Mr nter you really have done an incredible job and giv all these kids such a a big you know and everybody's saying oh the parents are saying hey wow I I who would have imagined my kid would be working wow with my kid going to college how about the child feeling wow I can't believe I'm doing this so I think that's one of the biggest Wows so thank you so much all of you you're welcome so uh Mrs gross when I apologize because this is going to be a terribly hard act to follow great great but if there's anyone that can make this into a robust presentation it is you so um Miss Gman is now going to provide a riveting presentation on curriculum and instruction absolutely it's just amazing so much heart is going to go into this but it's okay um I would like it is the happiest place in saal though and I do adore bombers Cafe and a lot of their stuff is um simoc casted so I get to watch like I watched her sing and I was crying at home so it was great uh so it is a great place but I want to start by um recognizing my team members because I know that there are some new board members that I say names often and I want you to be able to put faces with them the curriculum and instruction budget is a collaborative effort I work with Audrey Burns and we sit down and we start to build it and then we work with the content area supervisor who spend weeks researching thinking about where their vision is for their departments um working with sales representatives talking to their teachers and then they develop their own Department budgets which then all kind of feed into this so I'm going to recognize and that's why I stood up so that I could actually see them over everybody um so I'm going to ask you guys to stand up for me and just give a wave so Mr Chris Howard is our supervisor of social studies and the Arts write the F and Performing Arts K through 12 we have Mrs car Miss Carolyn oconor who is our supervisor for science practical arts and our nursing program we have Miss uh Suzanne capro who is our I'm going to stumble on this one really World language language arts in ESL us to be my position uh we have Mrs Pamela sh Schleck who is our elementary supervisor for language arts and social studies in the humanities and she also works with our media specialists and we have Mr Daniel toy who is our elementary supervisor K through 5 for math science and our gifted and talented program we have some others who couldn't be here with us this evening but I wanted to acknowledge how much they put into this as well all right we ready guys we got this we're good um so during the uh 2425 it says looking back but we're kind of still there right now right so we had a um $1.2 million budget for curriculum and instruction and when you think about a school system it's the nuts and bolts of what we do right it's what we use to teach the children that um the resources that we give them the materials that we give them and how we support our teachers in Meeting those goals so during 2425 our budget items were um to expand our heg hegic awareness to grade two so when we took a look at our language arts program a couple of years ago and we decided that we wanted to balance our program a little bit more and bring in phonics and fine MC awareness we brought in hegerty and that's what uh Mr naster was referring to about our general education reading program and then if the students aren't able to make advances with that we look at alternate programs but in 2425 we expanded to grade two we also brought in um some resources called my reading Academy my math academy to advance their reading and Mathematics skills at at a differentiated level online tool at a um uh we brought it up to grade three we had been using it in grades K through 2 we adopted a new language arts series study sync by mcra hill we had piloted the year before it was a large um uh the response was so positive but it is a a large purchase which is why our budget is always a little bit High um but we brought that in for our 9 through 12 and then we were able to use some of that funding to Pilot it in our 6th through 8th grade that is a comprehensive language arts program that addresses vocabulary Reading Writing uh informational text literary text we created a district writing assessment program one of the things that we were noticing a lot of the um prepared assessment materials that we were using in districts link it uh form testing some other things they really lacked the independent writing cold writing on the spot you know preparing them for things that they face with high stakes testing with the state so we developed ours right Mrs cero worked with um our former Elementary and then we partnered with Ruckers and we developed an assessment tool that we used uh budgetary funds for this year to develop materials but also to pay some stiens for teachers to grade so our students back back in um September early October in grades 4 through 10 completed an assessment that we developed that gave us much needed data to support the students moving towards State Testing we also brought in several new classes at the high school this year American Sign Language 2 which was the second year of implementation of partnering with an online um virtual teacher so that we could expand our world language offerings we brought in a freshman Foundation course the vision of Mr gluh husky at the high school it um looks at social emotional learning it looks at study skills it is a mandated elective halfe elective that freshmen come in so if you were at the Freshman tip off you probably heard a little bit about freshman foundations um we brought in a uh film studies class we had kids that were interested in looking at film as a medium and analyzing how they're developed but also the impact that they have on society and we developed an elective for our history program called history of New Jersey we uh partnered with the special ed Department to um look at some Interventional math programs and we were actually able to identify some tier 2 math intervention tools success maker and momentum which is an assessment piece for our ASI tier two is uh when we identify students that need support in a Content area in this case mathematics and we need to provide them with a little bit of support outside the classroom maybe it's an academy maybe it's work with an academic support instructor so we were able to use some funds to bring in success maker for our students and grades 4 through 8 and our momentum math screener we're kind of ahead of the game with the state Mr toy uh that's going to be with our K through 5 students and that's when we want to identify what gaps there are for mathematics for students we're going to be using that to better identify what we can do with explicit instruction for those students we also revised over 37 curriculum guides in District that was a huge undertaking so there were things that it was the natural cycle that we needed to kind of look at we like we look at guides every four to five years in the state of New Jersey but we also had the launch of new standards we had foundational literacy standards foundational mathematics standards so when the state decides that districts local educational agencies need to do something we have to revise so 37 curriculum projects um we also took the prek uh uses something called tools of the mind but we wanted to make sure that it was up to sville standards so we took that and developed a sville prek curriculum I don't know if I'm too close I apologize uh we also develop and inent uh implemented a grant fund climate change program at sville Middle School uh this year that is um I'll give a little bit of an update with student achievement but we are also going to be expanding that to UE as well in addition to resources and curriculum materials we also provide opportunities for our staff and for our students so that we can focus our instruction and focus the way that we interact with our students to best meet their needs for our students um Mr naster mentioned we provided extended school year for students in grades uh prek through 12 partnering with Camp Excel we had learning acceleration for students in grades K through five we had a middle school Credit Recovery summer program it's a six weeks Pro six week program for students that struggle to meet the standards that are grade level in science mathematics and language arts we had an AP boot camp and all of that was funded through some Federal grant money um in addition to local funding we expanded our dual enrollment course offerings we more than doubled what we were offering so that we are closer to our goal of providing students at the high school the opportunity to earn their associates degree uh General Ral arts degree through middle sex College we enhanced our music program through purchasing a lot of new instruments and really kind of giving the music teachers what they wanted to be able to um have the talent that our students have really shined through we locally funded extracurricular activities related to multiple content areas Deca FBLA Odyssey of the mindmy at the high school for academic interventions technology Student Association and many more all of these r on local funding we expanded our learning ummies we've always had them in grades K uh well grades three through 8 for um NJ GPA but also literacy and Math Academy K through 8 and we were able to count on you and we thank you very much for local funding we provided that for our nine 10 and 11th grade students at the high school to support students that were struggling in demonstrating their abilities appropriately on the njsla and the NJ GPA we also um worked with the climate change awareness program uh through a doe Grant and we provided professional developments and we provided collaboration opportunities for the staff members who developed a program that partnered with the community where the students are going to benefit from um experiential learning they are going on various field trips to um very high science areas that are uh land L landfill water treatment places that you don't want to spend a lot of time smelling but the kids are going to learn a lot about what we do for our community it's all in the agenda that's it um for our staff we continue to use uh local and Federal grant money to provide shelter instruction observational protocol training so that our gen ed students could support our multilingual Learners and we also provided consistent targeted professional development through Partnerships with For the Love of literacy and New Jersey teacher to teacher so we thank you for all that you did for the students this year and and we look ahead to what we're asking for next year okay so we want to increase um the opportunities for students and staff obviously we want to maintain the wonderful programs that we have in District but we also want to expand to American Sign Language three we have a group of students that are excelling in American Sign Language too and really um embracing the opportunity so we'd like to add a third year for that language sequence we are also going to be asking for funding for biological life sciences and algebra to data Sciences both of those will be new courses at the high school for next year we would like to continue to work with the professional development director and the district instructional coach to provide support and training for our staff um and meeting the everchanging needs of our students we are going to be restructuring our media Communications Department at the high school we're going to be restructuring the TV 1 TV2 um kind of realigning the courses because the student um request and the need to bring in something that was a little bit more creative in its writing relating to media arts we're going to be bringing in a film making course we are asking for local funding for Interventional tutorials in K through 12 um as well as some tier three tutoring as needed to supplement what we do receive in Federal grant money we are looking to continue to provide virtual on demand tutoring for students in grades K through 12 we had the opportunity to use the high impact tutoring grant money in the past unfortunately that Grant is no longer available to us but we had such a successful partnership with pair deck where our students um whether they want to excel their skills whether they want to revisit a topic that they learned in school whether they want help with a writing assignment they are able to log on demand a tutor online session and get support that they need outside of the classroom we are also looking for local funding to um fund competitive co-curricular teams activities transportations for field trips all of these things are wonderful things that the board provides for our students each year in the worlds of curriculum and instructional tools um as I mentioned we were piloting the study sync by McGrath Hill series in grades 6 through 8 we had one teacher uh in each grade level that was working and it was so well received and um such a successful project that we would like to bring that in and provide that as a comprehensive core language arts program for all of our middle school students we would like to expand the use of hegerty in grades K through two by purchasing some decodable libraries if you've uh tuned into any of the science of reading um information that's out there about de developing a well balanced literacy program one of the first things that they say is kids need decodables that align with the hegerty uh phonic andine MC awareness so that is also included in our budget requests we are looking to expand our climate change awareness program at ues that's going to be something that we're funding through the New Jersey Department of Education but we're able to do that because we're asking for some local funds to continue the 6 through eight program that we have right now we are looking for continued resources it wasn't something that we budgeted for this year because we found it midy year but we were able to um bring that program in on a second half of the Year usage and we are looking to bring in the math resource intervention programs grad C through I'm sorry 4 through eight success maker and that's going to enhance the Envision program um Envision is great but it's literacy heavy and it tends to be conceptual in mathematics so success Mak is a component made by the same publisher that is going to allow us to give some explicit skill practice with our students and it focuses on prerequisite algebra skills which is something that we've identified through data analysis is being uh beneficial for our students we are looking to adopt and implement the math screener as I mentioned momentum for K through five to better identify students needing assistance in mathematics we are looking to expand our cville writing assessment program to include grade uh grade three Mrs Schleck partnered with some of the principles uh this year kind of seeing what that would look like an on demand writing assessment for third graders and she has developed a really great path to be able to do that so we're looking to expand that cerville writing assessment program to include those elementary students we are looking for the adoption of tools for literacy in the elementary grade such as readers and writers notebook um published by heinan and that again then will'll round out our use of fontas and panel classroom structures in addition to bringing in the other elements to balance our literacy program we're looking for some new textbooks for marketing and chemistry that are a little bit um long in the tooth I'm going to say so that we can update the information that we're bringing to the students and we are looking to continue the revision of existing curriculum guides and the development of new guides as needed I know that far too often it kind of breaks down to the number numbers so the um Financial comparison the 2024 25 current Appropriations for curriculum and instruction 1.2 and change um and our proposed budget is at 1.82 right now and it actually is showing a little bit of a drop which is nice um why Mrs Grossman are you asking for less money well when we brought in things like study sync it was four grade levels 9 10 11 12 and middle school it's only 6 through eight um and some of the other things don't have to be repurchased every year so a little bit of a dip which is nice in addition to the new programs um the local funding will continue to allow us to buy things like classroom instructional supplies journals whiteboards anchor chart paper things that are specific to lessons and to activities that are being done in the class that are curricular based not just general supplies that all of the buildings are given consumables for some of our current programs some of our series involve workbooks and um you know uh student man uals and things like that that we constantly have to replace uh we are looking to purchase some English novels and supplemental texts in grades 6 through 12 because when we realigned the curriculum and we brought in study sync it was a great time to kind of refresh the books that we're reading with the kids it also allows us to fund things like mathematics manipulative science lab materials materials for our Foods classes Auto wood shop um we offer an amazing arts program practical and fine and Performing Arts at the high school not all districts have those programs so we're very grateful for the board funding that allows us to continue to offer the students those opportunities we also uh purchase annual licensing for some of our online programs things like Envision study sync Spanish history and some online tools ST Math my reading my math Achieve 3000 silus Beluga Discovery Ed um a lot of times you hear these things coming up when we look at curriculum guides and student achievement and uh just the normal replacement of textbooks due to attrition for um subjects in and increases in enrollment and that ladies and gentlemen is the thoroughly engaging program on curriculum that was amazing all caps for the question all caps riveting and robust questions board members a couple I'll let you sit down first Miss Gman so um let me go back in your presentation here there was a lot I I love the focus we're putting on Phonics and writing and everything from an early age that kind of just goes without saying um freshman foundations fantastic new addition to the curriculum in the high school I'm so glad to hear that oh because Mr Howard did you hear that it is because kid the the transition from e8th grade to freshman year of high school is dramatic to say the least absolutely and the study skills the social skills everything kind of needs to adapt to high school and I think it's a fantastic program to have there and one of the things that um it it afforded the opportunity to do is because um 99% of our freshmen take the course right there is a little bit of a repeat with Roc so some of the students are in Roc instead of that but we the course also partners with the counseling department it partners with the vice principles it partners with our um our oh crisis counselor what is she sack thank you um with the sack counselor they go in they do lessons they have conversations they get they develop relationships with the Freshman from day one so how to navigate through any challenges in high school yes um I love that we have a real language art Series in high school now and it's going to be fantastic that you they'll have the same that it's the same program then they'll have six through 12 so they'll kind of learn it in sixth grade and then be very familiar with it like the the process of it the platform and things like that absolutely and it is a comprehensive series that does look at grammar and vocabulary and reading in variety of genres and it has instructional writing units not just writing as an output so we looked at several Series so we're really excited about it one other question because this one's near and dear to my heart because this is what I've been doing for the past 30 plus years of my life with the Fantastic new bonji facility and Studio that we have over the high school have we thought about adding any music industry or recording arts or anything like that to so we we actually have um music technology as a course existing um I act I had the pleasure of observing it which was really cool uh so the kids are working with um state of the the art equipment in you know writing their own music and creating their own uh composures which is just it it was mind-blowing to see what these kids are able to do I was there when they were using uh technology to um you know enhance sounds with different things they want to add a little bit of lightness they do this it was it was great I'm not going to pretend that I have Mr Sanford's vocabulary with that there are the budget does include some funding to help those music programs grow into what we've started with jbj as well great and if I can add to that the budget also includes a stipended for a person to go ahead and um help our own students produce music after school so we do have a stien in there that this person would facilitate students that want to go ahead and produce music to do so in the studio and just I'm sorry but that that's awesome then the one place we may want to look and explore because I know we're big on partners ship with colleges and univers Mammoth university has a fantastic music industry they actually have a oncampus record label uh that they produce down there so it might be something that we could look at for for Partnerships or for suggestions definitely explore that thank you yeah absolutely the the wonderful thing is we have um a lot of passion at the high school for it yeah you know between school leadership Mr Howard's leadership within the department the teacher um they that the little e-wing or whatever it is over to that side there that little music Wing is really um it's special yeah absolutely M palatano I'm gonna try to talk about C so going back to the Freshman foundations my child did the first semester of it she you know she just finished I guess it was Friday yes and you know she said it was interesting it was you know she never had to complaint about the teacher was great it was fun it was just it was different so she was kind of sad that it was ending cuz then schedule was changing but it it it it made a difference like she she came back like explaining some things to me I'm like oh I'm so glad like I don't want to talk too much on my call CU I'm feeling good no I'm so glad an interesting course the development of the course really um addressed 21st century skills and what the state now calls life literacy and communication and um they're they are reading uh the The Seven Habits of Highly effective teens and they're looking at different um ways of communicating within the class and it it really and this was just the first year so her parent conferences she's like you you don't need to you don't need to talk to that teacher I'm like yeah I do because it's a new class and you know he said it it it it was new it was different and the kids really engaged with him I don't know if it's the same teacher for all of them but the one that she had was great we have multiple teachers that are working on it but um you know we really kind of identified teachers that were going to take it and run with it and they worked collaboratively on the curriculum so Mr Gonzalez I think she had uh is he a social teacher Mr Gonzalez that's who she had good was good I'm wonderful that's great feedback anyone have any other questions yeah Mrs grosman I had a question regarding the virtual on demand tutoring so I know you mentioned peer deck is no longer being used or no P deck is currently being us still being used okay and it's for 6 through 8 6 through 12 6- 12 okay thank you yeah and they all students can go into their clever account if they log in with their school account and they all know what clever is they they click on Clever and all of the online logins that's how they get in they click on that pair deck formerly known as tutor mate have a question with the one of the new expense requests was for uh co-curricular teams can you have some uh some um co-ed teams what are some examples of those the comp the competitive co-ed teams so we have Deca we have FBLA we have Science Olympiad is on the agenda for this evening we have a technology students that's going to be participating in some competitive um Arenas Odyssey of the Mind Odyssey of the Mind the academic team right right yeah thank you thank you absolutely oh and HOSA the uh Health occupation Student Association I'm getting the nod yes yes what is was the other one CT T SOS thank you Mr Howard former you're viewing at home that was Mr Howard Mr Howard former adviser of several of those opportunties than for another acronym Mr [Laughter] Howard anyone else as always M Gman you leave me phenomenal job great job M Gman not any not not as exciting as bombers and Beyond but it's okay I'll take second Mrs Bloom that concludes our presentations for the evening okay and so now we move on on to board discussions uh governance who wants to take that since Mr Fernandez is not here Mr glocko certainly can um so governance committee met um back on January 28th um we had a number of items on the agenda including the District calendars for revisions to 2425 2526 and I believe the first time around for 2627 um we also had the transportation mechanic job description which is on the approval tonight um we went through a number of policies and regulations um those are all on tonight's agenda the vast majority of those updates um were clerical in nature they were to update um in alignment with um 18a or with other documents that have come out from the Department of Education um there are also some changes in there for example the high school graduation which was just eliminating language from the co era um which simply isn't uh applicable anymore um so the vast majority of those changes um all had to do with updates from varying regulations policies and and procedures um just looking over our summary right now there was no um substantial changes to any of those with the the one exception being um 5516 electronic communications there was not previously a regulation for this one only a policy um the regulation didn't change anything from what we are doing it's in uh preparation for possible changes at the state level as to the use of Sly devices in schools um there may be pending legislation there so the regulation is maintaining our current procedures it's just putting it in regulation preparing for possible future changes um we discussed that in our next governance committee we have another round of um updates the policies and regulations and then we went over some legislation updates for a potential future um mandatory preschool education Bill and then for a uh law for freedom to read act that Governor Murphy had signed into legislation and that was it for governance committee okay any questions Mr Glo no okay uh student achievement Mr Callahan you're good hello everyone yes so student achievement met last Tuesday uh during the meeting we re viwed the new calendars so we got three calendars that are on the agenda the current year 2024 to 2025 next year and actually I can't believe it 2026 to 2027 calendar is on the agenda for for this evening as well um and then as Miss Gman has said we discussed 10 curriculum guides that are on the agenda is that part of your 37 or is that in addition to the 37 yeah so those are all on the agenda for tonight to be approved additionally uh Miss Gman proposed awarding Varsity letters to the cadets in the JROTC program which is fantastic um that's at the high school and she reviewed the new student clubs so there's the Science Olympiad Club the hispanos unidos and the sville Jewish student Society um and then she also this great program we have called the B literacy endorsement on diplomas there was 21 seniors and 17 Juniors that are going to be eligible to get that seal on their diploma which is fantastic um and then miss Bert she gave us some updates on the grants the high impact tutoring Grant which is going away this year the climate change which I know Miss grman brought up during all those wonderful things going on with climate change that we're doing across the district as well as the professional development efforts that's always ongoing with the saal uh University workshops and whatnot and um I think that was about it and then we'll have our next meeting next month that good seeing none okay thank you uh okay middle sex County School Board Association update our next meeting is Thursday this Thursday February 6 it is a virtual meeting it will start at 6:45 uh you should already have gotten the invitation to register for that meeting and then moving on to March um the unsung heroes dinner will be on March 26th and um due to extenuating circumstances we will be holding it once again at Oldbridge high school so if you are interested Dr Labby once he gets that information will share that with the board I believe we're inviting two board members uh president and or anyone else who wants to attend plus the superintendent but that will all come out when you get that invitation and then Dr Labby will let us know who the students are and that is like one of the best County nights of the Year want a party I'm sorry I want to go to a party well unfortunately because the superintendent Association funds it we can't invite the entire board we would love to but it just can't happen so we will we'll see though how it goes that's it for me okay uh at this time we will open for public on agenda items only anyone in the public for agenda items only okay seeing none we will close public and Dr lbby all right if I can bring your attention to finance and infrastructure let's start with number one we're asking you to accept a computer science Society Grant in the amount of $700 number two which you can find on page two number one you can also find on page two we're asking you to approve a contract with maab Environmental Services related to aestus abatement monitoring for the HVAC projects at the Jesse sover School number 13 which you can find in the addendum we're asking you to approve a contract with mobile Ed Productions this is pretty cool to present the earthdome student assembly on February 24th at the sville middle school in the amount of $1,495 to be paid for using the aforementioned climate change Grant um referenced in Miss Grossman's uh presentation and then finally on the addendum numbers 14 and 15 we're asking to improve more equipment for our kitchens particularly at the samel upper elementary school and that's provided by map restaurant supplies first one's in total amount of $16 16,34 as well as a megat toop sandwich salad preparation refrigerator for the Middle School uh again supplied by map restaurant supplies and that's in the amount of $492 as you remember from our food services presentation at the beginning of January we have a surplus that we have to continue to spend down and Mr citadino and Miss Hill working really well collaboratively in doing that any questions on any of those items or anything else on finance and infrastructure all right seeing none let's move move over to student achievement first and foremost I'd like to uh apologize to the board but uh let you know that we are withdrawing number one which you can find on page seven that is the long-term suspension of a student so once again we are withdrawing number one on student achievement that's on page seven as referenced by Mr callaham we're asking to approve I believe 10 curriculum guides you can find that all on page seven number three which you can find on page seven and eight again referenced by U Mr Callahan we're asking you to approve those extracurricular activities the Science Olympiad Hispano unidos and the Jewish student Society at s warell High School and we can't thank Miss Fick miss corales and miss white enough for volunteering to be the respective advisers for each one of those clubs any questions on student achievement all right let's move to governance as Mr Glock mooy made reference to we are asked ask me to approve several revised policies and regulations for a first reading we'll ask you again to approve them for a second reading on February 18th but you can find that on number two and page nine numbers three through five which you can find on page 10 as again referenced by Mr Glock Malloy we're asking you first and foremost to approve a revision to the 2024 2025 School District calendar basically because we need to move our staff development day as everyone knows several years ago we started we created in with collaboration with the sea we created a sec or actually a fourth professional development day during election day the June election day we did not want people from the public coming into our schools to vote while our students were there so we created another professional development day so that the elections could be held in our schools and our students wouldn't be there we were recently informed that the election date which was previously June 3r had been changed to June 10th I believe it conflicted with a particular holiday so couple at the beginning of this month the state informed us that that date was moving from June 3rd to June 10th so therefore we are now asking you to approve that change on our school district calendar students will not have school now on June 10th while our whole staff participates in professional development we're also asking you to approve the 2025 to 2026 calendar revision essenti what we're doing with that is we're combining days in the last week of March um we had two days at the at the final days of March well we're just taking that whole week and making it our spring break as opposed to the previous calendar in which we started the last two days of March of our spring break and then we ended spring break on a Wednesday so rather than end spring break on a Wednesday we're going to start the spring break earlier so we have a full complete week of spring break for our students that was the revision on the 2025 Cal 25 26 Calendar and then finally as Mr cahan referenced believe it or not we're asking you to approve the 2026 2027 calendar number six and seven which you can find on page 101 this is really important um you may or may not know that every year we actually sign a memorandum of agreement with local County and state law enforcement it's a set of rules that we all follow when we're handling various matters um we're all on the same page it's something that began quite some time ago and it's been really effective in ensuring the public school districts are on the same page as law enforcement um along with that we're kind of head of the curve on this um Mr sprag and Mr Glock Malloy in their Brilliance again if you know anything about the two of them we are doing things well ahead of other districts in fact this last part number seven is where in which we're asking we're asking you to approve a law enforcement unit as an addendum to the UN uniform State memorandum of agreement not only were other districts not doing this we've been doing it for several years and that's a credit to Mr sprag and Mr GL Malloy but they're actually going to be doing a workshop so other districts can learn how they're doing what we're doing with regard to this and they were asked to do this Workshop by the middle sex County prosecutor so that's quite the compliment to both Mr Glock Malloy and Mr sprag for their ahead of the curve thinking uh when it comes to keeping our students and our staff safe while also following the memorandum of agreement with law law enforcement and then finally as again Mr Glock mooy referenced earlier we're asking you to approve a revision to the transportation mechanic J description any questions on governance and Mr Smith there are no retirements so I know you're upset we'll provide counseling after the meeting for you numers seven and eight on personnel which you can find on pages 13 and 14 in the addendum as always we're asking you to approve the hiring of new certificated and non-certificated staff for this school year likewise numbers 9 and 10 which you can find on pages 14 and 15 we're asking you to approve the transfer certificated non-certificated staff for the school school year and it's an annual thing that I do but I think it's really important to recognize this next individual Victor ntz who is a custodian he's the league custodian at the high school this is today his 48th anniversary in the district so um vict Victor deserves to retire we commend Victor um I don't think Victor's wife will allow him to retire yet you know what God bless him if he wants to keep going I'm fine with that because I adore Victor and again 48 years um with an organization speaks volumes about the person and the commitment and dedication to you that concludes my report Mrs bloom right any questions for Dr Lobby on anything no okay uh now we will move to public uh no we need a motion oh I'm sorry we need a motion we need to vote on see so moved second Chris okay all righty Mr Callahan yes Mrs chowski yes Mrs Hernandez yes Mrs Maldonado yes Mrs napalitano yes Mrs Pabon because there are multile F no you don't have to I just all right if I have I will but anyway I don't think that um you know with four women being on the board it should be given an opport we all should have the opportunity to attend so I don't know what the criteria was because it was never addressed to me the invitation comes out from New Jersey Schoolboard Association and they contacted us to ask to be approved for that individual so they contacted individual board members directly no everyone invitation in your email it was sent from the New Jersey school boards and you were asked to register oh I didn't catch that okay and then we can't do it unless eron approves it so it has to be put on the agenda well I'm still going to vote no even though I didn't say okay but next year I'll give you a heads up in case you missed it again well you should well actually it well everybody gets the email so I can't reiterate every email that you get from school boards because you know we get like six no but since this is really your baby you could asked me about it but that's okay oh well I apologize yes to everything else okay um Mr Smith yes Mrs Bloom um I have to abstain on six but yes to everything else is this correct Monday for Mee uh probably not go ahead turn on your mic just because I'm looking at the last page is that correct a meeting is Monday March 3rd on a Monday yes okay why is that okay I'm sorry why is it because there's something on Tuesday it's to be honest it's because I can't be here on Tuesday it okay thank you um so now we will open to public for any items at all anyone from the public who would like to speak please remember that you have three minutes anyone from seille who would like like to speak please approach the microphone first anyone who is not a saal resident go ahead former teaing to hear and I'm sure the children enjoy it so I just have a few things to say this evening Rel most allision activities is not child AB Rec emal devel as as Ames are involved morees separ thank you anyone else from public okay seeing none we will close public and we now need a motion to adjourn so move hi uh next meeting is February 18th and I want to thank the board for giving everybody off on the 17th because it's my birthday happy birthday to you who birthday is