Now call to order the July 30th meeting of the sville Board of Education please rise with pledge to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing we have a few um moments of Silence to ask you to honor this evening uh recently one of our pars Joan Lemer lost her husband so we're going to ask you to keep Joanne and her family in your prayers I also found out recently that three weeks ago one of going to get upset I'm sorry one of our longtime teachers at the high school leea who taught jewelry and I shared the open art room with with her uh she retired in 2002 she was a fun person and a very creative artist along with her partner Maryann Kowski they were the student council advisers for forever and I just wanted to honor Lee's time with us and let everyone know that she passed because the par uh the family kept it very quiet and personal uh and I think Eloy has another to it thank thank you madam president I'd like to take a moment to honor and remember one of our own Janine Harding who recently passed Janine was not only a beloved member of our community but also a cherished friend everyone who knew Janine was captivated by their radiant smile and unwavering passion for everything she did she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to her family and friends especially her cherished daughter Janine always had time to help a friend and was there to brighten your day when you needed it her funloving energetic personality Drew people to her and made every moment spent with her special Janine's presence will be de deeply missed by all who knew her especially her parents her daughter and her siblings in her honor I ask that and and of the other two I ask that we observe a moment of silence thank you thank you Miss Hill roll call please Mr Callahan here Mr Esposito here Mr Fernandez here paano here Mrs babone here miss pyck here Mr Smith here Mr Walsh and Mrs Bloom here miss Hill will you please summarize executive session yes the board discussed the superintendent evaluation a student matter and matters falling under attorney client privilege Personnel including but not limited to agenda items was on the agenda but was not discussed okay any correspondence of note no okay thank you uh I need a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting I'll move second uh Mr Callahan yes Mr Esposito yes Mr Fernandez yes Mrs npal Tano yes Mrs Pabon yes Miss pyck yes Mr Smith yes and Mrs Bloom yes okay uh student council Representatives get the summer off so they're not with us but we look forward to seeing them in September uh board president's comments I'll hold my comments for now uh vice president napalitano any comments no okay Dr Lobby presentations thank you Mrs Bloom we have three presentations for you this evening I'd like to begin with what it's called air quality flag Alert System Program had the privilege of meeting with Bridget facini who is our health and medical data management specialist also a certified school nurse and Jennifer reatch are floating nurse who naturally is also a certified school nurse and they went to a presentation where in which they learned a great deal about the air quality especially the air quality in seille New Jersey and I don't want to steal any of their Thunder but their information that they share with me was both enlightening but also scary and they had a program in mind to address the air quality and how we can help our students especially our students with asthma and other breathing breathing related difficulties along with the entire community and alerting the community on situations in which the air quality can be one that is unhealthy so without stealing any more of their Thunder I know you're gonna like their presentation if Miss Vini is here and Mr Rach is here I'd like to ask them to come to the podium and share their presentation with us thank you good evening um we would like to thank Dr Labby and the board of education for allowing us to present to you this evening to give everybody some background even though Dr Labby did great job already we were invited to attend a presentation by a bachelor's degree nursing student vieta pzi her presentation discussed the air quality in s calbo as a whole and how it can impact both children and adults in the area during her her presentation she introduced to us the United States air quality flag program Carolyn our supervisor Bridget and I were so surprised by the statistics provided in the presentation that we looked more in depth at the program and we wanted to bring what we found to you the Board of Education all right so what is air pollution and why is it important if the air we breathe is polluted then we are breathing in chemicals and particles that can be harmful for our health the five major pollutants are ground level ozone particulate matter carbon monoxide nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide during this presentation we're going to be focusing on two types ground level ozone and particulate matter this first slide discusses ground level ozone ground level ozone is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds it occurs when pollutants chemically react in the presence of sunlight levels are usually the highest during the hot days of the spring summer and fall it can reach unhealthy levels in both urban and rural areas it is New Jersey's most persistent air pollutant and some of the major man-made sources of the pollutants that form ozone can include Motor Vehicles power plants factories consumer in commercial products and fuel combustion processes this next slide discusses fine particulate matter which is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets which are found in the air that can occur year round fine particulate matter is made up of inhalable particles which have diameters that are generally 2.5 micromet and smaller they pose the greatest risk to health especially to the children as their lungs are still developing and they breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults do some sources of fine particulate matter this graphic shows the size of fine particulate matter in relation to a single strand of human hair and a piece of sand some sources of fine particulate matter can include Motor Vehicles power plants industry sources wood burning stoves and forest fires some health effects from ground level ozone and fine particulate matter include increased respiratory symptoms including irritation of the Airways coughing or difficulty breathing development of chronic bronchitis or asthma during the 2023 2024 school year 485 cbal students had a known diagnosis of asthma or reactive airway disease the air quality index is the Environmental Protection agency's index for reporting air quality it's a rating system this index tells you how clean or polluted the air is and what the associated health effects might be it's a colorcoded system which runs from 0 to 500 with 0 to 50 being good air quality and 301 to 500 being hazardous air quality the national ambient air quality standard for a pollutant is 100 anything above 100 is considered unhealthy the index is divided into six categories with each category representing a different level of Health concern the air quality index is used to report ground level ozone and fine particulate matter as depicted on the map seral currently has two schools that are within 1,000 ft of a busy roadway these roadways include the Garden State Parkway Route 9 and Route 35 throughout the presentation we have discussed ground level ozone fine particulate matter and the health concerns that are associated with the exposure to both types of pollutant due to this we feel as though the New Jersey air quality program would be beneficial to the Saville Public Schools you might be asking what is the New Jersey air quality flag program well each day a colored flag would be raised in order to inform the school and community of outdoor air quality conditions for that day the flag colors are based on the Environmental Protection agency's air quality index as seen in the previous Slide the colors represent how clean or polluted the air is on a daily basis in addition to the flags schools would receive guidance materials air quality lessons and assistance with implementing the program the New Jersey air quality program considers schools eligible Community Partners thus qualif qualifying Us for free flags for all the schools in the district the air quality index helps to provide guidelines and recommendations for outdoor physical activity based on the air quality forecast schools can adjust the level of outdoor activity based on the overall air quality projection for that day an example of this uh sville had poor air quality days on June 7th and 8th of 2023 due to the wildfires in Canada these days would have been classified as red or unhealthy air quality days with a air quality index value of 172 thus meaning that everybody should limit prolonged outdoor exertion Dr Labby notified parents and due to the safety concerns that apposed for students and staff we had an early dismissal based on these events steps have been put into place to protect students and staff including air purifiers in the schools and the continued installation of the air conditioners in the school district there are three different ways to check the air quality forecast you can subscribe to enviral flash which provides the daily air quality forecast through email or text message you can download the air Now application on your phone or you can look at your weather app which is available on Apple and Android devices these are examples of some of the activities available for each grade level K through3 has what color is your air today it's a little worksheet prek through 3 why is Coco Orange it's a very cute story they also have a video that they do as well and grade five is what's up there besides air which is a a science experiment and these aren't the only ones these are just a select few we feel that the New Jersey air quality flag program could be integrated into the climate change awareness Initiative for grade seven we believe that it aligns with the goals of the climate change awareness grade program as it supports locally focused climate awareness initiatives that that connect the local Regional and Global implications of climate change with the lives of the students we are hoping to implement the New Jersey air quality flag program into the district as a way to keep all students and staffed informed and healthy we would like to get parents involved by sending out an informational newsletter blast regarding the program and any questions so how is how is this being set up it's not a class it's a quote unquote club we guys meet and what flag goes out what day based on X Y and Z um so every day there will be an air quality index report right um and we can actually see it for the day before as well the schools are going to determine how they want to do it for each school but every school has their own set of flags that they would put in front of their school again that's something they can decide they can put it by the front door they can hang it on the flag pole whatever works best for your school um that's how we would show what it is uh for the day the air quality for the day but we would also have morning announcements that share what the air quality is what it means and lessons that the kids can learn that's great I'll tell you what you you go one step further with this you tell Carolyn that you guys should have a class for your you know upper ralon science kids collaborate see how you can find find solutions to these problems because that's real life it's not textbook that's what they're going to be doing when they leave us absolutely I mean I don't know if you do that or don't but we can definitely do that and it is going to be part of our New Jersey climate change uh Grant because I'm I'm sure on days that the air index is high you guys as School nurses see more of a need for rescue inhalers and nebulizers in in children absolutely and that's why we're all going to follow the system every school is going to follow the system we are going to do my feeling is we should be putting the flags up on the flag pole so that not only our students and our teachers can see people driving by can see yeah to make the community aware yeah make the community aware and obviously we'll be following the recommendations from the presentation in terms of whether we allow our kids go out for recess if it's recess or gym outside a gym outside if it's an unhealthy day I just downloaded the app went right toille well I was hoping can you talk a little bit about seille you mentioned in your presentation about the fact that several of our schools are close to but talk about what the air quality is in cille knowing the fact that we are sandwiched between the Garden State Parkway route N9 you could even go as far as to say Route 18 and Route 35 how is the saille air quality compared to other places in New that's something we would have to really look in depth into which we haven't done like really in depth but you could tell by the trends most of the days because me and Bridget are both um subscribed to the envir flash so we get the alerts to our emails um every day and we've been seeing that Cal ranges anywhere between most often anywhere between a a green air quality day and a orange air quality day that's mostly what we see um you could definitely tell in the the hotter months that the air quality you rarely see a green day we're mostly in the yellow and orange days which are are higher those are the moderate and unhealthy for sensitive groups and I should say the unhealthy for sensitive groups when you look at that immediately you might think that's the asthma kids or anybody who has respiratory issues that's actually children in general yes that's the whole pediatric population correct so it's especially more important for every kid not just um the students who have respiratory problems M can you talk I love the idea of putting the flags outside in public view because as much as we're going to focus and should focus on because that's what we do is focus on students and their health is there's still a big population in sville that has COPD and other respiratory illnesses that should be aware of what the air quality index is and we can all do our part in trying to help with that too and I think that's a big part of the climate change initiative and Kim can you talk a little bit about how we would include something like this in that so the climate change Grant uh that we were recently awarded the supervisors for English language arts mathematics science and social studies worked with Bridgette and I and we identified and I think that's why you referenced it during your uh presentation which thank you very much for that um the seventh graders are actually going to be research searching environmental issues locally so they are going to look at things like air quality water quality um pollution and they are going to choose their topics and they will participate in interdisciplinary research and lessons in their English mathematics science and social studies courses and talk about citizenship and the connection with environment so I think that this is absolutely something that fits in beautifully there and then um at the high school level we do have an AP environmental science course so it's something that Mrs mccab and her students can work on as well uh related to that you know um I think that moving into literacy and writing lessons that are relevant to real world's problems is something that we're really trying to strive for with the students so this fits in beautifully with that part of the grant is also going to incorporate a environment Club after school so that might be one of the outlets for students that can create um public service announcements that can look at materials and support or even go down and visit some of our elementary schools to work with them so I think that we have a lot of opportunities to incorporate your research and your finding so you and as an asmatic and a mother of one thank you and and we were hoping that the younger kids could get especially excited and well maybe they'll see the flag and they're getting dropped off at school by their parents and now they can say it's a green flag today I know what that means and tell their parents a little bit more about ABS that's another reason we also want to do the newsletter so the parents know what all the flags mean they'll be aware of the program and the initiative and they can kind of get into it with the students as well it's it'll be incorporating everybody which I think is really good and back to Jeff's point we can all do our our our share and helping with this matter I mean Mr sprag over behind you will tell you there are many many times where our campus security monitors myself and administrators have to talk to parents about leaving their cars on letting their cars idle I mean we have parents that sometimes will park in front of the school leave their car idling lock the car go into the school and we got to tell them first of all it's unsafe to do that but secondly you're just putting all those emissions up into the air and we already have too much emissions so now we can refer to the flag and say look at that it's a green day and you're making that green day even worse by idling your vehicle today in fact a yellow day Rick there you go there you go you guys got that already whole time good job you guys are fast that's see how great your presentation was presentation was fantastic not only they all four they've all downloaded the app they don't do this with me guys we appreciate hell of a job really great job thank you thank you ladies thank you and Dr lry I actually think there is a law that says you can't let your vehicle idle for more than five minutes oh yeah well it should be a little bit less but yeah okay moving along to our next presentation Miss Gman is going to provide you a presentation on our waeda access scores our New Jersey graduation performance assessment scores and our AP advanced placement exam results M Rosman do we have the presentation the slideshow I know that the board members have a paper copy in your folders use a clicker now I'm really in trouble there's way too many things to keep track of okay so thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of you about how well our students performed over the 23 24 school year so today we're going to speak about the um waeda access test results and that's related to our multilingual Learners and their uh proficient in acquiring English as a language we're going to speak about the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment that was taken by all of our incoming seniors when they were Juniors and our preliminary AP data which was just too good to not share so as a reminder on slide two the waeda access is annually mandated for our multilingual Learners in grades K through 12 by the Department of Education our results this year um also give feedback on the multilingual population within the district we had a 20% increase in enrollment from 2023 to 2024 over the last five years we have doubled our multilingual learner population and that's not just students that move to the community speaking another language that's students that qualify for ESL services based on a proficiency below intermediate um we screen all of our multilingual Learners when they come into District can I interrupt I'm sorry to do it but just if you speak uh two languages right AR don't they have to qualify for that anyway aren't they considered MultiLing well you can be bilingual but be proficient enough in English to not qualify for automatically put them in because too if you students that speak a language other than English as a primary home language we use multiple criteria to identify so number one if a student moves here from another country where English is not the primary language number two if the language during the home language survey which is part of our registration if that indicates something other than English that's a second indicator we do an informal interview when we intake new students so it might be a counselor it might be the ESL teacher it might be the administrator depending on when a new child enrolls so that's our third indicator and then our ESL teachers screen our students we use something called the weda model um to uh and the WEA screener depending on the age group to evaluate students Reading Writing speaking and listening in English so it's it's not just enough that they speak a different language but they have to be below um a 4.5 in Proficiency in all the domains to be eligible for services so the numbers that you have here we have doubled the number of students that are eligible for services we have far more that speak two three languages thank you very much it's definitely changing Community we have 25 languages uh that were reported during the 23 24 school year certain districts throughout New Jersey they have maybe Spanish maybe Portuguese they have one culture that is predominant we have 25 languages we hit every continent in cville and uh out of those the state requires you to give additional Supportive Services if you have more than 20 students that speak a certain language K through 12 we are a big District um so we have more than 20 Spanish Portuguese and Ukrainian speakers uh so in 2024 2025 those students will receive some additional Services um we also we going to be providing Services which comes up in a little bit for newcomers Stu uh students that are within um 3 years uh of moving um we qualified for some immigrant funding so on slide four our overall performance it's fairly consistent um it's very important to keep in mind that your population changes every single year for ESL you have new students that are moving in a lot of times they are beginner speakers so our score it increased by 2/10 which is not considered significant when you look at statistics but we did have more students um close to 5% that exited SL so they were able to within the couple of years that they were with us increase their Proficiency in Reading Writing speaking and listening in English enough that they will no longer receive Direct Services but we do monitor their progress um through looking at the different data points with linkit and we do make sure that they're on track to be proficient with other non- multilingual students the chart on Slide Five um shows you our growth in the number of students that were tested over the last several years these happen to coincide with me being the English ESL supervisor uh so when you look at this we have a consistent and significant increase in the enrollment of multilingual Learners we are fortunate enough that our budget for 2425 indicated um included another full-time staff member to address the needs we are currently trying to staff that position our average score was decreasing so when Suzanne capro the supervisor of ESL and I met we looked at how many years have the students been in ESL this year as opposed to last year New Jersey itself is seeing a trend where kids are staying in ESL longer than 3 to four years which is what research always indicated it would take a child to be able to meet that level of proficiency in fact uh and I saw Mrs giovenco over there she does this data with me every year um we used to have to indicate when students were in it for five or six years and it would be an anomaly and now it's become more and more commonplace so we have a significant influx of newcomers to the community because of that when uh Miss Bert and I submitted the Federal Grant application recently we had title 3 which is funds to support multilingual Learners and we had title three immigrant funding for the first time in several years that means that we have had an increase in our immigrant population we are going to be dedicating fun to providing some um extended school day for our ESL Learners in prek because the earlier that we can get to them even though it's not required by the state but if we can get to them fast enough they're sponges at that age group so we're going to be doing some newcomer ESL clubs at Cheesequake and at cover and we are also going to have some newcomer uh additional services in grades 4 through 12 where we have the Staffing and we had the largest number of immigrant students coming in slide six shows the average proficiency by domain um it's not it's consistent with our data over the past several years writing is the last skill in literacy to be acquired in proficiency um even for children that that speak uh English as a primary language writing is often that advanced skill so our ESL students um the speaking and writing domains were a little bit lower performing than the listening and the reading and our subgroup statistics which is mandatory to be reported to the state um this data whenever we speak about this the window that it gives us is where our students are coming from so if you have students that are coming from African countries or Asian countries where they may have learned English in school as opposed to coming from South American or Central American where they had interrupted education for various reasons so we do the breakdown by culture and we do it um by other groups of students as well so it gives us an insight as to where our um population is coming from and to answer the anticipated question it's coming from everywhere um we do have like I said multi-continental representation slide eight uh Suzanne caero and I met recently and we had to submit our uh three-year limited English plan to the state so that that's where we really had the opportunity to dig deep into this data and talk about you know what's going on with ESL and multilingual Learners here in cville so um the goals that we set for the Department last year we were only successful in meeting one of those goals um we talked about you know root analice clause and we did have a very significant 20% increase um so that kind of gets in the way of meeting certain goals especially since students can come to District September November January February the month before in fact the ESL waeda access test is given in between February and the end of April if you have a student that moves into District the last day of testing we are obligated to administer the screener even though they have had no instructional practice in our district so we looked at that information and we uh worked on some goals so we uh we did see 1% growth it wasn't what we were hoping for um we had an increase of uh 1% um I'm sorry of 0.1% which was uh close to our goal and then we had a little bit of a dip in our average for the domains looking ahead to 2425 we are um going to look at our curriculum next we have really benefited from an increased staff in this department over the last several years and we're very grateful for that but our current curriculum is one that is recommended um it's a a well-known curric curriculum but it advances content knowledge along with literacy and Mrs caero and I agree that we want to look at something that goes back to the B the basics of foundational English so we want something that's a little bit more literacy based so that's something that she's going to be working on with the Department we are also going to establish a parent advisory committee um and you will receive as board members an invitation to join us in that endeavor looking at Community representation staff members Administration Board of Education members that are going to look at multilingual learner population in District and what we can do to help students acquire English uh faster and more efficiently does anybody have any questions um related to waa access I have a question about learn I'm sorry about learning language and and it's it's going to sound just hear me out so is it easier for someone to learn a language when it they're not catered to as much because now they have to do it or or is I mean is this the way to go so I I think that when you deal with multilingual Learners it's dealing with every other child as well right so some students are going to easily pick up linguistical skills right there are other students that something like immersion you know might be something that's a little bit more successful there is research to indicate that the more English is spoken at home that it is easier for the student to acquire those language skills which is why we brought back our adult program because if our P if our adults can speak it then it's going to advance our students but the motivation um when when I work with our multilingual Learners and I and I kind of feel like they became like my kids for all of those years um these students are at a younger age a dis they're at an advantage because a lot of what we do in elementary is literacy and Mathematics but the older a child is when they come into district and they start having like the high school students they're coming in they're learning biology and chemistry and they're learning history and all of these other things on top of trying to master English so it's it's pretty much individualized um we do believe in providing consistent Services which is why we have certified ESL teachers we have 5 days a week we have extended school we have extended summer we just provided learning acceleration for all of our ESL students is it well attended it is actually very well attended by our our ESL population represents more of the 155 students than any other group um we provided free trans uh free transportation we gave them the immersive experience with the classroom that they were assigned to but then we also gave them ESL services with Shannon Cicero and Kyle Miller all summer so and and working with parents over the summer so we're looking looking at it from a multi-tiered approach because no child is the same when that's great when we're talking about the older kids middle school high school is that still is that like an inclass support or is it a pullout program we're doing for is it a little bit of both it's a little bit of both so we have um we have traditional ESL in grades 6 through 12 where the students are pulled out um if they're Advanced Learners they're pulled out from social studies which is a single period and then they have English with a trained scop uh which is a program that we train our general education teachers in that meets the needs of our um ESL Learners so they have English with a scop trained teacher and then they get one period instead of social studies where they learn the social study standards but they also work on advancing their English if they are beginner or intermediate at the middle school they have a double period at the ESL pull out in lie of English and then they have a social studies trained scop teacher at the high school all of our te uh all of our beginner intermediate and advanced students have one period of ESL in addition to their English class and then they have scop trained teachers in different departments a lot of our science and our social studies teachers are scop trains and our entire physical education department is trains which I love are are we seeing more of that age student or more of the younger student it varies year to year um we have seen a very large number of high school students over the past 5 years come in as high schoolers um unfortunately it's somewhat a Transit po a transient population as well sometimes we get them for a couple of years and then they might move to another Community um we had obviously after the uh conflicts in Ukraine we had a lot of students that came from um the Ukraine and we had to support them with you know emotional learning as much as we did with language acquisition too um it's it's something that the multilingual population often deals with was how they came to this country or why they came to this country so to answer your question we do pull out we also do after school tutorials uh we train our staff in scop that's something that we use professional development money for each year to make sure that everyone can support these Learners and then we provide the summer learning so great it's kind of a mix I have a question and you board members in our agendas will be will ask you throughout the year to approve teachers for scop which is sheltered instruction protocol observational prot observational protocol training yeah I would say over the course of the past five years how many teachers do you think across the district we've trained we're we're approaching 200 it's something I'm I we're very proud a lot of the teachers Miss Burns will tell you in the preschool yeah y we um preschool is not uh mandated by the state to provide it but Mrs Burns and um Mrs o'ri and Mrs magish show and I when we were speaking about it were like if we can support them at this age they'll be fluent by the time they get to second grade so that's great we trains most of our project before teachers to punctuate another point that Miss grman made the fact that we would like more kids to speak English at home with their parents that's why we provide and you recently approved us to provide English language instruction to adults um at the high school and we have how many how many parents signed up for that again it's wildly popular we've always run one class and then we maxed it out at 20 and this year we had such an interest that we have two so Katherine Moyes and um digna Matias are both running classes at the high school for adults um and we were I mean we we're getting towards the end of the summer session and they were having parents that were still showing up you know they were like no no we want come you know the public library used to offer classes they weren't as consistent it relates to their funding as well so it's something that we very much made sure that we incorporate it into the Federal grant fund application for 2025 so that we could continue to provide it that's awesome yeah I have a question sure um what does weda mean what does it stand for um oh you got me on that one so weda is actually uh it's a trademarked term and it's a Consortium of States and how they handle it so New Jersey part participates in weda but the exact breakdown of the acronym I would have to look up you got me good thank you now can I phone a friend somebody over there that's on a computer I'm gonna look it up don't worry Google says it means waa me a trademark name I think it had something to do with like and I'm willing to bet Donna Saka right now is checking every Donna Saka you can text me and it will come across on my watch yeah good question ien I'm gonna get I'm I'm gonna find that out for you all right any other questions related to weda access or our multilingual learner program all right moving on so New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment this is something that was started a couple of years ago from the New Jersey Department of Education we kind of refer to it as the graduation requirement assessment um I do have the answer oh oh I have the answer states were involved in the grant so Wisconsin Delaware and Arkansas oh there you go so it stands for the states that started it to Google but here's what it means WEA stands for worldclass instructional design and assessment but the acronym is no longer used and the organization simply refers to itself as weda weda is an educational Consortium of State Departments of Education that develops and implements stands and assessments for English language Learners and Spanish language Learners in grades K to2 12 that's what it means thank you there you go there we go team effort that's it thank you everyone I feel very well supported okay so the NJ GPA nicely so the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment is administered to Juniors annually takes place in March and the students are required to take this exam um in order to meet graduation requirements in the state of New Jersey every student has to take it in order to meet meet the requirement if they demonstrate graduation Readiness in language arts and Mathematics through the cut score that's considered the first path to graduation if they do not there are alternate Pathways and then the final Pathway to graduation is a portfolio appeal so this is the results and I'll give you a little bit of an update speaking of Donna sakola uh of the hard work that the high school administrators supervisors and counseling department have been doing over the summer getting our students ready but first so English language arts uh almost 90% of our Juniors demonstrated graduation Readiness which is the term the state uses in language arts please know that this is students with 504s students with disabilities English language Learners and general education students 90% so that is something to be very very proud of mathematics we had almost 62% demonstrate graduation Readiness the math portion of the GPA includes a variety of topics there's a little bit of algebra there's a little bit of geometry there's a little bit of trigonometry so there are a variety of topics so some of the kids you know it's a more challenging test the mathematics because of the variety of the types of problems but we can proudly report that we exceeded the state average by by 8% in English and just under 6% in mathematics our subgroup data which we break down for the um state of New Jersey um we look at graduation Readiness for our ethnic groups and we also look at it when it comes to our economically disadvantaged students with disabilities students with 504s and our English learner multilingual Learners so when you look at 38.9% graduation Readiness for language art these are ESL students these are students that most likely moved to our district within the last 3 years and they're taking a grade level aligned to the expectations that we hold our general education primary English language um speakers too our mathematics we also have the percentage there for our subgroups um math is one of the subjects along with science that when kids move here from different countries they don't always have a background in those subjects and because different states and different districts vary in how they do their math program if we have a high school student that moves here they might not have had the math in the sequence that we presented so these are all things that we talk about when we look at the data um in 2024 uh we had 89.8% graduation ready that is up almost 3% from 2023 in English and it is nearly double what we saw in 2022 for mathematics we're at 61.6% which is a nice um uh increase from about 4% yeah 5% 5% increase from last year and again it's up that same 5% from the year before so um when I met with the supervisors and the high school administration and we talked about you know our goals and reflected upon you know what we've been doing we have seen significant growth from 22 to 23 and that speaks to the efforts of the high school so we use some of our federal funding to provide um New Jersey GPA tutoring in the spring we had tutoring and push in small group instruction in our algebra courses we had um opportunities for students to do on demand one toone tutoring so a lot of the different resources that we provided we we felt were successful these are things that we're going to to continue doing since taking the test um Mrs solola and the high school administration have been working feverishly with the Juniors that did not demonstrate graduation Readiness we only have eight students in the class of 2025 that need to demonstrate that graduation Readiness um in language arts and we have 99 in mathematics so we are working on all of the Interventional plans that we are he turns it on green like giving me the alert I'm coming with a question um so we have a lot of Interventional plans that are going to be taking place in September with the students that need support but we did administer a summer um exam for the NJ GPA so all of the students that needed to demonstrate Readiness were invited to participate we had well over 120 students that came for testing we also offered them the opportunity to complete the acup Placer which is one of the alternate Pathways so we had kids that came in for 4 days of tutoring and four days of testing and we are just really proud of the students that are making an effort and taking this seriously yeah that was going to be my question this softball I was going to throw at you to let you s but yeah I mean almost 32% of our juniors are not meeting the graduation requirement from the from the test so do those kids that were close but missed it by a couple points are they allowed to retest yeah after some intervention so we we provided intervention um the scores came back but we kind of started immediately we look at our Link at data and we look at some of the other things that is reported by the mathematics teachers and we identified who needed support So when the initial reports came back the individual student reports we um organized some interventions at the high school like I said Mr gusk Mrs sakola Dr Maharana and Mrs capro you know C and Dr defina came together as a team and really you know decided how are we going to meet these needs so there was tutoring that was done during the school year there was tutoring that was done during the summer the state allows us to administer the um njpa in July so we just did that two weeks ago and we will be able to administer it again in the fall because like I said every student has to take it they have to at least complete it in order to access the Pathways um we are going to continue with some of the interventions that we felt worked well uh we had a lot of kids that missed it they had like a 723 or a 724 and the cut score is 725 which is you know can be so frustrating for a for a teenager miss one problem yeah so we we really are working with them and making sure that we give them access to and prepare them for alternate Pathways kids can meet the pathways through the SAT the PSAT and the accuplacer test so we we make sure that all of our students are graduation ready we proudly did not have to submit portfolios for any 2024 students that's awesome I saw the green light go ahead I just wanted to emphasize when she said about language arts it's eight total students not 8% eight total students left that's it have we received the results yet for the when do we expect to get the results for the July NJ GPA we think it was late August early September last year that that's the reason that we went with the alternate testing because we oh that's the other thing so any students that have not demonstrated graduation Readiness will be scheduled for L 12 or math 404 in addition to their math and English and their other courses so if the students came over the summer and they demonstrated the Readiness through the accuplacer they were able to take that not so fun elective according to them off of their schedule so we're hoping to have scores in so that we can give the kids a breath of relief over you know before their senior year starts and they'll be able to drop that elective and for the acup Placer we already know the results instant and how many of those students that took the acup Placer pass 16 in mathematics and I don't know the language arts score my head yeah it was a lot like I said we dropped down to eight from like 24 kids yeah that that's that's incredible because that's all your yes so kids your 504 kids your all your special needs it is and population and that helps those kids as M Gman said now they don't have to take those remedial courses so that they can pass it more importantly you're actually making them proficient before they graduate exactly right aside from passing a test we're we're getting kids out of school that and the state does literate and can function in math yeah and the state does recognize um districts that which pathway how many kids graduate with the first path the second path the third path so our goal is for all of them to go through the first path because we want them to be graduation ready the accuplacer test um if it sounds familiar to some of you that's often used as a placement test in community colleges and other colleges sometimes you took the accuplacer if you if you didn't want to take that English class as a freshman in college wellth though who wouldn't want to but they would do that minimum basic skills test for college well that's one of these pathways middle sex college students have to take it for placement as well what percentage of these kids go on to college have to take different Pathways um I don't I you know I would have to check with Mrs Cole I don't know if we we collect that data you know we collect how many kids go to a two-year school fouryear school go into the military but I don't know if we've done a comparison between which pathway we also have students that like the kids that took um the GPA in July Pass the acup Placer they might come come back with a passing score on that as well we have students that pass the GPA but they also pass through the SAT so we have kids that pass through multiple Pathways as well well I was thinking if if if you get to them early enough and they don't want to go on to college you know we could direct them towards a trade which it desperately needed anyway but might be beneficial to them but do we do that we must do that right yeah our school counselors work with them on making that decision as to where they go to college or maybe a different vocation okay in fact Nationwide including in New Jersey and I suspect even in cille there's been a drop significant drop in kids going to college most of that is because college is just so expensive yeah U but the other reason is because there are some vocations out there where in which you know you can graduate from high school get some Technical Training and make just as much money as some people get when they graduate from uh College go become an elector and don't have the debt yeah but I think that it it also speaks to we it is our responsibility as a district to make sure that kids that anyone that wants to go to college would have the minimum basic skills to succeed so even if they're choosing to go into the trade we still want them to be graduation ready when it comes to math and English and things like that and there are a lot of literacy skills in mathematic skills related to those trades as well you know Absolut I proof proofread an awful lot of job proposals for the adult male that lives in my household any other questions on that I can also add that uh New Jersey school school boards is doing research it's been going on for the past five or six years uh proposal is coming out soon but we are always promoting the non- colge bound learner and the trades so they they are very cognizant that that's the new Direction yeah Community functions on all of those roles all right we're going to move on to our AP data which like I said was too good to not share so 400 116 exams were taken in 20 subjects this spring at sville War memor Memorial High School a three is considered a passing score by the College Board out of those 416 314 of our students scored a three four or five 106 students earned a five on at least one of the exams that they took and that's the highest score and we have one student that earned fives on all six exams that were taken insane absolutely in awe right so um looking at our mean score by exam the chart that is provided it's a little bit hard to read on the screen so hopefully the print out works for you um any course that you see in bold in that far right corner they saw an increase in their mean score 11 of our courses had an increased mean score five courses had a mean score over 4.0 which is considered a very high score and our AP pre-cal shout out to Mrs proli it was the first year that we offered this course and the mean score was over four means nearly every child got a five so our um our scores were just absolutely amazing the hard work um our teachers and our students put into it and that brings us to the end I just have one I just have one one question if I can back up for for a minute um I want to commend you on having the uh English classes for parents I think that obviously creates a lot of positive outcomes for the not only for the child but for the family but I am a little concerned when we say that we're going to be encouraging them to speak English at home I understand the positive impact it has in the classroom however I think we also need to make sure that they don't lose something in in the process as someone whose English was not their their first language I'm very happy that my parents didn't speak English to me at home I've this is based stroll on analytical data here but I've seen way too many families who have great intentions who speak English at home but the child suffers because now they've lost their initial language and they lose part of their culture and that's something that's very valuable that I think helps them later in life so I think we need to find a balance between the two I think we need to speak English at home is great but I don't think that should be the primary language even though despite the impact it may or may not have here especially with the younger students younger students in lower grades they're they're going to learn their the English one one way or another they're not going to relearn their their native language when when they're out of high school and their culture so um so so as someone who's experienced this I think I think we need to focusing on the outcomes in the schools is great it's positive and you're doing a wonderful job please don't take anything I'm saying negative way the job you're doing is absolutely amazing I commend all of you for for doing it um and the the English classes for the parents not only have an impact on the child but has a positive impact on the family as a whole economically and and in every which way so it's great we need to continue to do that but I think we need to when we speak to parents about speaking English at home we need to balance we we need to find a a balance in there somehow and I don't know what the right answer is that that's for smart people like you to figure out yeah I'm just I I just throw problems at you and and let you figure it out but I I think that one of the things that our ESL team and and having 25 different cultures represented in District is we really do have a strong respect for multiculturalism um the parent classes I think that's why they're voluntary uh you know we offer them as a free service but we we obviously don't mandate that parents attend you know we do that um I think that in deciding to offer that it really speaks to the research and how much uh a child can flourish uh more quickly I have seen a lot of our ESL students that have the role of translator um and I had long conversations with my mother with that because she was the translator in her household as well so I think that we're looking to provide support with functional English not necessarily be disrespectful to their culture I think that it's wonderful to maintain their ties to their culture do think we reinforce speaking both languages through our seal of biliteracy which as you guys have seen from year to year has grown exponentially oh yeah we had a bunch of the number of students that we recognize for speaking you know more than one language fluently yeah and and that's part of three of the students that were honored this year were former ESL students so that's why if you saw afterwards I was kind of like oh I know you know we I bond with that group but um it is it's it's important for them to do but I think that we're just really supplying the the functional skills yeah don't wrong I know we do a great job with it you all do an absolutely amazing job please don't take anything I said no absolutely not way you absolutely do an amazing job I think it's wonderful advice for families I've just seen a lot of parents who very well-meaning lose that and I think especially when when they hear a counselor tell them speaking English at home is good I think we also need to tell them maybe not all the time though some some somehow we have we we have to make sure we emphasize to the parents that there needs to be some some kind of a balance there sure can I ask totally totally different question maybe direct it at you maybe direct it over here looking at the AP scores fantastic I mean the fact that one student got six fives is it that that blows my mind it seems like there's five AP classes that are consistently from 2020 to 2024 below a three an AP class that you score below a three in is I don't want to say it's a waste of a class but you're stressing out you're taking a class that's teaching to an AP test and then you're winding up with a 2.66 average in it or a 2.07 average that does nothing like the college board's not going to recognize that the you're not going to get anything out of that is that better than an honors class sure so you're can I because what's what's the point if we're just year after year after year after year not getting at least the three so of the classes that you referenced only one of them is taught by one of our teachers and that's this is the second year of that class and that's the art history class okay and as you can see um it it's growing it's growing it it's growing um so so she's doing a nice job of actually it's not the second for a while but it's a new teacher so it's a new teacher and the program changed so the focus is more historical than it is Art so I think that we we're refining our feet with which students would excel in that course the other classes are Apex classes we don't offer them but the kids want to take those classes and so they take them it's basically an online class that they take so so that's psychology macro and micro that is a good question Jeff to offer that why do we offer it to the kids then like great you want to take a psychology class in AP Psychology class that you're chances are you're not going to score high enough in to get credit for it why don't we push these kids towards something in house so I well or a du or dual enrollment that we're doing with with the county colleges so a lot of our AP courses are are ending up as dual enrollment so that's something as well I think that philosophically these students are being exposed on a daily basis to a highly rigorous curriculum and at the end of it they might not have gotten the three but they certainly benefited from 180 days of a rigorous look at a subject that they were interested in right because AP courses they have to apply for yeah so when you look at seniors that take microeconomics and macroeconomics that score comes in Far after they've already decided where they're going to school but they apply to college knowing that they've had exposure to a rigorous topic related to maybe a a career that they want to go into is the score even is it is it even put on the transcript self-reported you don't have to do anything so I mean they're going to get a grade in that class yeah they're that's just that's just a score of their test so if you think about kids what they're doing now is mrca gave a presentation a while ago what schools the primary factors schools are looking at are number one grade point average and number two rigor so they're looking at the rigor of a child's schedule which then creates their grade point average and gives their class rank so these kids even though they're not scoring well on this test doesn't mean they didn't get an A in the class no but then I wonder you're right the colleges look at the whole picture of the kids at the transcript the K get an A H having done several college tours and put lots of kids into college colleges are also scoring sville School District vers East Brunswick School District vers Oldbridge as to what an a means what a b means what this means and does unless it's an AP class and then it's all the same with with all these AP classes I wonder it's not because you you show our overall score having five with lower scores is it pulling down our overall AP average well and it might be pulling down the district average but within that 2.07 I don't know how many kids took that test yeah there could have been plenty of CAS that got threes and fours yeah and maybe some you know more didn't the district is evaluated on enrollment not necessarily performance by the state so it's it kind of it really does like kind of work counterintuitively to that but that's how districts are are evaluated is by the enrollment in the courses not necessarily the performance on the test I do see value to your point in terms of why we're especially like these online Apex courses why are we even offering them because like you said we we have a new art AP teacher art history and the score is increasing year to year so that inperson teacher is making a huge difference one of the things I would like to see we do have another online vendor that we use and that is um Imagine Learning imagine learning and they had a 4.0 um but they don't offer the micro economics and the macroeconomics nor the psychology so we I'd like to see them do more they offer not only an online course but they offer tutoring that's part of the course with that Apex doesn't do it the kids take the class on their own yeah and it's does it behoove us to continue doing that it's a good question J something that we can talk about in student achievement yeah and Donna AA and I spoke um earlier today late yesterday afternoon into this morning because we had to reach out to Apex is owned by edmentum so we had to reach out to edmentum because all districts had to um reenroll and validate their AP Psychology courses so we saw that happen with history two years ago and then they changed the AP History exam and they changed the scoring rubrics right so a lot of districts saw a lot of growth with AP History over the last two years so we're wondering what the AP Psychology exam is going to look like college board is constantly rotating but um I think that it's keep in mind that the ones that we offer through Apex we only allow them to take a maximum of two and it's only our seniors so a lot of them have already met all of their other requirements for graduation and they're looking to pick something that's career oriented or something they're passionate about one more point to add a lot of districts don't require kids to the AP test in seral we do mhm five maybe seven or eight years ago it was voluntary and very few KS kids took the test and those that did didn't exactly do well so we went ahead and changed our policy and we mandated that every child takes the test and we pay for the test but a lot of these districts they don't require all the kids to take those tests ex and the tests are taken in May of senior junior year now computers um is one of the ones that's performance-based so it's a little bit different they're actually given something ahead of time and they have to create code and they have to have like a program so it's it's more performance-based and it's it's a hard exam it's a fairly new exam for I that's the one that's only three years old that's one I I got confused Anthony's mentioned it a bunch of times too is how great the dual enrollment thing is and how much more our kids would get out of a college computer science class rather than an online AP Computer class that obviously is not doing too good I mean I I I think that it's the nature of having a student base that wants a highly competitive educational experience I mean we have students countless students that are begging us to take more AP courses you know it's something that some of the outside College counselors are telling them look they want to see all of these AP courses if you want to be a St engineer major if you want to go into these fields so we're we're responding to the need of the community for those Learners as well do we have 15 sections of some of these courses no we don't I mean if we look at AP Bio I think we had somewhere over 20 kids this year you know AP Lang is probably our largest we have about 70 students Juniors that take it each year um but again it's it's not it's a small population yeah how with you Jee I'm old school I mean you it should be rigorous and it should be taught in class yeah with some exceptions of course but this online stuff they could just especially with AI they're just blowing through this stuff just to get points well and here's another thing that you should know kids can take an AP test that they didn't take the class forh and that still affects our our means course we had several students last year that appealed to other priv take an AP test for a class they didn't take they can they're allowed to they want to go sit for the exam they self-study they don't worry about those kids they'll be they might have been they might have been tutored or something like that you know well they can get CR they can get potentially credit for they go to when they go to college if they pass the testart je said some of these government in politics like that's a waste that was last year 3.86 is this year's Sor never mind great school and great class last year it was a waste this year they did better listen I give any kid that wants to take an advanced politics course credit this year they're going to need it yeah and and like we said before the art history it's it's it's not a 3.0 yet but I'm real proud of the progress they they made with it same with the computer science it was their second year and you can see the progress going up all right thanks every thank you Miss Gman now get ready because Mr Glock Malloy has a riveting presentation to you for you on the 2023 2024 school safety data can we start the three minute timer for Mr yes the three minute timer is it well believe me he won't need it although if you were at the last governance meeting he did talk for an hour and a half Eric I don't know why you take this abuse I don't know I mean we certainly could I mean go foric Wasing through that it was so informative um our ssds data for 2324 um this is our annual review of the data um those of you that have been on the board see this um each year and you do again see this several times throughout the course of the year we have reporting period one um which you saw in the middle of the school year reporting period two now and then we will see this data again when the NJ doe confirms um this data after we submit it um following this board meeting classifications of our ssds data are broken down into these General categories of violence substance offenses weapons offenses vandalism or hivs both confirmed and alleged and then any other incident that leads to a suspension removal from school and that includes both in school and out of school suspension our reporting data one a reporting period data one again spanning September to December which you saw earlier for this year and then new for now our reporting Period 2 Data broken down by those categories as well as broken down by schools yeah the kids in Eisenhower I mean that's k23 and there's a bunch of violence like what's going on what do little kids doing boxing or there's a variety of things that can classify into that um it could be student to student inter action it could be student to staff interaction it could be students with um disabilities that are reacting based on something with their disability in a contained classroom so there are a lot of things that can fall into that category okay what we're denoting here is that it met the state's classfication for that type of action so it's not necessarily you know schoolyard fights it could be a lot of things that fall into that category um as a central Administration we do look at the specific details that's not um submitted at a report level but we do see that as we review our data discipline and we evaluate what's going on in each building what is basically Behind These numbers um we reviewed that as a central administrative team as well as with our building principles and our supervisors all right thank you looking at our totals for 23 24 it's just a summation of reporting period one and two again reporting period 1 comparison data this was data that you saw earlier in the year and then reporting Period 2 comparison data year over year going back through 1718 up through this year's data of 2324 and then a slide that looks at our totals of reporting period 1 and two from 1718 through 2324 wrong direction in some categories yes um in other categories no um we dropped in some categories we went up in other categories and you can see that it does fluctuate year to year we do have changes um we did have virtual learning in the middle there which kind of throws that data for those periods of years and again you have to look at which schools and we look a little bit more at what are those details what's going on in those specific incidents this is something we've noted to you during several board meetings our demographics are changing in s um Miss Gman Illustrated it earlier with the number of students that are qualifying for English language Lear learner services but um we also have some students that that are moving into seral that has pretty significant behavioral needs and I think we also did see a spike in a variety of different categories following the virtual learning period um and it correlates with student mental health and um a variety of other social emotional learning categories that we've been addressing as a school district so there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle it's it's very easy to see on a spreadsheet and look at the numbers but looking at all of the the individual pieces that come into it um really takes resources across the board from ccul to student services to our special education programs to our building operations um you know even HR and to who we're hiring this is truly a districtwide spectrum of what we see and what we evaluate um also included in this reporting data um which is not specific to our students directly but is specific to our teacher training um we have what used to be a separate report for our HIV trainings and programs um these include our red ribbon weeks these include specific trainings on HIV policy cyber bullying um social emotional learning skills so they are broken down into two categories of trainings and programs there's certainly overlap between those um but our program is going to be more an initiative that is launched throughout the school as opposed to a training that our staff are are sitting through and we do have some examples here and you can see see our summations again data you saw already for reporting period one trainings and programs this is typically where we see the bulk of them in Period one it's a lot of our early PLC days our beginning of the year training so we do see far more in Period one than we do see in Period two and our comparison year-over-year District totals for our HIV training programs you can see the numbers do e and Flow um between the years but overall we are seeing um an increase in our trainings and programs um throughout the course of our our time that we've been back since remote learning and new to our data last year was our reporting of restraints and seclusion um as we reviewed last year we do not uh engage in any seclusion practices um and the restraint is specific to our special education population um as required by public law in New Jersey with our trained staff and you can see our breakdown of restraints um within those specific buildings as well as our total for period one comparison to last year same data for period two restraints broken down by school totals in comparison to last year and then our overall summation of restraints um by school and then a total for each year I know that we had some questions already um that is the sum of our data that will be submitting to the NJ dooe if anyone has any additional questions be happy to answer those see none Dr lbby Mrs Bloom that concludes our reports okay thank you moving right along board discussion finan and infrastructure Mr Smith okay two weeks ago the finance and infrastructure committee met um went through the agenda uh Mr comberger provided an update on all the referendum and maintenance projects um all the bids moving along in fact he informed us that both Truman and the second floor of the high school have fully should have fully functioning HVAC by the beginning of September um that's moving along nicely Aaron also reviewed the preliminary 2324 excess Surplus and fund balance uh she informed the committee of that number and what we may be able to transfer to capital reserve maintenance reserve and emergency reserves and that will not happen until after our annual comprehensive Financial Health Report and audit which should happen sometime in August or September that's about all the excitement we had thank you so much okay uh Mrs pilac Personnel yep uh the Personnel committee met earlier this evening where we discussed open certificated non-certificated staff and some other confidential Personnel matters that's it okay thank you this is napalitano governance okay during the governance meeting Eric reviewed revisions of the Boe regulation 5600 student discipline code of conduct which are the result of the annual feedback that he receives from the building Administration next he reviewed the policy and regulation revisions recommended in Strauss ese alert 233 that we will be um we are being asked to approve for a first reading this evening that's it okay thank you Mr Callahan student achievement last Tuesday afternoon the student achievement committee met during the meeting Mrs Gman gave that fantastic presentation we had the world premiere sneak preview of it so I will not go over it again she did a wonderful job of doing that but it was the NJ GPA the waa and the AP scores which I still think were phenomenal as well uh she also reviewed the curriculum guides that are on our agenda I believe on the website we've been emailed them as well that we're approving later on tonight um and she also discussed some new co-curricular clubs at the high school UNICEF new investors Club women's society and model Congress um and then lastly she reviewed the 2024 Mary period calendar it's always scintillating and the back to school nights and parent teacher conference nights as well um she gave us those Mr naster gave us an update on the camp Excel program as did Mrs Burns and Mrs Bert for the learning acceleration at Camp Excel and then Mrs Bert also gave us updates on the wonderful grants that the district is working on or has uh gotten uh has acquired with the and professional development which is the upcoming summer learning series which kind of started I think now it's yep okay and uh that will take place at the high school the new staff orientation which will take place later on in August and then our next meeting will be August 20th Tuesday August 20 that's it thank you Mr Callahan uh as far as uh middle sex County School boards we had an executive board meeting the other night we are trying to set up our dates uh it seems that the state is also having issues with procuring sites for our County meetings okay prices at any of these venues are getting excessive so uh we have a few options but the staff from New Jersey school boards is working on that I will keep you informed the next meeting we will have will be in October and I will remind you of that closer to the date and that's it for school boards okay is there anyone for public participation on agenda items only okay seeing none Dr Labby your superintendent's report thank you Mr Bloom let's begin with Finance if I can direct your attention to number 18 on page four we're asking you to approve the submittal of the individuals with disabilities Education Act for the full year 2025 that Grant appliation in the amount of $1,779 44 number 31 which you can find on page seven we asking to approve a contract with direct flooring for a replacement of flooring at the Jesse cover School in the amount of $161,500 and that's going to be paid for through preschool expansion aid number 33 which can be found on page seven we're asking you to approve a contract with Atlantic Building Specialties for the in installation of toilet partitions in bathrooms at the sville middle school and at the Arla school and that's in the amount of $ 51,69456 we're asking you we're happily asking you to approve a 5-year lease agreement with our lady of Victor's Parish um pending attorney review it will be funded by preschool expansion Aid and we listed the monthly payments that we would make each year so we're excited about that um but again that's pending attorney review and that's on the addendum numb 55 and 56 which are also on the addendum we're asking you to approve a contract with Jersey Central Power and Light to install electric distribution facilities at the woodro Wilson Elementary School and the Saville Middle School I listed the amounts are listed there it's $449 27 for Wilson school $70,100 to be paid for out of the bond referendum those are needed because there just is not enough electric power so jcpnl uh went out and took a look at and said you need a distribution center so we have to install it and this is to support the air condition just not to support the new grids and switches that we have to install so they need that power there it's only two schools but but we need it for both of them number 57 this has been something that I know Mr Esposito has been you know asking for a while and some of you have also voiced you know some um support for it we're asking you to improve an agreement with Professional Services with proximity learning for live virtual instruction provided by certificated teachers for American Sign Language at not only grades 9 through 12 and I think we have four sections next year at uh the high school ASL third grade across the district so now we'll be teaching sign language in third grade as well as at the high school and we're going to continue to monitor that to see if we can maybe expand it at some point to samel and then maybe even the Middle School awesome that's great I know that's something that that's been at the top of your list so you can find that on the addendum it's number 57 number 58 which you can also find in the addendum we're asking you to approve a purchase order with McGraw Hill in the amount of $173,300 for the study sync English language arts Core Curriculum materials we talked about that during the budget period Miss Gman facilitated a pilot program throughout the year the teachers really love the program and we're really excited about the effect it's going to have on our our student outcomes already you see that 90% % of our students are you know are passing the NJ GPA well we expect after several years of implementing this for that number to get as close to 100% as possible love that we're doing a real L curriculum in the high school now yeah yeah thanks Mr gr okay any questions on those as well as the numerous finance and infrastructure motions no but I do have one question sure um it's on page 21 it says by 0167 oh alen that's governance so we'll we'll get to governance I promise this is just let's just stick with finance and infrastructure um I have a okay I want to make sure my mic was on I have a question on page four I believe it's number 177 please explain that one so everyone knows exactly what that is the nonpublic funding oh non-public funding um the state every every year essentially issues grants to the non-public schools but we're responsible for monitoring the funds and ensuring that they're in compliance so they essentially give us the funds and the schools make requests through us for their purchases you have to approve them and okay but the finance comes from the state yes okay thank you good question any others okay so let's move along to student achievement pages 18 and 19 you'll find number one it's the we're asking you to approve multiple revised curriculum guides so our curriculum writers and supervisors have been hard at work writing curriculum numbers two and three which you can find on pages 19 and 20 as was mentioned earlier by Mr calium we're asking you to approve the 2024 2025 academic calendars as well as the 2024 back to school night or event and 2025 teacher conference calendars on page 20 uh we're asking you I think that's number four we're asking you to approve the 2024 2025 memorandum of understanding with Ryder University for their dual credit tomorrow's teachers honors courses we talk a lot about dual credit with middlex County College but don't forget we also have a du dual credit program with Ryder University for our uh tomorrow's Teachers Program number five which you can find on page 20 we are asking you to approve a long-term suspension number six which you can find on page 20 also we're asking you to approve the several new clubs that Mr Callahan referenced a moment ago any questions on those items on student achievement only okay seeing none now I'll move on to governance and I when I'm done I'll be glad to answer your question about that uh number one approval of revisions to the Board of Education uh for revision to Board of Education policy for a second reading that would be the bylaw that you mentioned bylaw 167 uh number two approval of the abolishment of two Boe policies one is related to the pandemic number three approval of multiple revised Boe policies and regulations for a first reading that was mentioned earlier by Mr napalitano and numbers five and six approval of the 2024 2025 emergency virtual and remote instruction as well as District public employees occupational SA safy and health program indoor quality plans and that can be found in Pages 22 and 23 the emergency virtual and remote instruction plan is something that we've had to do since the pandemic every year we're required to go ahead and produce a plan for the case in which we'd have to close our schools for at least three days due to a major health concern that is recommended by the middle sex County Department of Health there is some confusion with regard to that I know every time we come up with a hazardous weather day parents saywell why don't you just take a a virtual instruction day you can't do it for those reasons as of right now we can only have a virtual instruction day for a health related reason um that is recommended by the milx county department of health and it has to be a closure for at least 3 days in order to do it so there is legislation right now in both the assembly and Senate it's been there for over a year that would allow us to use Virtual instruction days for hazardous weather but it has stalled and no one has heard a word about it since now I know um Mrs pomone you had a question about the bylaw um I no longer have a question oh okay okay oh good thank you Mr Smith thank you very much work so well together any other questions uh please ask Mr Smith them they'll be brief for there they certainly will be brief nice or you could ask Eric and not so much he's very brief seeing no seeing none seeing none let's go on to Personnel numbers 9- 11 as well as 40-41 which you can find in the on pages 28 and 30 in the addendum we're asking you to hire new certificated and non-certificated staff for the upcoming 2024 2025 school year as you can see Dr aguiles and Miss Flanigan have been been hard at work with our supervises and principles hiring great quality teachers as well as a non-certificated staff too numbers 12 and 16 as well as 42 which you can find on pages 31 and 35 in the addendum we're asking to approve the transfer of certificated and non-certificated School uh student staff for the upcoming 2024 2025 school year and numbers 19 through 21 which you can find on pages 36 and 7 we're asking you to approve uh the appointment of paid advisors and coaches with their stiens as well as volunteer coaches for again the upcoming 2024 2025 school year any questions on Personnel seeing none that concludes my report Mrs Bloom okay thank you Dr Labby any anybody have anything they want to uh throw out at this time no okay great all right we need to then take a uh um make a motion to approve the uh agenda items so moved so I got Mr Smith and Mrs napalitano Mr Callahan yes Mr Esposito yes Mr Fernandez yes Mrs napalitano yes Mrs Pabon yes Miss pillock yes Mr Smith yes and Mrs Bloom yes okay we will now move to public participation for any items at all I will ask once again that if you are interested in speaking you please line up so that we do not waste time between speakers you will still have three minutes but we are now limiting our time to 30 minutes so please be conscious of those behind you if there's any Resident of seille we ask you to please speak first okay if you if you tap the button on the microphone it'll turn green good evening thanks thank you for your service and thank you for honoring the spirit and intent of the open meetings act I recently sent you articles highlighting the heart sir did you state your name Dan finny colck thank you thank you I recently sent articles highlighting the heartache and Devastation the lgbtq affirmative care agenda and policies are causing many families including the story of Elon Musk and his son I hope you took the time to watch that gut-wrenching interview where he explains how he was deceived and gullible at the time I also hope many parents and grandparents here tonight and watching online will take time to watch that recent interview moreover I hope they will take time to go to your website and read carefully what the non-mandatory policy 5756 says and think about the implications an inevitable out out comes if left in place I hope by now with all the compelling evidence recent studies and tragic stories shared with this board A New Perspective and understanding is growing in your minds parents don't want to co-parent and be second guessed by School staff or government moreover we don't want the school system under mining our roles responsibility and Authority all this affirmation without question without diagnosis or any other criteria is misguided lavishing attention praise and special rights and privileges on minor children for coming out convinced they were born in the wrong body and dismissing fundamental biology is not helping kids rather it is enabling them to live in fantasy land during formative years and may cause irreversible harm before their brains are fully developed based on recent comments made here I want to clarify something your job is not to Heap unconditional acceptance and affirmation on these kids your job is not to be their friend or confident parents do not accept every feeling based idea that comes into their heads especially from outside influences and we are not their friends we don't want them confiding in school staff that may well cut us out of the loop either can you start to understand how your policies are undermining parents and compelling the allegiance with an unfair Advantage policy 5756 Works to throw parents out of the family car and under the bus while putting minor children in the driver's seat with a full tank of gas and no road map thank you very much thank you Mr finny good evening my name can you hear me uh my name is Kim Linley I am a former special education teacher I was a former serif of Resident and I am from alri New Jersey and so good evening as well I want to thank you for your time and effort for your um service for your academics for your children and safety of them as wellbe um tonight I want again re um revisit policy 5756 uh policy policy can't speak polic policy 5756 is only a piece of a puzzle with tremendous ramifications that will not only affect our children but our society as well our due to the gravity of the suggested policy in 56 and the time constraint I will likely to address a few points to consider while repealing the suggested policy policy policy 5 756 gives the trial authority to make complex decisions even though their brain development is not fully developed the mental health daily reports that the brain is not fully developed till until 25 to 30 years old the school social worker becomes a student Advocate when the parents are supportive of their child or they're not supportive of their child's gender preference a separate record is kept for parents um a separate record is kept from the parents when the child identifies as a different gender the teacher does not need to tell their parent or what gender the child identifies as and that is unbelievable to me as a former school teacher and as a parent and to have a separate file how can you have a the communication and you're talking about the Hib earlier and that your graphics were great hearing about your academics was great you're wondering why there's problems because there's problems in telling children from up to their five when they go into kindergarten that they're a boy or a girl mommy's favorite and then they go into school and you have the ability to ask them and that child has the ability to decide what they are who they are and we all know when we go to teenage years and I'm skipping around but you know what I just sat around here all this evening going what am I going to say but I just can't get over this we have our own children we look at every single night we bring them up do you really want your children going to school speaking to your their teacher and having that that complex at Social intimate time together and saying she's Sally and then all of a sudden she's Sam you don't know and then as children go on into Middle School there's I'm going to skip into this different um article that I have from Tallahassee this teach she was a social worker her child was in school with a principal social worker and I believe it was a teacher and they asked what the child would like to be what bathroom how in the world would you look at your children that you know this is going on you have to stand it's really important cuz your child one day is going to turn out to be something else thank you very much for your time and [Applause] effort Anthony Mar from medicine I too am here to speak about policy 5756 policy 5756 violates one of the most fundamental rules of living the Lord Jesus Christ gave us the Golden Rule do unto others as you would have them doing to you God incarnate tells us treat others the way you want to be treated but poliy 5756 doesn't do that it does the opposite let me read a sentence from policy 5756 there's no affirmative Duty for any school for any School District staff member to notify a student's parent of the student's gender ident or expression in other words keep mom and dad in the dark your son or your daughter in the sville school system tells a person in system he or she is going to change gender keep mom and dad in the dark is there any parent in the world who would say fine don't tell me but that's exactly what exactly what 5756 does keep Mom and Dad don't tell them shame on you parents need to be told but policy 5756 no says no don't tell them it violates a fundamental rule of living do unto others as you you're not doing you're doing to St to parents what you probably don't want done to you wrong but 5756 Goes On It also says with respect to a gender segregated classes or athletic athletic activities including intramural and inra Scholastic activities all students must be allowed to participate in a manner inconsistent with their gender identity in other words boys competing with girls the lgbtq community is very big unequality they want equality across the board but guess what this is unequal you're allowing boys to compete with girls shame on you shame on you this policy must be repealed but more It also says in 5756 all students are entitled to have access to restrooms locker rooms and changing facilities in accordance with their gender identity to allow for involvement in various school programs and activities do you want your daughter or your mother in the same restroom do you want that come on you're persecuting the girls you're persecuting them if you cannot lift a 10 lb weight how are you going to lift a 50 PB weight if you cannot lift if you cannot run a mile how you going to run 10 miles my point is if you don't repeal 5756 now how you going to do it later when things are worse this is only the beginning 5756 is only the beginning more will be demanded of you please repeal 57 56 now thank you for your participation thank you [Applause] oh thank you my name is Jennifer Woodruff I live in marbor I'm a previous resident of sville and I thank you for your service and letting me speak you've heard my many reasons that I oppose 5756 and I trust that by now you have glanced over the many news articles and testimonies that I have sent you by email the big takeaway from this investigation or this information is that parental involvement is not only necessary but key to help these children um these kids need to have a thorough professional evaluation done with parental assistants telling them what the child is going through whether this is something new in their development um if there is a trauma in their life that there are Co comorbidities this all needs to be found out before gender affirmation is given to a child when they're young and they're too young to even know what they're they're their brain isn't even developed to the point of knowing any better uh the 5756 policy affirms a culture based on feelings feelings can be deceptive feelings change and acting upon them is not good for us we should be teaching our kids how to be critical and logical thinkers instead we are teaching them how to feel we hear today that may be your truth but this is my truth there is only one truth and there is only two genders how can a student believe anything a teacher says if the teacher goes along with something that everyone knows is contrary to basic biology the child that thinks they are born in the wrong body needs evaluation Direction and therapy not affirmation or verification about something they're not how about telling the child they are fearfully and wonderfully made by God and that they are perfect how about delving deeper and finding out the true cause of their anxiety or fears and working through that most people don't want to broach the subject because of the fear of backlash being called hateful or transphobic and told they don't love these children this is so contrary to the truth loving a child does not mean we have to approve of everything they do too often today parents teachers and even counselors want to be buddies with these kids but that is not what they need that is not what is best for them adolescent is a difficult time kids are developing emotionally and physically and just trying to fit in most kids will outow this gender confusion by the time they finish high school but if we affirm this dysphoria we know it is much more likely that the child will continue down this self-defeating and detrimental path the path that starts with social transitioning leads to medical and possibly surgical transition thank you for your participation man but your time is up let's protect these kids let's be honest with them we are the adult in the room thank you very [Applause] much hello my name is Alice Marie I'm from CSN New Jersey and um I've spoken here before I think what I'm asking and many people are asking is for you to take a look at policy 5756 and consider repealing this because this trend um transgender trend and students um that are being led down this path and being deceived is just growing and growing and growing and they're seeing examples in the news and in the media um and on Tik Tok so we've talked about lots of people that have had consequences and that are detransitioning and the pain that they're going through because they're following a lie down this line um I was a tomboy when I was a kid I didn't grow up in this age thank goodness because I have a wonderful son and daughter but I would have been LED down a path that um could have destroyed that if I listened I was very um probably listened to a lot of things but in my day my parents told me I was a girl thank goodness I played with frogs I caught fish I climbed trees I dress like a boy I you know did so many of those things so I'm just asking for you to think about what's going on in today's world today in the headlines there is um at the Olympics we saw cyclist standing on the podium men that were um uh passing as women and today they're saying in the news headlines um a woman is going to die woke Paris Olympic Games is to allow alleged male boxers with with XY chromosomes to fight women women are one or 2third the strength of a man and you see that you know here on my phone are two men that are going to fight and they said there was a woman a Mexican woman who fought a man um uh there's a a brutally batter a naturally born female Mexican boxing champion around the ring one of these men who is from Algeria who is going to be in the Olympics so we're seeing a lot of this going on Leah Thompson of course and Riley um Riley gains who who tied Le uh Leah Thompson who was a man in the national uh championships uh Collegiate championships tied um and down to the 100th of a second um and this man was ranked 490 in the male um competition but came in first in the women's competition I think it's important to just see where this is going to consider taking a look and protecting our children that's why we're here why do I care why would I stand up about this because um we want to children to be safe we care about the kids in this town and um I just ask for you to reconsider time 576 thank you so much for your time [Applause] you a motion I give you a second